Past fragments: From ceramics to social practices in later prehistoric Iberia

Abstract

Sunken features backfilled with domestic refuse represent the prevailing depositional context-type in later prehistory worldwide. Despite being so, this evidence remains poorly understood and has only received sporadic attention, chiefly within Anglophone archaeologies. This paper focuses on ceramics from a suite of such intricate contexts (cut features, burials, settlements, barrows) from Iberia in a diachronic and comparative perspective, from the Early Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age (5500–1100 BC). A total of 10,800 potsherds were examined with a taphonomic and refitting protocol attentive to formation dynamics and tracking intentionality. Results suggest that most of the studied assemblages are unplanned by-products of social life. From the earliest pottery-using communities, habitual actions conditioned the eventual preservation of the extant archaeological record. Fragmentation and deposition were key social practices, ultimately representing enduring trans-cultural phenomena. This research challenges uncontested interpretive premises, namely the ‘reflectionist’ standpoint, and disproves consensual and undue concepts frequently used in mainstream accounts of later prehistory.