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The south of Iberia conserves an important group of Palaeolithic rock art sites. The graphisms have been mostly attributed to the Solutrean and Magdalenian periods, while the possibility that older remains exist has provoked extensive debate. This circumstance has been linked to both the cited periods, until recently, due to the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic in the extreme southwest of Europe as well as the non-existence of some of the early periods of Palaeolithic art documented in northern Iberia. This study presents the results of interdisciplinary research conducted in Las Ventanas Cave. These results enabled us to identify a new Palaeolithic rock art site. The technical, stylistic and temporal traits point to certain similarities with the range of exterior deep engravings in Cantabrian Palaeolithic rock art. Ventanas appears to corroborate the age attributed to those kinds of graphic expression and points to the early arrival of the Upper Palaeolithic in the south of Iberia. Importantly, the results provide information on the pre-Solutrean date attributed to trilinear hind figures. These findings challenge the supposed Neanderthal survival idea at one of the main late Middle Palaeolithic southern Iberian sites (CariguÈela) and, due to the parallels between them and an engraving attributed to this period in Gibraltar, it raises the possibility of interaction between modern humans and Neanderthals in the extreme southwest of Europe., This study was sponsored by HAR2013-44269-P (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and 19434/PI/14 (Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport). For the fieldwork we had permission from the Andalusian Regional Government's Department of Culture. We also enjoyed the logistical support of the Pinar (Granada) Regional Government. This work was funded by the Andalusian Research Group Board RNM-349. "Proyecto de rehabilitacion y conservacion del yacimiento arqueologico "Cueva de las Ventanas" ("Restoration and conservation project for the 'Las Ventanas Cave' archaeological site"), Department of Culture, Andalusian Regional Government (File: BC.01.146/94.) "Analisis polinico y datacion para Carbono 14 de huesos y coprolitos de hienas provenientes de la Cueva de las Ventanas depositados en el Museo Arqueologico y Etnologico de Granada ("Pollen analysis and Carbon 14 dating of hyena bones and coproliths originating in Las Ventanas Cave and desposited at the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Granada"), Department of Culture, Andalusian Regional Government. File: BC 03/46/09). We received support from Ministerio de Economoa y Competitividad, grant number CGL-BOS-2012-34717. This study was funded by HAR2013-44269-P (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and 19434/PI/14 (Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport). For the fieldwork we had permission from the Andalusian Regional Government's Department of Culture. We also enjoyed the logistical support of the Pinar (Granada) Regional Government. This work was funded by the Andalusian Research Group Board RNM-349.

International audience; The Cueva del Angel archaeological site is an open-air sedimentary sequence, remnant of a collapsed cave and part of a karst complex. The faunal assemblage dominated by Equus ferus, large bovids and cervids has been subjected to intense anthropic actions reflecting selective predation. The fauna may be correlated with European faunistic associations of the end of the Middle Pleistocene to the beginning of the Upper Pleistocene. The Cueva del Angel lithic assemblage (dominated by non-modified flakes and abundant retouched tools with the presence of 46 handaxes) appears to fit well within the regional diversity of a well developed non-Levallois final Acheulean industry. A preliminary 230Th/234U age estimate, the review of the lithic assemblage and faunal evidence would favour a chronological positioning of the site in a period stretching from the end of the Middle Pleistocene to the beginning of the Upper Pleistocene (MIS 11-MIS 5). The Acheulean lithic assemblage found at the Cueva del Angel fits very well with the hypothesis of a continuation of Acheulean cultural traditions in the site, distinct from the contemporaneous uniquely Mousterian complexes witnessed in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula, and Western Europe.

En este artículo presentamos un avance de los trabajos realizados en un nuevo yacimiento paleolítico del sur de la Península Ibérica: la Cueva del Ángel (Lucena, Córdoba). Desde el descubrimiento en 1995 de su potencial arqueológico, se ha excavado durante cuatro campañas y, hasta el momento, presenta un corte estratigráfico de unos 5 metros de potencia. Paralelamente se analiza la tecnología y tipología, la fauna, la geología de la cavidad y su relleno sedimentario. La fauna, la industria lítica y las dataciones absolutas sitúan el yacimiento en el Pleistoceno medio y el Pleistoceno superior antiguo; lo que hace que esta cueva sea excepcional en la Península Ibérica., In this paper we offer a preview of the excavations of a Palaeolithic site in the southern Iberian Peninsula: the Cueva del Ángel (Lucena, Cordoba). Since 1995, year in which its archaeological potential was discovered, there have been four excavation campaigns and there is now a 5-meter deep stratigraphic sequence. Together with the on-site excavations, there is also the technological and typological analysis of the lithic industry, on-going zoological study, as well as a geological approach, both of the cavity and the sedimentary deposit that filled it. The fauna and lithic industry recovered, together with the absolute dating offered by the stratigraphie sequence, allow us to conclude that we are studying a Middle and Old Upper Pleistocene, which makes this cave an exceptional site in the Iberian Peninsula.