Resumen de The Aurignacian campsite at Chainça, and its relevance for the earliest Upper Paleolithic settlement of the Rio Maior vicinity
As the only open-air Aurignacian site excavated in Portugal during the last two decades, the residential campsite of Chainça (Rio Maior) is an important addition to the sparse archaeological record of the earliest Upper Paleolithic in western Iberia. Aurignacian hunter-gatherers occupied the flat, well-drained surface of a small floodplain, in a location with access to many lower valley resources while gearing up and retooling. The site is spatially distinct from the lithic workshop sites at Vale de Porcos, and exhibits significantly different assemblage orga-nization. In addition to manufacturing large blades, thick flakes, and carinations on chert, knappers at Chainça recycled/resharpened chert tools and worked quartz and quartzite despite an apparent abundance of chert. These assemblage characteristics coupled with coarse intrasite spatial patterns indicate that Aurignacian foragers efficiently exploited raw materials in the context of a settlement strategy that emphasized high residential mobility
