Sickles and “something more” at the Chalcolithic site of Camino de las Yeseras (Madrid, Spain). How use-wear analysis discovers such new production activities as threshing

  1. Gibaja, Juan F. 1
  2. Castañeda, Nuria 2
  3. Ríos, Patricia 2
  4. Liesau, Corina 2
  5. Ortiz, Irene 3
  1. 1 Institució Milá i Fontanals (IMF-CSIC)
  2. 2 Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01cby8j38

  3. 3 Universidad Complutense de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR 02p0gd045

Mostrar afiliaciones +
Revista:
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

ISSN: 2352-409X

Año de publicación: 2020

Volumen: 31

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.1016/J.JASREP.2020.102342 SCOPUS: 2-s2.0-85083489934 WoS: WOS:000540010200006 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

Resumen

Until recently, few studies have been made of lithic tools from Chalcolithic sites although they comprise a very abundant record in many productive and funerary contexts. However, it is now possible to go deeper into more aspects than merely typological ones. Use-wear analysis provides the possibility of inferring the functionality of certain lithic pieces that, until now, have been interpreted as sickles by applying only typological analysis.This research presents an initial study of 17 blade and leaf-shaped tools documented at the central Iberian site of Camino de las Yeseras (San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain). The sample was recovered in different types of domestic structures -huts, segments of ditched enclosures and different pit features-. Although they are typical of Chalcolithic assemblages, these types of tools have not been systematically studied from a traceological or even technological point of view. The results of this study reveal cereal processing in the site, which is well supported by the presence of millstones, remains of cereal grains, pollen and other phytolithic evidence of vegetal elements like spikes and straw.We have performed a techno-traceological study of a set of blade and leaf-shaped pieces in order to identify their use and try to distinguish tasks connected with farming activities. This research has obtained important results inferring that the leaf-shaped bifacial pieces were not only sickles, but also threshing-board elements. The traces on the tools confirm the implementation of a new farming technology at the site, which would favour a more efficient exploitation of vegetal resources. Indeed, large-scale cereal production would require tools as complex and effective as threshing-boards.In conclusion, it is necessary to emphasize the important role that use-wear analysis can play in research into Chalcolithic lithic technology. In this case, the use-wear results indicate that most of the pieces described typologically as sickles must have been hafted or inserted in some kind of threshing tool. Up to now, only a few Iberian sites are known with threshing tools, and the Camino de las Yeseras results indicate new agricultural technologies in cereal grain exploitation at Chalcolithic Iberian sites.

€ Ver financiación

Información de financiación

Financiadores

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Anderson-Gerfaud, P.C., 1988. Using prehistoric stone tools to harvest cultivated wild cereals: Preliminary observations of traces and impact. In: Beyries, S. (Ed.), Industries Lithiques: Tracéologie et Technologie. British Archaeological Reports 411, pp. 175-195.
  • Anderson-Gerfaud, P.C., 1992. Experimental cultivation, harvest and threshing of wild cereals and their relevance for interpreting the use of Epipaleolithic and Neolithic artefacts. In: Anderson-Gerfaud, P.C. (Ed.), Préhistoire de l’Agriculture: Nouvelles approches expérimentales et ethnographiques. Monographies du CRA, 6. Éditions du CNRS, Paris, pp. 179-210.
  • Anderson-Gerfaud, (2004), J. Mediterranean Archaeol., 17, pp. 87, 10.1558/jmea.17.1.87.56076
  • Anderson-Gerfaud, (1992), Archéologie suisse, 15, pp. 60
  • Anderson-Gerfaud, (2006), J. Archaeol. Sci., 33, pp. 1559, 10.1016/j.jas.2006.02.011
  • Blasco, (2007), Trabajos de Prehistoria, 64, pp. 151
  • Blasco, C., Liesau, C., Delibes, G., Baquedano., E., Rodriguez, M., 2005. Enterramientos campaniformes en ambiente doméstico: el yacimiento de Camino de las Yeseras (San Fernando de Henares, Madrid). In: Rojo, M., Garrido, R., García, I. (Eds.), El campaniforme en la Península Ibérica y su contexto europeo, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, pp. 457-479.
  • Blasco, (2008), Veleia, 24–25, pp. 755
  • Blasco, C., Liesau, C., Ríos, P. (Eds.), 2011. Yacimientos calcolíticos con Campaniforme de la Región de Madrid. Nuevos estudios. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Patrimonio Arqueológico de Madrid, 9.
  • Bustillo, Mª. Á., Castañeda, N., Capote, M., Consuegra, S., Criado, C., Díaz-Del-Río, P., Orozco, T., Pérez-Jiménez, J.L., Terradas, X., 2009. Is the Macroscopic Classification of Flint Useful? A Petroarchaeological Analysis and Characterization of Flint Raw Materials from the Iberian Neolithic Mine of Casa Montero. Archaeometry 51 (2): 175-196.
  • Cardoso, (2019), Trabajos de Prehistoria, 76, pp. 357, 10.3989/tp.2019.12243
  • Castañeda, N., 2018. The Swansong of knapping. Chalcolithic and Bronze Age lithic industries in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula. In: Cruz, A., Gibaja, J.F. (Eds.), Interchange in Pre- and Protohistory. Case Studies in Iberia, Romania, Turkey and Israel. British Archaeological Reports, 2891, pp. 145-158.
  • Clemente, (1997)
  • Clemente, (2014), Trabajos de Prehistoria, 71, pp. 330, 10.3989/tp.2014.12137
  • Clop, (2001), Bolskan, 18, pp. 311
  • Díaz del Río, P., Gibaja, J.F., Castañeda, N., 2014. Tecnología y funcionalidad del cuchillo calcolítico de la cabaña de “El Capricho” (Barajas, Madrid). Actas de las novenas jornadas de Patrimonio arqueológico en la Comunidad de Madrid, pp. 367–371.
  • Escobar, (2011), pp. 347
  • Esteve, (2015), Revista d’Arqueologia de Ponent, 25, pp. 137
  • Gassin, (1996)
  • Gibaja, (1999), Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina, 23, pp. 197
  • Gibaja, J.F., 2002. Análisis funcional del registro lítico de Fuente Álamo (Almería). In: Risch, R. (Ed.), Recursos naturales, medios de producción y explotación social. Un análisis económico de la industria lítica de Fuente Álamo (Almería) 2250-1400 ANE. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, pp. 163-177.
  • Gibaja, J.F., 2003. Comunidades Neolíticas del Noreste de la Península ibérica. Una aproximación socio-económica a partir del estudio de la función de los útiles líticos. British Archaeological Reports, S1140. Oxford: Bar Publishing.
  • Gibaja, (2004), Cypsela, 15, pp. 187
  • Gibaja, J.F., Crespo, M., Delibes, G., Fernández, J., Fraile, C., Herrán, J.I., Palomo, A., Rodríguez, J.A., 2012. El uso de trillos durante la edad del cobre en la meseta española. análisis traceológico de una colección de denticulados de sílex procedentes del “recinto de fosos” de El Casetón de la Era (Villalba de los Alcores, Valladolid). Trabajos de Prehistoria 69 (1): 139-148.
  • González, (1994)
  • Gurova, (2001), Archaeologia Bulgarica, 5, pp. 1
  • Gurova, M., Chabot, J., 2007. Typologie, fonction, traces d’usure et contexte: où est le juste milieu? Exemples de Bulgarie, de Troie et de Mésopotamie septentrionale. In: Bain, A., Chabot, J., Moussette, M. (Eds.), La mesure du passé: contributions à la recherche en archéométrie (2000-2006), Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1700, pp. 75-87.
  • Ibáñez, (1993)
  • Ibáñez J.J., González J.E., Gibaja J.F., Rodríguez A., Márquez B., Gassin B., Clemente I., 2008. Harvesting in the Neolithic: characteristics and spread of early agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula. In: Longo, L., Skakun, N. (Eds.), Prehistoric Technology 40 Years Later: Functional Analysis and the Russian Legacy, Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1783, pp. 183–95.
  • Juel Jensen, (1994)
  • Keeley, (1980)
  • Korobkova, G.F., 1992. Les cycles de l’économie agricole (d’après l’outillage): Résultats des analyses expérimentales et tracéologiques. In: Anderson-Gerfaud, P.C. (Ed.), Préhistoire de l’Agriculture: Nouvelles approches expérimentales et ethnographiques. Monographies du CRA, 6. Editions du CNRS, Paris, pp. 271-280.
  • Liesau, C.; Blasco, C.; Ríos, P.; Vega, J.; Menduiña, R.; Blanco, J. F.; Baena, J.; Herrera, T.; Petri, A. y Gómez, J. L. (2008): “Un espacio compartido por vivos y muertos: El poblado calcolítico de fosos de Camino de las Yeseras (San Fernando de Henares, Madrid)”, Complutum, vol 18.1, 97-120.
  • Liesau, C., 2017. Campaniforme y Ciempozuelos en la Región de Madrid. In: Gonçalves, V. (Ed.), Sinos e taças junto ao Oceano e mais longe. Aspectos da presença campaniforme na Peninsula Ibérica. Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, pp. 302-323.
  • Liesau, C., Ríos, P., Aliaga, R., Daza, A., Llorente, L., Blasco, C., 2013. Hut structures from the bell beaker horizon: housing, communal or funerary use in the Camino de las Yeseras site (Madrid). In: Prieto, M.P., Salanova, L. (Eds), Current researches on Bell Beakers. Proceedings of the 15th International Bell Beakers Conference: From Atlantic to Ural. Poio (Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain), pp. 139-151.
  • Mangado, (2016), Journal of Lithic Studies, 4, pp. 67
  • Marín, (2018)
  • Marín, D., Gibaja, J.F., Alonso, N., Ortega, D., Palomo, A., Moya, A., 2017. Chipped stone tools from the Early Bronze Age settlement of Minferri (2100-1650 cal. BC) (Lleida, Spain): Raw materials, technology and activities inferred. In: Brysbaert, A., Gorgues, A. (Eds.), Artisans versus nobility? Multiple Identities of elites and “Commoners” viewed through the Lens of Crafting from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Ages in Europe and the Mediterranean, Sidestone Press, pp. 139-159.
  • Mazzucco, N., 2018. The Human Occupation of the Southern Central Pyrenees in the Sixth-Third Millennia cal BC: a traceological approach to flaked stone assemblages. British Archaeological Reports, 2905. Oxford: Bar Publishing.
  • Morgado, (2012), pp. 219
  • Ortiz, I., Ríos, P., Liesau, L., Arteaga, C., in press. Millstones and other macrolithics, the "eternal forgotten" in Chalcolithic settlements. Camino de las Yeseras (San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain). In: Mancloss, F., Marchand, F., Linda, B., Sylvie, C.N. (Eds.), Proceedings of the XVIII° UISPP Congress, XXXIV Commission Age des Métaux: XXXIV-6. París, 2018.
  • Palomo, (2012), BC. Cypsela, 19, pp. 103
  • Pelegrin, (2006), pp. 39
  • Plisson, H., 1985. Etude fontionnelle d’outillages lithiques préhistoriques par l’analyse des micro-usures: Recherche méthodologique et archéologique. Phd Dissertation, Paris I. Panthéon Sorbonne.
  • Ríos, P., 2011. Territorio y sociedad en la Región de Madrid durante el III milenio A.C. El referente del yacimiento de Camino de las Yeseras. Patrimonio Arqueológico de Madrid, 7.
  • Ríos, (2016), Anejos a CuPAUAM, 2, pp. 73
  • Santonja, (2010), Quat. Int., 223–224, pp. 154, 10.1016/j.quaint.2010.02.010
  • Skakun, N., 1992. Evolution des techniques agricoles in Bulgarie chalcolithique (d’après les analyses tracéologiques). In: Anderson-Gerfaud, P.C. (Ed.), Préhistoire de l’Agriculture: Nouvelles approches expérimentales et ethnographiques. Monographies du CRA, 6. Éditions du CNRS, Paris, pp. 289-303.
  • Torres, (2018), Ecosistemas, 27, pp. 77, 10.7818/ECOS.1440
  • Van Gijn, (1989), Analecta Praehistorica, Leidensia, pp. 22
  • Vaughan, P., 1985. Use-wear analysis of flaked stone tools. Tucson.