Valdeprovedo open-air site: a knapping event in the early Upper Paleolithic of the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain)

Abstract

In this paper, we present the site of Valdeprovedo (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos), an open-air Paleolithic site. This site is attractive for study and research for three main reasons. First, it is an open-air site with an extraordinarily well-preserved lithic assemblage that corresponds to a very short-lived event. Second, in this small area, refits have been achieved with a high refitting rate, which allows us to reconstruct the action carried out in this place during a specific moment, around 28 ka. And third, this is the first site of this chronology that has been documented in the Sierra de Atapuerca, providing new data on the inland population of the Iberian Peninsula by Upper Paleolithic groups.