{"id":"FERNANDEZTRESGUERRES1980-001","label":"Los Azules dotted deer-bone blade","people_or_site":"Cueva de Los Azules I, Contranquil, Cangas de Onís (Azilian level 3)","country_current":"Spain","historic_region":"Asturias, Cantabrian Spain; Azilian, end of the Ice Age","macroregion":"Europe","local_name":"","source_term":"espátula (spatula)","source_language":"Spanish","object_description":"Complete flat blade of deer foot bone (metapodial), 24 cm long, about 3 cm wide and 8.6 mm thick, keeping the bone's natural groove down one face and its natural foramen as a hole at the broader end. Both faces carry lengthwise rows of tiny engraved dots, and one edge a row of short notches.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"fernandeztresguerres1980_azules_fig41_3","source_type":"archaeological_monograph","source_url":"https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3A27d1ea37-6ad6-4656-9cf9-132e1faf2596/pdf02-fernandez-tresgerres-1980-aziliense.pdf","page_or_plate":"Fernández-Tresguerres 1980, pp. 31, 158–159, fig. 41.3; Wenzel & Álvarez Fernández 2004, p. 139 table 1, p. 143, fig. 5.3; Museo Arqueológico de Asturias inv. 03114","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Cave entrance of Los Azules at Contranquil, Cangas de Onís (Turismo Asturias 43.359864, -5.131429; agrees with Jordá Pardo et al. 2025 UTM 30T 327178 / 4802868, south slope of Monte Llueves). Cave-level point; no square coordinate for the blade.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At the end of the Ice Age, Azilian hunters lived in the mouth of Los Azules cave, on the slope of Monte Llueves at Cangas de Onís, and the ash of their hearths, their flint and their kitchen bones piled up deep across the floor. In that same layer they buried a man, laid on his back in a shallow pit against the cave wall, with a painted pebble among the stones at his head, red ochre heaped over a cluster of his tools, and a harpoon that looks never to have been used. The deposit also gave up this long blade of deer foot bone, still whole. Rows of tiny pricked dots run down both faces, following the bone's natural groove, a run of short notches crosses one edge, and the bone's own opening pierces its broader end.","pull_quote":"La espátula de Los Azules está decorada con series de puntos grabados alineados longitudinalmente a lo largo de las dos caras de la pieza.","pull_quote_translation":"The Los Azules spatula is decorated with series of engraved dots aligned lengthwise along both faces of the piece.","pull_quote_cite":"Juan A. Fernández-Tresguerres Velasco, El Aziliense en las provincias de Asturias y Santander (1980), p. 158","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. 10,900–9900 BC","date_qualification":"Azilian level 3c; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"stratigraphic","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"fernandeztresguerres1980_azules_fig41_3, Fernández-Tresguerres 1980 p. 31; Jordá Pardo et al. 2025, RSGE 38(2) p. 78 Table 7 (BM-1879R, level 3c)","sources":[{"citation":"Juan A. Fernández-Tresguerres Velasco, El Aziliense en las provincias de Asturias y Santander, Centro de Investigación y Museo de Altamira 2 (1980), pp. 31, 158–166, fig. 41.3","url":"https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3A27d1ea37-6ad6-4656-9cf9-132e1faf2596/pdf02-fernandez-tresgerres-1980-aziliense.pdf"},{"citation":"Stefan Wenzel and Esteban Álvarez Fernández, 'La espátula de Boppard (Boppard, Renania-Palatinado, Alemania)', Zephyrus 57 (2004): 137–151","url":"https://gredos.usal.es/bitstream/10366/71580/1/La_espatula_de_Boppard_%28Boppard%2C_Renania.pdf"},{"citation":"Museo Arqueológico de Asturias, Relación de piezas de la exposición permanente, I. Los tiempos prehistóricos, inv. 03114","url":"https://museoarqueologicodeasturias.com/sites/default/files/1_Prehistoria.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240617100856/https://museoarqueologicodeasturias.com/sites/default/files/1_Prehistoria.pdf"},{"citation":"J. Jordá Pardo et al., 'Geoarqueología y cronoestratigrafía del yacimiento aziliense de Los Azules', Revista de la Sociedad Geológica de España 38(2) (2025): 63–82","url":"https://doi.org/10.55407/rsge.117706"}],"source_citations":"Juan A. Fernández-Tresguerres Velasco, El Aziliense en las provincias de Asturias y Santander, Centro de Investigación y Museo de Altamira 2 (1980), pp. 31, 158–166, fig. 41.3; Stefan Wenzel and Esteban Álvarez Fernández, 'La espátula de Boppard (Boppard, Renania-Palatinado, Alemania)', Zephyrus 57 (2004): 137–151; Museo Arqueológico de Asturias, Relación de piezas de la exposición permanente, I. Los tiempos prehistóricos, inv. 03114; J. Jordá Pardo et al., 'Geoarqueología y cronoestratigrafía del yacimiento aziliense de Los Azules', Revista de la Sociedad Geológica de España 38(2) (2025): 63–82","source_display":"Juan A. Fernández-Tresguerres Velasco, El Aziliense en las provincias de Asturias y Santander, Centro de Investigación y Museo de Altamira 2 (1980), pp. 31, 158–166, fig. 41.3; Stefan Wenzel and Esteban Álvarez Fernández, 'La espátula de Boppard (Boppard, Renania-Palatinado, Alemania)', Zephyrus 57 (2004): 137–151; Museo Arqueológico de Asturias, Relación…","date_citation_display":"Fernández-Tresguerres 1980 p. 31; Jordá Pardo et al. 2025, RSGE 38(2) p. 78 Table 7 (BM-1879R, level 3c)","object_display":"Complete flat blade of deer foot bone (metapodial), 24 cm long, about 3 cm wide and 8.6 mm thick, keeping the bone's natural groove down one face and its natural foramen as a hole at the broader end. Both faces carry lengthwise rows of tiny engraved dots, and one edge a row of short notches.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"cueva los","display_name":"Los Azules dotted deer-bone blade","image":{"full":"assets/objects/FERNANDEZTRESGUERRES1980-001_aziliense1980-p159.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/FERNANDEZTRESGUERRES1980-001_aziliense1980-p159_thumb.jpg","alt":"Line drawing of a long narrow bone blade shown twice, edge-on and face-on; the face is covered in fine lengthwise rows of dots, and an oval hole pierces the top end.","credit":"Juan A. Fernández-Tresguerres Velasco, El Aziliense en las provincias de Asturias y Santander (1980), fig. 41.3","source_page":"https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3A27d1ea37-6ad6-4656-9cf9-132e1faf2596/pdf02-fernandez-tresgerres-1980-aziliense.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Los Azules blade in edge view, with its notched edge, and in face view, pricked with rows of dots; the hole is at the top."},"slug":"fernandeztresguerres1980-001-cueva-de-los-azules-i-contranquil-cangas-de-onis-azilian-leve"}