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The establishment of the first livestock communities in the eastern Iberian Peninsula during the 6 th millennium cal BCE marked a significant transition in the region’s economic system. The research of early animal management practices provides crucial valuable understanding into feeding and pastoral strategies, revealing insights into the social organization of landscapes and their resources. Using stable carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) isotopic analyses of faunal remains this study investigates the interplay between environmental conditions, animal management practices, and dietary habits in Neolithic herds from Mas d’Is and Niuet sites in the Serpis Valley. The landscape of the area, characterized by Mediterranean forests and marshes, provided a variety of plant resources. Although most of the valley is covered by C 3 types of plants, there were some clusters of C 4 vegetation. The isotopic analyses prove that the local herds can be disaggregated in two groups: some animals with a diet based on C 3 , some feeding on C 4 plants. These results reveal diverse feeding strategies and, by default, spatialized management practices. In addition, the animals presenting a C 3 signature, have, as well, strong nitrogen values and marks on the bones that indicate they were part of the agricultural cycle as traction force. This complex organisational strategy, with two herds that show different levels of husbandry intensification, might reflect broader socio-economic systems, where the landscape may have been managed with a mosaic of different property regimes: where marginal areas might have been considered as communal or open-access resources, while more fertile areas nearby settlements, might have been used as crop fields, and individually or household managed. The integration of livestock into agricultural systems and the selective use of landscape resources highlight an adaptive and dynamic approach to animal husbandry in response to environmental and social factors during the Neolithic in the Serpis Valley.

In the present article we use geometric microliths (a specific type of arrowhead) and Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) in order to evaluate possible origin points and expansion routes for the Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula. In order to do so, we divide the Iberian Peninsula in four areas (Ebro river, Catalan shores, Xúquer river and Guadalquivir river) and we sample the geometric microliths existing in the sites with the oldest radiocarbon dates for each zone. On this data, we perform a partial Mantel test with three matrices: geographic distance matrix, cultural distance matrix and chronological distance matrix. After this is done, we simulate a series of partial Mantel tests where we alter the chronological matrix by using an expansion model with randomised origin points, and using the distribution of the observed partial Mantel test’s results as a summary statistic within an Approximate Bayesian Computation-Sequential Monte-Carlo (ABC-SMC) algorithm framework. Our results point clearly to a Neolithic expansion route following the Northern Mediterranean, whilst the Southern Mediterranean route could also find support and should be further discussed. The most probable origin points focus on the Xúquer river area.

In this paper, we concentrate on the neolithisation process in Mediterranean Iberia through a diachronic view (from 8600–6800 cal. BP), focusing on social interaction as a factor in articulating new cultural ties. To do this, we apply techniques centred on similarities in material culture by applying Social Network Analysis (SNA). For the first time, we point to the geometric projectiles, taking into account their recurrence in both Mesolithic and Neolithic groups as part of their characteristic hunting equipment. We hypothesise that patterns of cultural variability would express the changing flow of information between communities according to their mobility strategies (last hunter-gatherer groups), including economic and social behaviour, and that these relationships will be restructured with the arrival of the newcomer farmers and herders and their new spatial and social arrangement. The results obtained allow us to describe a connected and homogeneous Late Mesolithic network dramatically structured by the Neolithic arrival. Since then, a heterogenous pattern emerged, involving connected periods, network ruptures, and small-world phenomena. The emergence of this characteristic could support the flow of information when the network presents a clustered structure, the last probably due to regionalisation events. These diachronic dynamics fit well with demographic and socioecological trends observed from regional literature.

The characterization of chert artifacts and the identification of their raw material is a pivotal issue in archaeology for the comprehension of economic and territorial patterns related to prehistoric populations. In the last years, several analytical techniques have been employed to characterize chert and discriminate among different provenances. In this study, cherts collected from different outcrops exploited since the Prehistory in the area of Alcoi (Alacant, Spain) were analyzed. Nucleus and cortex of each sample were divided and separately analyzed to determine their concentrations of major, minor and trace elements. The analyses revealed the elemental difference between both the parts of the chert and pointed out the importance of separation during sample preparation. Eventually, only the results of the nucleus analysis allowed discriminate among the different outcrops.

Here we discuss the importance of using the rich and growing database of high-precision, audited radiocarbon dates for high-resolution bottom-up modelling to focus on problems concerning the spread of the Neolithic in the Iberia. We also compare the spread of the Late Mesolithic (so-called Geometric) and the Early Neolithic using our modelling environment. Our results suggest that the source of radiocarbon data used to evaluate alternative hypotheses plays an important role in the results and open up new lines of research for the future.

Trace element analysis of sediments from archaeological sites is a valuable method to investigate the anthropic impact and obtain information on the functions of different areas and changes in human activities. One of the most used and effective techniques to carry out this kind of analysis is inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry. This technique needs a previous dissolution of the sample by acid attack, but the development of the best method is still a discussed issue. In the present work, total and partial digestion methods were carried out in sediment samples of Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Spain), and trace elements were measured and statistically compared. Major elements, soil organic matter amount, and pH data were used to evaluate the main drivers of trace element contents. The differences between the results from the two methods were highlighted. Total digestion is more effective for aluminosilicates and heavy minerals, although the partial digestion results suggested that, in most cases, the difference between the two methods is irrelevant for archaeological interpretations. Furthermore, in some cases, the total digestion of the mineral phases related to the geological contribution could mask the anthropic elemental signals.

This paper summarizes early Holocene cultural sequences, economic strategies, and social dynamics on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Recent research in the central-southern regions of Valencia provides important diachronic information, particularly for discerning the nature of the shift from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture. If biogeographic conditions played a leading role in determining exploitation strategies, then recognizing distinctive social responses is crucial for understanding the impact of the changes that occurred.

The main goal of this paper is to explore possible cultural continuities and discontinuities at the Neolithic transition in Eastern Iberia. To address this issue, we introduce a twofold methodology, consisting of Geometric Morphometrics and the use of the self-developed Geomeasure system, to examine evolutionary patterns in geometric microliths. These are a specific type of arrowhead shared by both the last hunter-gatherers and the first farmers from two reference sites in the region: Cueva de la Cocina and Cova de l’Or (Eastern Iberia). Although advances in research have contributed to a better comprehension of this process, there are still unanswered questions, especially when the study is approached from a regional perspective. Such is the case for the Neolithisation of the Eastern Iberian Peninsula, and the way in which the previous Mesolithic population interacted—if they interacted at all—with the first farmers. In this case, some sites present archaeological contexts that have been catalogued as acculturation contexts . This has traditionally been the case for phase C of Cueva de la Cocina (Spain), although recent research points to the possibility that the content of this specific deposit is the result of post-depositional processes. Here we try first to understand the cultural evolutionary patterns and relations between the different geometric microlith technocomplexes and, second, to address the specific problem of the interpretation of taphonomic disturbances in the archaeological record. We use the Cueva de l’Or and the Cueva de la Cocina for comparison, and our conclusions raise serious doubts about the existence of an acculturation phase at the latter.

Mesolithic groups in Mediterranean Iberia lived during a period of bioclimatic and cultural changes. Thus, their economic behaviour and the availability of plant and animal resources show some interesting variation compared to previous periods that indicate changes in mobility patterns and social connectivity networks. This paper presents information on patterns of animal exploitation of the last hunter-gatherers in this region through zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses of faunal remains from one of the key sites of the Iberian Peninsular Mesolithic, Cocina cave. This site is located in a mountainous woodland region with a rich Late Mesolithic archaeological record. Results indicate that Iberian ibex, red deer, and rabbits were the most hunted species, but that a diversity of other taxa were also present. The comparison to other Mediterranean sites suggests that Late Mesolithic foragers had common animal exploitation patterns with an increased taxonomic diversification and a clear connection to coastal areas. We suggest these foragers practiced a logistic pattern of food procurement, combining long-term with short-term camps including hunting spots, and in some cases evidence for broad scale social interactions. We hypothesize that Cocina cave may have served as a nexus of social and subsistence activities.

A methodological proposal was developed for the study of prehistoric siliceous artefacts which includes the use of smartphone photography as an analytical tool. Different kinds of materials (cherts, rock crystal and quartzite) were sampled from the lithic assemblage of La Calvera rock-shelter (Camaleño, Spain), chosen as a case study. Each sample was photographed with a smartphone and colour features were compared with portable and non-destructive standardised techniques including visible spectrophotometry, Raman, diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and portable X-ray fluorescence. The obtained results suggest that smartphone image analysis is a reliable approach to characterise siliceous rocks and that it can be a valuable, cheap and fast method especially suitable for the first screening of large lithic assemblages.