Datando el final del Paleolítico medio en la Península Ibérica. Problemas metodológicos y límites de la interpretación

Abstract

We first review some methodological problems related to the absolute/numeric dating of archaeological levels (reliability of radiocarbon dating, sample con-tamination.) with special emphasis on the transition from Middle to Upper Palaeolithic (ca. 40.000-30.000 years BP). Furthermore we try to determine the potential effects of modern carbon contamination on the archaeological samples. As a corollary, we set out some stratigraphic/'chemical' requirements for any archaeological level/́dating' in order to minimize the uncertainty of assessing the reliability of an absolute date whose true age is unknown. Second, we analyze (from stratigraphic, typological and chronological points of view) three sites regarded as the last survival of Neanderthal/Mousterian in the north and south of the Iberian Peninsula (El Esquilleu and Gorham's Cave) and also as a gene flow (hybridization) between sapiens and neanderthals (La Sima de las Palomas). Finally, we discuss the validity of these models, based on the absolute/numeric dating, and we propose a new scenario based in the relative dating characterized by the non-coexistence of Mousterian and Aurignacian populations in the Iberian Peninsula.