Prehistoria y Arqueología

Since the XIXth century, documentation has developed around the appearance of large-sized flint blades coming from funerary contexts of the Late Neolithic and the Copper Age of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the relation with the principal flint outcrops was not indicated up to a very recent time (the same can be applied to workshops specialised in blade production of the same period in the south of Spain that we study). In this paper, we will present a synthesis about the principal areas of the Iberian Peninsula where blade production has been documented and the types of raw material exploited there, as well as we will show the fundamental features of the technical process of blade productions in the South which contrasts with other regions as well by its process as by the techniques employed. Also, starting from these data, we will elaborate the first hypothesis about the Iberian Peninsula different specialized blade productions, paying a special attention to the technique characteristics of southern workshops (the sharp butt dihedral preparation). These can suggest that they can be an original innovation, independents from those developed in Eastern Mediterranean, and that this technique began earlier in West Europe than in Eastern Mediterranean.

Castillejos de Montefrío (Granada) is an openair
site located on the South of the Iberian Peninsula. This
settlement is one of the most important sites to understand the
neolithization process and the development of first farming
societies for several millennia. In this paper we present the
results of the use-wear analyses made on a selection of the
flint blades (most of them without retouch) from the Early
Neolithic levels. Our purpose, through the Traceology, is to
recognize some activities developed in the settlement and
provide some information about the site function. The results
obtained show the importance of this kind of tools and reveal
some economical aspects of the first farmers communities
settled down in this region