Programmes > Par auteur > Javier Rey

Social interactions between neighboring communities are known since early prehistoric periods through, for example, the exchange of lithic raw materials. However, these interactions do not necessarily mean that direct contacts existed, as economic changes can be due to influences from other groups even if these groups did not know each other directly. Objects, ideas and even changes in the productive system can be incorporated from other communities without direct contact between them.

In this paper we present the exotic objects and raw materials recovered from central Pyrenean Neolithic sites. Despite first farmers groups were largely using local raw-materials for the manufacturing of flakes tools, exogenous cherts from the tertiary formations of Ebro Basin, at about 100 km of distance from the Pyrenean mountain areas, were employed as well. Tools made of tertiary cherts were transported to Pyrenean sites and here used for a diversity of productive activities, especially cereal harvesting and animal butchering. However, not only flaked stone tools, but also exogenous polished tools were used from Neolithic Pyrenean communities; the adzes and axes recovered in this area were, indeed, made of allochthons raw-materials, the exact provenance of which is often unknown, but in some cases they might proceed from extra-regional, faraway, areas. In addition, beads on marine shells from Mediterranean areas and marble bracelets from the SE of the Iberian Peninsula have been recovered as well.