The Dredge in the context of the first peninsular Neolithic communities

RESULTS

The results of this project have meant a clear advance in scientific knowledge about the Neolithic:

• Better knowledge about Neolithic agriculture. We have one of the samples that provide a better knowledge of the agricultural practices of the beginning of the Neolithic in Europe. In addition to the large quantity of cereal seeds, among which naked wheat predominates, examples of agricultural tools such as digging sticks and sickles have been preserved. For the first time in Europe it has been possible to document directly from the archaeological record of the ancient Neolithic the work of the land with digging sticks and the type of harvesting practiced, aspects of agriculture that were usually inferred from ethnographic parallels.
• Better characterization of the cattle practices in the beginning of the Neolithic. The great quality and abundance of the faunal remains and the application of leading techniques in isotope and DNA analysis have made it possible to characterize at an extraordinary level how livestock practices were, both in terms of domesticated species and aspects related to their feeding, mobility, seasonal housing, types of use, phylogeny of domesticated species, etc.
• Better understanding of how the climate and early agricultural populations shaped the Neolithic landscape. Obtaining high-resolution proxies from palynological, anthracological, plant macros, dendrochronological, seed and wood isotopes analyses, as well as geoarchaeology, have contributed to characterize the Neolithic landscapes and climate during the Neolithic occupation at an incomparable level of detail. Thus, we know that oak groves would have occupied a large part of the region as a consequence of a cooler and more humid climate than the present one, suffering the impact of massive logging by Neolithic communities.
• Giving visibility to technological knowledge of Neolithic societies, which was totally invisible until now for the initial European Neolithic. Without a doubt, one of the most remarkable aspects of the site is the extraordinary conservation of wooden objects and plant fibers, totally absent in other archaeological contexts. Remains of baskets, ropes, handles, containers, bows, ladles, combs, spindles, architectural elements, shafts and arrowheads have been preserved, among those most remarkable elements.