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Count Vega del Sella’s research marked the beginning of the long tradition of Mesolithic studies in Asturias (North Spain). Another pioneer, L. Sierra, explored a number of caves in Cantabria with Mesolithic shell-middens, but no specific research line was developed on this kind of deposit in the province. The early excavation at Santimamiñe Cave recorded the Basque Country’s first shell-midden, which was thought to belong to a different facies from the deposits in Asturias (Asturian shell-middens). Nevertheless, no line of research into the Mesolithic was developed in that area either. The first research on the Mesolithic in North Iberia did not take place in isolation from European Prehistoric studies at the time. In fact, the historiographical context was characterized by the existence of cordial relationships between the pioneers in this region and several foreign archaeologists. This feedback between Spanish and foreign archaeologists sometimes had a significant impact. In contrast, the relationships between Spanish authors were less intense. This situation and the recurring lack of information on the Mesolithic in Cantabria and the Basque Country did not encourage debate on the existence of different Mesolithic facies in northern Iberia. So for decades the Asturian and the eastern Mesolithic recorded in Cantabria and the Basque Country were regarded as independent objects of study. This indicates the relevance of the scientific relationships and other factors in the perception of the Mesolithic that took shape in the first decades of the twentieth century and which has been perpetuated until the present time.

The introduction and spread of the Neolithic “way of life” in Europe was a process that took several millennia, followed by different rhythms and displayed singularities in each geographic area. It was therefore a very complex phenomenon that, despite highly significant advances in research in recent decades, is yet to be fully understood. To deepen our understanding of the very early stages of the introduction of herding and agriculture throughout the Old Continent, the 1st Conference on the Early Neolithic of Europe was organised in Barcelona on 6–8 November 2019. The conference was a great success with more than 200 participants, creating a stimulating arena to discuss and debate, exclusively, the transition to the Neolithic in Europe. This special issue brings together 52 of the contributions presented in Barcelona, offering an interesting overview of the current state of research across Europe, from the Anatolia to the Algarve, highlighting the geographical, chronological and socioeconomic diversity of the transformation processes involved in the Neolithisation of Europe and providing useful starting points for future research.

Mineralogical and geochemical results derived from analyses of the pottery ensemble documented in the Cave of Los Gitanos (Castro Urdiales, Spain) are presented in this paper. This site contains an archaeological deposit formed in the mid‐fifth millennium cal bc, which has yielded one of the oldest pottery assemblages in northern Spain. The analysis of the pottery remains has focused on both petrographic (thin‐section and XRD) and geochemical characterization (SEM–EDS) of samples selected after a macroscopic study. The mineralogical analysis has revealed procurement of raw materials from different sources, as well as different manufacturing processes. In addition, the petrographic analysis has shown different methods of manufacture, such as pottery tempered with calcite, limestone, ophite (ophitic dolerite) and grog, and fabrics with non‐modified clays. Variations observed between the oldest assemblage (Sub‐levels A4 and A3) and the most recent one (Sub‐level A2) suggest a modification in pottery‐making practices between the fifth and the third millennia cal bc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La investigación de la Prehistoria reciente en la Región cantábrica ha estado supeditada a los avances en el campo de los estudios sobre el Paleolítico. Los grandes conjuntos con arte rupestre orientaron, desde un primer momento, el planteamiento de las actuaciones arqueológicas. Esto ha provocado que la Prehistoria reciente ocupase un papel más modesto en el ámbito de la investigación arqueológica regional. En este artículo se exponen las principales líneas de investigación en las que se han basado los estudios sobre el material cerámico adscrito al Neolítico en la Región cantábrica. Pretendemos señalar los hitos fundamentales que evidencian las distintas tendencias en la investigación de la cerámica neolítica en relación con las dinámicas y trayectorias a una escala más amplia. Sin embargo, estas tendencias no se enmarcan en un momento temporal concreto, ya que continúan siendo empleadas en la actualidad.

Se presentan los resultados preliminares del proyecto de excavación de la cueva de Linatzeta ( Lastur, Deba, Gipuzkoa). Desde su descubrimiento en 1999, hemos documentado un nivel de ocupación mesolítico y dos niveles sepulcrales. Los resultados obtenidos hasta el momento convierten a este yacimiento en un contexto importante para el estudio de los modos de vida de los últimos cazadores-recolectores en la región.

Desde el momento de su aparición, la cerámica es uno de los elementos más frecuentes en los conjuntos arqueológicos debido, en general, a su buena conservación, lo que la convierte en uno de los materiales más importantes en el estudio de las sociedades durante la Prehistoria Reciente. En este artículo se presenta una visión diacrónica de la cerámica en la actual provincia de Cantabria desde su aparición (V milenio cal BC) hasta el momento en el que finaliza lo que tradicionalmente se ha considerado como Prehistoria (siglo I cal BC). Se señalan las características tecnológicas, morfológicas y decorativas, resaltando aquellos rasgos comunes de los conjuntos cerámicos documentados durante este intervalo cronológico.

Rationale: Alkylresorcinols (AR) are cereal-specific biomarkers and have recently been found in archaeological pots. However, their low concentrations and high susceptibility to degradation make them difficult to detect using conventional gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Here we describe the development of a more sensitive liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) method to detect these compounds., Method: A method based on the use of ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to an Orbitrap mass analyser was established and validated for the detection of low-concentration ARs in pottery. During the preliminary experiments, UHPLC-Q/Orbitrap MS (ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/Orbitrap mass spectrometry) was demonstrated to be more sensitive, and a wide range of AR homologues in cereal extracts were detected, unlike UHPLC-QTOFMS (ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry) and GC/MS. The developed method was utilised to profile AR homologue distribution in modern cereal samples and reanalyse AR-containing pots from the archaeological site of Must Farm., Results: A highly sensitive LC/MS method with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.02 μg/g and a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.06 μg/g was used to profile ARs in five modern cereal grains. The obtained LOD is 250 times lower than that obtained using the conventional GC/MS approach. AR 21:0 was the most abundant homologue in all four Triticum spp.-einkorn, emmer, Khorasan wheat and common wheat. Meanwhile, AR 25:0 was the predominant homologue in barley, potentially enabling differentiation between wheat and barley. The developed LC/MS-based method was successfully used to analyse ARs extracted from Must Farm potsherds and identified the cereal species most likely processed in the pots-emmer wheat., Conclusion: The described method offers an alternative and more sensitive approach for detecting and identifying ARs in ancient pottery. It has been successfully utilised to detect AR homologues in archaeological samples and discriminate which cereal species-wheat and barley-were processed in the pots., (© 2024 The Authors. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The Iberian Peninsula is a key region for unraveling human settlement histories of Eurasia during the period spanning the decline of Neandertals and the emergence of anatomically modern humans (AMH). There is no evidence of human occupation in central Iberia after the disappearance of Neandertals ~42,000 years ago until approximately 26,000 years ago, rendering the region "nobody's land" during the Aurignacian period. The Abrigo de la Malia provides irrefutable evidence of human settlements dating back to 36,200 to 31,760 calibrated years before the present (cal B.P.) This site also records additional levels of occupation around 32,420 to 26,260 cal B.P., suggesting repeated settlement of this territory. Our multiproxy examination identifies a change in climate trending toward colder and more arid conditions. However, this climatic deterioration does not appear to have affected AMH subsistence strategies or their capacity to inhabit this region. These findings reveal the ability of AMH groups to colonize regions hitherto considered uninhabitable, reopening the debate on early Upper Paleolithic population dynamics of southwestern Europe.

Plant material culture can offer unique insights into the ways of life of prehistoric societies; however, its perishable nature has prevented a thorough understanding of its diverse and complex uses. Sites with exceptional preservation of organic materials provide a unique opportunity for further research. The burial site of Cueva de los Murciélagos in southern Iberia, uncovered during 19th-century mining activities, contained the best-preserved hunter-gatherer basketry in southern Europe, together with other unique organic artifacts associated with the first farming communities, such as sandals and a wooden hammer. We present 14 14 C dates for the perishable artifacts ( N = 76), situating the assemblage between the Early and Middle Holocene (c. 7500 to 4200 cal BCE). Our integrated analysis includes raw material determination and technological and chrono-cultural contextualization of this unique and important set of materials.

This paper presents novel insights into the archaeology of food in ancient South Asia by using lipid residue analysis to investigate what kinds of foodstuffs were used in ceramic vessels by populations of the Indus Civilisation in northwest India. It examines how vessels were used in urban and rural Indus settlements during the Mature Harappan period ( c .2600/2500-1900 BC), the relationship between vessels and the products within them, and identifies whether changes in vessel use occurred from the Mature Harappan to Late Harappan periods, particularly during climatic instability after 4.2 ka BP ( c .2100 BC). Despite low lipid concentrations, which highlight challenges with conducting residue analysis in arid, seasonally-wet and alkaline environments, 71% of the vessels yielded appreciable quantities of lipid. Lipid profiles revealed the use of animal fats in vessels, and contradictory to faunal evidence, a dominance of non-ruminant fats, with limited evidence of dairy processing. The absence of local modern reference fats makes this dataset challenging to interpret, and it is possible that plant products or mixtures of plant and animal products have led to ambiguous fatty acid-specific isotopic values. At the same time, it appears that urban and rural populations processed similar types of products in vessels, with limited evidence for change in vessel use from the urban to the post-urban period. This study is a systematic investigation into pot lipid residues from multiple sites, demonstrating the potential of the method for examining ancient Indus foodways and the need for the development of further research in ancient organic residues in South Asia., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2020 The Authors.)

The introduction of farming had far-reaching impacts on health, social structure and demography. Although the spread of domesticated plants and animals has been extensively tracked, it is unclear how these nascent economies developed within different environmental and cultural settings. Using molecular and isotopic analysis of lipids from pottery, here we investigate the foods prepared by the earliest farming communities of the European Atlantic seaboard. Surprisingly, we find an absence of aquatic foods, including in ceramics from coastal sites, except in the Western Baltic where this tradition continued from indigenous ceramic using hunter-gatherer-fishers. The frequency of dairy products in pottery increased as farming was progressively introduced along a northerly latitudinal gradient. This finding implies that early farming communities needed time to adapt their economic practices before expanding into more northerly areas. Latitudinal differences in the scale of dairy production might also have influenced the evolution of adult lactase persistence across Europe.

The pressures on honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations, resulting from threats by modern pesticides, parasites, predators and diseases, have raised awareness of the economic importance and critical role this insect plays in agricultural societies across the globe. However, the association of humans with A. mellifera predates post-industrial-revolution agriculture, as evidenced by the widespread presence of ancient Egyptian bee iconography dating to the Old Kingdom (approximately 2400 BC). There are also indications of Stone Age people harvesting bee products; for example, honey hunting is interpreted from rock art in a prehistoric Holocene context and a beeswax find in a pre-agriculturalist site. However, when and where the regular association of A. mellifera with agriculturalists emerged is unknown. One of the major products of A. mellifera is beeswax, which is composed of a complex suite of lipids including n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters. The composition is highly constant as it is determined genetically through the insect's biochemistry. Thus, the chemical 'fingerprint' of beeswax provides a reliable basis for detecting this commodity in organic residues preserved at archaeological sites, which we now use to trace the exploitation by humans of A. mellifera temporally and spatially. Here we present secure identifications of beeswax in lipid residues preserved in pottery vessels of Neolithic Old World farmers. The geographical range of bee product exploitation is traced in Neolithic Europe, the Near East and North Africa, providing the palaeoecological range of honeybees during prehistory. Temporally, we demonstrate that bee products were exploited continuously, and probably extensively in some regions, at least from the seventh millennium cal BC, likely fulfilling a variety of technological and cultural functions. The close association of A. mellifera with Neolithic farming communities dates to the early onset of agriculture and may provide evidence for the beginnings of a domestication process.

A group of 20 children was assessed for possible effects at school age of prenatal exposure to methadone. Compared to a control group of 20 nonexposed children on measures of cognitive, social, and emotional development, and of achievement, no significant differences were found on cognitive tests, although methadone exposure was associated with lower IQ scores. Methadone-exposed children exhibited greater anxiety, aggression, and rejection than did those in the control group, and their mothers reported more behavior problems.