The Northern Plateau is often considered to have been an inhospitable and uninhabited place during the Late Pleistocene. In this panorama of a supposed occupational vacuum, it is interesting to note the pattern of occupation observed in the northern pre-montane territories that remained practically unexplored until a few years ago. The sites with Mousterian industries known so far on the edges of the Meseta seem to be concentrated in the temperate moments of the OIS3 and OIS4 isotopic stages, as well as in the last interglacial. It has been proposed that these occupations associated with temperate climatic periods could correspond to seasonal movements of Neanderthal populations from less climatically harsh areas (upper Ebro, lower Duero or Cantabrian coast). Other authors have proposed that the premontane areas would have acted as refuges to which Neanderthal populations would have retreated when it was impossible to survive in the centre of the Meseta. 
The site of Gallery 1 of the Cueva de Guantes (Santibáñez de la Peña, Palencia), in the foothills of the Sierra del Brezo, represents one of the few traces of Neanderthal settlement in the northwestern part of the Meseta during the OIS3. This site has provided evidence of human presence at various times between 41,000 and more than 90,000 years before the present. However, this gallery is located in a fairly interior area of the cavity, an area unlikely, in principle, to be a place of habitation. In the lower levels of the stratigraphic sequence of this site, highly diagnostic lithic pieces of standardised carving from the Middle Palaeolithic have been found, as well as anthropised faunal remains. 
The present project is a continuation of another project carried out from 2009 to 2019 and focuses on four fundamental objectives:

• To precisely delimit the chronology of Neanderthal presence in this pre-mountain area.

• To establish whether the human presence at the Cueva de Guantes sites should be interpreted as sporadic and/or seasonal or long-lasting occupations. 

• To establish the ecological characteristics of the environment of the Cueva de Guantes in order to assess whether this pre-mountain area could have acted as a refuge for Neanderthal groups.

• To enhance the value of the Palaeolithic site complex of the Cueva de Guantes and to disseminate the knowledge acquired with this project.