Axlor
Encyclopedia
Axlor is a prehistoric archeological site
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...

 in the village of Dima in Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...

 in the Autonomous Basque Community
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

 of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, dating from the Middle Paleolithic
Middle Paleolithic
The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age...

 or Mousterian
Mousterian
Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age.-Naming:...

 period.

Excavation

The shelter is the mouth of an old cave that has been filled up with clay from the Indusi karst
KARST
Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...

. The archaeologist Jose Miguel Barandiaran
Jose Miguel Barandiaran
Jose Miguel Barandiaran Aierbe was a Basque Spanish anthropologist, ethnographer and priest.-Early life:He was born in 1889 as the youngest of nine children to Francisco Antonio Barandiaran and María Antonia Ayerbe in the family baserri Perune-Zarre in Ataun....

 discovered the site and directed the first excavations from 1967 until 1974. The results of these works were published in 1980 by Barandiaran in Obras Completas, T. XVIII. Barandiaran noted the presence of 9 different layers at the site, 5 of which contained Mousterian lithic artifacts. Jose Maria Basabe studied 5 teeth from a young Neandertal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...

 found on the site. Jesus Altuna identified faunal remains from the site, while later on, A. Baldeón studied the stone tools.

Renewed excavations at Axlor took place from 2000–2009, under the direction of J. González Urquijo and J. Ibañez Estévez. The new excavations continue to focus on the lithic
Lithic
Lithic may refer to:*a stone tool*Lithic analysis*Lithic stage*Lithic core *Lithic reduction *Lithic technology *Lithic flake *Lithic fragment...

 and faunal assemblages, as well as human remains, but new approaches have also been incorporated into the project: micro-faunal fossil remains (essentially, rodents), the geological context of the "Indusi karst", the geological formation
Geologic formation
A formation or geological formation is the fundamental unit of lithostratigraphy. A formation consists of a certain number of rock strata that have a comparable lithology, facies or other similar properties...

 of different layers of rock, palynology
Palynology
Palynology is the science that studies contemporary and fossil palynomorphs, including pollen, spores, orbicules, dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts, together with particulate organic matter and kerogen found in sedimentary rocks and sediments...

 (the study of pollen), and carpology (the study of other plant remains), among other disciplines.

The site

Axlor has a sequence of Middle Paleolithic
Middle Paleolithic
The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age...

 levels, representing the later stages of the Mousterian in the Pyrenees region. The most recent levels at Axlor are dated to approximately 42,000 years before present (using C14 radiocarbon analysis). Axlor is one of few securely-dated late Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Basque region.

The Neanderthals from Axlor had long-range strategies to deal with their environment, which they changed over time - thus allowing a sort of "history" to be pieced together by archaeologists. Those investigations are changing the idea of Neanderthal being a "brute" or an "archaic hominid".

The Neanderthals of Axlor made stone tools using flint from distant places (between 30 and 60 kilometers from the site). Also, each different stone-class was worked with different techniques, using those systems more appropriated to its size, density, grain and hardness. The producing techniques are quite complicated (Levallois, micro-Levallois, Quina, etc). Those strategies of flint-working and stone-working are not repeated along the time sequence. They change between layers, probably adapted to different ethnic traditions and to the needs of the Neandertals and the environmental constraints. Some spear-tips found in Axlor have traces of use, and they were probably used as projectiles. The Neanderthals from Axlor were really good hunters, and they killed adult bovid
Bovid
A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed ruminant mammal at least the males of which bear characteristic unbranching horns covered in a permanent sheath of keratin....

s and other dangerous animals. Their long-range strategies extended to the management of hunting resources, butchery, and use of animal resources.
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