TITLE:
Proofs of Long-Distance Relations between Central Europe and Inland Iberian Peninsula during Neolithic and Bronze Age. Evidences from the Material Culture of the Site of El Portalón (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain)
AUTHORS:
Alfonso Alday, Amalia Pérez-Romero, José-Miguel Carretero, María Ángeles Galindo-Pellicena, Gema Adán, Juan-Luis Arsuaga
KEYWORDS:
Bone Industry, Holocene, Atapuerca Mountains, European Contacts, Pottery, Worked Human Bone
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Anthropology,
Vol.5 No.4,
November
18,
2015
ABSTRACT: El Portalón of Cueva Mayor is one of the present-day entrances to the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo karst system located in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). It is an important archaeological site with extended Holocene occupation which has been subjected to a number of excavations since the nineteen seventies. From its significant collection of bone and antler industry, for this work, we have chosen artefacts indicating local production and others evidencing contact between this part of the Iberian Peninsula and other areas of the Mediterranean Basin. Wishing to emphasise this symbiotic relationship, we have likewise presented a special collection of Neolithic Boquique pottery. The data confirm that, far from being occasional, the relationship of the groups living in the area around the Atapuerca Mountains continues unbroken for several cultural episodes.