DC4: Ritual by the sea: Marine symbolism during the late Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic of Atlantic Europe

Objectives 

Symbolic thinking is one of the most specific traits of human nature. This thesis attempts to explore a very rarely analysed part of the archaeological record as a part of the symbolic discourse on the cosmology of the late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Atlantic Europe (Iberia, Western France): the marine resources. 

Their relevance through that period was extremely varied from one region to another. Yet, evidence of the symbolic use of objects or images related to the sea is nearly constant. Amongst these is the systematic use of marine molluscs for the fabrication of adornment items, or the elaboration of figurines or relevant tools in marine mammals’ bones, teeth or ivory. Depictions of marine animals (fish, cetacean, pinnipeds, marine birds) are also relatively frequent in Palaeolithic rock and portable art. 

It will also be analysed whether the large accumulations of marine molluscs known as shell middens were only related to practical subsistence activities, or can also have some kind of symbolic meaning, as some scholars have recently suggested. Finally, the relevance of the sea or symbolic representations thereof in the funerary practices will be examined, both from the point of view of the location of the burials and the origin and symbolic meaning of the grave goods. 

A number of interdisciplinary methods are combined in a novel way to study these issues

• Iconographic analysis of Palaeolithic and early Mesolithic rock and portable art. 
• Archaeobiological methods such as archaeomalacology, ZooMS, schlerochronology and stable isotopes analysis on shells to establish with precision their origin and the collection period. 
• Contextual analysis of the finds with marine symbolism.
• Comparison with ethnographic observations on marine symbolism in modern hunter-gatherers’ societies. 

Expected results

• Exhaustive catalogue of marine depictions in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic art. 
• Analysis of the origin and distribution of materials of marine origin among the adornment items of the Palaeolithic-Mesolithic. 
• Assessment of the marine relevance in the funerary behaviour of late hunter-gatherers. 
• Deepening of the understanding of the role of symbolism in human societies. 
• Resources for museum, communication and the heritage management policies.