El Mesolítico en la Península Ibérica. Historia crítica de la investigación y estado actual del conocimiento

Resumo

Mesolithic studies have increased significantly in the past decades in the Iberian Peninsula, as archaeological evidence from this period has multiplied. Nevertheless, the information is very fragmented and unstructured, to such an extent that the period lacks clear definition. This thesis has been written in order to provide a systematising, critical, global and specific perspective on the Mesolithic of the Iberian Peninsula, thus far unpublished, to account for the current state of knowledge and contribute to laying the foundations for future research. Specifically, the following objectives have been established: First of all, to analyse how prehistoric archaeology has studied and defined the Epipaleolithic-Mesolithic. For this, an exhaustive and critical analysis was carried out on the bibliography devoted to the time period between the end of the Upper Palaeolithic and the start of the Neolithic in Spain, from the very beginnings of the prehistoric research in the mid-nineteenth century until now. Secondly, this thesis presents the state of the research and current knowledge of the Mesolithic in the different areas of the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain and Portugal), in order to establish common elements and regional differences. The last of the specific objectives is the synthesis of the archaeological information currently available on the Mesolithic in the Iberian Peninsula. In this regard, a database was built for systematically collecting data published from sites considered Mesolithic. Apart from these objectives, given the critical nature of the analysis presented, a cross-sectional study was carried out to delve deep into some problems with definition and archaeological practice. So this thesis contribute not only to understanding what the Mesolithic is, what is known about this period, and the circumstances and causes which explain the state of knowledge of the period at each historical point in time -including the current one- but also to lay the foundations for a more responsible and more accurate approach to the socio-historical processes which occurred during this time period of our past.