New productive processes: domestication of plants and animals

The transition from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural-livestock societies is con-sidered to be one of the most far-reaching socio-economic changes in history. The Neo-lithic period was marked by the domestication of plants and animals, as well as various technological advances, such as the production of ceramic containers. In order to un-derstand the origins of the Neolithic period in the Iberian Peninsula, it is especially im-portant to know how and when these new production processes were carried out.

In the Iberian Peninsula and the central and eastern Mediterranean (Colledge and Conolly 2007), unlike in other European areas, agriculture is characterised by a great diversity of crops. Among the cereals documented are two species of dressed wheat, the spelt (Triticum monococcum) and the spelt (Triticum dioccocum); two species of bare wheat, durum wheat (Triticum durum) and flour wheat (Triticum aestivum); two varie-ties of barley, dressed barley (Hordeum vulgare) and naked barley (Hordeum vulgare

38

nudum), and five legumes, pea (Pisum sativum), lentil (Lens culinaris), broad bean (Vicia faba), (Vicia ervilia) and titarro (Lathyrus sativus). The presence of linen (Linum usitatis-simum) and opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is also documented. This evidence con-trasts sharply with other areas, such as the LBK fields in Central Europe, where agricul-ture is limited to the cultivation of two species of dressed wheat (Triticum monococcum and T. diococcum), two leguminous plants (Pisum sativum - pea - and Lens culinaris - lentil -), and flax (Lunim usitatissimin) (Kreuz 2007).

The diffusion of agriculture on a Mediterranean scale was a rapid process documented in the Iberian Peninsula from c. 5600-5500 cal BC, even in inland peninsular areas such as the Pyrenees or the Meseta. The remains of seeds cultivated with older radiocarbon dating are located in the eastern peninsular area around 5600 cal BC, in Mas d'Is (5617-5485 cal BC) (Bernabeu et al. 2014), Cova de l'Or and Cova de les Cendres (Bernabeu and Molina 2011). These identified remains include cereals, including dressed wheat, leg-umes and some wild fruits (Buxó 1993). In Can Sadurní (Buxó 2007) and La Draga (Antolín and Buxó 2010) the presence of bare wheat also stands out in the oldest phases of the Neolithic. Legumes are documented in these early Neolithic phases in the sites of the eastern peninsular (Pérez Jordà 2005) and also in sites in the northeast, such as La Draga, Plansallosa or Cova 120 (Buxó et al. 2000), as well as in the Pyrenean context in Balma Margineda (Marinval 1995).

In Andalusia the data on the beginnings of agriculture are scarce. The presence of bare wheat, bare barley and legumes is documented in Cueva de El Toro, Cueva de Nerja, Cueva de los Murciélagos de Zuheros, Cueva de los Mármoles and Los Castillejos (Rovira Llorens et al. 2008)(Buxó 1997, Peña Chocarro 1999).

The information from the interior of the peninsula is very limited, and the predominance of domestic species varies according to the region. Bare wheat is found in the Cueva de La Vaquera site (Estremera 2003), consistent with the results obtained in the Mediter-ranean strip, while in La Lámpara, La Revilla and Cascajos bare wheat and barley domi-nate (Zapata et al. 2004)(Peña Chocarro et al. 2005).

39

For the northern peninsular sites, barley and spelt are documented in the Pico Ramos, Kobaederra and Lumentxa sites (Zapata 2007), while in El Mirón bare wheat predomi-nates over clothing (Peña Chocarro et al. 2005).

The collection of wild plants is well documented during the Neolithic period of the Ibe-rian Peninsula (Buxó 1997, Zapata 2000), although the relative proportions of these re-sources in the human diet are very difficult to estimate. The appearance of remains of wild fruits and plants in excavations shows that after the adoption of agriculture, they continue to be an important resource, possibly as a complement to cultivated products and as a solution in the event of bad harvests or periods of famine (Buxó, 2007). With these data, it seems that at the beginning of the Ancient Neolithic, cereal cultivation was fully developed in some sites of the Iberian Peninsula (Buxó 1997).

With regard to livestock, archaeozoological studies face the challenge of recognising do-mestic forms. Archaeological work carried out in recent years and the increase in radio-carbon dating of domestic fauna remains at sites in the Iberian Peninsula have docu-mented the presence of the four main domestic animal species at the beginning of the Neolithic period (5600 cal BC): Ovis aries, Capra hircus, Bos taurus and Sus domesticus (Saña 2013). The practice of hunting activities is reduced with the introduction of do-mestic species, representing a relative frequency of 30% at peninsular level (Saña 2013).

However, the sites dated in this period have exceptions in the north of the peninsula.

There are numerous sites located on the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula that have a low percentage of domestic species among the remains of fauna, such as Los Husos (37.8%), Arenaza (21%) (Altuna 1980), Marizulo (1%) (Altuna 1972) and Herriko Barra (1%) (Mariezkurrena and Altuna 1995). The wild species represented in the faunal groups of these sites are mainly deer, roe deer and wild boar.

When we move to the Ebro valley, a significant variability is documented. While in Chaves and La Puyascada ovicaprinos predominate (62%) (Sierra et al. 2019)(Castaños 2004), in La Renke bovids are the predominant species of a group practically represented by domestic species (99%) (Altuna 2001).

40

In the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, the percentage of recovered domestic fauna does not fall in the majority of sites of 90%. In the La Draga site, the group is character-ised by a certain balance between ovicaprine, suidae and bovine animals (Navarrete and Saña 2014), while in Cova del Frare ovicaprine animals predominate (Saña et al. 2015).

Among the wild species, deer and wild boar stand out. In the plain area of Barcelona, ovicaprinos predominate in the Caserna de Sant Pau faunal complexes (Colominas et al.

2008), while bovids are predominant in the Reina Amàlia site (Saña and Navarrete 2016).

In eastern Valencia, sheep are the predominant domestic species above goats, as in Cova de l'Or and Cova de la Sarsa (Pérez-Ripoll 1977). On the other hand, sites are still docu-mented with a fairly high percentage of wild animals represented, such as in Cova de les Cendres (55%) (Iborra and Martínez 2009) and Cova de les Bruixes (70%) (Mesado 2005).

For the south of the Iberian Peninsula the available data are relatively scarce, we find one of the oldest dates for this region in domestic animal bone from the Cave of Nerja (Martins et al. 2015), or the large number of ovicaprine remains recorded in the Cueva de El Toro faunal complex (Martin-Socas et al. 2004). In general, the data obtained for this region show an oscillation between 60% and 90% of the wild fauna over the domes-tic fauna (Saña 2013).

The representative variability of the different domestic species and the remnants of hunting activities in the study region are the result of different management strategies for domestic animals in the Iberian Peninsula. Although there are differences between the different territories, there is generally a rapid and not always gradual adoption of domestic species (Saña 2013).

Animal domestication also led to the exploitation of live animals, such as labour force, dairy farming, excrement or animal fibres. Milk production has been extensively docu-mented indirectly from evidence of mortality profiles of domestic ruminants (Halstead 1998), representing about 80% of the sites studied, such as in Ftelia (Greece), Araguina-Sennola (Corsica), Grotte Lombard or Baume de Fontbrégoua (France) (Spiteri et al.

41

2016). In the Iberian Peninsula this exploitation is documented during the Ancient Neo-lithic in sites such as La Draga (Saña 2011, Gillis et al. 2014), Chaves (Sierra et al. 2019), La Puyascada (Sierra et al. 2019), Cueva de El Trocs (Rojo Guerra et al. 2013), Coro Trasito (Viñerta 2015, Antolín et al. 2017), Caserna de Sant Pau (Saña and Navarrete 2016), Reina Amàlia (Saña and Navarrete 2016), Can Sadurní (Saña et al. 2015) and Cueva de El Toro (Martin-Socas et al. 2004). These data highlight the importance of this exploitation in the communities of the Ancient Neolithic throughout the region of the Iberian Penin-sula.