The first Neolithic boats in the Mediterranean: The settlement of La Marmotta (Anguillara Sabazia, Lazio, Italy).

Navigation in the Mediterranean in the Neolithic is studied here through the boats that were used, the degree of technical specialisation in their construction and, above all, their chronology. After a brief explanation of the exceptional site of La Marmotta, the characteristics and chronology of the five canoes found at the settlement and one of the nautical objects linked to Canoe 1 are discussed. This will allow a reflection on the capability of Neolithic societies for navigation owing to their high technological level. This technology was an essential part in the success of their expansion, bearing in mind that in a few millennia they occupied the whole Mediterranean from Cyprus to the Atlantic seaboard of the Iberian Peninsula.

Stable isotope analyses of amino acids reveal the importance of aquatic resources to Mediterranean coastal hunter-gatherers.

Determining the degree to which humans relied on coastal resources in the past is key for understanding long-term social and economic development, as well as for assessing human health and anthropogenic impacts on the environment. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers are often assumed to have heavily exploited aquatic resources, especially those living in regions of high marine productivity. For the Mediterranean, this view has been challenged, partly by the application of stable isotope analysis of skeletal remains which has shown more varied coastal hunter-gatherer diets than in other regions, perhaps due to its lower productivity. By undertaking a more specific analysis of amino acids from bone collagen of 11 individuals from one of the oldest and best-known Mesolithic cemeteries in the Mediterranean, at El Collado, Valencia, we show that high levels of aquatic protein consumption were achieved. By measuring both carbon and nitrogen in amino acids, we conclude that some of the El Collado humans relied heavily on local lagoonal fish and possibly shellfish, rather than open marine species. By contrast to previous suggestions, this study demonstrates that the north-western coast of the Mediterranean basin could support maritime-oriented economies during the Early Holocene.

Multiproxy study of 7500-year-old wooden sickles from the Lakeshore Village of La Marmotta, Italy.

The lakeshore site of La Marmotta is one of the most important Early Neolithic sites of Mediterranean Europe. The site is famous for the exceptional preservation of organic materials, including numerous wooden artefacts related to navigation, agriculture, textile production, and basketry. This article presents interdisciplinary research on three of the most complete and well-preserved sickles recovered from the site, yet unpublished. All the components of the tools are analysed: the stone inserts, the wooden haft and the adhesive substances used to fix the stones inside the haft. Our innovative methodology combines use-wear and microtexture analysis of stone tools through confocal microscopy, taxonomical and technological analysis of wood, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of the adhesive substances, and pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, and phytolith analysis of the remains incorporated within the adhesive. This multiproxy approach provides a significant insight into the life of these tools, from their production to their use and abandonment, providing evidence of the species of harvested plants and the conditions of the field during the harvesting.

Non-metric dental analysis of human interactions around the Pyrenees during the Neolithic and their biological impact.

BACKGROUND: Interactions across the Pyreneans during the Middle-Neolithic (V-IV millennium BCE) have been described for a long time. Nevertheless, except for a few examples and attempts to describe them, the biological impact of these interactions on the human groups' make-up is not yet understood. The present work analyzes the biological affinities of different groups from both sides of these mountains that represent the Populations of the Middle- and Late-Neolithic by means of the dental morphology. METHODS: We present novel dental morphological data of 221 individuals from 11 archaeological sites. These data have been analyzed and compared to those from previously published twenty Iberian sites and one French site. Data were recovered following the ASUDAS protocol, and MMD biological measure was calculated between groups. RESULTS: Our results suggest that there were some differences between the analyzed populations. These differences were observed at each side of the Pyrenees, but also across them. Concretely, the coastal groups across the mountains show more affinities between each other than the inland groups. In addition, the differences between groups decreased by the end of the Neolithic. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, our results indicate that the intense trade activities registered in the coastal area between both sides of the Pyrenees would have had the greatest biological impacts in the homogenisation of the groups. Although less intense, the across mountain network and coastal to mountain area trade networks to the south of Pyreneans, also influenced the biological make-up of the groups.

First insight into the Neolithic subsistence economy in the north-east Iberian Peninsula: paleodietary reconstruction through stable isotopes.

OBJECTIVES: The study of subsistence strategies among Neolithic communities in north-east Iberia, late-fifth to early-fourth millennia cal BC, enables a more in-depth study of the activities and behavior of the inhabitants of this region, where paleodiets have been little studied. The objectives of this study are, therefore, to determine the diet and subsistence patterns of those communities and to consider whether any relation existed between their subsistence strategies and environmental, geographic, and/or social factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bone samples from 25 middle Neolithic human individuals at seven archeological sites and comparative faunal samples were analyzed, and compared with contemporary series in Mediterranean Europe. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios (δ13 C and δ15 N) of bone collagen were studied to determine the dietary patterns. RESULTS: Dietary habits proved to be similar between communities, apart from some interpopulational variations in subsistence strategies. Their diet was based on C3 terrestrial resources with a major vegetal protein component. DISCUSSION: The reported variations in interpopulational subsistence strategies among the compared Mediterranean societies do not seem to be directly related to the settlement region. Together with archeological data, this indicates the influence of socioeconomic factors in the Neolithic human diet. A general tendency toward a lesser use of aquatic resources is seen in this period in Iberia and the rest of the Mediterranean, as also documented for contemporary communities in the west and north of Europe. The data obtained will be important for further studies of socioeconomic patterns in European Neolithic societies.

The emergence of mesolithic cemeteries in SW Europe: insights from the El Collado (Oliva, Valencia, Spain) radiocarbon record.

Located on the Iberian Mediterranean coast, El Collado is an open-air site where a rescue excavation was conducted over two seasons in 1987 and 1988. The archaeological work excavated a surface area of 143 m2 where 14 burials were discovered, providing skeletal remains from 15 individuals. We have obtained AMS dates for 10 of the 15 individuals by means of the direct dating of human bones. The ranges of the probability distribution of the calibrated dates suggest that the cemetery was used during a long period of time (781-1020 years at a probability of 95.4%). The new dates consequently set back the chrono-cultural attribution of the cemetery from the initial proposal of Late Mesolithic to an older date in the Early Mesolithic. Therefore, El Collado becomes the oldest known cemetery in the Iberian Peninsula, earlier than the numerous Mesolithic funerary contexts documented on the Atlantic façade such as the Portuguese shell-middens in the Muge and Sado Estuaries or the funerary sites on the northern Iberian coast.