THE MESOLITHIC – NEOLITHIC TRANSITION
ON THE SOUTH-WESTERN PORTUGUESE COAST:
Preliminary Data on the Shellmidden of Paço Velho 2
Helena REIS
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Abstract
The Portuguese south-western coast was a pivotal point of social interactions between hunter-gatherers and Neolithic communities (~6500-4000 BC). Despite being located between two central areas on the debate of the neolithisation process in Portugal, the south-western coast and the Mira valley have occupied a peripheral place on the investigation. The present investigation research was developed under a master thesis study which aim was to analyse the territory of those communities, as well as searching for their settlement patterns. The identification of a new Mesolithic site on this region, Paço Velho 2, reveals some characteristic details of the lives of the last hunter-gathers communities of the southern Portugal.
To cite this article
Reis H., 2014 – The Mesolithic – Neolithic Transition on the South-Western Portuguese Coast: Preliminary Data on the Shellmidden of Paço Velho 2, in Henry A., Marquebielle B., Chesnaux L., Michel S. (eds.), Techniques and Territories: New Insights into Mesolithic Cultures, Proceedings of the Round table, November 22-23 2012, Maison de la recherche, Toulouse (France), P@lethnology, 6, 153-159.
WHAT ROLE DOES THE MESOLITHIC SUBSTRATUM PLAY
IN THE NEOLITHIZATIONOF THE GRANDS CAUSSES?
Study of the Lithic Industry of Combe-Grèze
(Cresse Commune, Aveyron)
Elsa DEFRANOULD
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Abstract
In the Grands Causses region, south of the Massif Central, there are a few sites attributed to the original Early Neolithic, (6th millennium). Due to their position at the edge of the region in which the southern Cardial emerged, they play an important role in debates concerning the Neolithization of southern France. Were these autochthonous sites with a production economy invented without influence from the Cardial domain?
Or were they occupied by acculturated Mesolithic groups? Were their facies peripheral to the Cardial?
The site of Combe-Grèze, excavated in the 1970’s by Jean Maury and Georges Costantini, was used like the others to develop these different theoretical models. For this reason, it appeared useful to reexamine the lithic assemblage of this site with the aim of distinguishing the different techno-typological entities based on a reconstruction of their ‘chaînes opératoires’ (reduction sequences). This study can be considered as an additional element of response to questions concerning the borrowing and transmitting of technical know-how between the horizons of the Second Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic. It is also intended to explore the role of the Mesolithic substratum in the emergence of a production economy in this region that is peripheral to the Mediterranean zone considered to be fully Neolithic.
To cite this article
Defranould E., 2014 – What Role Does the Mesolithic Substratum Play in the Neolithization of the Grands Causses? Study of the Lithic Industry of Combe-Grèze (Cresse Commune, Aveyron), in Henry A., Marquebielle B., Chesnaux L., Michel S. (eds.), Techniques and Territories: New Insights into Mesolithic Cultures, Proceedings of the Round table, November 22-23 2012, Maison de la recherche, Toulouse (France), P@lethnology, 6, 112-121.
Archéologie et Sciences humaines
