MOBILITY PATTERNS IN EASTERN IBERIAN MESOLITHIC  THE LITHIC INDUSTRY AS A PROXY
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 05/10/2020

Tracing hunter-gatherers’ mobility has been a recurring topic both in anthropological and archaeological literature. Following Binford’s approach (1980), ethnographic comparisons have been brought out in order to better understand mobility patterns amongst Paleolithic and Mesolithic groups, and how they relate with their environment, thus formulating a system where a main difference in mobility structure is pronounced on the distinction between residential and logistical camps. Furthermore, and after Dibble’s (1984, 1987) reformulation of the concept of retouch and how it affects our perception and interpretation of lithic assemblages, some efforts have been made in order to relate the lithic record, its constraints, contributions, and characteristic signatures with the aforementioned mobility models (Clark and Barton, 2016). In this communication we continue to explore how lithic industry can be a reliable proxy for understanding the mobility patterns of the last hunter-gatherers of the Eastern Iberian Peninsula. By studying a number of Mesolithic lithic collections of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, and the Low Aragón region, such as Cocina Cave, Benàmer, Costalena or Botiqueria dels Moros, among others, we try to bring a new insight into Clark and Barton’s analysis, both by combining different sites -thus implementing geographical variability- and by taking into account functionality and its possible statistical traces, as shown by blades, bladelets and geometric microliths. We focus on the differences found at each site, according to different proxies, and how they relate with lithic industry in order to establish some “safe ground” mobility patterns for this concrete chronological and geographical environment.

Author(s): Cortell-Nicolau, Alfredo - García-Puchol, Oreto (PREMEDOC Research Group, Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Història Antiga, Universitat de València) - Barton, C. Michael (School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University) - Diez-Castillo, Agustín (GRAM Research Group, Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Història Antiga, Universitat de València) - Pardo-Gordó, Salvador (GRAMPO Research Group, Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)