the oldest agriculture in northern atlantic spain: new

ARTICLE IN PRESSDTD 5

Journal of Archaeological Science -- (2005) ---–---

http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas

The oldest agriculture in northern Atlantic Spain: new evidencefrom El Miron Cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria)

Leonor Pena-Chocarroa, Lydia Zapatab, Maria Jose Iriarteb,Manuel Gonzalez Moralesc, Lawrence Guy Strausd,*

aLaboratorio de Arqueobotanica, Instituto de Historia, CSIC, C/ Duque de Medinaceli 6, 28014 Madrid, SpainbArea de Prehistoria, Universidad del Pais Vasco, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

cInstituto de Prehistoria, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, 39005 Santander, SpaindDepartment of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA

Received 2 November 2004; received in revised form 2 December 2004

Abstract

Emmer wheat (Triticum diccocum) has been positively identified from the stratigraphically oldest ceramic- and domesticated

livestock-bearing level of El Miron Cave in the Cantabrian Cordillera. The grain is AMS 14C-dated to 5550G40 BP. This date iscongruent with six others from the same layer, higher within which were found other grains of wheat, including einkorn as well asemmer. Although wild ungulates (mainly red deer) were still hunted, abundant ovicaprines, together with small numbers of cattle

and pigs, appear in this level-for the first time in the 40,000-year record at El Miron. Potsherds (undecorated, but of very goodquality) also appear abruptly and abundantly. However, the associated lithic assemblage contains specific tool types also found inlate Mesolithic contexts in Cantabrian Spain. In addition to the full suite of Neolithic indicators at El Miron, as confirmed by less

unambiguous early agro-pastoral evidence from other sites in the Vasco-Cantabrian region, there are megalithic monuments both inthe vicinity of the cave and throughout the region that are similarly dated. All these data tend to suggest that Neolithicadaptationsdalready present about a millennium earlier not only along the Mediterranean coast, but also much closer, to thesoutheast of the Cordilleradwere quickly adopted as ‘‘a package’’ by Cantabrian Mesolithic foragers, possibly as a consequence of

social contacts with Neolithic groups in southern France and/or the upper Ebro basin of north-central Spain.� 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Mesolithic; Neolithic; El Miron Cave; Cantabrian Spain; Wheat; Agricultural origins

1. Introduction

Particularly since the synthetic work of Zvelebil andRowley-Conwy [47], there has been considerable interestin and debate about the nature and timing of thetransition from foraging to farming along the Atlanticfacade of western Europe. That synthesis had beenproduced against the backdrop of the influential ‘‘demic

* Corresponding author. Tel.: C1 505 277 6688; fax: C1 505 277

0874.

E-mail address: [email protected] (L.G. Straus).

0305-4403/$ - see front matter � 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2004.12.001

diffusion’’ model of Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza [4–6], which emphasized actual westward human migrationsas the mechanism for the spread of agricultural adapta-tions across Europe. The more complex (‘‘mosaic’’)model favored by Zvelebil and Rowley-Conwy stressedthe active role of extant Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers in resisting and ultimately incorporatingelements of or adopting the complete socio-economicpackage of agro-pastoralism into their lifeways atdiffering rates in the various regions of Atlantic Europe.Coastal Atlantic regions with relatively high densities offorager populations, which seem to have had limitedmobility because of locally rich wild food resources,

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.elseiver.com/locate/jas


2 L. Pena-Chocarro et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science -- (2005) ---–---

present interesting cases for asking by what means, withhow great a time-lag, how fast, to what extent and whyfood production (with its attendant changes in socialorganization and ideology) was ultimately adopted (e.g.,Refs.[12,19,24–29,38,43,44,46]). If coastal Atlantic for-ager populations were so secure in their subsistenceduring the mid-Holocene, how and why did theyultimately (albeit tardily) become incorporated into theworld of Neolithic farmers and herders? In the threedecades since Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza first pro-posed their straightforward migration model for sub-stantial population replacement, alternative models haveproliferated (e.g., subsistence pressure caused by pop-ulation packing and/or encroachment, environmentalchange, forager–farmer symbiosis, competition, warfare,inter-marriage, navigation, trade/exchange, expropria-tion/ raiding, agriculturalist in-filling of ‘‘empty’’ orlightly populated areas, forager acquisition or imitationof high-status goods). Diverse specific process modelscould have been applicable to the many different andfluid ecological situations that existed among thecomplex physical and human geographies of Europeduring the early-mid Holocene. The Cantabrian case,with inlets and small estuaries lined by Mesolithic shell-middens immediately adjacent to a densely wooded,mountainous interior only lightly exploited by hunter-gatherers, is both similar and different from otherexamples of the late adoption of agro-pastoralism andNeolithic technologies along the Atlantic facade (e.g.,southern and central Portugal, Aquitaine, Brittany,Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark) [17,31,32,35]. Itis similar in that diversified foraging systems heavilydependant on marine resource exploitation seem to havehad relatively low mobility and were very late to adoptagriculture or pastoralism relative to the situation in theMediterranean Basin. It is different from other regions,such as Portugal or northwestern continental Europe, inthat the entire region was characterized by Mesolithicadaptations until the abrupt appearance of Neolithictraits which seem to have been adopted rapidly, withoutevidence of continued Mesolithic ‘‘hold-outs’’. It is thediversity of modes and tempos that is now recognizedto characterize the spread of the Neolithic into thewesternmost regions of Europe. While instructive,models developed for Portugal, Denmark, or England,for example, cannot be directly applied to the Canta-brian situation, due to its particular topographic,climatic and edaphic conditions, as well as to its ownregional historical background.

The antiquity and rapidity of the establishment ofagriculture and Neolithic lifeways in eastern andsouthern Spain and southern Portugal are well estab-lished at ca. 6600 BP uncal. (=5500 cal BC) [13,45].Ceramics and food production were quickly adopted bylocal Mesolithic foragers in the interior of Mediterra-nean Iberia, including the upper Ebro basin, by ca. 6500

BP [1,20]. However, the situation was radically differenton the nearby Atlantic side of the Cantabrian Cordil-lera, a humid, equable, and densely forested region,ecologically distinct from the rest of Spain. There iscontroversy about the nature and timing of the adoptionof agriculture and associated changes in technology andsociety in Cantabrian Spain: was ‘‘the Neolithic’’ anintrusive package that abruptly, completely replacedlocal Mesolithic lifeways or were certain aspects of theNeolithic system grafted onto those Mesolithic adapta-tions to produce a kind of hybrid culture in whichforaging was not completely abandoned [10]? Was thetransition to food production a gradually staged processor did all classic aspects of Neolithic culturedincludingthe construction of megalithic monumentsdappearessentially simultaneously [15]? Here we report on thefirst unambiguous case of the early appearance of thefull suite of Neolithic attributesdcereal grain, domesti-cated livestock and well-developed ceramicsdassociatedwith Mesolithic-like stone tools in the context of a large,clearly stratified, carefully excavated and extensively14C-dated site in the northern fore-ranges of theCantabrian Cordillera: El Miron Cave (Ramales de laVictoria, Cantabria, Spain).

2. The Neolithic of El Miron Cave

El Miron is located at ca. 260 m above sea level inthe upper Rıo Ason valley, some 25 km inland of theHolocene shore in eastern Cantabria. Surrounded byCordilleran peaks near or above 1000 m a.s.l., El Mironis strategically situated on historic avenues of commu-nication between coastal Cantabria and both the BasqueCountry and the northern meseta of Old Castile (Fig. 1).On a steep, rocky cliff, the cave is in caprine habitat.However, there are areas of well-watered valley floorbelow the cave that would have been suitable foragriculture. Facing due west, El Miron has a sheltered,dry, sunlit vestibule: 30 m deep by 8 m wide and 13 mhigh (Fig. 2)[33,34,36,37].

Excavations directed by LGS and MGM since 1996have concentrated on two 9 m2 areas in the vestibule,connected by a 8!1 m dogleg trench. All sediments arewater-screened through 2 mm and 4 mm mesh and largesamples are subjected to flotation, with collection in250 mm mesh. The complete culture–stratigraphicsequence spans the period between theMiddle Paleolithicand the Middle Ages, with 54 radiocarbon datesspanning the period between 41,000 BP (uncal.) andAD 1400 (cal). The Neolithic has been found in the outervestibule (‘‘Cabin’’) excavation area and in the adjacentwestern half of the connecting trench. It consists ofa series of clearly defined levels, rich in charcoal and ash,ceramics and animal bones, as well as smaller quantities


3L. Pena-Chocarro et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science -- (2005) ---–---

Fig. 1. Mesolithic and Neolithic sites of Vasco-Cantabrian Spain and the Upper Ebro River basin. Sites mentioned in the text: 14, Marizulo; 15,

Herriko Barra; 19, Arenaza; 20, Pico Ramos; 21, La Trecha; 25, El Miron; 26, Tarreron; 30, Los Canes; 36, Lumentxa; 41, Kobaederra.

of lithic artifacts. In the ‘‘Cabin’’ area the Neolithicsequence (from bottom to top) consists of levels 10, 9 and8-with several lenses and pit fill units. In the Trench, thecorrespondingNeolithic levels are 303.3, 303.2, 303.1 and303 (Fig. 3). Table 1 presents the radiocarbon dates forthe Neolithic levels, which extended from about 4600 toabout 3600 cal. BC.

The find we report here is flotation sample 374 fromgrid squareM5, Level 303.3dthe lowest ceramic-bearinglayer in the Trench. It is a charred grain, morphologicallyidentified (with its characteristic pointed ends andmarked dorsal ridge) by LP-C as Triticum dicoccum:emmer wheat (Fig. 4). The accelerator radiocarbon dateof 5550G40 BP was obtained by A. Cherkinsky. At 2s,this date overlaps with the assay done on charcoal fromthe same level. It is stratigraphically coherent with thedates from overlying Levels 303.1 and 303; it alsocoincides closely with the dates from Level 10 in theadjacent Corral area.

The other domesticated seeds identified from Neo-lithic levels in El Miron are a possible, extremelydistorted cereal fragment from Level 8 in the Cabinarea and, from Level 303, one grain each of Triticummonococcum (einkorn wheat) and T. dicoccum (both

hulled species), two that could be either einkorn oremmer (T. monococcum/dicoccum), six grains of free-threshing wheats that cannot be distinguished on thebasis of grains alone between the tetraploid T. durumand the hexaploid T. aestivum, two grains of Triticumsp., plus one whole grain and five fragments ofunidentifiable cereals (and one from Level 303.2).Although present in a few other early Neolithic contextsin the coastal Basque provinces, barley (Hordeumvulgare) is apparently absent at El Miron. Despite thelarge number of samples carpologically analyzed(n=368), seed densities of even wild taxa are generallylow.

Wood charcoal analyses by LZ indicate that theNeolithic occupations took place in mid-Holocene timeswhen luxuriant, mixed, deciduous forest still dominatedlandscapes around El Miron, with especially abundantdeciduous and semi-deciduous oaks (Quercus subg.Quercus), hazels (Corylus avellana), ashes (Fraxinus),wild cherries (Prunus tp. avium) and trees in thePomoideae family, and small numbers of charcoalfragments from a few other taxa, including birch(Betula) and elm (Ulmus), and yew (Taxus baccata).Branches of ash and oaks may have been collected not



Fig. 2. Plan of the Miron Cave vestibule, showing the excavation areas where Neolithic deposits were uncovered: notably the ‘‘Cabin’’ area toward

the outer (western) end of the vestibule and the ‘‘Mid-Vestibule Connecting Trench’’.

only for fuel, but also as ‘‘tree fodder’’ for domesticatedlivestock stabled in the cave. Despite repeated sampling,pollen does not seem to have been preserved in theearliest Neolithic levels in either excavation area. Mid-late Neolithic samples, analyzed by MJI, show highpercentages of arboreal pollen (AP: 88–67%), but withhints of deforestation particularly concerning the maintaxa (Corylus and, to a lesser extent, Quercus). Thepresence of clearings is suggested by pollen of grasses(Poaceae) and Compositae liguliflora. A modest, butgeneral decline in Neolithic forest cover is suggested bypollen spectra at several other bog and archeologicalsites throughout the region-in both coastal and montanesettings. Most relevant is the bog at Los Tornos Pass(920 m a.s.l., 8 km south of El Miron) which has yieldedcereal pollen and evidence of incipient deforestation inthis area at a time contemporaneous with the MironNeolithic [22,23]. Analysis of micro-mammalian remainsby G. Cuenca Bescos also suggests some deforestationand the appearance of humid meadowlands in theMiron vicinity during the mid-late Neolithic [3].

Study of ungulate remains from the Neolithic levelsby J. Altuna and K. Mariezkurrena reveals a striking(albeit not complete) break in faunal composition vis avis the underlying Mesolithic [3]. While Mesolithic Level10.1 in the Cabin area has 100% wild ungulate remains(mainly red deer, plus some roe deer and boar),overlying Neolithic Level 10 has 70% domesticated

ungulates (almost all sheep/goat [Capra hircus/Ovisaries], with traces of cattle and pig). The faunal samplesfrom the earliest Neolithic levels (303.3–303.1) in theconnecting trench have even higher percentages ofdomesticates (97–100%), again dominated heavily byovicaprines (91% of all three total assemblages), alsowith traces of cattle and pig. Red deer is the only wildgame species represented. The later Neolithic levels inthe Cabin (9.8, 9.7, 9.6, 9 and 8) and Trench (303) havebetween 92 and 98% remains of domesticated taxaamong their ungulates, with a distinct increasing trendamong the cattle and, to a lesser extent, the pigs, relativeto the still-dominant ovicaprines. The wild animals aremainly red deer, with traces of ibex and boar. Ataphonomic study by M. Perez Ripoll shows a markeddifference in the human treatment of the bones of wildand domesticated animals, the former being moreheavily processed (presumably for marrow extraction)[3]. The presence of bite marks on many of the Neolithicbones suggests the presence of dog, although its remainshave not been found at El Miron.

These botanical and faunal remains are accompaniedin all the Neolithic levels by abundant ceramic as-semblages. The sherds are undecorated, but thin and ofexcellent quality, fired under high temperatures. Tempermaterials are dominated by quartz and calcite, withsome mica. This is a well-developed technology; theoldest El Miron sherds do not represent initial,



a

Fig. 3. (a) Northern stratigraphic section of the Miron Cave ‘‘Cabin’’ excavation area, showing the Mesolithic (10.1) and earliest Neolithic (10) levels.

(b) Northern stratigraphic section of the Miron Cave Mid-Vestibule Trench, showing the early Neolithic levels (303.3–303).

experimental stages of pottery-making, suggestingthatdlike the domesticated animals and cultigensdceramics were imported into the Cantabrian region andthen were adopted by local Mesolithic foragers.

This scenario is implied by the lithic artifacts from thesuite of Neolithic levels, which include 45 retouchedimplements. Among these are an endscraper, a fewburins, backed blades and backed points, and several

continuously retouched pieces, notches, denticulates andsplintered pieces. In addition, there are a trapeze, threecircle segmentsdone of which has beveled ‘‘Helwan’’retouchdfive backed and one retouched bladelets. Allthese types are found among some of the Mesolithicindustries of the region, with no ceramic (or domesticate)associations-for example at the small, nearby cave ofTarreron, with a radiocarbon date of 5780G120 BP [7].



b

Fig. 3. (continued).

3. Discussion

The cultural and economic situation in the Canta-brian region in the centuries just before and after 5500BP (uncal.=4350 cal. BC) seems to have been complex,but part of the apparent mosaic may be the product of14C dates run on materials of different types (e.g., long-lived versus short-lived plants), by different methods(conventional versus AMS), often with low levels of

precision, by different labs, and at sites with highlydiverse degrees of stratigraphic resolution and pro-venience control. The site of Tarreron (where noarcheobotany was done) has lithics that include suchtranscultural types as Helwan circle segments, but noceramics or domesticated animals; another, HerrikoBarra (an open-air site in coastal Guipuzcoa), hassimilar lithics, no ceramics, only abundant wild animals(92% red deer), but cereal pollen apparently in a context

Table 1

El Miron Cave Neolithic radiocarbon dates

Zone Level Date BP SD GX Lab No. Material Method Calibrated date*

Cabin 8.1 4680 60 22131 Ch AMS 3612–3371 BC

Cabin 9 5170 170 22128 Ch Conv. 4221–3789 BC

Cabin 9 5280 40 24461 Ch AMS 4217–4001 BC

Cabin 9.6 5250 150 24462 Ch Cxcnt. 4318–3945 BC

Cabin 10 5570 50 23414 Ch AMS 4449–4359 BC

Cabin 10 5690 50 23413 Ch AMS 4582–4458 BC

Trench Pit 98a 4910 80 28211 Ch Conv. 3773–3641 BC

Trench 303 5500 90 25854 Ch Conv. 4451–4250 BC

Trench 303.1 5520 70 25855 Ch Conv. 4451–4261 BC

Trench 303.3 5550 40 30910 Grain AMS 4450–4344 BC

Trench 303.3 5790 90 25856 Ch Cxcnt. 4768–4540 BC

Ch, charcoal; AMS, accelerator mass spectrometry; Conv., conventional; Cxcnt., conventional extended count. *CALIB 4.1.2; range at 1s.



dated on bone between 5810G170 and 6010G90 BP[18,21]. Pico Ramos (a small cave in coastal westernVizcaya) has recently yielded a barley grain directlydated by AMS to 5370G40 BP, but with neitherceramics nor domesticated animals [39,40]. Kobaederra(coastal central Vizcaya) also has a barley grain directlydated to 5375G90 BP [41]. The latter cave has a series ofinteresting Neolithic levels; the lowest one yielded thebarley grain associated with a few high-quality combedand digitally impressed ceramics, geometric microliths(including a Helwan segment) and marine molluscs, butit is overlain by other levels with older dates (5630G100and 5820G240 BP) that also include fine ceramics,geometric microliths (including several Helwan seg-ments) and many marine molluscs, as well as domesti-cated ovicaprines [42]. All the Kobaederra dates overlapat 2s and the strata seem to have been disturbed by laterhuman burials. Lumentxa Cave (eastern coastal Viz-caya) has recently produced a barley grain from a leveldated between 5200 and 5000 BP [40]. Marizulo Cave(eastern interior Guipuzcoa) contained a human buriedtogether with a dog and a lamb. Bones from this burialproduced a 14C date of 5285G65 BP [2]. There areremains of another sheep/goat, as well as numerousremains of red deer, boar and roe deer, together withtraces of ibex and chamois and various carnivores. Theassociation of ceramics with the Marizulo burial isunclear. A dog scapula was also found in the underlying

Fig. 4. (a) Photo and (b) drawing of dated Triticum dicoccum from

Miron level 303.3 (scale=1 mm).

‘‘Mesolithic’’ level, which has no other domesticates. Thecave of Arenaza (western interior Vizcaya, ca. 35 kmfrom El Miron and 10 km from Pico Ramos) has a post-Mesolithic level (Icl=IC2) with geometric microliths,undecorated ceramics and two bovine remains classifiedas cattle (Bos taurus) and directly dated to 6040G75 and5755G65 BP, although a third cattle jaw bone,supposedly from the same level, yielded an AMS dateof 10,860G120 BP, while the level in question was itselfdated to 4965G195 BP [11]. Domesticated ovicaprineand pig remains were also identified in this layer. TheArenaza Mesolithic levels contain similar geometricmicroliths, but no ceramics or domesticated animals.Unfortunately the stratigraphy is plagued by uncertain-ties, as is that of the small cave of Los Canes in montaneeastern Asturias [8,10]. At the latter site, which hadthree late Mesolithic burials with geometric microlithsincluding Helwan segments, there is a sherd from anoverlying level that has been dated directly on organictemper to 5865G70 BP (4935–4580 cal BC) [9]. Thissherd is not clearly associated with domesticated plantsor animals. The microlithic industry seems to continueinto the ceramic horizon. Coastal middensdso abun-dant in the early Holocene of the Cantabrian regiondcontinued to be formed by massive human collection ofmolluscs well into the Atlantic period, perhaps contem-poraneously with the first evidence of agriculture in theregion. Some of these late concheros contain a few(probably intrusive) ceramic sherds, but others (e.g., LaTrecha, near Pico Ramos in eastern Cantabria, withdates as recent as 5600–5850 BP and no associateddomesticates [16]) do not.

Human populations in the narrow, but high-reliefregion of Cantabrian Spain underwent a dramatic socio-economic change within a period as short as 300 years inthe mid-Atlantic phase. Individual sites may not tell thewhole story of a society’s subsistence system at anygiven time; essentially ‘‘Neolithic’’ base camps like ElMiron, with the full suite of characteristic economic andtechnological traits, could have been linked to other,special-purpose, ‘‘Mesolithic’’-appearing camps forhunting (like Herriko Barra or Tarreron) or formollusc-gathering (like La Trecha), for example. Alter-nately, the overlap in 14C dates between ‘‘early Neo-lithic’’ and ‘‘late Mesolithic’’ sites could be moreapparent than real, with an abrupt and nearly completeabandonment of foraging in favor of agro-pastoralismas the main basis of subsistence ca. 4600–4300 cal. BC.The suite of finds in El Miron Levels 10/303.3–303 doesprovide clarity in an until-now somewhat confusingpicture of Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in northernAtlantic Spain and they do tend to support a scenariowhereby local foraging groups ultimately, but abruptlyadopted the complete Neolithic ‘‘package’’ after a longperiod of either ignorance of or resistance to the changesthat had for centuries been occurring in the nearby



Mediterranean environments of the upper Ebro andsouthern France. While hunting continued, the funda-mental basis of human subsistence seems to have quicklyshifted to food production, a fact which also rapidlyengendered basic changes in settlement, social organi-zation and belief systems, as attested by the dramaticshift in the kinds of uses to which caves of theCantabrian regiondincluding El Mirondwere put(either for major residence and stabling, or forspecialized burial) in the late Neolithic, Chalcolithicand Bronze Age periods. Of course, since Neolithicresearch (compared with Paleolithic and Mesolithicresearch) is still in its infancy in Cantabrian Spain,further evidence of early agriculture is likely to appear.

It is striking to note in conclusion that very soon afterthe adoption of a food production economy, somehuman groups in the northern Atlantic regions of Spainbegan to construct megalithic monuments. Among thedolmens and other tumuli there are construction-relatedradiocarbon dates going back as far as 5800 BP (4600cal. BC) in both the far western (Asturias) and fareastern (Guipuzcoa) sectors of the Cantabrian region(Monte Areo VI and Larrarte, respectively) [10,14].However, the bulk of the dates fall within the rangebetween 5500 and 5000 BP (4300–3700 cal. BC).Recently, a dolmen (Hayas, on a ridge dominating theAson valley between La Trecha and El Miron) wasexcavated and charcoal from the floor of the centralburial chamber was dated [30]. The resultd5490G120BPdis within 1s of the 14C age of the emmer wheatgrain from El Miron Level 303.3. These facts suggestthat, although the economic change from Mesolithic toNeolithic lifeways was a complex process during theshort period between ca. 5800 and 5500 BP, once humangroups made the change to a heavily agro-pastoral wayof life (with hunting, fishing and gathering as in-creasingly secondary subsistence activities), they ‘‘stakedout’’ their territories, marking them prominently withtheir dead, in costly, visible structures. The process of‘‘domesticating’’ the landscape began very quickly oncethe fundamental shift from foraging to farming hadbeen made by long-time inhabitants of the Cantabrianregion. New uses of the land, involving forest clearance,tillage and pasturage, had begun, as new forms ofrelations between humans and the land, and among thehumans themselves also began to take hold.

Acknowledgements

Financial support for the El Miron PrehistoricProject has been provided by the US National ScienceFoundation, the Fundacion Marcelino Botın, theL.S.B.Leakey Foundation, the National GeographicSociety, the Gobierno de Cantabria, the University ofNew Mexico and the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion.

We gratefully acknowledge the material help of theTown of Ramales and the Universidad de Cantabria, aswell as the extraordinary efforts of our students andcolleagues in excavations and analyses since 1996.Drafting was done by E. Castiglioni (wheat grain), R.Stauber (map and section) and E. Torres (site plan). LP-C worked under a CSIC post-doctoral contract withinthe I3P Program, funded by the European Social Fund.LZ did her research with a post-doctoral grant from theBasque Government (BF101.12). Her analysis and thatof MJI were done within the framework of a ResearchGroup (9/UPV00155.130-14570/2002) at the Universityof the Basque Country.

References

[1] A. Alday, Ceramica neolıtica de la region vasco-riojana, Trabajos

de Prehistoria 60 (2003) 53–80.

[2] J. Altuna, Historia de la Domesticacion Animal en el Paıs Vasco

desde sus Origenes hasta la Romanizacion, Munibe 32 (1980)

1–163.

[3] J. Altuna, G. Cuenca, M. Elorza, J. Garcıa Pimienta, J. Lobo,

K. Mariezkurrena, M. Perez Ripoll, B. Sanchiz, M. Gonzalez

Morales, L. Straus, Post-Pleistocene faunas from the archeolog-

ical site of El Miron Cave: a preliminary summary, in:

E. Baquedano (Ed.), Homenaje al Prof. Dr. Emiliano Aguirre,

vol. 2, Museo Arqueologico Regional, Alcala de Henares, 2004,

pp. 40–49.

[4] A. Ammerman, L. Cavalli-Sforza, Measuring the rate of spread of

early farming in Europe, Man 6 (1971) 674–688.

[5] A. Ammerman, L. Cavalli-Sforza, A population model for the

diffusion of early farming in Europe, in: C. Renfrew (Ed.), The

Explanation of Culture Change, Duckworth, London, 1973, pp.

343–357.

[6] A. Ammerman, L. Cavalli-Sforza, The Neolithic transition and

the genetics of population in Europe, Princeton University Press,

Princeton, NJ, 1984.

[7] J. Apellaniz, El Mesolıtico de la Cueva de Tarreron y su datacion

por el C-14, Munibe 27 (1971) 91–104.

[8] P. Arias, De cazadores a campesinos: La transicion al Neolıtico en

la Region Cantabrica, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander,

1991.

[9] P. Arias, Estrategias economicas de las poblaciones del Epipa-

leolıtico avanzado y el Neolıtico en la Region Cantabrica, in:

A. Moure (Ed.), Elefantes, Ciervos y Ovicaprinos, Universidad de

Cantabria, Santander, 1992, pp. 163–184.

[10] P. Arias, The origins of the Neolithic along the Atlantic coast of

continental Europe, Journal of World Prehistory 13 (1999) 403–

464.

[11] P. Arias, J. Altuna, Nuevas dataciones absolutas para el Neolıtico

de la Cueva de Arenaza, Munibe 51 (1999) 161–171.

[12] F. Bamforth, M. Jackes, D. Lubell, Mesolithic-Neolithic pop-

ulation relationships in Portugal: the evidence from ancient

mitochondrial DNA, in: L. Larsson, H. Kindgren, K. Knutsson,

D. Loeffler, A. Akerlund (Eds.), Mesolithic on the Move, Oxbow

Books, Oxford, 2003, pp. 581–587.

[13] J. Bernabeu, T. Orozco, A. Dıez, M. Gomez, F. Molina, Mas d’Is

(Penaguila, Alicante): aldeas y recintos monumentales del Neo-

lıtico inicial en el Valle del Serpis, Trabajos de Prehistoria 60

(2003) 39–59.

[14] M. de Blas Cortina, Megalitos en la region cantabrica: una vision

de conjunto, in: A. Rodrıguez Casal (Ed.), O Neolıtico Atlantico



E as Orixes do Megalitismo, Universidade de Santiago de

Compostela, Santiago, 1997, pp. 311–334.

[15] M. Gonzalez Morales, Mesolıticos y megalıticos: la evidencia

arqueologica de los cambios en las formas productivas en el paso

al megalıtico en la Costa Cantabrica, in: A. Moure (Ed.),

Elefantes, Ciervos y Ovicaprinos, Universidad de Cantabria,

Santander, 1992, pp. 185–202.

[16] M. Gonzalez Morales, La transicion al Holoceno en la Region

Cantabrica, in: V. Villaverde (Ed.), Los Ultimos Cazadores,

Instituto de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert, Alicante, 1995, pp. 63–78.

[17] M. Gonzalez Morales, L. Straus, A. Diez, J. Ruiz, Postglacial

coast and inland: the Epipaleolithic-Mesolithic-Neolithic transi-

tions in the Vasco-Cantabrian region, Munibe 56 (2004) 61–78.

[18] M. Iriarte, J. Mujika, A. Tarrino, Caracterisation industrielle et

economique des premiers producteurs sur le littoral Basque,

Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique Francaise, 2005, in press.

[19] M. Jackes, D. Lubell, Human skeletal biology and the Mesolithic-

Neolithic transition in Portugal, in: A. Thevenin (Ed.), L’Europe

Des Derniers Chasseurs, CTHS, Paris, 1999, pp. 59–64.

[20] M. Kunst, M. Rojo, El valle de Ambrona: un ejemplo de la

primera colonizacion neolıtica de las tierras del interior peninsu-

lar, Saguntum Extra 2 (1999) 259–270.

[21] K. Mariezkurrena, J. Altuna, Fauna de mamıferos del yacimiento

costero de Herriko Barra, Munibe 47 (1995) 23–32.

[22] C. Munoz, Cambio climatico y dinamico del paisaje en las

Montanas del Noroeste de la Penınsula Iberica. Doctoral

dissertation, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2001.

[23] M. Penalba, Dynamique de vegetation tardiglaciaire et Holocene

du Centre-Nord de l’Espagne d’apres l’Analyse Pollinique.

Doctoral dissertation, Universite d’Aix-Marseille, 1989.

[24] T.D. Price, Complex foragers in southern Scandinavia, in:

T.D. Price, J. Brown (Eds.), Prehistoric Hunter-gatherers,

Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1985, pp. 341–363.

[25] T.D. Price, The introduction of farming in northern Europe, in:

T.D. Price (Ed.), Europe’s First Farmers, Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 260–300.

[26] T.D. Price, A. Gebauer, The final frontier: foragers to farmers in

southern Scandinavia, in: A. Gebauer, T.D. Price (Eds.),

Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory, University of Wisconsin

Press, Madison, WI, 1992, pp. 97–115.

[27] P. Rowley-Conwy, The laziness of the short-distance hunter: the

origin of agriculture in western Denmark, Journal of Anthropo-

logical Archaeology 3 (1984) 300–324.

[28] P. Rowley-Conwy, How the West was lost: a reconsideration of

agricultural origins in Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia,

Current Anthropology 45 (2004) S83–S113.

[29] R. Schulting, M. Richards, Dating women and becoming farmers:

new palaeodietary and AMS data from the Breton Mesolithic

cemetaries of Teviec and Hoedic, Journal of Anthropological

Archaeology 20 (2001) 314–344.

[30] M. Serna, Ocupacion megalıtica y proceso de neolitizacion en la

Cornisa Cantabrica, in: A. Rodrıguez Casal (Ed.), O Neolıtico

Atlantico e as Orixes do Megalitismo, Universidade de Santiago

de Compostela, Santiago, 1997, pp. 353–368.

[31] L.G. Straus, Transitions: into and out of ‘‘Mesolithic’’ adapta-

tions along the Atlantic facade of Europe and beyond, in: M.

Gonzalez Morales, G.A. Clark (Eds.), The Mesolithic of the

Atlantic facade, Anthropological Research Papers, Tempe, AZ,

2004, in press.

[32] L.G. Straus, The Mesolithic of Atlantic Iberia, in: G.N. Bailey, P.

Spikins (Eds.), Mesolithic Europe, Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge, 2005, in press.

[33] L. Straus, M. Gonzalez Morales, W. Farrand, W. Hubbard,

Sedimentological and stratigraphic observations in El Miron,

Geoarchaeology 16 (2001) 603–630.

[34] L. Straus, M. Gonzalez Morales, M. Fano, M. Garcıa-Gelabert,

Last Glacial human settlement in eastern Cantabria, Journal of

Archaeological Science 29 (2002) 1403–1414.

[35] L. Straus, M. Gonzalez Morales, The Mesolithic in the

Cantabrian interior: fact or fantasy? in: L. Larsson,

H. Kindgren, K. Knutsson, D. Loeffler, A. Akerlund (Eds.),

Mesolithic on the Move, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2003, pp. 359–

368.

[36] L. Straus, M. Gonzalez Morales, El Miron cave and the 14C

chronology of Cantabrian Spain, Radiocarbon 45 (2003) 41–58.

[37] L. Straus, M. Gonzalez Morales, M. Garcıa-Gelabert, M. Fano,

The Late Quaternary human uses of a natural territory, Journal

of Iberian Archaeology 4 (2002) 21–61.

[38] P. Woodman, Getting back to basics: transitions to farming in

Ireland and Britain, in: T. Price (Ed.), Europe’s First Farmers,

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 219–259.

[39] L. Zapata, La excavacion del deposito sepucral del Pico Ramos,

Munibe 47 (1995) 35–90.

[40] L. Zapata, L. Pena-Chocarro, G. Perez Jorda, H. Stika, Difusion

de la agricultura en la Peninsula Iberica, in: P. Arias, R. Ontanon,

C. Garcia-Monco (Eds.), Actas, III Congreso del Neolitico en la

Peninsula Iberica, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, in press.

[41] L. Zapata, Origen de la agricultura en el Paıs Vasco y

transformaciones en el paisaje. Kobie Anejo 4, Bilbao, 2002.

[42] L. Zapata, J. Ibanez, J. Gonzalez, Urquijo, El yacimiento de la

Cueva de Kobaederra, Munibe 49 (1997) 51–63.

[43] J. Zilhao, The spread of agro-pastoral economies across

Mediterranean Europe: a view from the far West, Journal of

Mediterranean Archaeology 6 (1993) 5–63.

[44] J. Zilhao, From the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in the Iberian

Peninsula, in: T.D. Price (Ed.), Europe’s First Farmers, Cam-

bridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 144–182.

[45] J. Zilhao, Radiocarbon evidence for maritime pioneer coloniza-

tion at the origins of farming in west Mediterranean Europe,

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 98 (2001)

14180–14185.

[46] M. Zvelebil, The agricultural frontier and the transition to

agriculture in the circum-Baltic region, in: D. Harris (Ed.), The

Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia,

University of London Press, London, 1996, pp. 323–335.

[47] M. Zvelebil, P. Rowley-Conwy, Foragers and farmers in Atlantic

Europe, in: M. Zvelebil (Ed.), Hunters in Transition, Cambridge

University Press, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 67–93.

the oldest agriculture in northern atlantic spain: new

Documents