Manufacturing traces and pot-forming processes during the Early Neolithic at Cueva de El Toro (Málaga, Spain, 5280-4780 BCE)

Altres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICJavier Cámara is a predoctoral researcher with a FI-DGR 2017 grant (No.: 00567) funded by Generalitat de Catalunya. The authors wish to thank Dr. L. Gomart (CNRS, UMR 8215 Trajectoires) for her helpful comments and observations to identify the new technologies discovered in the ongoing researches on prehistoric pottery. The authors also wish to thank the comments and criticisms made by anonymous reviewers, which improved the earliest version of the paper.This paper reports the results of forming processes used in pottery manufacture at La Cueva de El Toro (Málaga, Spain) during the Early Neolithic (5280-4780 cal. BCE). La Cueva de El Toro is one of the most important sites of reference on the southern Iberian Peninsula for providing extensive and systematised data on early farming practices. The identification of manufacturing traces on pottery has enabled the assessment of the variability of forming techniques used by the communities of herders that seasonally inhabited the cave during the Early Neolithic. Forming processes were also compared with characteristic features of pottery products (typology, decorations) that are representative of the first pottery production in this area. Furthermore, this study provides new insights into the distribution of the first pot-forming processes in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, which suggest the use of similar techniques to the forming-sequences documented at other Early Neolithic sites (the use of coils and circular patches) and other forming processes (moulding process and the use of discs) which are still unknown in the Western Mediterranean

Plus ça change : pots, crucibles and the development of metallurgy in Chalcolithic Las Pilas (Mojácar, Spain)

This paper considers the structure of production, distribution and consumption of ceramics within Chalcolithic communities of SE Iberia, an important region for modelling social and technological change in the recent prehistory of Eurasia. Our research provides new data through the comparative analysis of domestic and metallurgical ceramics, as well as building and other clay-rich materials from the archaeological site of Las Pilas (2875–2620 cal. BC 2σ to 2460–2205 cal. BC 2σ) (Mojácar, Almería). In total, 56 samples are characterised by optical petrography, with SEM analysis of 22 of those individuals, in order to assess firing conditions. Results point to the existence of a local tradition in which domestic and metallurgical wares exhibit important similarities in their production processes. In terms of technology, the assemblage shows a relative homogeneity, although firing conditions, surface treatment and decoration seem to have played an important role in the differentiation of highly symbolic wares from other ceramics. We conclude that raw material procurement and processing at Las Pilas differ from those at other Copper Age sites already studied in SE and SW Iberia. This is in agreement with earlier archaeometallurgical studies on Las Pilas, suggesting the development of local and community-based technological traditions. As such, the paper attempts to bridge the recent divide between re-emergent top-down models and our detailed understandings of technological practice

Trace elements and lead isotopic composition of copper deposits from the eastern part of the Internal Zone of the Betic Cordillera (SE Iberia): application to provenance of archaeological materials

This paper presents trace element compositions and lead isotope analyses by MC-ICP-MS of 34 copper ore samples from the Internal Zone of the Betic Range, Southeast Spain. Samples were collected during a fieldwork campaign in the mines of Cerro Minado, Pinar de Bédar, Sierra Cabrera and Sierra Almagrera/Herrerías. Most samples are copper oxide minerals from the near surface alteration of the sulfide ore deposits. The aim of the study is to supplement the existing reference data bank on lead isotopic compositions of ancient copper mines from the Iberian Peninsula, complementing this data with trace element compositions. The latter can be useful for discriminating when isotopic overlaps occur. This characterisation will be of great usefulness for provenancing further archaeological materials. Lead isotope ratios range from 18.603 to 20.327 (206Pb/204Pb); from 15.685 to 15.779 (207Pb/204Pb) and from 38.728 to 39.702 (208Pb/204Pb). Data from the literature analysed by TIMS have been also considered for comparison although the larger analytical error is highlighted, especially for isotope 204Pb. The lead isotopic signature of the analysed samples shows three separate isotopic fields. These fields are also consistent with differences in compositions evidenced by principal component analyses

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l'Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l’Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

A traceological and quantitative assessment of the function of the bone awls from the Late Neolithc of the Cueva del Toro (Antequera, Malaga).

In this communication we present the results of the experimental and traceological analysis of some of the bone awls from the site of Cueva del Toro (Antequera, Malaga, Spain), proceeding from the Late Neolithic layers dated to the last quarter of the fourth millennium cal BC. The cave is one of the most important Neolithic sites of the southern façade of the Iberian Peninsula with human occupations spanning, basically, from the Early to Late Neolithic. In order to quantitatively approach the use of the archaeological tools, a reference collection of the use-wear traces from different materials and different kinematics have been included: boring hide, scraping wood, scraping pottery, drilling bark, working linen and wool, scraping fish skin, etc. Each experimental tool has been measured with a Sensofar S Neox confocal microscope, and sampled images processed with Mountains@ software. After that, this quantitative reference collection has been used to statistically classify the archaeological tools. Results confirm previous analysis through optical reflected-light microscopy suggesting that the awls from Cueva del Toro were used for textile activities