Archaeological sediments are analyzed from karst cave columns in Cantabrian Spain. External sediment influx, including loess, is calibrated by an index of cave and slope run-off energy, while other features are discussed. The key sequences are interpreted in local terms and then combined into a regional climatostratigraphy that includes 40 environmental phases within deep-sea isotope stages 2-5. Trends in run-off energy, temperature, and summer-moisture are rarely in phase, indicating complex environmental change. Mousterian occupation is verified by isotope stage 5b, and two or three Mousterian facies that span 25-50,000 years are coeval in several caves. By contrast, the distinct upper palaeolithic industries each span only a few millennia, but in part overlap temporally within the region between 35,000 and 9500 B.P.