António Faustino Carvalho

Stable Isotope Evidence of Neolithic Palaeodiets in the Coastal Regions of Southern Portugal

ABSTRACT To understand stable isotope (δ15N and δ13C) and radiocarbon results for a batch of 16 burials from the Bom Santo Cave (Portugal) a comprehensive analysis of data from 29 archaeological sites located in the coastal regions of the southern half of the country was undertaken. Results showed that, while some individuals seem to have eaten more marine or aquatic (i.e., freshwater) food as a result of locally available resources, the overall picture indicated a balanced consumption of terrestrial plants and herbivores throughout all stages of the Neolithic. This pattern represents a shift from Mesolithic subsistence focused on locally available resources to the introduction of a farming economic system with its associated changes in settlement and possibly also demography.

Zooarchaeology in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of Southern Portugal

Abstract Our knowledge of South Portugals Neolithic and Chalcolithic subsistence strategies is limited by scarce palaeobotanical evidence (restricted to the latter period) and irregular zooarchaeological data. This framework is also affected by post-depositional biases, unevenly represented sites throughout the territory (i.e. under/over representation of sites according to their functions) and published data with disparate objectives and analytic methodologies. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that a priori theoretical assumption dominates over empirically supported arguments on crucial aspects of the Neo–Chalcolithic time period, such as (1) the relative importance of domestic versus wild species at the Neolithic onset (cal ≈5500 BC), (2) the supposed predominance of caprines herding and cervid hunting among the economic practices of the megalith builders (cal ≈4000–3000 BC) or (3) the real impact of the ‘Secondary Products Revolution’ and its chronology (cal ≈3000 BC onwards?). Using existing publications and unpublished reports, we critically organise the available zooarchaeological data according to geographical and ecological sub-regions, in order to discuss it under uniform analytic procedures, evaluate current models and point out directions for future research.

The Bom Santo Cave (Lisbon, Portugal): Catchment, Diet, and Patterns of Mobility of a Middle Neolithic Population

The study of the Bom Santo Cave (central Portugal), a Neolithic cemetery, indicates a complex social, palaeoeconomic, and population scenario. With isotope, aDNA, and provenance, analyses of raw materials coupled with stylistic variability of material culture items and palaeogeographical data, light is shed on the territory and social organization of a population dated to 3800–3400 cal BC, i.e. the Middle Neolithic. Results indicate an itinerant farming, segmentary society, where exogamic practices were the norm. Its lifeway may be that of the earliest megalithic builders of the region, but further research is needed to correctly evaluate the degree of this communitys participation in such a phenomenon.

Surf and Turf: The Use of Marine and Terrestrial Resources in the Early Neolithic of Coastal Southern Portugal

Southern Portugal is an interesting case study in the spread of the Middle Eastern Neolithic complex. Similar to sites along the Mediterranean coast, the Portuguese Neolithic was the result of the longitudinal movement of agricultural adaptations. Plants and animals that originally evolved in southwest Asia, therefore, did not have to adapt to extreme changes in the length of the growing season, summer temperatures, or rainfall, as was the case with the latitudinal movement of agriculture into interior and northern Europe. Unlike their contemporaries along the Mediterranean, however, the Mesolithic and Neolithic inhabitants of Portugal had access to the rich marine resources of the Atlantic Ocean upwelling along the western coast of Europe allowed extensive exploitation of fish and shellfish by relatively complex and sedentary groups of foragers throughout the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, from Portugal to Scandinavia (Arias 1999). The large concheiros (shell midden sites) of Mesolithic Portugal are just one example of this phenomenon (Zilhao 1997).

The Origins and Spread of Domestic Animals in Southwest Asia and Europe

As stated in its foreword, this volume is the outcome of a research project entitled ‘Origins and Spread of Stock-Keeping in the Near East and Europe’ that took place between 2007 and 2011 as the l...