PREHISTORY IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

Lower Paleolithic
First chopping tool (canto tallado), around 900.000 B. C. Characterised by the stone culture of the Acheulean (El Achelense) Stone tools: fabrication of bifaces (see page 4), cleavers (hendidor, see p. 5) , picos tiedricos Economy: hunting and recollection of fruits They hunted deer, horses, bovids Culture of nomads Migrations according to the disponibility of food and climate changes

Middle Paleolithic or Mousterian (musteriense)

Develloped during the last Ice Age between 130.000 y 32.000 B. C. Fabrication of points, racloirs (raederas, see p. 8), denticulate tools (denticulados) and knives. Diversification of stone tools, generally smaller. Type of men: Anteneanderthal and Neanderthal. Habitation in caves. No longer nomads. Recolection of fruits and hunting. Controlled use of fire.

High Paleolithic
Between 33.000 B. C and 9.000 B. C Perfection of stone fabrication techniques. Tools: Burins (see p. 10) and scrapers (raspadores) Fabrication of tools of bones Type of man: Homo sapiens sapiens

Main cultures: solutrean (solutrense) with the technique of the flat retouch (retoque plano, see p. 11); the magdalenian (el magdaleniense). Typical of this culture were the javelins made of bone (see p. 12). Magdalenian and solutrean art: cave of Altamira. Bicromic and realistic.

Mesolithic
Started in a period of a more soft climate Between 9.000 B. C. and 5.000 B. C. Disappearance of the paeolithic art, only mobile art (arte mueble) Hunting, recollection of fruits, fishing

Invention of the bow

Neolithic
Started around 5.500 B. C. Aproximately until 4.000 B. C. Start of agriculture with the domestication of animals like pigs, goats, sheeps, etc. Agriculture was introduced from the South of France. Appearance of the sickle (hoz) and mills. Appearance of a ceramical culture, made in small primitive ovens, with decorations of incisions (see p. 15) and decorations made with cords.

The calcolithic or Copper Age

Intermediate phase between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age Between 2.500 and 1.800 B. C. Collective graves, the megaliths (see p. 17) Fortified villages The village of los Millares

Beaker culture (cultura campaniforme)

Between 2.500 and 1.500 B. C. In the whole of Europe appeared pots with the form of an inverted bell. In the Iberian Peninsula dominated the beakers with a decoration of incisions. Principaly found in graves. The beakers contain knives, arrowpoints, etc.

Bronze Age
2.000 till 700 B. C Cultivation of de grain, barley (cebada) leguminous plants, peas Importance livestock farming

Big production of swords of bronze. Village of Argar (1.700 1.400 a. C) Graves of cists, small stone built box, like a coffin, used to bury the dead Metallurgical industry The metallurgical industry meant that the society was more complex with a division of labour: craftsmen, miners, carriers, tradesmen, etc.