Analysis of the red ochre of the El Mirón burial (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria, Spain)

This article analyzes the ochre associated with the human burial of Magdalenian age in El Mirón Cave that, with its unique features (deep red color, brightness and particle size distribution), is clearly differentiated from ochres in other strata of the site. The most common techniques in archaeological pigment characterization studies were used: binocular microscope inspection, thin sections, granulometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Raman spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results obtained permit the characterization of special ochre in burial layer (hematite with idiomorphic crystallinity). Its origin is completely different from the samples from outcrops inside El Mirón Cave or obtained by prospecting in Carranza Valley. This type of hematite has been identified on the coast, in Santoña, about 26 km from the burial. Given its uniqueness, can be associated with some kind of ritual of the time whose roots lay in the Middle Palaeolithic and continued throughout the rest of Prehistory.The project was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (HAR2010-22115-C02-02)

Continuidad residencial e intensificación productiva durante la primera mitad del III milenio CAL BC en el Levante de la Península Ibérica: Las aportaciones del asentamiento de El Prado (Jumilla, Murcia)

Although the archaeological information about the first half of the 3th cal BC is broad and extensive in Eastern Iberian Peninsula, recent excavations at several sites, especially in El Prado, have allowed to analyze several households with different structural features in a long sequence of occupation. These data allow to propose a hypothesis about the residential setting in these valleys and the processes of the economic intensification Southeast.Aunque la información arqueológica sobre la primera mitad del III milenio cal BC es amplia y extensa en las tierras del Levante de la península Ibérica, las recientes excavaciones en diversos yacimientos, pero especialmente, en El Prado, ha permitido inferir diversas unidades domésticas de diferentes características estructurales en una importante y dilatada secuencia de ocupación. Estos datos permiten proponer una hipótesis sobre la fijación residencial en estas tierras y los procesos de intensificación económica con el Sureste

Residential setting and economic intensification during first half of the third millinium cal BC in eastern Iberian Peninsula: Contributions of archaeological site of El Prado

Aunque la información arqueológica sobre la primera mitad del III milenio cal BC es amplia y extensa en las tierras del Levante de la península Ibérica, las recientes excavaciones en diversos yacimientos, pero especialmente, en El Prado, ha permitido inferir diversas unidades domésticas de diferentes características estructurales en una importante y dilatada secuencia de ocupación. Estos datos permiten proponer una hipótesis sobre la fijación residencial en estas tierras y los procesos de intensificación económica con el Sureste.Although the archaeological information about the first half of the 3th cal BC is broad and extensive in Eastern Iberian Peninsula, recent excavations at several sites, especially in El Prado, have allowed to analyze several households with different structural features in a long sequence of occupation. These data allow to propose a hypothesis about the residential setting in these valleys and the processes of the economic intensification Southeast

Análisis arqueométrico de fragmentos cerámicos y rocas procedentes del Cabezo Pequeño del Estaño (Guardamar del Segura, Alicante)

Dadas las características peculiares del yacimiento fenicio del Cabezo Pequeño del Estaño (CPE), donde se detecta actividad metalúrgica, se han analizado tanto cerámicas como pavimentos y restos metalúrgicos. Las técnicas utilizadas han sido la lámina delgada y SEM-EDS. Los resultados mostrarán características importantes sobre la relación de este yacimiento con otros enclaves fenicios desde Málaga hasta Mazarrón (Murcia). Asimismo, se confirma que se traían rocas con contenidos en metal para realizar el proceso de extracción en un sector concreto del yacimiento.Given the peculiar characteristics of the Phoenician site of Cabezo Pequeño del Estaño (CPE), where metallurgical activity has been detected, ceramics, pavements and metallurgical remains have been analysed. The techniques used were thin section and SEM-EDS. The results will show important characteristics about the relationship of this site with other Phoenician sites from Malaga to Mazarrón (Murcia). It is also confirmed that rocks with metal content were brought to carry out the extraction process in a specific sector of the site

Sources of the ochres associated with the Lower Magdalenian “Red Lady” human burial and rock art in El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain)

This article presents the second study of ochres associated with the Lower Magdalenian (18.7 cal kya) “Red Lady” human burial in El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain). In the first study (Seva Román et al., 2015), we determined that the burial deposit contained iron oxides and idiomorphic hematite that were not from sources near the site, but possibly from Monte Buciero, some 27 km to the north on the present Atlantic shore in Santoña. We have now analyzed sediments both from the burial and from samples taken during prospection on Monte Buciero, along with ochres from deposits above the burial layer, from the face of a large limestone block immediately adjacent to the burial, and from an area of the cave wall close to it in the NE corner of the cave vestibule that bears the engraving of a horse. As before, the analyses used were binocular microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). We were thus able to determine that the sources of the ochres in the burial deposit and on the block are the same—Monte Buciero. However we found substantial differences between the ochre on the block and the ochre underlying the horse panel image on the cave wall, which very likely also dates to sometime in the Magdalenian.This ochre analysis project was financed by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología of Spain (HAR2010-22115-C02-02)

Residencial setting and economic intensification during first half of the third millinium cal BC in Eastern Iberian Peninsula: contributions of archaeological site of El Prado

Aunque la información arqueológica sobre la primera mitad del III milenio cal BC es amplia y extensa en las tierras del Levante de la península Ibérica, las recientes excavaciones en diversos yacimientos, pero especialmente, en El Prado, ha permitido inferir diversas unidades domésticas de diferentes características estructurales en una importante y dilatada secuencia de ocupación. Estos datos permiten proponer una hipótesis sobre la fijación residencial en estas tierras y los procesos de intensificación económica con el Sureste.Although the archaeological information about the first half of the 3th cal BC is broad and extensive in Eastern Iberian Peninsula, recent excavations at several sites, especially in El Prado, have allowed to analyze several households with different structural features in a long sequence of occupation. These data allow to propose a hypothesis about the residential setting in these valleys and the processes of the economic intensification Southeast.Los resultados de este trabajo se insertan dentro de los proyectos “El horizonte campaniforme y los inicios de la jerarquización social en la cuenca del Vinalopó (gre09/15), financiado por el Programa de Proyectos Emergentes de la Universidad de Alicante, y “VIII-IV milenios cal BC: Arte rupestre, poblamiento y cambio cultural entre las cuencas de los ríos Júcar y Segura” (HAR2009-13723), financiado por el Plan Nacional de I+D+i 2008-2011 del Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología del Gobierno de España