LAUSR

Abstract El Cierro Cave (Asturias, Northern Spain) has been a key site in the regional periodization of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Cantabrian region since its excavation by Jorda-Cerda in the late 1950s. Lithic and bone artefacts from the Lower Magdalenian layers in this cave have been studied by several scholars from a typological standpoint, discussing their relationship and continuity with the preceding Solutrean occupations in the same cave. This paper analyses red deer antler artefacts from El Cierro, dated in the Lower Madgalenian. The ensemble was retrieved during the 1977–1979 excavations, and the new fieldwork undertaken since 2012 has confirmed the chronological and stratigraphic context of its origin. Within the production sequence of antler spear points, a particular procedure was followed to obtain the most characteristic tools of that period: the square-section antler points.