Shell ornaments, bone tools and long distance connections in the Upper Paleolithic of Southern Portugal

Very little was known from the Upper Paleolithic of southern Portugal until very recently. A few sites were discovered during the last decade and one of them, Vale Boi (Algarve), yields shell ornaments, bone tools and clear evidence of long distance connections between Algarve, Central Portugal and the Spanish Levant. Raw materials and ideas moving across the southern coast of Iberia seem to suggest dffirences in the cultural systems relative to Central Portugal and greater similarities with the Spanish Levant.