First Evidence of Collective Human Inhumation from the Cardial Neolithic (Cova Bonica, Barcelona, NE Iberian Peninsula)

ABSTRACT

Excavations at Cova Bonica (Barcelona, Spain) have revealed 98 human remains, grouped into five age clusters and corresponding to a minimum of six non-articulated individuals. The remains are clearly associated with Cardial pottery, lithic artifacts, and ornaments suggesting an Early Neolithic horizon. The radiocarbon dating of three human individuals provides a reliable attribution to this period, with a range between ca. 5470 and 5220 cal b.c., identifying it as one of the few assemblages of human remains directly dated from this period. These remains correspond to a rare collective human inhumation and join a growing body of samples from the Cardial Neolithic, which is providing some of the important sites for the study of population movement and the spread of Neolithization along the western Mediterranean coast.

KEYWORDS:

• Early Neolithic
• Cova Bonica
• human remains
• Cardial
• Iberian Peninsula

Acknowledgments

This paper is the result of the research project “El Plistocè superior a la costa central catalana: paleoambients i ocupacions neandertals (2014/100639),” supported by the 2014SGR-108, HAR2014-55131 and CGL2009-12703-C03-03 projects. Fieldwork was sponsored by Servei d'Arqueologia i Paleontologia (Generalitat de Catalunya) and Ajuntament de Vallirana. J. Daura were funded by a postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/100507/2014) from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal) using funding from the FSE/POP H and M. Sanz has been supported by a postdoctoral grant (Juan de la Cierva Subprogram FJCI-2014-21386). We are also grateful to Ramon Álvarez (UB) for Figure 4 and A. Abad (from the Museu de Geologia del Seminari Conciliar de Barcelona) for malacological identifications.

Notes on contributors

F. Xavier Oms (Ph.D. 2014, University of Barcelona) is an associate professor and researcher in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Barcelona. His research is focused on the Neolithization process in SW Europe through the first pottery productions and radiocarbon dating.

Joan Daura (Ph.D. 2008, University of Barcelona) is a researcher in the Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal). His main research interest lies in the study of Palaeolithic and Neolithic economies facilitated by fieldwork in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula.

Montserrat Sanz (Ph.D. 2013, University of Barcelona) is a researcher in the Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre la Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos (Spain) where she conducts archaeological fieldwork. Her research is focused in taphonomy and mammalian zooarchaeology.

Susana Mendiela is a Ph.D. candidate at University of Murcia, Spain. Her main research is focused on health and demographic patterns in skeletal past populations. This includes the study of children, paleopathology, and growth patterns from Neolithic to Bronze Age in the Mediterranean area of Iberia.

Mireia Pedro is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Barcelona. She is a researcher in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Barcelona. Her main research is the study of Neolithic and Bronze Age ceramics and funerary practices in the Iberian Peninsula.

Pablo Martínez is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Barcelona. He is a researcher in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Barcelona and he conducts fieldwork in the northeast Iberian Peninsula. His research is focused on Neolithic archaeology, mainly ceramics, lithics and grave goods.

ORCID

F. Xavier Oms http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1642-548X