Assessing the chronostratigraphy of the Paleolithic sequence of La Viña rock shelter (Asturias, Spain)

Abstract La Viña rock shelter is a relevant archaeological site for understanding the late Middle and Upper Palaeolithic cultural development in northern Iberia as evidenced by the Mousterian, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian bone and lithic industries, parietal engravings and human subsistence remains recovered during the 1980s excavations by J. Fortea in the western and central excavation areas. This paper aims to present 16 new radiocarbon dates, which are added to the previous radiocarbon dates obtained, using different analytical methods on bone and charcoal. These are now 57 dates in total. Bayesian models have been applied to assess and discern the chronology of the archaeological sequence in each sector of the rock shelter. The results provide details on the chronostratigraphy of each excavation area, documenting the duration of the different technocultural phases and confirming in-site postdepositional events.