Fauna And Animal Hard Raw Material Of The Sacred Place Of The Motilla Culture: Castillejo Del Bonete (Terrinches, Ciudad Real)

In recent years, scientific journals have published several studies (ceramics, metal, lithic material, etc.) on Castillejo del Bonete. This work presents unpublished data on the bone industry, small and large mammals found in this site. Bone artifacts are mainly made up of from bone, antler or teeth, which were used as tools for production or accessories to dress and adorn the deceased, or to make idols. The study of small mammals provides information on the end of the use of these burial mounds, as well as on environmental aspects. The mortality profiles of big domestic mammals (ovicaprines, bovines and pigs) suggest a mixed exploitation, such primary (meat) as secondary (milk, wool and probably traction use) products The archaeological pieces deposited here were put at the service of a ritual created around the ancestors and a solar cult from the Chalcolithic until the Bronze Age. Two new radiocarbon dates of the site are provided, one of them obtained from an ovicaprine vertebra, which marks the moment of monumentalization of the cave used as a burial chamber, through the construction of the Great Mound 1. The second one allows to date the time of use of the Tumulus 2.