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Simple Summary: Human–animal relations during Prehistory are an increasingly discussed issue among scholars. Cervids are a symbolically prominent species among hunter–gatherers but are also of relevance to pastoralists. We present a synthesis of available data regarding human–deer relations in Portuguese Late Prehistory. This is achieved by examining deer abundance in subsistence, together with their inclusion in social practices such as food-sharing and their involvement in structured depositions in both funerary and non-funerary contexts. Additionally, the study investigates the utilization of deer remains for the creation of artifacts and their depiction in pottery decoration, figures, and rock art. The dynamics of deer prevalence in subsistence have varied diachronically and synchronically in the periods and areas under study. Although the reasons and meanings for this behavior continue to be discussed, their sociocultural and ideological relevance seems to have persisted in early agropastoral and metallurgical societies, even as they undergo change. Human–animal relations have been a fruitful research topic worldwide. The importance of deer in hunter–gatherer societies is undeniable, with cervids being commonly found in archaeological and past artistic records, with a notable amount of information recovered in the Iberian Peninsula. This relevance continues during Late Prehistory, but the attempt to discuss cervids under broader perspectives and based on different types of data is not as common. We intend to approach human–deer relations in Central and Southern Portuguese Late Prehistory by considering the zooarchaeological records, both deer abundance in faunal spectra and their presence in "meaningful" assemblages and structured depositions, as well as the use of deer and deer body parts in other socio–cultural and ideological practices. The synthesis of available data shows that human–deer relations changed through time and space, with different abundances related to hunting depending on chronology and geography. The use of deer or their body parts as a resource of symbolic nature also varied, being included in food-sharing events, offerings, structured depositions, and graphic representations. Changeability is part of the different relationships, ontologies, and cosmogonies that humans and deer developed in the Late Prehistoric relational world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a singular group of evidence gathered on a small hill at ca. 900 meters of altitude. The hill is located in mid-eastern Asturias, near the Cantabrian Mountains in the northern part of Iberia. The archaeological remains consist of one prehistoric barrow at the top part which is already included in the Sites and Monuments Record. Moreover, several other tiny elevations surround the main barrow, and around them, a few new enclosures have been identified. Despite their irregular conservation, all of them have small parapets meaning clear archaeological features. Old and new data were gathered thanks to three different techniques used in this research: fieldwork, aerial photographs and LiDAR analysis. Due to the lack of archaeological excavations and geophysics analysis, the chronology suggested here must be, at this point of the research, very broad. Finally, the manuscript explores different kinds of enclosures, from prehistoric and historic times, which can be similar to the evidence identified in el Cuetu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perceptibility of a prehistoric monument (the property of being perceptible from its surrounding landscape) can be quite difficult to analyse by means of traditional static models. Such difficulty lies in the fact that perceptibility depends upon many other factors beyond simple topographical position, such as size, colour, contrast with the surroundings or even the specific circumstances of the audience, many such circumstances being of an immaterial nature. In this paper, we explore the potential use of Agent-Based Modelling for the analysis of archaeological perceptibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, total mercury (THg) was analyzed in archaeological human bone from 23 sites dating to between the Middle Neolithic and the Antiquity. A total of 370 individuals from individual or collective burials was sampled, mostly using cortical bone from the humerus. These individuals were recovered from over 50 different funerary structures ranging from tholoi, pits, caves, and hypogea. Although cinnabar (HgS) is a likely cause of mercury poisoning and toxicity for people exposed to this mineral from mining or use as a paint or pigment, not all sites investigated here had cinnabar associated with the burials or other excavated areas. We found unusual levels of THg in many of the sampled individuals that we assume were caused by exposure to cinnabar in life, and not by diagenetic processes or other exposures to mercury such as through diet, which would only cause negligible accumulation of THg in bone. Our data, based on the largest sampling ever undertaken on contamination of human bone through archaeological evidence, provide a baseline for additional research on cinnabar and its use in Prehistory. Moderate to high levels of THg in human bone are mainly associated with societies dating from the second half of the 4th to late 3rd millennia B.C. (Late Neolithic to Middle Chalcolithic) in southern Iberia. By the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, the use of cinnabar decreased significantly and became minimal or absent. The use and abuse of cinnabar appears to have been pervasive throughout the above‐mentioned period and particularly between c. 2900–2300 B.C. This occurred in connection with the high symbolic and probably sacred value of the substance, which was sought after, traded, and extensively used in a variety of rituals and social practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Atlantic Western Pyrenean area is exceptionally rich in archaeological evidence of funerary contexts dated to Late Prehistory. These funerary deposits are mainly recorded in caves and megalithic structures. Burials attributed to the Holocene have been recorded in more than 187 caves (177 just in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia), reflecting the relevance of this phenomenon in the AWP. Nonetheless, just a few of these inhumation contexts have been properly studied, and even fewer have direct and systematic 14C dates. Here, we present the results from the analysis of two sepulchral caves from Biscay: Atxuri-I and Txotxinkoba, that preserve a minimum number of 9 and 14 individuals, respectively. Both caves present subadult individuals of different ages-at-death and among adults, both sexes are represented. Although the representation of osteological elements is roughly similar in both sites, small differences in the preservation of pelvic bones and the completeness of long bones suggest a potential bias in Atxuri-I. We provide six new radiocarbon dates on human remains. Two 14C dates from Atxuri-I show that the cave was used for funerary purposes at least during two very different times: the Mesolithic and the Bronze Age. The latter period is represented by a directly dated complete femur, which was also studied biomechanically, providing results similar with the available Bronze Age female sample from the Iberian Peninsula. The four dates from Txotxinkoba show that the cave was only used for a relatively short period during the Chalcolithic. When put within the Atlantic Western Pyrenean context, despite the limited amount of direct dates a pattern is evident, where most of the largest accumulations of human remains are found in sites with Chalcolithic burials (between 4,600 and 4,000 BP), such as Lacilla II, Pico Ramos, Urtao II and Abauntz, and Txotxinkoba would fit within this group. Those caves that show human burial chronologies spanning longer periods of time, such as Lumentxa, Santimamiñe, Marizulo or Aizpea, generally contain smaller numbers of individuals, and Atxuri-I would fit within this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Complutum is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Espacio, Tiempo y Forma: Serie I, Prehistoria y Arqueología is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: This research provides the first evidence of prehistoric quarrying of eclogitic rocks on the Iberian peninsula. Such metamorphosed basic igneous rocks are known to have been used in southern Spain and Portugal during late prehistory as a raw material for the making of polished lithic tools (axes, adzes, chisels, and hammers). These rocks were widely used primarily because of their tolerance to blow and friction due to their mineralogical and textural characteristics. We have identified two quarries within the Sierra de Baza Natural Park (Granada), in the Betic Cordillera of southern Spain: Rambla del Agua and Cerro de San Cristóbal. The bedrock geology of these quarries forms part of the Mulhacen Complex Ophiolite Unit (Nevado‐Filábride Domain), which discontinuously outcrops along a 250‐km belt in southeastern Spain. Petrographic and geochemical analyses were conducted on raw materials from quarries in the Sierra de Baza and compared with archaeological materials from different sites in southern Iberia. These analyses allow us to specify the Nevado‐Filábride‐derived lithic source and define exchange networks. Archaeological sites around the studied quarries chronologically date their use between the early Neolithic and Bronze Age (∼5500–1500 B.C.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope ratios (Sr/Sr, δO, δC) in dental enamel and bone apatite from 82 individuals interred at Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age burial sites near Madrid, Spain, to discern variations in dietary patterns and identify possible migrants. Questions about mobility patterns and subsistence practices have played a central role in the scholarship of Late Prehistoric central Iberia in the last 20 years, but the archaeological record has still not been able to provide clear answers. This study adds valuable data to this line of research. The results of this study suggest that migration from regions with different geologic landscapes was uncommon in these communities. For the identified migrants, based upon the Sr/Sr values, several of the identified non-local individuals originate from regions with substantially older lithological features and possible places of origin are being investigated. As it is not possible to discern individuals who may have moved from regions with similar geologic landscapes using this methodology, these data provide the minimum number of migrants, and it is conceivable that the number of non-locals in this sample may be higher. Combining multiple lines of material and biological evidence and the completion of Sr isotope mapping in the Iberian Peninsula will help to clarify these findings. Stable carbon isotope data provide new and direct evidence of regional changes in consumption patterns. In particular, this study provides some possible evidence for the consumption of C plants in third-millennium bc central Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to highlight developments in archaeological knowledge relating to dog remains found in deposits from Late Prehistoric contexts at sites along the Iberian Peninsula. Preliminary results from ongoing osteometric and 2D Geometric Morphometric studies applied to these remains are here presented and discussed to contextualize future studies by the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first summed calibrated date probability distributions for the later prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. The SCDPD is based on 4402 determination between 8000 and 3000 BP, a time range beginning in the regional late Mesolithic and running through the Bronze Age. This period is known to see the first introduction of farming at the beginning of the Neolithic, the development of the first large population aggregations during the Copper Age and the subsequent abrupt transition to the substantially diverse Iberian Bronze Age ‘cultures’. The results conform to an exponential model for demographic growth, with a slight “boom and bust” episode between 5300 and 5150 cal BC, some 300 years after the first dated evidence for agriculture in Iberia. The evidence suggest that if migrants from outside Iberia were involved in the introduction of domesticates, this must have happened at a small scale, one not observable through SCDPD. The dating of the observed population “boom” coincides with the decline in frequency of the cardial-impressed and the wide spread of “epicardial” wares throughout the Peninsula. It thus seems reasonable to suppose that these patterns indicate a moderate increase in fertility rates of early farming groups. The SCDPD analysis also suggests that explanatory models for the rise of Copper Age ‘complexity’ or the transition to the Bronze Age should not rely on substantial changes in overall Iberian population densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insufficient attention traditionally paid to the complex mortuary biographies of megalithic graves has long obscured a significant amount of synchronic and diachronic information. The Rioja Alavesa region of north-central Iberia holds a number of megalithic graves with large skeletal assemblages that can generally be ordered by internal stratigraphy and/or relatively fine-grained radiocarbon chronologies, providing a rare opportunity to assess the potential of such information. Here, we undertake stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of 125 human and seven animal bone collagen samples from six late prehistoric megalithic graves (La Cascaja, El Sotillo, San Martín, Alto de la Huesera, Chabola de la Hechicera and Longar) which, together with 107 previously published Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (ca. 3600-2900 BC) bone collagen samples (100 humans and six animals) from the same tombs, are used to explore subsistence trends over time. This approach provides a means to address the socio-economic response of northern Iberian megalithic communities to the cultural and climatic changes occurring in late prehistory. Isotopic data are contextualized using palaeoenvironmental and osteoarchaeological information. The results show a significant shift in diet between the late Middle Neolithic and the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic that coincides with marked changes in burial practices that are likely related to the transition from mainly pastoral to mixed farming economies. There may also be a change in subsistence between the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic and the following periods, suggested by differences in δ15N values between the layers of the Alto de la Huesera megalithic grave, as well as in population and funerary dynamics. By contrast, an apparent continuity in subsistence is seen, at least isotopically, from the Middle Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age, despite clear changes in beliefs and socio-economic practices. These findings support the existence of substantial asynchronous changes in lifeways and ideology among Iberian megalithic groups and challenge the traditional idea of a long and uniform stability in late prehistoric northern Iberia. • Subsistence of north-central Spanish megalithic communities is analyzed over time. • Socioeconomic responses to cultural and climate changes are explored. • A dietary shift is seen between the late Middle Neolithic and the Late Neolithic. • This shift suggests the transition from mainly pastoral to mixed farming economies. • Isotope data challenge the idea of stability among Iberian megalithic societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]