Space, Art, and Society: Connections and exchange networks during the Upper Palaeolithic in portable art through new technologies.

PhD researcher: Agustín Ramírez Ortiz

PhD supervisor: Diego Garate Maidagan

Concepción Arenal Grant

The main objective of this thesis is to delve deeper into the study of social dynamics and the organisation of human groups during the final stages of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Cantabrian coast and the Pyrenees, using portable art as the focus of analysis. The central hypothesis is that there were communities with diverse cultural identities but interconnected through networks of symbolic and material exchange, relationships that can be traced through artistic production.

To address this question, the research proposes a multidisciplinary methodology that combines archaeological analysis with statistical tools, geographic information systems, network analysis, and artificial intelligence. The use of machine learning will enable the classification and recognition of motifs to be automated, as well as exploring non-obvious relationships between styles and territories. Furthermore, all research data will be made openly available in accordance with FAIR principles and the Open Science paradigm, promoting transparency, replicability and scientific collaboration