Archaeographic and conceptual advances in interpreting Iberian Neolithisation

Abstract

Prehistoric research has evolved, in the last decade, from a mere collaboration of disciplines into a new, trans-disciplinary, approach to Prehistoric contexts. New stable research teams, involving researchers with various scientific backgrounds (geology, botanic, anthropology, history, mathematics, geography, etc.) working together, have learned their diversified "vocabularies" and methodologies. As a main result, a more holistic approach to Prehistory is to be considered. Previous models of the Neolithic on the Atlantic side of Iberia were focused on material culture and strict economics (this being an important improvement concerning previous typological series). Current research became open to discussing the meaning ofconcepts like "food production", "chiefdom" or "territory". It also dropped the "Portuguese/Spanish" frontier that pervaded previous models (to the limited exception of some interpretations for megaliths). Finally, new and important data is now confirming that the "Cardial Neolithic" coastal spread was only one, and a minor element in the Neolithisation of the western seaboard.