Sources of the ochres associated with the Lower Magdalenian “Red Lady” human burial and rock art in El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain)

Abstract

This article presents the second study of ochres associated with the Lower Magdalenian (18.7 cal kya) “Red Lady” human burial in El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain). In the first study (Seva Román et al., 2015), we determined that the burial deposit contained iron oxides and idiomorphic hematite that were not from sources near the site, but possibly from Monte Buciero, some 27 km to the north on the present Atlantic shore in Santoña. We have now analyzed sediments both from the burial and from samples taken during prospection on Monte Buciero, along with ochres from deposits above the burial layer, from the face of a large limestone block immediately adjacent to the burial, and from an area of the cave wall close to it in the NE corner of the cave vestibule that bears the engraving of a horse. As before, the analyses used were binocular microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). We were thus able to determine that the sources of the ochres in the burial deposit and on the block are the same—Monte Buciero. However we found substantial differences between the ochre on the block and the ochre underlying the horse panel image on the cave wall, which very likely also dates to sometime in the Magdalenian.