Joan Bernabeu Auban

University of Valencia | UV · Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología

Cocina cave has been considered one of the main sites when explaining the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic in the Iberian Mediterranean façade. But the current review of its stratigraphy has evidenced important post-depositional disturbances affecting those layers where Neolithic pottery is present. These taphonomic problems question the use...

Many studies in complexity theory employ agent-based models whose interactions can be expressed as networks. In such models, the pattern of interactions between actors is crucial, and the network topology that emerges from the raw data can be characterized through many metrics. There is one tool that has been previously employed in Archaeology stud...

A methodological proposal for the characterisation of dolerite rock aiming to test a non-destructive and non-invasive analytical approach has been developed. Geological samples were collected from several natural outcrops and studied together with seven archaeological stone tools found in a Chalcolithic site of the southern Valencian Community (Spa...

Several studies indicate that ecosystem resilience exhibits decreased signals before regime shifts. Considering human dynamics, the Neolithic constitutes a techno-economic revolution that implies a significant increase in population according to SPDs from calibrated radiocarbon dates as a relative demographic proxy. The use of SPD methods in severa...

The purpose of this work is to show an automatic Bayesian procedure to obtain accurate chronological information of archaeological assemblages characterized by palimpsest or without radiocarbon dates and whose temporal information comes only from bifacial flint arrowheads. In this paper, a classification method based on the Dirichlet-multinomial in...

The aim of this paper is to examine the craftwork on hard materials of animal origin from the Iron Age of the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. We deal with the processes of craftsmanship, transmission of knowledge and the circulation of ivory combs and perforated bone plates. The Cultural Inheritance Theory offers a framework to help identify so...

Desde hace poco tiempo en el estudio sobre los orígenes de las primeras sociedades agrícolas en el Mediterráneo Occidental se ha generado un amplio debate en torno a la filiación y características culturales de los primeros grupos que practican una economía de subsistencia. En este contexto encuentra sentido la discusión sobre la presencia en la pe...

Dating is a key element for archaeologists. We propose a Bayesian approach to provide chronology to sites that have neither radiocarbon dating nor clear stratigraphy and whose only information comes from lithic arrowheads. This classifier is based on the Dirichlet-multinomial inferential process and posterior predictive distributions. The procedure...

All representations of the human past are models, whether they are in the form of narratives, equations, or computer algorithms. While we can never know the “true” past, archaeologists seek to create more reliable and useful models of the dynamics of ancient lives and societies. One of the most widely accepted ways to scientifically establish a mod...

Dating is a key element for archaeologists. We propose a Bayesian approach to provide chronology to sites that have neither radiocarbon dating nor clear stratigraphy and whose only information comes from lithic arrowheads. This classifier is based on the Dirichlet-multinomial inferential process and posterior predictive distributions. The procedure...

En este capítulo se describe el diseño, manejo y la gestión de una base de datos radiométrica centrada en el estudio del Mesolítico y el Neolítico de la península Ibérica. Las investigaciones sobre el proceso de neolitización en el arco mediterráneo peninsular desarrolladas desde el Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Història Antiga (Univers...

Dating is a key element for archaeologists. We propose a Bayesian approach to provide chronology to sites that have neither radiocarbon dating nor clear stratigraphy and whose only information comes from bifacial flint arrow-heads. This classifier is based on the Dirichlet-multinomial inferential process and posterior predictive distributions. The...

We conducted palynological, sedimentological, and chronological analyses of a coastal sediment sequence to investigate landscape evolution and agropastoral practices in the Nao Cap region (Spain, Western Mediterranean) since the Holocene. The results allowed for a reconstruction of vegetation, fire, and erosion dynamics in the area, implicating the...

In this study, patterns of rare earth elements (REE) have been developed and applied for the first time to sediments and soils to identify anthropogenic or natural layers in profiles sampled at several Neolithic settlements in the Serpis Valley area (Alicante, Spain). Most of these sites are characterized by dark brown paleosols that are easily dis...

Study of the last excavations al Kelin (Caudete de las Fuentes), an Iron Age central place.

The voltammetry of microparticles (VIMP) methodology was applied to a set of submicrosamples from the corrosion layers of copper artifacts from the archaeological site of La Vital (Gandia, Spain), dated back to 4200 to 3900 BP, attached to graphite electrodes in contact with aqueous acetate buffer at pH 4.50. Signals for the reduction of cuprite pl...

In this paper, we describe the radiocarbon dataset compiled in the context of the project HAR2015-68962 EVOLPAST: 'Dinámicas evolutivas y patrones de variabilidad cultural de los últimos cazadores-recolectores y el primer Neolítico en el este peninsular (7000–4500 cal. BC)' funded by the Spanish government. The dataset offers the most complete and...

El presente seminario tiene por objetivo crear un foro de debate en torno a los contextos con materiales cerámicos impressos del Neolítico antiguo de la península ibérica. Recientes hallazgos permiten vislumbrar un posible horizonte cronocultural previo al tradicional Neolítico antiguo cardial.

The required conditions for the appearance of the urban life in the Iberian Peninsula start with Neolithic arrival to these coasts. The introduction of a cattle-farming combined economy is the arrival point for the spread of the sedentary way of life, which will conduct to the development of the social procedures needed for the development of the f...

Las comarcas centro-meridionales del País Valenciano y sus cuencas fluviales constituyen áreas con documentación excelente de la Prehistoria Reciente, gracias al interés continuado de la investigación desde el s. XIX hasta hoy. En este trabajo, presentamos un análisis combinado de series de fechas C14 junto con datos relativos al poblamiento, para...

When trying to understand the Neolithic transition in the Western Mediterranean, Cocina Cave (Dos Aguas, Valencia, Eastern Iberia) outstands as a key landmark for many reasons. We count its archaeological record as one of the most significant in southwestern Europe. Not only are its lithic and faunal records counted by the thousands, but they also...

We applied taphonomic analysis combined with geostatistical approaches to investigate the hypothesis that Cocina cave (Eastern Iberia) represents an acculturation context for the appearance of Neolithic Cardial pottery. In the 1970s, Fortea suggested that this important site was a prime example of acculturation because of the presence of early Neol...

In landscapes whose surface has been modified by terracing and other agricultural land-use, the spatial and temporal patterning of prehistoric settlement can be difficult to detect using traditional, site-orientated archaeological survey methods, especially for small-scale societies. In these contexts, methods that can reveal occupational patterns...

In landscapes intensely modified by agricultural terraces and other modern land uses, the spatio-temporal pattern of prehistoric settlement can be difficult to detect using traditional surveying methods oriented to the location of singular sites. Agricultural terraces are the norm, so it is necessary to examine the landscape as a whole, instead of...

In this paper, we compile recent ¹⁴ C dates related to the Neolithic transition in Mediterranean Iberia and present a Bayesian chronological approach for testing the dual model , a mixed model proposed to explain the spread of farming and husbandry processes in eastern Iberia. The dual model postulates the coexistence of agricultural pioneers and i...

The spread of agriculture from the Near East to Europe has long been a subject of intense archaeological study and debate in light of the social and economic changes that occurred and were set in motion as a result of this transition. Despite the attention paid to this important process, a consensus is far from being reached. Perhaps for these reas...

Actual research into the neolithization process and the development of farming communities in the Western Mediterranean reveals a diverse and complex cultural landscape. Dispersal routes and rhythm of diffusion of the agro-pastoral economy, Mesolithic inheritance, regional interactions between communities, and functional adaptations all have to be...

Due to their particular geochemical properties and stability Rare Earth Elements (REE) can act as a ‘fingerprint’ for soils, and as a consequence have been employed in a variety of different archaeological scenarios in order to identify past human activities.In this study, for the first time, we apply REE signatures in different Spanish Neolithic s...

Recent approaches have described the evolutionary dynamics of the first Neolithic societies as a cycle of rise and fall. Several authors, using mainly c14 dates as a demographic proxy, identified a general pattern of a boom in population coincident with the arrival of food production economies followed by a rapid decline some centuries afterward in...

In this paper we present recent research concerning the neolithization process in the East of Spain, evaluating the time span between the last hunther-gatherer groups and the first farmers (c. 5950–5150 cal. BC). To do that we have compiled and filtered current information about radiocarbon dates and sites in order to discuss the state of the art r...

Abstract Recent excavations and radiocarbon work conducted at Cocina Cave (Valencia region, Eastern Iberia) provide new insights into the transition from foraging to farming in the eastern Iberian Peninsula between 8000 and 7300 cal yrs. BP. Cocina cave was discovered in 1940 and excavated by L. Pericot from 1941 to 1945. J. Fortea continued excava...

Due to their particular geochemical properties and stability Rare Earth Elements (REE) can act as a ‘fingerprint’ for soils, and as a consequence have been employed in a variety of different archaeological scenarios in order to identify past human activities.In this study, for the first time, we apply REE signatures in different Spanish Neolithic s...

RESUMEN: Presentamos en este trabajo una evaluación inicial de los trabajos de prospección sistemática llevados a cabo en la comarca de La Canal de Navarrés (Valencia) desde el año 2014 en el marco del proyecto NSF " The Emergence of Coupled Natural and Human Landscapes in the Western Mediterranean ". El programa desarrollado ha seguido un protocol...

Among Humanities, Archaeology has always been ground-breaking in the use of technological advances when approaching historical knowledge, which has eased and improved subsequent work on registered data. Using software like gvSIG, not only are these studies able to be undertaken, but also other actions such as georeferencing stratigraphical units, v...

The emergence of coupled natural and human landscapes marked a transformative interval in the human past that set our species on the road to the urbanized, industrial world in which we live. This emergence enabled technologies and social institutions responsible for human-natural couplings in domains beyond rural, agricultural settings. The Mediter...

RESUMEN: Presentamos en este trabajo una evaluación inicial de los trabajos de prospección sistemática llevados a cabo en la comarca de La Canal de Navarrés (Valencia) desde el año 2014 en el marco del proyecto NSF " The Emergence of Coupled Natural and Human Landscapes in the Western Mediterranean ". El programa desarrollado ha seguido un protocol...

En este texto se explora la complementariedad y la utilidad de la Teoría Evolutiva y de los Sistemas Complejos Adaptativos en su aplicación a la Arqueología. Si bien la primera de las aproximaciones goza de una más extensa tradición en nuestra disciplina, la aplicación de los conceptos y métodos basados en la(s) Teoría(s) de la Complejidad son much...

Here we discuss the importance of using the rich and growing database of high-precision, audited radiocarbon dates for high-resolution bottom-up modelling to focus on problems concerning the spread of the Neolithic in the Iberia. We also compare the spread of the Late Mesolithic (so-called Geometric) and the Early Neolithic using our modelling envi...

Our goal in this paper is to examine the socioecological dynamics of the Early Neolithic period in Iberia in order to test the usefulness of temporal probability curves built from dated sites as a relative proxy for exploring possible links between trends in population patterns and climatic fluctuations. We compare the information for the entire Ib...

Interactions among individuals and groups in human societies can be represented as networks, in which the nodes are social agents and the connections between the nodes (edges or links in network terminology) represent their interactions. This allows for the application of a wide range of mathematical tools, with which to understand their evolutiona...

This paper is the first updated review of the scope, depth and problems related to the current radiocarbon chronology of the late prehistory of southern Iberia. The aim is twofold. First, it critically analyses the quantity and quality of radiocarbon dates used to interpret the diverse trajectories of western Mediterranean societies throughout more...

https://www.openabm.org/model/4447

The Western Mediterranean, spanning southern Italy to Portugal, can be considered a single archaeological unit where the diagnostic characteristics of Early Neolithic contexts share common elements, marked by the spread of Cardium-Impressed ceramics. Although some consensus exists regarding the origin of these wares in southern Italy, the debate su...

Recent discoveries carried out in the open air site of La Vital (Gandia, Valencia, Spain), have provided an interesting dataset about internal and external organisation of domestic space, metallurgical activities and burial practices dated to the pre-Beaker Chalcolithic and Bell Beaker periods. According to several analytical criteria (i.e. spatial...

Abstract The aim of the present study was to define a methodological strategy for understanding how post- mortem degradation in bones caused by the environment affects different skeletal parts and for selecting better preserved bone samples, employing rare earth elements (REEs) analysis and multivariate statistics. To test our methodological propos...

In the Symposium "Making Sense of Archaeological Survey we report on new digital field methods we have applied in La Canal de Navarrés (Valencia) in the summer of 2014. Although we have carried out archaeological surveys in the Valencian Region for 25 years, this was the first time we undertook archaeological survey, in a new research area, without...

In many cases a previous impact on the structure and chemical composition of the bones is induced by cremation during funerary rituals, accident and other human activities. In this study, we have created a statistical classification of carbonized and cremated bones, as well as bones exposed to unknown thermal conditions to identify the degree of bu...

The Western Mediterranean, spanning southern Italy to Portugal, can be considered a single archaeological unit where the diagnostic characteristics of Early Neolithic contexts share common elements, marked by the spread of Cardium-Impressed ceramics. Although some consensus exists regarding the origin of these wares in southern Italy, the debate su...