Aug. 23, 2007 — A prehistoric Spanish hunting group that may have even had its own gang symbols appears to have drawn, hunted, crashed in a cave, eaten, recycled waste and moved on, suggests a new study.
Like a good detective story, the research hinged on one major clue — a buried pile of mysterious black bones found in a dark, dank room at the interior of El Mirón Cave near the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
This cave was like a residential hotel for traveling groups of Stone Age hunters, according to lead author Ana Belén Marín Arroyo, who worked with Lawrence Straus and other scientists.
"El Mirón Cave is located in a strategic point next to the access routes to the high zone of the River Asón and has a wide visibility," Arroyo told Discovery News. "It's a mountain settlement next to the coastal plain that would allow a seasonal residential mobility from the coast towards the interior at summer time, coinciding with the migrations of red deer herds to the high altitude grass."
Arroyo, a researcher in the Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology at the Universidad del Pais Vasco in Spain, said engraved red deer shoulder blades, along with images of red deer hinds found at the site were probably "stylistic markers of a regional band."
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The cave is also well known for rock art and decorative objects, such as shell and tooth ornaments.
The black bones, which date to around 13,000 years ago, intrigued Arroyo and her team, especially as different colored bones were excavated within other parts of the cave.
