Balma Guilanyà is a rockshelter that was occupied by Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers about 10,000-12,000 years ago, located near the city of Solsona in the Catalonia region of Spain. The site is in a small mountain valley in the Serra de Busa in the southeastern Pre-Pyrenees, and about 80 kilometers from the coast. The shelter measures 15x5 meters and has deposits of 2 meters in thickness.
Archaeological components at Balma Guilanyà include two levels dated to the Mesolithic period, and three to the Upper Paleolithic (Azilian), separated by a wall collapse that sealed off the Upper Paleolithic.
Upper Paleolithic at Balma Guilanyà
Burned wood at the site are from mountain pine and hazelnut shells. Animals represented at the site are dominated by wild goat, with red deer, wild boar and rabbit. Stable isotope analysis on human remains found in the UP layers also supports that the majority of the diet of the was terrestrial herbivores (goats, red deer and rabbits).
Human remains were recovered within the UP levels at Balma Guilanyà and are of three individuals, one child and two adults. Ten radiocarbon dates on these occupations range between 12,910 and 9,510 cal BP.
UP lithics includes bladelets and curved-backed micro-points, scrapers, denticulates and pieces esquilles. Researchers believe that the deposits represent frequent reoccupation of the cave over a few hundred years.
The presence of perforated marine shells, including Nassarius incrassatus, Dentalium sp and Columbella rustica sugggests long distance trade, since stable isotope analysis does not include marine dietary inputs.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to the Azilian culture, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Garcia-Guixé, E., et al. 2009 Stable isotope analysis of human and animal remains from the Late Upper Palaeolithic site of Balma Guilanyà, southeastern Pre-Pyrenees, Spain. Journal of Archaeological Science 36(4):1018-1026.
