Paleoenvironmental Contexts, Technological Innovations, and Agroforestry Practices during the Early Neolithic in Northeast Iberia

The main objective of this research project is to contribute to a better understanding of some subsistence and economical practices developed by the early Neolithic communities in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula. The research will be focused on the consolidation of agroforestry practices and their impact on the environment and landscape, the technological innovations inherent to the development of Neolithic economy, as well as the mobility, territoriality and exchange networks implemented to sustain all these practices. All these aspects will undoubtedly contribute to improving our knowledge of the development of the Neolithic agricultural and livestock-based economy, as well as the mechanisms implemented for its development and growing implantation in the territory. Undoubtedly, these results will provide new data that will help us to better characterize the social organization of the early Neolithic communities. In particular, the project will focus on the analysis of five case studies: La Draga (Banyoles, Girona), Plansallosa (Tortellà, Girona), Coves de Fem (Ulldemolins, Tarragona), the Montvell flint quarries (Castelló de Farfanya, Lleida) and the burial cave of El Pasteral (la Cellera de Ter, Girona). They represent diverse archaeological evidence derived from different models of the Neolithisation process. While La Draga and Plansallosa represent a new open-air permanent and stable occupation for several generations, dating between 5300-4500 BC, Coves del Fem has a long settlement sequence that documents the occupation levels from the late 7th/beginning of the 6th millennium BC to the beginning of the 5th millennium BC (calibrated dates), with clear evidence of hunter-gatherer (Mesolithic) occupations and farming and herding groups, with cardial and epicardial pottery. The quarries of the Montvell site represent a specialised context of the technical process of flint procurementextraction from the last phases of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. Finally, El Pasteral is a burial cave where several individuals were buried from ca5000-.3.000 cal BC. The study of these sites covers the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture (Coves del Fem), and the expansion of the first farmers to new inner areas (La Draga and Plansallosa), showing at the same time the emergence of new pottery traditions (called epicardial); furthermore, the specialised production sites allow the documentation of exchange networks that provide important insights into the socio-economic dynamics of the earliest agricultural societies. The inclusion of a funerary site will allow assessing the impact of subsistence strategies in the human population and analyse social inequalities in relation to gender, age, and status. Finally, the participation in the project of researchers and a work team of specialists in transfer strategies on the Neolithic in public facilities allows the results of the research to be shared with society, integrating them into new transfer narratives.