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The archaeometric characterization of a set of potsherds from six Neolithic sites from the Madrid region has allowed the identification of a new and time-persisting regional technological tradition, based on the deliberated addition of crushed bone as temper in most pottery containers. This is the first known case in Iberia, and is outstanding because of its early chronologies and persistence in time: from 5300 to perhaps 3400 cal BC. Samples were characterized by complementary mineralogical and geochemical techniques such as thin-section, conventional and grazing angle X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF). The addition of bone temper created a light and resistant ceramic material, with technological advantages for both the storage and transportation. Such advantages might be linked to mobile or semi-sedentary groups. La caracterización arqueométrica de un conjunto de materiales cerámicos procedentes de 6 yacimientos neolíticos de Madrid ha permitido identificar una nueva tradición tecnológica regional persistente en el tiempo, basada en la adición intencionada de hueso machacado como desgrasante en la mayoría de los recipientes cerámicos. Se trata del primer caso de la Península Ibérica en el que se documenta este tipo de desgrasante en cerámicas de estas cronologías con una continuidad temporal de entre el 5300/5200 hasta posiblemente el 3400 cal AC. Los materiales seleccionados se caracterizaron por técnicas mineralógicas y geoquímicas complementarias como lámina delgada, difracción de rayos X (DRX) convencional y de ángulo rasante, microscopía electrónica de barrido (MEB) y espectrometría de fluorescencia de rayos X (FRX). La adición de hueso produce un material cerámico ligero pero a su vez resistente, con ventajas tecnológicas para recipientes de almacenamiento y/o transporte. Dichas ventajas quizá podrían vincularse a grupos con hábitos móviles o semisedentarios.

We present the first summed calibrated date probability distributions for the later prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. The SCDPD is based on 4402 determination between 8000 and 3000 BP, a time range beginning in the regional late Mesolithic and running through the Bronze Age. This period is known to see the first introduction of farming at the beginning of the Neolithic, the development of the first large population aggregations during the Copper Age and the subsequent abrupt transition to the substantially diverse Iberian Bronze Age ‘cultures’. The results conform to an exponential model for demographic growth, with a slight “boom and bust” episode between 5300 and 5150 cal BC, some 300 years after the first dated evidence for agriculture in Iberia. The evidence suggest that if migrants from outside Iberia were involved in the introduction of domesticates, this must have happened at a small scale, one not observable through SCDPD. The dating of the observed population “boom” coincides with the decline in frequency of the cardial-impressed and the wide spread of “epicardial” wares throughout the Peninsula. It thus seems reasonable to suppose that these patterns indicate a moderate increase in fertility rates of early farming groups. The SCDPD analysis also suggests that explanatory models for the rise of Copper Age ‘complexity’ or the transition to the Bronze Age should not rely on substantial changes in overall Iberian population densities.