A quarter-century of research on the Solutrean of Vasco-Cantabria, Iberia and beyond

Twenty-five years ago, my initial approach to the Solutuean archaeological phenomenon was to use it as a conveniently bounded case study for the expla nation of interassemblage variability in the Upper Paleolithic. Although my main conclusions supported an essentially functionalist basis for explaini ng Solutrean variability, subsequent discoveries do also point to a process of technological change, or "desolutreanization," toward the end of the pe riod between c. 20,500 and 16,500 radiocarbon years ago. My view of the Sol utrean has considerably expanded to see it as a historical response to the climatic crisis of the Last Glacial Maximum and to interpret its restricted geographical distribution with high regional site numbers as evidence of a human refugium in southwestern Europe. Many of the characteristically Solu trean developments in technology (especially weaponry), intensified subsist ence practices, and even art styles and other evidence of territories and s ocial networks make sense in this context at the level of regional bands, h ere explored with particular reference to the Iberian Peninsula.