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This paper presents new data regarding agricultural developments in the Balearic Islands between the end of the third millennium bc and the arrival of the Romans in the 2nd century bc. Data available so far reveals that agriculture, together with raising livestock, were the population’s source of livelihood. Agriculture in the third and second millennium consisted essentially of growing cereals and legumes. The available data point to an agricultural development similar to that of the continent, in the region stretching between the south of France and the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The similarities, in fact, possibly reflect contacts. Arboriculture was first introduced in the island of Ibiza in the first millennium in contexts linked to Phoenician colonisation. Olive oil and wine production developed remarkably on this island and were oriented toward export. Although the chronology of this process is still unclear, it seems that in Mallorca and Menorca it took place at a later period.

[EN] The period comprising the end of the Early Neolithic and the Middle Neolithic, dated broadly within the fifth millennium cal BC, corresponds to an interval that remains largely unknown in the extreme northwestern tip of Africa. This situation contrasts with that of the Early Neolithic, a period characterised by the earliest evidence of the diffusion of a productive economy, cultivated plants and domestic animals. The paucity of data for these later phases can be explained in part by the lack of secure contexts and sequences based on radiocarbon datings of short-lived samples. The current study presents the results of the excavations of ElKhil Caves B and C that yield materials allowing reevaluation of the chronology of a type of ceramic known as Ashakar ware. The study also identifies two traditions in the northern Moroccan Middle Neolithic. The first is heir to the so-called Impressa Mediterranean ware and rooted in the Cardial Neolithic, while the second is characterised by roulette cord impressions, red slip and tunnel lugs and probably rooted in the region of the Sahara, and has no technological precedents in the study area., [FR] La fin du Néolithique ancien et le Néolithique moyen, correspondant au Ve millénaire av. n. è. (dates calibrées), demeure largement méconnue à l’extrême nord-ouest de l’Afrique. Cette situation contraste avec le Néolithique ancien qui est marqué par les premiers indices de la diffusion d’une économie de production basée sur la culture des plantes et la domestication. Le manque de données pour ces phases plus récentes peut notamment s’expliquer par l’absence de contextes sûrs ainsi que la rareté des datations radiocarbones d’échantillons organiques de courte durée de vie. Cette étude présente les données issues des fouilles des grottes El-Khil B et C (Maroc) qui ont livré des assemblages mobiliers qui permettent de revoir la chronologie de la céramique de type Achakar. L’étude met également en évidence deux traditions dans le nord du Maroc au cours du Néolithique moyen. La première découle de la tradition de la céramique imprimée et est enracinée dans le néolithique Cardial connu dans le monde méditerranéen. La seconde est caractérisée par des céramiques décorées à roulette de cordelette enroulée, un engobe rouge et des anses « funiculaires ». Ces influences seraient probablement originaires de la région saharienne et sont sans précédents technologiques dans la zone d’étude, The research was jointly funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a grant awarded for the call for Excavations Abroad 2011 by the AGRIWESTMED ERC-EdG project of the European Research Council as well as through the project BOrígenes y expansión de la agricultura en el sur peninsular y norte de Marruecos: aportaciones desde la arqueobotánica y la genética (HAR 2008-01920 HIST)^ coordinated by Leonor PeñaChocarro (Peña-Chocarro et al. 2013). RMMS work has been funded by the CSIC PIE 201510E015 BPrimeras comunidades campesinas en el norte de África^ (2015) and by the Junta de Andalucía research project of excellence BHUM-1510: Dieta y movilidad en la Prehistoria Reciente Andaluza^ (2016-2017). The GPJ research was carried out within the postdoctoral contract FPDI-2013-16034 and IJCI-2015-25082 funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. SPG was supported by University of Valencia (subprograma Atracció de Talent - Contractes Postdoctorals). The radiocarbon dating Beta424638 was carried out in the framework of the project BMolecular Archaeology: Carbon Isotope Analysis of Amino Acids as a Means to Investigate Diets, Physiology, Metabolism and Palaeoenvironment^ coordinated by Dr. Colin Smith and funded by the ARC Future Fellowship (FT 0992258) 2010-2014

The spread of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula is documented from at least ca. 5600–5500BC, although botanical data are absent or very limited for large areas. Archaeobotanical information shows from the beginning an imported agrarian system with a great diversity of crops: hulled and naked wheats and barleys, legumes such as pea, lentil, fava bean, vetches and grass peas, flax and poppy. This diversity of plants with different requirements, processing and uses, implies that the first farmers quickly imported or acquired a wide range of agrarian knowledge. Regional and inter-site agrarian differences are discussed in relation to factors like ecology, culture, use of the cultivated plants and management of the risk of crop failure. The adoption of farming resulted in significant ecological, economic, dietary, and social changes for the Neolithic people of Iberia.