Change and Stasis in the Iberian Middle Paleolithic Considerations on the Significance of Mousterian Technological Variability

The European Mousterian has traditionally been portrayed as a long period of technological stasis as opposed to the technotypological dynamism of Upper Paleolithic cultures. The classic debate on Mousterian variability explained interassemblage differences either by ethnic, cultural, functional, and chronological or by paleoenvironmental causes, but variability was based on typological considerations. Recently, technological factors have been introduced in discussions over time trends and geographic differences in the Mousterian. This paper will address the topic by reviewing technological strategies in the Iberian Middle Paleolithic. Three sites from northeastern Spain are chosen as a case study to address the existence of directional patterns in the Iberian Mousterian. We conclude that albeit diachronic variability exists, it does not show patterning, which suggests stochastic variation rather than directional change in the technological strategies of Iberian Neanderthals.