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In Iberia, ditched enclosures appeared during the Copper Age (late fourth to third millennium bc). These sites are linked by their circular organization, communal labour investment, and complex temporality, but vary markedly in their distribution, function, and scale. Though archaeological attention has focused on 'mega-sites', an assessment of small-scale enclosures in marginal environments is key to understanding the social dynamics that facilitated their emergence. Here, the authors present results from Los Melgarejos (Getafe, Spain), the first Iberian Chalcolithic enclosure (3 ha) to be extensively documented, with all structures and seven per cent of the enclosure ditches excavated. Bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, isotope analyses (δ13Cco, δ13Cap, δ15N), and radiocarbon dating are employed to compare lived experiences of diet, stress, trauma, and funerary ritual at small- and large-scale enclosures. Comparisons with the mega-site of Marroquíes reveal similarities in lived experience and ritual practice, as well as regional differences in dietary isotopes, highlighting the utility of multiscalar comparisons for understanding prehistoric lifeways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perforated stone plaques, known as bracers, are found across late prehistoric Europe and many of them have been recovered in Bell Beaker funerary contexts, usually associated with adult individuals. Experimental, technological, and use-wear studies have determined that the bracers were both utilitarian and symbolic objects. Very few are found in children's graves, but examples are known in the Iberian Peninsula, two of which are presented here. The analyses conducted on the two bracers, including archaeological contextualization, raw material identification, and technological and use-wear studies, allow the authors to reconstruct their respective biographies. Although these pieces were associated with young children, they had long lives before their final deposition in the graves. Use-wear marks on one of the bracers suggest that it was used in archery, despite its small size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender archaeology approaches to Iberian late prehistory have experienced a significant growth in the last two decades. However, much of the work undertaken has focused on specific aspects of the archaeological record (rock art, burial practices), particularly from the Bronze Age and Iron Age periods for which the evidence is more readily available. In addition, it has tended to be regional or local in scope. Here, we attempt an empirically robust multi-proxy approach to the development of early gender inequalities in Neolithic Iberia. Inspired by Gerda Lerner's ideas on the origins of patriarchy and based on a systematic collection of data analysed by means of significance testing, we present the first comprehensive study of gender dissymmetries in Iberian prehistory. Our conclusions suggest that, first, the multi-proxy method used has potential for the systematic study of gender inequalities on the basis of archaeological data and, second, that the Neolithic witnessed emerging gender inequalities that set the basis for male domination in later periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green objects of personal adornment were quite common among Neolithic and Copper Age groups in Western Europe, and variscite was one of the minerals that was most often used for such a purpose. This article presents the results of a series of archaeological campaigns designed to study the mines of Aliste and the ornament production loci of Quiruelas de Vidriales (both in the province of Zamora, Spain). We discovered that initially, during the fourth millennium calbc, variscite from Aliste was seldom used and the ornaments' production was dispersed, but that there was a significant shift during the third millennium calbc: ornament production intensified and became concentrated in the production sites of Quiruelas. We relate this transformation to the socioeconomic processes that developed in the Iberian Peninsula and the growth of supra-regional socio-technical artefact exchange networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The contrast between monumentalized burials and almost invisible settlements has dominated Neolithic studies in western Europe, reinforcing an artificial divide between ceremonial and economically productive landscapes. By combining a material culture approach with a landscape scale, comparative artefact studies can trace connections between people, places, and social contexts. This paper investigates social networks in Late Neolithic Portugal by examining artefact provenance, biographies, and deposition on the Mondego Plateau. It focuses on three sites and four object categories characteristic of this period. The study reveals great diversity of raw materials, circulation of everyday objects, and regional availability of resources previously thought to be imports. It suggests that people used dispersed resource areas in an integrated way, and that exchange was an integral part of routine life. Evidence for links across the region is not restricted to tombs. Burial assemblages resulted from a complex web of social relations that preceded, accompanied, and followed the actions surrounding death. Understanding these places and fundamental questions about Neolithic social production and reproduction requires reconnecting tombs and settlements into wider lived landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the formation processes at an unparalleled Bronze Age settlement in the Iberian Meseta. The site of El Cerro (Burgos, Spain) presents a series of challenging features: the simultaneous inhumation of three subadults alongside a dwelling quarter and adjacent pits, some of them filled with apparent formality, including such anachronistic elements as Neolithic and Beaker items and several placed deposits, such as a leg of a cow. A critical evaluation of the contextual dataset, a re-fitting operation, and an assessment of the abrasion and size of a ceramic sample were carried out. The archaeological peculiarities of the site are explained as a contextually specific cultural response to a grievous and traumatic episode: the death of three young siblings, which entailed the abandonment of the settlement through prescribed practices. Some depositions are a product of recognizable intentionality, while others are regarded as unintended cumulative outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of its great potential to provide data on contacts and overseas trade, ivory has aroused a great deal of interest since the very start of research into Iberian late prehistory. Research recently undertaken by the German Archaeological Institute in Madrid in collaboration with a number of other institutions has provided valuable contributions to the study of ivory in the Iberian Copper Age and Early Bronze Age. One of the archaeological sites that is contributing the most data for analysing ivory from the Copper Age in southern Iberia is Valencina de la Concepción (Seville), which is currently the focus of several debates on the development of social complexity. This article contributes to this line of research by providing new, unpublished evidence and by examining the significance of ivory craftsmanship in commercial, social, and ideological terms. It also assesses in greater detail the prominent part played by luxury ivory items as an expression of social status and power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From an analysis of over 3,000 beads and pendants from seven contemporary Late Neolithic/Copper Age (3500-2500 BC) sites in the Portuguese Estremadura, two dominant patterns emerge: (1) most beads show a high degree of standardization in terms of size and shape and are made from local materials; and (2) a minority are made from non-local, rare, and visually distinctive materials (e.g.variscite, ivory), and are less standardized and more labour-intensive. The emphasis on a wide-range of materials suggests that uncommon ornaments may have functioned as 'value added' materials with special significance, enhancing potential design combinations. Material preferences for beads, bracelets, pendants, plaques, and ground stone tools (da Veiga Ferreira 1951; Lillios 1997, 2008) appear to mirror other Western Mediterranean raw material preferences for ornaments and other polished stone objects (Goñi Quinteiro et al. 1999; Harrison and Orozco Köhler 2001; Pascual Benito 1998; Skeates 2010; Teruel Berbell 1986) suggesting that the Estremadura participated in aspects of a wider system of shared symbolic values. From an analysis of over 3,000 beads and pendants from seven contemporary Late Neolithic/Copper Age (3500-2500 BC) sites in the Portuguese Estremadura, two dominant patterns emerge: (1) most beads show a high degree of standardization in terms of size and shape and are made from local materials; and (2) a minority are made from non-local, rare, and visually distinctive materials (e.g.variscite, ivory), and are less standardized and more labour-intensive. The emphasis on a wide-range of materials suggests that uncommon ornaments may have functioned as 'value added' materials with special significance, enhancing potential design combinations. Material preferences for beads, bracelets, pendants, plaques, and ground stone tools (da Veiga Ferreira 1951; Lillios 1997, 2008) appear to mirror other Western Mediterranean raw material preferences for ornaments and other polished stone objects (Goñi Quinteiro et al. 1999; Harrison and Orozco Köhler 2001; Pascual Benito 1998; Skeates 2010; Teruel Berbell 1986) suggesting that the Estremadura participated in aspects of a wider system of shared symbolic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]