Modeling landscape mobility and lithic resource procurement areas in Calerizo de Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain

Abstract

Provenance studies and characterization of materials are significant for understanding the geological origin and geographical location of materials, which in turn allows us to have an insight into the way different sources of lithic materials were exploited and the procurement strategies adopted by human groups who utilized them. Through the study of the lithic landscape of Calerizo de Caceres which would have provided raw materials for human groups, we explored the procurement radius of exploitation to understand the extent of the landscape that human groups possibly traversed to acquire needed resources. Least Cost Path Analysis was employed to estimate the distances of raw materials outcrop from the Santa Ana cave which served as the origin point for the analysis. The result of the characterization of the archaeological assemblage in relation to geological samples from source outcrops revealed that distance played a major role in the choice of lithic materials selection as nearby outcrops to the cave site were exploited better compared to sources far from the cave. The analysis also revealed that activities are conditioned to different loci on the landscape as resources are spatially distributed at different parts of the landscape which would have made exploitation of resources accessible as and when due. The study revealed that because needed lithic resources are available, scale of movement was conditioned within the local environment and this explained why human occupation of Calerizo de Cáceres has been from the Lower Pleistocene until the beginning of Agricultural societies.