Origin and Development of Pressure Blade Production in the Southern Iberian Peninsula (6th–3rd Millennia B.C.)

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to establish the origins and development of pressure knapping during Prehistoric times on the Southern Iberia Peninsula. It presents data on the first evidence of pressure techniques during the transition between the last hunter-gatherers and early Neolithic groups. The Neolithic represents the consolidation of pressure flaking associated with the heat treatment of flint, established for making blades of small dimensions. The development of the Neolithic shows an evolution of the pressure techniques for elongated products. In the 4th millennium B.C., and during the 3rd millennium cal B.C., the skilled production of blades using the pressure lever, and the production of large blades by pressure, had reached its maximum potential and was indicative of social complexity. An examination of the butts of blades from this period shows that each blade had been extracted from a dihedron standing out from the core’s edge. Blade preparation in this manner is an innovation that originated in Western Europe and is independent from those techniques developed in the Eastern Mediterranean.