A seemingly strange curiosity is that despite human occupation of all parts of Europe in the Palaeolithic period (Bocquet-Appel, Demars, Noiret & Dobrowsky 2005;
Mithen 1996: 22-23), parietal representation is largely confined to the Franco-Cantabrian region (Bahn & Vertut 1997: 42-46; Clottes 2008: 14; Mellars 2009; Renfrew 2008:
2042-2043; Ucko & Rosenfeld 1967: 36-37). While examples of cave art from this time period exist outside of the Franco-Cantabrian region, such as in Russia and in Italy
(Abramova 1995: 109-110; Bahn & Vertut 1997: 42-46; Clottes 2008: 13; Donahue 2010:
360), these traces are rare and do not constitute a parietal symbolic culture on the scale of
34 Western Europe (Ucko & Rosenfeld 1967: 36). This does not mean that cultures of
Palaeolithic Europe were symbolically superior to the cultures of central Europe, Asia, and Africa. In fact, there were just different cultures developing different traditions of symbolic and cultural expression. In fact, the predominance of parietal artwork in Western Europe is likely related to a number of factors, including an incomplete archaeological record, environmental factors, and population size.
The Franco-Cantabrian region has the geological foundations for the development of cave art. An extensive limestone formation runs through France and Spain, giving this region a geological advantage to the appearance of cave art (Mellars 2009: 213). This is an essential factor to understand why the parietal art is mostly limited to this area. This region contains a wealth of geological features that provide ideal preservation
environments. Any imagery that was made on biodegradable material or produced in open air rock shelters are more susceptible to deterioration and leave little or no trace in the archaeological record (Bahn 1995; Bahn & Vertut 1997: 45, 128; Aubry, Dimuccio, Bergadà, Sampaio & Sellami 2010; Straus 1992: 132). Mobile artwork such as tools, ornaments, and statuettes from numerous regions shows that symbolic representation is a human trait and was not limited to France and Spain (Bader 1978; Beaumont & Vogel 1978; Dortch 1979; Efimenko 1958; Gladkih, Kornietz & Soffer 1984; Gvozdover 1996;
Kozlowski 1992; Singer & Wymer 1982; White 1993, 2003: 128-193). Another factor to explain why representations are more abundant in France and Spain is that they preserved better. There is more cave art found in the Franco-Cantabrian region because it has more caves than other geographical areas. However, this alone is not enough to constitute the extensive number of representation in the region. Additionally, it has been suggested that
35 the high and growing demographic concentration in the region (Bocquet-Appel & Demars 2000; Bocquet-Appel, Demars, Noiret & Dobrowsky 2005; Jochim 1987; Straus 1977, 1991: 89-90) may be another factor explaining the abundance of cave art in the area (Jochim 1987; Mellars 2009: 218-223). Population growth and settlement in this region are largely the result of its unique climate. With warmer winters and cooler summers and less fluctuation in extreme temperatures than inland regions, the Franco-Cantabrian climate provided a rich growth of vegetation that encouraged the influx of animal species (Straus 1991c: 192). These factors played an important factor in human survival and growth in this region.
The climatic conditions during the Upper Paleolithic would have made survival difficult. However, the climatic patterns would have given the people in Western Europe a survival advantage over their inland counterparts. The Paleoclimate of Cantabria has been largely reconstructed from nitrogen and collagen samples extracted from faunal assemblages and a variety of pollen samples taken from controlled stratigraphic columns in multiple sites (Clark & Straus 1983: 137; Courty & Vallverdu 2001; Ellwood et al.
2000; Ellwood et al. 2001; Laville 1986; Peña-Chocarro et al. 2005; Peñalba 1994;
Stevens, Hermoso-Buxán, Marín-Arroyo, González-Morales & Straus 2014; Straus 1991:
90). Intensive frosting would have been common in the landscape that was nearly entirely deprived of arboreal vegetation. Spain's oceanic climate (Muñoz Sobrino, Ramil-Rego &
Gómez-Orellana 2007: 224-225) resulted in periodic shifts in precipitation, warmer winters, and cooler summers (Clark & Straus 1983: 137; Mellars 2009: 215). Less extreme temperatures experienced in this region as compared to central Europe may have influenced an influx of people to the area.
36 These climatic conditions would have influenced a productive growth of flora in the region. Despite the fact that the climate was probably cooler than in other areas during the same contemporary time period, due to the glacial advances, Southwestern Europe produced the highest growth of herbaceous tundra and steppe vegetation in all of Europe during this time period (Butzer 1971: 463; Mellars 2009: 217).The maritime climate of the region would not have supported extensive tree growth, although the trees that were able to form were deciduous, and thus the region held a tundra-like environment and vegetation (Butzer 1971; Iversen 1973; Mellars 2009: 216; Muñoz Sobrino, Ramil-Rego
& Gómez-Orellana 2007: 231-237; Peñalba, Arnold, Guiot, Duplessy & de Beaulieu 1997; Van Andel & Tzedakis 1996: 494-495). While tree growth was scarce, access to more sunlight, a longer period of growth in late autumn, and abundant rain fall (Ucko &
Rosenfeld 1967: 27) would have contributed to a rich and productive prosperity of all low-growing vegetation (Mellars 2009: 216; Muñoz Sobrino, Ramil-Rego & Gómez-Orellana 2007: 231-237). The rich, used as a comparative term, vegetative growth in the region would encouraged the influx and the success of abundant and diverse animal populations.
The animals that dominated this region's ecosystem were as variable and numerous as the artwork itself. The rich vegetation of the region encouraged migration and promoted the success of a wide range of open country species including herds of reindeer, wild horse, aurochs, steppe bison, red deer, ibex, chamois, mammoth,
rhinoceros, wild pig, roe deer, and giant elk (Freeman 1973; Mellars 2009: 217; Straus 1991: 93, 1992; Ucko & Rosenfeld 1967: 28-29). All of these animals are represented to some degree in the Upper Palaeolithic artwork. Populations of red deer drastically
37 increased during the glacial advance of the Solutrean and are generally the predominant species found throughout Late Upper Palaeolithic faunal sites of Northern Spain
(Bernaldo de Quirós, Maillo-Fernández, Castaños & Neira 2015: 465; Cabrera Valdés 1984; Freeman 1973: 26-33; Garcia-Guixé, Martínez-Moreno, Mora, Núñez & Richards 2009; Stevens, Hermoso-Buxán, Marín-Arroyo, González-Morales & Straus 2014: 47;
Straus 1992: 81-84, 111-114, 146-149, 261-262; Straus & Clark 1978: 292). Horse and bison also appear to be in abundance during the Early Upper Palaeolithic but wane off during the later phases of the epoch (Clark & Straus 1983: 144; Straus 1992: 81-84, 148, 261-262). The affluence of ibex throughout Upper Palaeolithic Spain made them an ideal game species, especially in the Cantabrian mountain sites (Altuna 1981, 1990; Straus 1977, 1987). Marine species also played a key role in the lives of Upper Palaeolithic people as aquatic resources were an important component of Pleistocene diet and shell ornament (Bocherens, Drucker & Madelaine 2014: 32; Cabrera Valdés 1984; Francisco, Guerra-Mechán, Lozano-Francisco & Vera-Peláez 1997; Gutiérrez-Zugasti et al. 2013;
Ortea 1986; Richards, Pettitt, Stiner & Trinkaus 2001; Richards & Trinkaus 2009).
Animals caught and processed include sea urchins, molluscs, crabs, and fish (Clark &
Straus 1983: 142; Gutiérrez-Zugasti et al. 2013; Menéndez de la Hoz, Straus & Clark 1986; Straus 1981, 1992: 111-112; Ortea 1986). The extensive variety and large population numbers of the species in this region are directly related to the climate and vegetation patterns. The combination of a warmer climate, low growing vegetation, and a large population of game animals made this region an ideal home for Palaeolithic
humans. The larger human population numbers are highly responsible for the quantity artwork in this region.
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