Early Iberian Cultures (Mesolithic)

The system which has evolved to catalogue the various archaeological expressions of human progress is one which involves cultures. The task of cataloguing the vast range of human cultures which emerged from Africa and the Near East right up until human expansion reached the Americas is covered in the related feature (see link, right).

Subsequent cultural complexity appeared and increased as human populations increased. What had been a single human culture across Europe eventually divided in two which - at least at first - can be equated to Northern Europe and Southern Europe. Within the latter zone was Early Iberia, with 'Iberia' being the ancient name for this sun-drenched south-western peninsula.

It comprises the modern countries of Portugal and Spain, plus the principality of Andorra and the British crown colony of Gibraltar. The first modern humans arrived in Iberia by about 24,000 BC, soon to form the long-lived Azilian culture which gradually faded as the Iberian Mesolithic began.

The more highly-regionalised but well-studied Asturian was the first solid culture of this period, but the Iberian Mesolithic is very unevenly represented in the known archaeological record, and the European Magdalenian culture seems not to have made much of an impact here. Soil acidity is generally high, making it hard to find the fewer surviving artefacts.

The start of the Iberian Mesolithic is generally pinned to about 10,000 BC (lasting until about 5500 BC, but also part of a changeover from the Palaeolithic between about 12,000-8000 BC which is referred to as the Epipalaeolithic).

This Mesolithic represents the peninsula's transitional hunter-gatherer phase following the last glacial maximum and, especially, after the Younger Dryas cold reversal which ended around 9700 BC, with microlithic tools, increased coastal exploitation, and adaptation to warming climates and rising sea levels all playing a part while the peninsula's post-glacial geography was still changing.

Sites in León are concentrated in the province's north-eastern corner, in the heart of the Cantabrian mountains which divide the core of Iberia from the northern-coastal Asturian territory. At least two of the three main cave sites here have been interpreted as seasonal dwelling spaces for the warmer months of the year. All occupations of Iberia's mountainous interior took place within the context of a warming climatic, with snow levels and glaciation declining.

The number of Mesolithic sites in Galicia is greater, with more varied locations: from mountainous contexts such as Chan do Lindeiro at 1,080 metres, to others lower down the slopes such as Sierra del Xistral at between 450-600 metres, to coastal areas which may not have been submerged by rising sea levels until about 5000 BC, if at all.

Mesolithic occupation in this region could be a continuation of an earlier Magdalenian presence which has been noted at the Valdavara 1 cave and in the Villalba area (Lugo) at several sites such as Pena Grande or Férvedes II.

Farther south is Cueva de Nerja in Málaga. This preserves Epipalaeolithic occupations of about 10,000 BC which include rock paintings of marine motifs and faunal assemblages. Clearly these people had diversified their hunting practices as part of the Notches & Denticulated Technocomplex, or 'Early Mesolithic'.

North-eastern sites such as El Cingle del Mas Nou in Catalonia have yielded microlithic assemblages from about 9000 BC, while the Geometric Mesolithic (or 'Late Mesolithic') of about 8000-5500 BC during the mid-Holocene optimum climatic period reveals technological refinement immediately prior to the start of the Iberian Neolithic.

European Kingdoms

Early Cultures

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