La implantación neolítica en la Bahía de Gijón desde las postrimerías del V milenio A. C.: enfoque arqueológico y paleoambiental y notas sobre la monumentalidad megalítica

Abstract

The earliest signs of anthropogenic involvement in the Bay of Gijón may reveal early pastoralism around 7300 cal BP, whereas the farming of cereals is documented in the same area (Mount Areo) around 4700-4500 cal BC. From 4300 cal BC was to see the raising of the most ancient barrows in parallel to the consolidation of the livestock breeding economy. Around 5000 cal BC, the sea level rose to close to that of the present day, submerging a wide coastal strip in which an essential part of Mesolithic life took place. Archaeobotanical studies have discovered the high food potential of the plant environment. The coastal area also provided substantial and varied resources of fish and molluscs. The suitability of the territory justifies the gathering of humans there and the permanence of people whose close links to such a rich yet reduced environment was to lead to its intensive exploitation, thereby possibly creating the material conditions that were to favour the establishment of the peasant-farmer economy as a solution. The erection of megaliths from 4000 BC onwards reflect both the territorial tension and the presumed breakdown of a dominant social horizontality. Furthermore, from the number of monuments and certain of their features, a scattered habitat may be inferred organised in groups composed of few individuals, a circumstance that may be extrapolated to much of the territory bathed by the Bay of Biscay.