Artefactos macrolíticos y fuerzas productivas de los asentamientos calcolíticos del sur de la Península Ibérica

Any approach to the economic organization of a society depends on our knowledge of the productive forces and relations of production. In archaeology, this line of research requires the analysis of the technical quality and quantity of the means of production, as well as their spatial distribution and association with other social materialities. From the Neolithic period until the end of Prehistory, macrolithic artifacts represent the means of production that take part in many productive processes carried out by past communities. Moreover, their preservation and ubiquity in the archaeological record tends to be greater than that of other material assemblages, such as ceramics or bones.

This article will attempt to utilize the aforementioned macrolithic data in order to more comprehensively understand the economical organization of the communities in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula between c. 3100-2200 cal BCE. This exploratory approach, the first of its kind, is an attempt of reviewing if the different forms of occupation of the Chalcolithic, such as ditched enclosures, fortified hilltop sites, and open settlements are distinguished by specific modes of production. For this objective, the focus will be, above all, on the technical aspects, conservation, volume, and density of macrolithic and knapped artifacts registered in all the sites that offer this type of information thus far. This will lead to an assessment of the importance of cereal production concerning the size of the Chalcolithic settlements.

The study describes the productive forces of the Chalcolithic settlements as highly variable, both in the type of productive tasks performed as well as their intensity; without such variability being explained by aspects like geographic location, form of occupation, or monumentality. Despite most productive activities being considered prevalent in these sites, the frequency and intensity instead seems to have depended on factors specific to each site, such as the duration of their occupation and the size of the communities (work force).