Reviewing the Neolithisation phenomenon in the Lower Aragón region in the light of the excavation in the rock shelter of Valmayor xi (Mequinenza, Zaragoza)

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary results of the excavation of the Valmayor XI rock shelter, in the context of the research project ‘The pathways of the Neolithic’. Through the analysis of the radiocarbon dates and a detailed stratigraphic interpretation three occupations have been established with chronologies within different periods of the vith millennium cal bc. A general description of the archaeological events documented in each phase, and of most of the recovered material –pottery, lithic artefacts, bone industry and ornaments, faunal and carpological remains– is offered. Moreover, in the light of the new dates presented, a review of the Neolithisation process in the Lower Aragón region, and also in the Ebro valley, is proposed. Also the identification of archaeological sites as Neolithic ones only on the basis of the presence of some elements considered as ‘Neolithic markers’, without any consideration of the subsistence strategies or territorial exploitation, is questioned.

Keywords

• mesolítico
• neolítico antiguo
• dataciones radiocarbónicas
• cerámica neolítica
• tecnología lítica