New data concerning “large blades” in Catalonia: Apt-Forcalquier chert in the Penedès (south of Barcelona) during the Late Neolithic - Chalcolithic

Araceli Martín Colliga,Artur Cebrià Escuer,Cynthia Belén González Olivares,Dioscórides Marín,F Xavier Oms Arias,Javier Mangado Llach,Jean Vaquer,Juan Francisco Gibaja Bao

doi:10.2218/jls.v3i2.1833

Abstract

The study of large chert blades documented in funerary contexts from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in the north-eastern part of Iberia has been addressed in recent works by the authors, in which 49 burial sites have been registered with more than 200 large chert blades. In this paper the recent data obtained from the study of seven archaeological sites located in the region of the Penedès (southwest of Barcelona) is presented.The macroscopic characterization of the knapped stone industries shows their great variety regarding the origin of the siliceous raw material, often coming from outside the analysed region. In some cases their macroscopic features link them to Apt-Forcalquier chert (Haut Provence, France), which was widely distributed in the form of large blades during these phases of Late Catalan prehistory.The absence of evidence of the chaîne opératoire production of this type of foreign chert in the lithic assemblages in Catalonia lead to the supposition that the dispersion of the blades was done as trade items, and only in a few cases were highly complex technological tools of this kind of raw material distributed (e.g., daggers). Use-wear analysis reveals that these blades were not merely luxury items in grave goods. Far from this idea, they have to be considered as functional, even multifunctional, items. All the same, it is thought that they must have had an important value because they moved from the domestic sphere to the graves. In fact, the pieces that usually remain are not small fragments, but whole or almost whole, large blades that normally remain effective.

Highlights

The Middle to Late Neolithic transition in the north-east of Iberia is characterized by mortuary behaviour and cultural changes determined by occupational areas and “luxury” items in grave goods (Daura et al 2015)
The study of large chert blades documented in funerary contexts from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in the north-eastern part of Iberia has been addressed in recent works (Gibaja et al 2004; Gibaja et al 2009; Terradas et al 2005; Terradas et al 2012) in which 49 burial sites have been registered (22 burial caves or rock shelters and 27 megalithic tombs) with more than two hundred large chert blades
The aim of this paper is to present the recent data obtained from the study of seven archaeological sites, defined as burial caves, belonging to the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic, all them, except Cova de l’Avi Figure 1: 7), located in the historical region of the Penedès, in which many “large blades” have been studied

Summary

Introduction

The Middle to Late Neolithic transition in the north-east of Iberia is characterized by mortuary behaviour and cultural changes determined by occupational areas and “luxury” items in grave goods (Daura et al 2015). Cova de la Guineu (734 m ASL), Cova de la Font del Molinot (600 m ASL) and Esquerda de les Roques del Pany (485 m ASL) are located in the high mountains area (Pre-coastal mountains), while Cova Foradada (100 m ASL), Cova del Pantà de Foix (≈100 m ASL) and Avenc de Sant Antoni (113 m ASL) are located near the coastal plain Out of both sets, Cova de l’Avi in the north-eastern part of the Garraf Mountains is located at 523 m ASL, and represents chronologically the earliest site where these cultural changes and mortuary practices have been documented in the north-east of Iberia (Daura et al 2015)

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