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http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas
The oldest agriculture in northern Atlantic Spain: new evidence
from El Mirón Cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria)
Leonor Peña-Chocarroa, Lydia Zapatab, Maria Jose Iriarteb,
Manuel González Moralesc, Lawrence Guy Strausd,*
a
Laboratorio de Arqueobotánica, Instituto de Historia, CSIC, C/ Duque de Medinaceli 6, 28014 Madrid, Spain
b
Area de Prehistoria, Universidad del Pais Vasco, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
c
Instituto de Prehistoria, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, 39005 Santander, Spain
d
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Received 2 November 2004; received in revised form 2 December 2004
Abstract
Emmer wheat (Triticum diccocum) has been positively identified from the stratigraphically oldest ceramic- and domesticated
livestock-bearing level of El Mirón Cave in the Cantabrian Cordillera. The grain is AMS 14C-dated to 5550G40 BP. This date is
congruent with six others from the same layer, higher within which were found other grains of wheat, including einkorn as well as
emmer. Although wild ungulates (mainly red deer) were still hunted, abundant ovicaprines, together with small numbers of cattle
and pigs, appear in this level-for the first time in the 40,000-year record at El Mirón. Potsherds (undecorated, but of very good
quality) also appear abruptly and abundantly. However, the associated lithic assemblage contains specific tool types also found in
late Mesolithic contexts in Cantabrian Spain. In addition to the full suite of Neolithic indicators at El Mirón, as confirmed by less
unambiguous early agro-pastoral evidence from other sites in the Vasco-Cantabrian region, there are megalithic monuments both in
the vicinity of the cave and throughout the region that are similarly dated. All these data tend to suggest that Neolithic
adaptationsdalready present about a millennium earlier not only along the Mediterranean coast, but also much closer, to the
southeast of the Cordilleradwere quickly adopted as ‘‘a package’’ by Cantabrian Mesolithic foragers, possibly as a consequence of
social contacts with Neolithic groups in southern France and/or the upper Ebro basin of north-central Spain.
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Mesolithic; Neolithic; El Mirón Cave; Cantabrian Spain; Wheat; Agricultural origins
1. Introduction
Particularly since the synthetic work of Zvelebil and
Rowley-Conwy [47], there has been considerable interest
in and debate about the nature and timing of the
transition from foraging to farming along the Atlantic
facade of western Europe. That synthesis had been
produced against the backdrop of the influential ‘‘demic
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C1 505 277 6688; fax: C1 505 277
0874.
E-mail address: [email protected] (L.G. Straus).
0305-4403/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jas.2004.12.001
diffusion’’ model of Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza [4–
6], which emphasized actual westward human migrations
as the mechanism for the spread of agricultural adaptations across Europe. The more complex (‘‘mosaic’’)
model favored by Zvelebil and Rowley-Conwy stressed
the active role of extant Mesolithic hunter-fishergatherers in resisting and ultimately incorporating
elements of or adopting the complete socio-economic
package of agro-pastoralism into their lifeways at
differing rates in the various regions of Atlantic Europe.
Coastal Atlantic regions with relatively high densities of
forager populations, which seem to have had limited
mobility because of locally rich wild food resources,
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present interesting cases for asking by what means, with
how great a time-lag, how fast, to what extent and why
food production (with its attendant changes in social
organization and ideology) was ultimately adopted (e.g.,
Refs.[12,19,24–29,38,43,44,46]). If coastal Atlantic forager populations were so secure in their subsistence
during the mid-Holocene, how and why did they
ultimately (albeit tardily) become incorporated into the
world of Neolithic farmers and herders? In the three
decades since Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza first proposed their straightforward migration model for substantial population replacement, alternative models have
proliferated (e.g., subsistence pressure caused by population packing and/or encroachment, environmental
change, forager–farmer symbiosis, competition, warfare,
inter-marriage, navigation, trade/exchange, expropriation/ raiding, agriculturalist in-filling of ‘‘empty’’ or
lightly populated areas, forager acquisition or imitation
of high-status goods). Diverse specific process models
could have been applicable to the many different and
fluid ecological situations that existed among the
complex physical and human geographies of Europe
during the early-mid Holocene. The Cantabrian case,
with inlets and small estuaries lined by Mesolithic shellmiddens immediately adjacent to a densely wooded,
mountainous interior only lightly exploited by huntergatherers, is both similar and different from other
examples of the late adoption of agro-pastoralism and
Neolithic technologies along the Atlantic facade (e.g.,
southern and central Portugal, Aquitaine, Brittany,
Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark) [17,31,32,35]. It
is similar in that diversified foraging systems heavily
dependant on marine resource exploitation seem to have
had relatively low mobility and were very late to adopt
agriculture or pastoralism relative to the situation in the
Mediterranean Basin. It is different from other regions,
such as Portugal or northwestern continental Europe, in
that the entire region was characterized by Mesolithic
adaptations until the abrupt appearance of Neolithic
traits which seem to have been adopted rapidly, without
evidence of continued Mesolithic ‘‘hold-outs’’. It is the
diversity of modes and tempos that is now recognized
to characterize the spread of the Neolithic into the
westernmost regions of Europe. While instructive,
models developed for Portugal, Denmark, or England,
for example, cannot be directly applied to the Cantabrian situation, due to its particular topographic,
climatic and edaphic conditions, as well as to its own
regional historical background.
The antiquity and rapidity of the establishment of
agriculture and Neolithic lifeways in eastern and
southern Spain and southern Portugal are well established at ca. 6600 BP uncal. (=5500 cal BC) [13,45].
Ceramics and food production were quickly adopted by
local Mesolithic foragers in the interior of Mediterranean Iberia, including the upper Ebro basin, by ca. 6500
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BP [1,20]. However, the situation was radically different
on the nearby Atlantic side of the Cantabrian Cordillera, a humid, equable, and densely forested region,
ecologically distinct from the rest of Spain. There is
controversy about the nature and timing of the adoption
of agriculture and associated changes in technology and
society in Cantabrian Spain: was ‘‘the Neolithic’’ an
intrusive package that abruptly, completely replaced
local Mesolithic lifeways or were certain aspects of the
Neolithic system grafted onto those Mesolithic adaptations to produce a kind of hybrid culture in which
foraging was not completely abandoned [10]? Was the
transition to food production a gradually staged process
or did all classic aspects of Neolithic culturedincluding
the construction of megalithic monumentsdappear
essentially simultaneously [15]? Here we report on the
first unambiguous case of the early appearance of the
full suite of Neolithic attributesdcereal grain, domesticated livestock and well-developed ceramicsdassociated
with Mesolithic-like stone tools in the context of a large,
clearly stratified, carefully excavated and extensively
14
C-dated site in the northern fore-ranges of the
Cantabrian Cordillera: El Mirón Cave (Ramales de la
Victoria, Cantabria, Spain).
2. The Neolithic of El Mirón Cave
El Mirón is located at ca. 260 m above sea level in
the upper Rı́o Asón valley, some 25 km inland of the
Holocene shore in eastern Cantabria. Surrounded by
Cordilleran peaks near or above 1000 m a.s.l., El Mirón
is strategically situated on historic avenues of communication between coastal Cantabria and both the Basque
Country and the northern meseta of Old Castile (Fig. 1).
On a steep, rocky cliff, the cave is in caprine habitat.
However, there are areas of well-watered valley floor
below the cave that would have been suitable for
agriculture. Facing due west, El Mirón has a sheltered,
dry, sunlit vestibule: 30 m deep by 8 m wide and 13 m
high (Fig. 2)[33,34,36,37].
Excavations directed by LGS and MGM since 1996
have concentrated on two 9 m2 areas in the vestibule,
connected by a 8!1 m dogleg trench. All sediments are
water-screened through 2 mm and 4 mm mesh and large
samples are subjected to flotation, with collection in
250 mm mesh. The complete culture–stratigraphic
sequence spans the period between the Middle Paleolithic
and the Middle Ages, with 54 radiocarbon dates
spanning the period between 41,000 BP (uncal.) and
AD 1400 (cal). The Neolithic has been found in the outer
vestibule (‘‘Cabin’’) excavation area and in the adjacent
western half of the connecting trench. It consists of
a series of clearly defined levels, rich in charcoal and ash,
ceramics and animal bones, as well as smaller quantities
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Fig. 1. Mesolithic and Neolithic sites of Vasco-Cantabrian Spain and the Upper Ebro River basin. Sites mentioned in the text: 14, Marizulo; 15,
Herriko Barra; 19, Arenaza; 20, Pico Ramos; 21, La Trecha; 25, El Mirón; 26, Tarrerón; 30, Los Canes; 36, Lumentxa; 41, Kobaederra.
of lithic artifacts. In the ‘‘Cabin’’ area the Neolithic
sequence (from bottom to top) consists of levels 10, 9 and
8-with several lenses and pit fill units. In the Trench, the
corresponding Neolithic levels are 303.3, 303.2, 303.1 and
303 (Fig. 3). Table 1 presents the radiocarbon dates for
the Neolithic levels, which extended from about 4600 to
about 3600 cal. BC.
The find we report here is flotation sample 374 from
grid square M5, Level 303.3dthe lowest ceramic-bearing
layer in the Trench. It is a charred grain, morphologically
identified (with its characteristic pointed ends and
marked dorsal ridge) by LP-C as Triticum dicoccum:
emmer wheat (Fig. 4). The accelerator radiocarbon date
of 5550G40 BP was obtained by A. Cherkinsky. At 2s,
this date overlaps with the assay done on charcoal from
the same level. It is stratigraphically coherent with the
dates from overlying Levels 303.1 and 303; it also
coincides closely with the dates from Level 10 in the
adjacent Corral area.
The other domesticated seeds identified from Neolithic levels in El Mirón are a possible, extremely
distorted cereal fragment from Level 8 in the Cabin
area and, from Level 303, one grain each of Triticum
monococcum (einkorn wheat) and T. dicoccum (both
hulled species), two that could be either einkorn or
emmer (T. monococcum/dicoccum), six grains of freethreshing wheats that cannot be distinguished on the
basis of grains alone between the tetraploid T. durum
and the hexaploid T. aestivum, two grains of Triticum
sp., plus one whole grain and five fragments of
unidentifiable cereals (and one from Level 303.2).
Although present in a few other early Neolithic contexts
in the coastal Basque provinces, barley (Hordeum
vulgare) is apparently absent at El Mirón. Despite the
large number of samples carpologically analyzed
(n=368), seed densities of even wild taxa are generally
low.
Wood charcoal analyses by LZ indicate that the
Neolithic occupations took place in mid-Holocene times
when luxuriant, mixed, deciduous forest still dominated
landscapes around El Mirón, with especially abundant
deciduous and semi-deciduous oaks (Quercus subg.
Quercus), hazels (Corylus avellana), ashes (Fraxinus),
wild cherries (Prunus tp. avium) and trees in the
Pomoideae family, and small numbers of charcoal
fragments from a few other taxa, including birch
(Betula) and elm (Ulmus), and yew (Taxus baccata).
Branches of ash and oaks may have been collected not
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Fig. 2. Plan of the Mirón Cave vestibule, showing the excavation areas where Neolithic deposits were uncovered: notably the ‘‘Cabin’’ area toward
the outer (western) end of the vestibule and the ‘‘Mid-Vestibule Connecting Trench’’.
only for fuel, but also as ‘‘tree fodder’’ for domesticated
livestock stabled in the cave. Despite repeated sampling,
pollen does not seem to have been preserved in the
earliest Neolithic levels in either excavation area. Midlate Neolithic samples, analyzed by MJI, show high
percentages of arboreal pollen (AP: 88–67%), but with
hints of deforestation particularly concerning the main
taxa (Corylus and, to a lesser extent, Quercus). The
presence of clearings is suggested by pollen of grasses
(Poaceae) and Compositae liguliflora. A modest, but
general decline in Neolithic forest cover is suggested by
pollen spectra at several other bog and archeological
sites throughout the region-in both coastal and montane
settings. Most relevant is the bog at Los Tornos Pass
(920 m a.s.l., 8 km south of El Mirón) which has yielded
cereal pollen and evidence of incipient deforestation in
this area at a time contemporaneous with the Mirón
Neolithic [22,23]. Analysis of micro-mammalian remains
by G. Cuenca Bescós also suggests some deforestation
and the appearance of humid meadowlands in the
Mirón vicinity during the mid-late Neolithic [3].
Study of ungulate remains from the Neolithic levels
by J. Altuna and K. Mariezkurrena reveals a striking
(albeit not complete) break in faunal composition vis à
vis the underlying Mesolithic [3]. While Mesolithic Level
10.1 in the Cabin area has 100% wild ungulate remains
(mainly red deer, plus some roe deer and boar),
overlying Neolithic Level 10 has 70% domesticated
ungulates (almost all sheep/goat [Capra hircus/Ovis
aries], with traces of cattle and pig). The faunal samples
from the earliest Neolithic levels (303.3–303.1) in the
connecting trench have even higher percentages of
domesticates (97–100%), again dominated heavily by
ovicaprines (91% of all three total assemblages), also
with traces of cattle and pig. Red deer is the only wild
game species represented. The later Neolithic levels in
the Cabin (9.8, 9.7, 9.6, 9 and 8) and Trench (303) have
between 92 and 98% remains of domesticated taxa
among their ungulates, with a distinct increasing trend
among the cattle and, to a lesser extent, the pigs, relative
to the still-dominant ovicaprines. The wild animals are
mainly red deer, with traces of ibex and boar. A
taphonomic study by M. Pérez Ripoll shows a marked
difference in the human treatment of the bones of wild
and domesticated animals, the former being more
heavily processed (presumably for marrow extraction)
[3]. The presence of bite marks on many of the Neolithic
bones suggests the presence of dog, although its remains
have not been found at El Mirón.
These botanical and faunal remains are accompanied
in all the Neolithic levels by abundant ceramic assemblages. The sherds are undecorated, but thin and of
excellent quality, fired under high temperatures. Temper
materials are dominated by quartz and calcite, with
some mica. This is a well-developed technology; the
oldest El Mirón sherds do not represent initial,
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a
Fig. 3. (a) Northern stratigraphic section of the Mirón Cave ‘‘Cabin’’ excavation area, showing the Mesolithic (10.1) and earliest Neolithic (10) levels.
(b) Northern stratigraphic section of the Mirón Cave Mid-Vestibule Trench, showing the early Neolithic levels (303.3–303).
experimental stages of pottery-making, suggesting
thatdlike the domesticated animals and cultigensd
ceramics were imported into the Cantabrian region and
then were adopted by local Mesolithic foragers.
This scenario is implied by the lithic artifacts from the
suite of Neolithic levels, which include 45 retouched
implements. Among these are an endscraper, a few
burins, backed blades and backed points, and several
continuously retouched pieces, notches, denticulates and
splintered pieces. In addition, there are a trapeze, three
circle segmentsdone of which has beveled ‘‘Helwan’’
retouchdfive backed and one retouched bladelets. All
these types are found among some of the Mesolithic
industries of the region, with no ceramic (or domesticate)
associations-for example at the small, nearby cave of
Tarrerón, with a radiocarbon date of 5780G120 BP [7].
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b
Fig. 3. (continued).
3. Discussion
The cultural and economic situation in the Cantabrian region in the centuries just before and after 5500
BP (uncal.=4350 cal. BC) seems to have been complex,
but part of the apparent mosaic may be the product of
14
C dates run on materials of different types (e.g., longlived versus short-lived plants), by different methods
(conventional versus AMS), often with low levels of
precision, by different labs, and at sites with highly
diverse degrees of stratigraphic resolution and provenience control. The site of Tarrerón (where no
archeobotany was done) has lithics that include such
transcultural types as Helwan circle segments, but no
ceramics or domesticated animals; another, Herriko
Barra (an open-air site in coastal Guipúzcoa), has
similar lithics, no ceramics, only abundant wild animals
(92% red deer), but cereal pollen apparently in a context
Table 1
El Mirón Cave Neolithic radiocarbon dates
Zone
Level
Date BP
SD
GX Lab No.
Material
Method
Calibrated date*
Cabin
Cabin
Cabin
Cabin
Cabin
Cabin
8.1
9
9
9.6
10
10
4680
5170
5280
5250
5570
5690
60
170
40
150
50
50
22131
22128
24461
24462
23414
23413
Ch
Ch
Ch
Ch
Ch
Ch
AMS
Conv.
AMS
Cxcnt.
AMS
AMS
3612–3371
4221–3789
4217–4001
4318–3945
4449–4359
4582–4458
BC
BC
BC
BC
BC
BC
Trench
Trench
Trench
Trench
Trench
Pit 98a
303
303.1
303.3
303.3
4910
5500
5520
5550
5790
80
90
70
40
90
28211
25854
25855
30910
25856
Ch
Ch
Ch
Grain
Ch
Conv.
Conv.
Conv.
AMS
Cxcnt.
3773–3641
4451–4250
4451–4261
4450–4344
4768–4540
BC
BC
BC
BC
BC
Ch, charcoal; AMS, accelerator mass spectrometry; Conv., conventional; Cxcnt., conventional extended count. *CALIB 4.1.2; range at 1s.
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Fig. 4. (a) Photo and (b) drawing of dated Triticum dicoccum from
Mirón level 303.3 (scale=1 mm).
dated on bone between 5810G170 and 6010G90 BP
[18,21]. Pico Ramos (a small cave in coastal western
Vizcaya) has recently yielded a barley grain directly
dated by AMS to 5370G40 BP, but with neither
ceramics nor domesticated animals [39,40]. Kobaederra
(coastal central Vizcaya) also has a barley grain directly
dated to 5375G90 BP [41]. The latter cave has a series of
interesting Neolithic levels; the lowest one yielded the
barley grain associated with a few high-quality combed
and digitally impressed ceramics, geometric microliths
(including a Helwan segment) and marine molluscs, but
it is overlain by other levels with older dates (5630G100
and 5820G240 BP) that also include fine ceramics,
geometric microliths (including several Helwan segments) and many marine molluscs, as well as domesticated ovicaprines [42]. All the Kobaederra dates overlap
at 2s and the strata seem to have been disturbed by later
human burials. Lumentxa Cave (eastern coastal Vizcaya) has recently produced a barley grain from a level
dated between 5200 and 5000 BP [40]. Marizulo Cave
(eastern interior Guipúzcoa) contained a human buried
together with a dog and a lamb. Bones from this burial
produced a 14C date of 5285G65 BP [2]. There are
remains of another sheep/goat, as well as numerous
remains of red deer, boar and roe deer, together with
traces of ibex and chamois and various carnivores. The
association of ceramics with the Marizulo burial is
unclear. A dog scapula was also found in the underlying
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‘‘Mesolithic’’ level, which has no other domesticates. The
cave of Arenaza (western interior Vizcaya, ca. 35 km
from El Mirón and 10 km from Pico Ramos) has a postMesolithic level (Icl=IC2) with geometric microliths,
undecorated ceramics and two bovine remains classified
as cattle (Bos taurus) and directly dated to 6040G75 and
5755G65 BP, although a third cattle jaw bone,
supposedly from the same level, yielded an AMS date
of 10,860G120 BP, while the level in question was itself
dated to 4965G195 BP [11]. Domesticated ovicaprine
and pig remains were also identified in this layer. The
Arenaza Mesolithic levels contain similar geometric
microliths, but no ceramics or domesticated animals.
Unfortunately the stratigraphy is plagued by uncertainties, as is that of the small cave of Los Canes in montane
eastern Asturias [8,10]. At the latter site, which had
three late Mesolithic burials with geometric microliths
including Helwan segments, there is a sherd from an
overlying level that has been dated directly on organic
temper to 5865G70 BP (4935–4580 cal BC) [9]. This
sherd is not clearly associated with domesticated plants
or animals. The microlithic industry seems to continue
into the ceramic horizon. Coastal middensdso abundant in the early Holocene of the Cantabrian regiond
continued to be formed by massive human collection of
molluscs well into the Atlantic period, perhaps contemporaneously with the first evidence of agriculture in the
region. Some of these late concheros contain a few
(probably intrusive) ceramic sherds, but others (e.g., La
Trecha, near Pico Ramos in eastern Cantabria, with
dates as recent as 5600–5850 BP and no associated
domesticates [16]) do not.
Human populations in the narrow, but high-relief
region of Cantabrian Spain underwent a dramatic socioeconomic change within a period as short as 300 years in
the mid-Atlantic phase. Individual sites may not tell the
whole story of a society’s subsistence system at any
given time; essentially ‘‘Neolithic’’ base camps like El
Mirón, with the full suite of characteristic economic and
technological traits, could have been linked to other,
special-purpose, ‘‘Mesolithic’’-appearing camps for
hunting (like Herriko Barra or Tarrerón) or for
mollusc-gathering (like La Trecha), for example. Alternately, the overlap in 14C dates between ‘‘early Neolithic’’ and ‘‘late Mesolithic’’ sites could be more
apparent than real, with an abrupt and nearly complete
abandonment of foraging in favor of agro-pastoralism
as the main basis of subsistence ca. 4600–4300 cal. BC.
The suite of finds in El Mirón Levels 10/303.3–303 does
provide clarity in an until-now somewhat confusing
picture of Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in northern
Atlantic Spain and they do tend to support a scenario
whereby local foraging groups ultimately, but abruptly
adopted the complete Neolithic ‘‘package’’ after a long
period of either ignorance of or resistance to the changes
that had for centuries been occurring in the nearby
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Mediterranean environments of the upper Ebro and
southern France. While hunting continued, the fundamental basis of human subsistence seems to have quickly
shifted to food production, a fact which also rapidly
engendered basic changes in settlement, social organization and belief systems, as attested by the dramatic
shift in the kinds of uses to which caves of the
Cantabrian regiondincluding El Miróndwere put
(either for major residence and stabling, or for
specialized burial) in the late Neolithic, Chalcolithic
and Bronze Age periods. Of course, since Neolithic
research (compared with Paleolithic and Mesolithic
research) is still in its infancy in Cantabrian Spain,
further evidence of early agriculture is likely to appear.
It is striking to note in conclusion that very soon after
the adoption of a food production economy, some
human groups in the northern Atlantic regions of Spain
began to construct megalithic monuments. Among the
dolmens and other tumuli there are construction-related
radiocarbon dates going back as far as 5800 BP (4600
cal. BC) in both the far western (Asturias) and far
eastern (Guipúzcoa) sectors of the Cantabrian region
(Monte Areo VI and Larrarte, respectively) [10,14].
However, the bulk of the dates fall within the range
between 5500 and 5000 BP (4300–3700 cal. BC).
Recently, a dolmen (Hayas, on a ridge dominating the
Asón valley between La Trecha and El Mirón) was
excavated and charcoal from the floor of the central
burial chamber was dated [30]. The resultd5490G120
BPdis within 1s of the 14C age of the emmer wheat
grain from El Mirón Level 303.3. These facts suggest
that, although the economic change from Mesolithic to
Neolithic lifeways was a complex process during the
short period between ca. 5800 and 5500 BP, once human
groups made the change to a heavily agro-pastoral way
of life (with hunting, fishing and gathering as increasingly secondary subsistence activities), they ‘‘staked
out’’ their territories, marking them prominently with
their dead, in costly, visible structures. The process of
‘‘domesticating’’ the landscape began very quickly once
the fundamental shift from foraging to farming had
been made by long-time inhabitants of the Cantabrian
region. New uses of the land, involving forest clearance,
tillage and pasturage, had begun, as new forms of
relations between humans and the land, and among the
humans themselves also began to take hold.
Acknowledgements
Financial support for the El Mirón Prehistoric
Project has been provided by the US National Science
Foundation, the Fundación Marcelino Botı́n, the
L.S.B.Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic
Society, the Gobierno de Cantabria, the University of
New Mexico and the Spanish Ministerio de Educación.
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We gratefully acknowledge the material help of the
Town of Ramales and the Universidad de Cantabria, as
well as the extraordinary efforts of our students and
colleagues in excavations and analyses since 1996.
Drafting was done by E. Castiglioni (wheat grain), R.
Stauber (map and section) and E. Torres (site plan). LPC worked under a CSIC post-doctoral contract within
the I3P Program, funded by the European Social Fund.
LZ did her research with a post-doctoral grant from the
Basque Government (BF101.12). Her analysis and that
of MJI were done within the framework of a Research
Group (9/UPV00155.130-14570/2002) at the University
of the Basque Country.
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