About 35,000 years ago, the lands that are now the Basque Country, together with neighbouring areas such as Aquitaine and the Pyrenees, were settled by Cro-Magnons, who gradually displaced the region’s earlier Neanderthal population. The settlers brought the Aurignacian culture with them.
At this stage, the Basque Country formed part of the archaeological Franco-Cantabrian province which extended all the way from Asturias to Provence. Throughout this region, which underwent similar cultural developments with some local variation, Aurignacian culture was successively replaced by Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian cultures. Except for the Aurignacian, these all seem to have originated in the Franco-Cantabrian region, which suggests no further waves of immigration into the area during the Paleolithic period.
Within the present-day Basque Country, settlement was limited almost exclusively to the Atlantic area, probably for climatic reasons. Important Basque sites include the following:
- Santimamiñe (Biscay): Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian remains, mural art
- Bolinkoba (Biscay): Gravettian and Solutrean
- Ermitia (Gipuzkoa): Solutrean and Magdalenian
- Amalda (Gipuzkoa): Gravettian and Solutrean
- Koskobilo (Gipuzkoa): Aurignacian and Solutrean
- Aitzbitarte (Gipuzkoa): Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian
- Isturitz (Lower Navarre): Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian, mural art
- Gatzarria (Soule): Aurignacian and Gravettian
