Molluscs as Personal Adornment in a Gravettian Context from Cueva de Ardales (Malaga, Spain)

Molluscs used as personal adornment in Gravettian context are scarce in the Iberian Peninsula. Less than 200 pieces have been barely found along the Mediterranean, and most of them in coastal sites. This article presents thirteen new items - in the majority of marine origin - found by a Spanish-German team during a joint research project in Cueva de Ardales (Ardales, Malaga, Spain). The cave is one of the few interior sites in which this type of finds has been attested and therefore shows the connections of the coast with the hinterland (away from the current Mediterranean coastline about 50 km currently and 60-65 kms. around 30 ka). The article also presents archaeozoological and archaeometric analysis of the molluscs, especially Raman spectrometry and X-ray diffraction.

Automated summary

Molluscs used as personal adornment in the Gravettian culture are rare in the Iberian Peninsula, with less than 200 pieces found, mostly in coastal sites along the Mediterranean. This article presents thirteen new items, primarily of marine origin, discovered by a Spanish-German research team in Cueva de Ardales, a rare interior site showing connections between the coast and hinterland. The article also includes archaeozoological and archaeometric analysis of the molluscs, particularly using Raman spectrometry and X-ray diffraction.