Landscape, resources and people during the Mesolithic and Neolithic times in NE Iberia: The Arba de Biel Basin

The Upper Arba de Biel constitutes a small valley in north-eastern Spain where a detailed study of five archaeological sites (Peña-14, Legunova/Rambla, Valcervera and Paco-Pons) has been performed, defining the recurrent prehistoric occupation from the Late Magdalenian until the Chalcolithic. The aim of this study focuses on exploring the main drivers of long-term human persistence on a particular humid shelter located in the Pre-Pyrenean area. The combination of a multiproxy dataset evidenced by the detailed synthesis of lithic tools and pottery, faunal remains, pollen and charcoal assemblages has been integrated with a GIS approach and a regional cultural and palaeoenvironmental contextualization. After an occupation gap that coincides with the second half of the Younger Dryas and the first Holocene millennia synchronous to other archaeological records found in NE Iberia, the Arba de Biel valley was recurrently visited by small hunter–gatherer groups along the Mesolithic and by herders during the Neolithic.