La Peguesa: un nuevo conjunto de grabados rupestres en la comarca de Els Ports (Castellón)

El conjunto de grabados rupestres de la Peguesa, se localiza en el T.M. de Morella, junto a la actual carretera que une las poblaciones de Morella y Cinctorres. Al mismo tiempo esta vía de tránsito comunica las cuencas de dos de los principales ríos de la comarca, el Bergantes y el Calders. Los grabados se distribuyen sobre un pequeño afloramiento de roca arenisca que apenas sobresale del campo de cultivo donde se localiza el conjunto. Los motivos representados muestran una interesante combinación de motivos figurativos (antropomorfos, cruciformes, ramiformes, etc...), junto con motivos abstractos (reticulado, cazoletas, cúpulas, trazos, etc...) y han sido realizados con la técnica del picado, aunque existen diferencias en dicha técnica de ejecución.The open-air engravings site of la Peguesa is located into Morella Township, close to the road between Morella and Cinctorres. This actual road takes profit of a natural passage between the main rivers of the region, Bergantes and Calders. The engravins are on a sandstone outcrop, located in discrete way in the middle of a field. The site displays an interesting combination of figurative motifs (anthropomorphus, cruciforms, ramiforms, etc.), together with another abstracts motifs (reticulated and cup-marks). The making technique was chipping to great part of motifs but other ones have been made with abrasion

Métodos de talla y estrategias de reducción en la fabricación de foliáceos en el III milenio A.N.E.: El caso del yacimiento de El Tossal de la Munda (Vistabella del Maestrat, Castelló)

In this paper we present a technological study of leaf-like arrow points recovered in an open-air site from the 3th millennium B.C., named El Tossal de La Munda (Vistabella del Maestrazgo, Castellón). It is located at the central east of Spain, in the southern part of Iberian range in a mountainous area about 100 km far from the coast. The site is on a small flat-topped hill of about 5000 m² and it is 820 m.a.s.l. The upper surface has been strongly eroded and the lithic material has been found directly on the bedrock or over the dissolution clays. We recovered close to 5000 lithic remains, offering an assemblage mainly produced in the 3rd millennia BC: retouched blades and flakes as main groups, leaf-like arrow points, in addition to some other retouched tools as segments (one triangle, one bifacial circle and a trapezoid), scrapers, end-scrapers, denticulate and notches, one raclette and one drill. We also found two small adzes. The cores were intensively exhausted. Just some of them show bladelet scars but most of them are small discoid and irregular shaped cores for the production of small flakes. Few of them show marks of bipolar flaking on anvil. Within the lithic assemblage there is a sample of 73 bifacial rough-outs and projectile points at different reduction stages, from initial blanks to finished and used ones. In addition, we found one refit and one conjoint. All of them are leaf-like arrow points except a fragment showing shoulders as an exception. We have identified some typical accidents in bifacial reduction: fractured rough-outs, overshot flakes, overshot negatives and another accident that we named “bending notches”, linked principally to the pressure technique (two positives and two negatives). We analysed both preforms and finished leaf-like arrow points from a technological point of view, first trying to identify the blank type and shape, and secondly trying to distinguish knapping methods and techniques. We have divided the methods in three main types: parallels (adjacent and contiguous), alternating, and independent method. We have identified the strategies according to edges and blank faces management. In our case, only simple combinations has been detected, mainly alternate (first one face, after the other side on the same edge). We have divided leaf-like production in five technical stages, and we described the identified knapping methods and strategies used at the site according to the reduction stage. In order to show this, we describe in the paper the most significant cases of the site. The identification of blanks has been possible in most of the rough-outs, verifying that the blanks used at the site were irregular and cortical flakes, chunks, fissure slabs and small cores. Despite this, leaf-like production at the site was really homogeneous, applying the same methods and also managing the blank faces similarly. Alternate strategy is completely dominant, firstly removing the ventral face, secondly the dorsal part. The main knapping method used at the site is the independent method, removing consecutively the most highlighted ridges. When the sketch is advanced and reaches a regular shape, the application of parallel method series is common. Technically we have observed two phases: first direct percussion (mainly with stone hammer); second, pressure technique. Heat modifications have been detected in 20 rough-outs and projectiles but most of them seem to be non-intentional, exhibiting cupules and cracks. Most of the finished ones do not show double shine (heat patina).According to this, we state that leaf-like production at the site was not a specialized process but it recovers to use as blanks previously discarded flakes, chunks and exhausted cores, part of them recycled before burning. The elaboration of leaf-like arrow points was embedded in the laminar production, and it played a marginal role within a lithic reduction system that is focused on blade and bladelet production. They used mainly cortical and non-cortical flakes, that seem to be by-products of blade core preparation, or exhausted cores that were reused for this purpose. Despite most of the arrow points result in crude and thick foliated shapes, we argue that in this technological context, the use of waste as blanks constrains the knapping reduction, and lead to rude shapes. Derived from this, we discuss on the leaf-like arrow point morphology and its profitability, the resistance of thick-elliptical tips and their role in the technological framework of the site and its landscape. We also discuss about the visibility of the skilled knapping in this context, when small, irregular and cortical flakes, burned chunks and exhausted cores were used as a blank to make leaf-like projectiles.Este trabajo presenta el estudio de las cadenas operativas de producción de foliáceos encontrados en El Tossal de La Munda (Vistabella del Maestrazgo, Castellón). Se trata de un yacimiento en superficie situado en una pequeña muela caliza destacada, con una superficie superior muy erosionada en la que se recuperaron todos los elementos líticos visibles. Su repertorio tipológico presenta un periodo cronológico principal que podemos enmarcar en el IV y el III milenio A.N.E. Entre otros materiales, se recuperaron más de setenta reducciones bifaciales en diferentes fases, desde preformas iniciales a foliáceos finalizados y puntas con fracturas de impacto, además de restos de talla y lascas derivadas de todo el proceso. Presentamos el estudio tecnológico de esta muestra de fabricación de foliáceos, que expresa la adaptación a diferentes soportes iniciales: lascas corticales y no corticales, fracturas Siret, plaquetas, núcleos, entre otros; y que constata también una reutilización de materiales quemados.Así pues, en un contexto tecnológico de aprovechamiento intensivo de la materia prima y de adaptación a morfologías iniciales muy diversas, se documentan métodos de talla bastante sistemáticos: levantamientos aleatorios en las preformas, uso principal de la estrategia alterna en preformas avanzadas, e identificación de cortas series paralelas en puntas casi acabadas y completas. También se observa una tendencia clara a comenzar la reducción por la cara ventral en casi todas la preformas sobre lasca, y una cadena técnica bastante clara: preformas de medidas mayores al foliáceo se reducen primero con percusión directa, después por presión; mientras que las preformas de medidas semejante, se confeccionan directamente mediante presión.Los foliáceos completos y los que muestran evidencias de impacto, son mayoritariamente proyectiles espesos, la mayoría de ellos toscos y asimétricos. Es por tanto un escenario donde, aparentemente, las puntas cumplen su función perfectamente sin expresar atributos morfológicos ideales, destinando para su fabricación, lo que parecen ser lascas de limpieza de núcleos, morfologías iniciales muy exigentes en algunos casos, incluso reciclando materiales muy quemados.Por tanto, la cadena operativa de la fabricación de foliáceos en El Tossal de La Munda tiene un papel marginal en el contexto lítico, más centrado en la producción laminar. Además, creemos que en este contexto, la valoración de maestría o aprendizaje a partir de preformas y resultados finales, es muy subjetiva, puesto que se aprovechan soportes muy difíciles de reducir

El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain): a whole perspective

The archaeological site of El Mirador is located in the southern slope of the Sierra de Atapuerca. The work developed at the site is providing a substantial set of data from the Upper Palaeolithic and Early Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age. Throughout at least about 4000 years of occupation, the cave was used for various activities, among which, burial, habitation and animal stalling. The practices related with this last use is, at the moment, the main origin of the archaeological deposits, which are mainly composed by burnt animal dung with vegetal residues, potsherds, lithics and faunal remains. In addition, it is characterized by high sedimentation rates that have enabled an individual and clear record of different episodes, providing high resolution chronological data. Due to these particularities, specific excavation methodology and interdisciplinary studies of the archaeological data have been developed in order to understand the genesis of this archaeological sequence and, at the same time, to provide information about the introduction and development of the production economy in the Submeseta Norte region.The Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (N_CGL2009-12703-C03-02/BTE; HAR200801984/HIST) and the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CGL2012-38434-C0303; HAR2013-41197-P) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2014SGR900; 2014SGR899) supported this research. Funding for the fieldwork came from the Consejería de Cultura y Turismo of the Junta de Castilla y León and the Atapuerca Foundation. Á. Carrancho research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) with projects CGL2012-32149 and CGL2012-3848

El Gres: un hito geográfico, económico y simbólico. Los sistemas de cazoletas y canalillos en la comarca de els Ports

Los grabados al aire libre de la zona noroeste de Castellón están mayoritariamente hechos sobre gres o arenisca. En esta zona, la geología determina una rígida organización en la explotación del territorio, por la escasez de litología blanda para cultivar. Esto provoca que las formaciones litorales cretácicas, compuestas por margas y arcillas, e intercaladas entre los potentes estratos calizos, concentren gran parte del poblamiento agrícola. Derivado de esto, los afloramientos de gres, sólo existentes en estas formaciones cretácicas concentran la gran mayoría de los 50 conjuntos de grabados localizados en la comarca de Els Ports. Hemos documentado varios aspectos sobre el diseño, la inclinación y su posición sobre el soporte rocoso, identificando algunas relaciones entre morfología, lugar y función. Algunos morfo-tipos de sistemas, analizados dentro del contexto arqueológico y geológico, pensamos que ofrecen algunas asociaciones relevantes sobre la función de estos sistemas conectados.The open-air engravings of the northern part of Castellón province (Spain) are usually made on sandstone outcrops. The geology of Els Ports region determines a rigid organization of land exploitation, caused by a shortage of soft lithology to grow. As a result, coastal Cretaceous formations (loams and clays) concentrate the archeological sites and the traditional-farmer settlement. Derived to this, sandstone outcrops of these coastal formations include large part of the fifty known engraving sites. We have documented several aspects about the style, the slope of the engraved blank and the position of the site, identifying some relations between system’s morphology, place and function. Some of these systems types can be analyzed from an archaeological and geological framework, and they offer important conclusions about some of the connected cup-marks systems