Timing the Western Mediterranean Last Hunter-Gatherers and First Farmers

The spread of domestic plants and animals from the Near East towards the Western Mediterranean region is analysed using the current radiocarbon dataset relating to the last hunter-gatherers and the first farmers in the area. In order to do this, we have selected radiocarbon dates and built summed probability distributions and density maps, as a means of investigating the processes involved in the expansion of food production economies throughout this wide territory, in a ‘longue duree’ view, in accordance with a multiscalar approach covering both the general and the regional scenarios. This approach allows us to visualise the time of the expansion in this broad area, starting at the beginni…

Spatial and Temporal Diversity During the Neolithic Spread in the Western Mediterranean: The First Pottery Productions

Actual research into the neolithization process and the development of farming communities in the Western Mediterranean reveals a diverse and complex cultural landscape. Dispersal routes and rhythm of diffusion of the agro-pastoral economy, Mesolithic inheritance, regional interactions between communities, and functional adaptations all have to be explored to trace how Mediterranean societies were reshaped during this period. The different pottery traditions that accompany the Neolithic spread and its economic development are of course interconnected (the “impressed ware”), but they also show some degree of polymorphism. This variability has been variously interpreted, but rarely quantified…

De la prospección sistemática al laboratorio GIS en La Canal de Navarrés

El trabajo que presentamos se ha desarrollado en el marco del proyecto NSF “The Emergence of Coupled Natural and Human Landscapes in the Western Mediterranean”, en el área comprendida por la actual comarca de La Canal de Navarres. Este espacio se convierte en uno de las áreas elegidas para un programa de recogida de datos centrado en la prospección sistemática “off site “ o “patch-based” (Barton et al. 2004; Dunnell 1992). Los datos relativos a la cultura material se combinan con la información espacial y ecológica, lo cual permite una comprensión dinámica de los mismos.

Les ocupacions prehistòriques de la Cueva de la Diabla (Ayora, València).

La realització del parc eòlic de la Solana (Ayora) propicià una sèrie de sondejos arqueològics a la Cueva de la Diabla que permeteren identificar un nivell arqueològic prehistòric del Calcolític campaniforme-Bronze antic. L’estudi de la totalitat de les restes ens ha permès interpretar-les com a conseqüència d’ocupacions estacionals de la cova, no documentant cap evidencia d’enterraments humans. La casera d’animals salvatges que viuen en un medi escassament antropitzat també ha quedat constatada.

The Chronology of Archaeological Assemblages Based on Automatic Bayesian Procedure: Eastern Iberia as Study Case

The purpose of this work is to show an automatic Bayesian procedure to obtain accurate chronological information of archaeological assemblages characterized by palimpsest or neither radiocarbon dates and whose temporal information comes only from bifacial flint arrowheads.In this work, a classification based on the Dirichlet-multinomial inferential process and its posterior predictive probability distribution are applied. Its purpose is to predict the chronological period of archaeological assemblages (levels or sites) based on the predictive probability distribution of each bifacial flint arrowhead types defined in the Eastern Iberia during the 4th and 3rd millennium cal BC. The results of…

Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Valencia) 2016: Intervención, metodología, resultados.

Les valls del Serpis: campanya de prospecció 2011

Troballes més importants de la campanya de 2011.

Avance de resultados de los nuevos trabajos arqueológicos en Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Valencia). Campaña de 2015

La inferencia cronológica bayesana aplicada a la industria lítica de la Prehistoria Reciente : el caso de estudio de los conjuntos superficiales de las terrazas del valle bajo del río Ebro (Aldover, Baix Ebre)

En la zona del valle bajo del Ebro la problemática de los palimpsestos artefactuales líticos ha tendido a emerger en estudios que aportan cronologías relativas rígidas y lineales, con poca rigurosidad y teniendo poco en cuenta los procesos posdeposicionales que afectan a tales conjuntos. Para hacer frente a tal problemática y poder especificar y analizar a un mayor nivel estos conjuntos superficiales, se presenta la aplicación de una nueva metodología utilizada en casos de estudio similares del área valenciana. Ésta se enfoca en la inferencia cronológica Bayesiana mediante la computación para la construcción de modelos formados por referentes crono-tipológicos y contextuales, partiendo des …

Bayesian classification for dating archaeological sites via projectile points

Dating is a key element for archaeologists. We propose a Bayesian approach to provide chronology to sites that have neither radiocarbon dating nor clear stratigraphy and whose only information comes from lithic arrowheads. This classifier is based on the Dirichlet-multinomial inferential process and posterior predictive distributions. The procedure is applied to predict the period of a set of undated sites located in the east of the Iberian Peninsula during the IVth and IIIrd millennium cal. BC.

New insights into the neolithisation process in southwest Europe according to spatial density analysis from calibrated radiocarbon dates

The agricultural way of life spreads throughout Europe via two main routes: the Danube corridor and the Mediterranean basin. Current archaeological literature describes the arrival to the Western Mediterranean as a rapid process which involves both demic and cultural models, and in this regard, the dispersal movement has been investigated using mathematical models, where the key factors are time and space. In this work, we have created a compilation of all available radiocarbon dates for the whole of Iberia, in order to draw a chronological series of maps to illustrate temporal and spatial patterns in the neolithisation process. The maps were prepared by calculating the calibrated 14C date …

Reflections on the Other Side. A Southern Iberia Origin for the First Pottery Production of Northern Morocco?

Archaeological works in Morocco (the Spanish-Moroccan team) were funded by a European Research Council Advanced Grant AGRIWESTMED (Origins and spread of agriculture in the western Mediterranean region) coordinated by L.P.-CH. Processing works were performed thanks to a IJCI-2016-27812 -Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities-Universidad de Granada, Juan de la Cierva-Incorporacion Agreement (2016, by RMMS), and by funding provided in the framework of project "Archaeobiology of the Neolithic of the Southern Iberian Peninsula" (NeArqBioSI) A-HUM-460-UGR18 by Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad. FEDER Programme - Andalusian CouncilGranada University. Fi…

Cocina cave revisited: Bayesian radiocarbon chronology for the last hunter-gatherers and first farmers in Eastern Iberia

Abstract Recent excavations and radiocarbon work conducted at Cocina Cave (Valencia region, Eastern Iberia) provide new insights into the transition from foraging to farming in the eastern Iberian Peninsula between 8000 and 7300 cal yrs. BP. Cocina cave was discovered in 1940 and excavated by L. Pericot from 1941 to 1945. J. Fortea continued excavations in the 70s. Despite early international recognition and great promise of significance, the materials recovered from these excavations have only been partially analyzed and published. A new project started in 2012 is focused on these cave deposits with the main goal of understanding the occupation sequence during the neolithization process in…

Wandering through the Mesolithic. An archaeostatistical approach to explore the mobility patterns in eastern Iberia

Abstract Tracing hunter-gatherer's mobility has been a recurring topic both in anthropological and archaeological literature. Following Binford's approach (1980), ethnographic comparisons have been brought out in order to better understand mobility patterns among Palaeolithic and Mesolithic groups, and how they relate with their environment, thus formulating a system where a main difference in mobility structure is pronounced on the distinction between residential and logistical camps. After some efforts made in order to relate the lithic record with such model (Clark and Barton, 2017), in this work we explore how lithic industry can be a reliable proxy for understanding the mobility patter…

Taphonomic processes inconsistent with indigenous Mesolithic acculturation during the transition to the Neolithic in the Western Mediterranean

Abstract We applied taphonomic analysis combined with geostatistical approaches to investigate the hypothesis that Cocina cave (Eastern Iberia) represents an acculturation context for the appearance of Neolithic Cardial pottery. In the 1970s, Fortea suggested that this important site was a prime example of acculturation because of the presence of early Neolithic pottery in late Mesolithic contexts. Since that time Cocina cave has been heralded as an example of indigenous hunter-gatherers incorporating Neolithic cultural elements into their lifeways. We analyzed the area excavated by Fortea in the 1970s by digitizing archaeological records and testing the spatial distribution of artifacts us…

Timing the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in the Iberian Peninsula: The Radiocarbon Dataset

In this paper, we describe the radiocarbon dataset compiled in the context of the project HAR2015-68962 EVOLPAST: Dinamicas evolutivas y patrones de variabilidad cultural de los ultimos cazadores-recolectores y el primer Neolitico en el este peninsular (7000–4500 cal. BC) funded by the Spanish government. The dataset offers the most complete and public radiocarbon dataset focus on the Neolithic Transition in the Iberian Peninsula. Funding statement: The data collection was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness grant HAR2015-68962-P to Oreto Garcia Puchol & Joan Bernabeu. SPG is supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Postdoct…

Dataciones de contextos aborígenes y coloniales de la isla de Gran Canaria: una propuesta de protocolo de higiene radiocarbónica

Artículo enviado (13/07/2020) para su publicación en Tabona: Revista de Prehistoria y Arqueología de Canarias, 22 (editores del vol. J. Carballo y A. Calderón). Departamento de Geografía e Historia. Universidad de la Laguna. Artículo aceptado (19/01/2021) Resumen: El radiocarbono presenta problemas relacionados tanto con la naturaleza de la muestra fechada, así como con aquellos propios del método. Por ello, el principal objetivo de este trabajo consiste en realizar una exploración sistemática de los diferentes problemas. Para ello, hemos realizado una revisión crítica de las fechas disponibles en la isla de Gran Canaria. Finalmente, este análisis nos ha permitido categorizar las fechas en …

Iberian Neolithic Networks: The Rise and Fall of the Cardial World

Recent approaches have described the evolutionary dynamics of the first Neolithic societies as a cycle of rise and fall. Several authors, using mainly c14 dates as a demographic proxy, identified a general pattern of a boom in population coincident with the arrival of food production economies followed by a rapid decline some centuries afterwards in multiple European regions. Concerning Iberia, we also noted that this phenomenon correlates with an initial development of archaeological entities (i.e., ‘cultures’) over large areas (e.g. the Impresso-Cardial in West Mediterranean), followed by a phase of ‘cultural fragmentation’ by the end of Early Neolithic. These results in a picture of high…

Prospección arqueológica sistemática en la Canal de Dos Aguas (València). El territorio inmediato a Cueva de la Cocina

A Bayesian Approach for Timing the Neolithization in Mediterranean Iberia

AbstractIn this paper, we compile recent14C dates related to the Neolithic transition in Mediterranean Iberia and present a Bayesian chronological approach for testing thedual model, a mixed model proposed to explain the spread of farming and husbandry processes in eastern Iberia. The dual model postulates the coexistence of agricultural pioneers and indigenous Mesolithic foraging groups in the Middle Holocene. We test this general model with more regional models of four geographical areas (Northeast, Upper, and Middle Ebro Valley, and Eastern and South/Southeastern regions) and present a filtered summed probability of all14C dates known in the region in order to compare socioecological dyn…

Modeling initial Neolithic dispersal. The first agricultural groups in West Mediterranean

Abstract In previous research, the SE-NW time-trend in the age of the earliest Neolithic sites across Europe has been treated as a signal of a global-scale process that brought farming/herding economies to the continent. Residual variation from this global time-trend is generally treated as ‘noise’. A Complex Adaptive Systems perspective views this empirical record differently. The apparent time-trend is treated as an emergent consequence of the interactions of individuals and groups of different scale. Here, we examine the dynamics of agricultural dispersals, using the rich body evidence available from the Iberian Peninsula as a case study. We integrate two complementary approaches: (1) cr…

Patch-based survey methods for studying prehistoric human land-use in agriculturally modified landscapes: A case study from the Canal de Navarrés, eastern Spain

Abstract In landscapes whose surface has been modified by terracing and other agricultural land-use, the spatial and temporal patterning of prehistoric settlement can be difficult to detect using traditional, site-orientated archaeological survey methods, especially for small-scale societies. In these contexts, methods that can reveal occupational patterns at landscape scales, without the need to pinpoint specific sites of human occupation, can be especially useful. We employ a stratified, randomly selected patch-based survey strategy to examine socio-ecological dynamics from the Middle Paleolithic through Bell Beaker (Chalcolithic) periods within the Canal de Navarres, eastern Spain. We di…

Radiocarbon dates, climatic events, and social dynamics during the Early Neolithic in Mediterranean Iberia

Abstract Our goal in this paper is to examine the socioecological dynamics of the Early Neolithic period in Iberia in order to test the usefulness of temporal probability curves built from dated sites as a relative proxy for exploring possible links between trends in population patterns and climatic fluctuations. We compare the information for the entire Iberian Peninsula with four Mediterranean regions, investigating the climate–population relationships that emerge when we zoom into particular regions. We evaluate climatic and other possible causes of similarities in the shapes of temporal probability curves across the Peninsula, associated with demographic changes in the Early Neolithic s…

Alternative Stories of Agricultural Origins: The Neolithic Spread in the Iberian Peninsula

The spread of agriculture from the Near East to Europe has long been a subject of intense archaeological study and debate in light of the social and economic changes that occurred and were set in motion as a result of this transition. Despite the attention paid to this important process, a consensus is far from being reached. Perhaps for these reasons, new methods and theoretical approaches have often been applied to the questions surrounding the spread of agriculture first. Recently, computational modeling has emerged as a promising technique for the study of the origins of agriculture. Our approach employs an agent-based computational model of agricultural spread for the Iberian Peninsula…

Fruits arriving to the west. Introduction of cultivated fruits in the Iberian Peninsula

Agricultural activities, including practices, crops and techniques have evolved throughout history undergoing tremendous changes. From the early Neolithic farmers in the Mediterranean focused on cereal agriculture and only later, during the 4th/3rd millennium cal. BC in the Eastern basin, other species such as fruit trees were introduced into the agrarian system transforming the model that had been in use for millennia. Fruit tree management required innovation and investment and more importantly multi-year foresight as the new crops entailed a new pace of work with delayed returns and, thus, a greater entanglement with the land. Processes of social complexity and urbanization accompanied t…

Complex adaptative systems and computational simulation in Archaeology

Traditionally the concept of ‘complexity’ is used as a synonym for ‘complex society’, i.e., human groups with characteristics such as urbanism, inequalities, and hierarchy. The introduction of Nonlinear Systems and Complex Adaptive Systems to the discipline of archaeology has nuanced this concept. This theoretical turn has led to the rise of modelling as a method of analysis of historical processes. This work has a twofold objective: to present the theoretical current characterized by generative thinking in archaeology and to present a concrete application of agent-based modelling to an archaeological problem: the dispersal of the first ceramic production in the western Mediterranean.