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| 148 | T his chapter reports on the analysis of the plant macroremains recovered from El Mirón Cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria) during three seasons of excavation (1997, 1998, and 1999). El Mirón is a large cave situated in the eastern part of Cantabria province (northern Spain) on the edge of the Cantabrian Cordillera, at the interface between the Cantabrian coast and the Castilian plateau. It is located at 260 m above sea level, in a strategic position that dominates the Ruesga Valley and its tributary gorges: the Calera and Gándara. El Mirón has a long stratigraphic sequence from the medieval period to the Middle Paleolithic, with levels assigned to Mousterian, Early Upper Paleolithic, Solutrean, Magdalenian , Azilian, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age periods. Excavations have been focused on two different areas within the vestibule: the outer vestibule, or Cabin, and the vestibule rear, or Corral (González Morales and Straus 1997, 2000a, b; Straus and González Morales 1996, 1998, 2001). The samples analyzed here cover the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age levels. Most discussions about the Neolithic in the Cantabrian area have failed to consider the role of arable farming and, more generally, the role of plants in human subsistence, denying their contribution to the economy of the first Neolithic communities (for a review of current theories on the adoption of agriculture in the Cantabrian area, see Zapata 2002b). It is only during the past few years that an increasing interest in agriculture has led to the application of systematic, on-site recovery techniques at several sites. This is starting to produce a new body of data based on archaeobotanical studies (e.g., Iriarte 1994a, b, 1998; Iriarte and Zapata 1996; Sánchez Goñi 1993; Zapata 2000, 2002a, b). Nevertheless, plant remains from Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age sites are still scarce, making the study of El Mirón of great interest for understanding the development of the first farming communities of the region. The main objectives of this work are: (a) to identify the range of plants used by the inhabitants of the cave during the Holocene in order to improve our understanding of their ChAPter ten neolithic, Chalcolithic, and bronze Age Plant remains from el mirón Cave evidence on the First Farming Communities in the Cantabrian region Leonor Peña-Chocarro Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age Plant Remains | 149 | Cereals have been ordered and named following the standard binomial classification, and they have been placed at the beginning of this chapter’s tables, followed by the wild taxa in alphabetical order. Cereal fragments refer to parts of the grain, different from the embryo, which cannot be identified to genus or species level. due to conservation problems, some items could not be identified because the critical anatomical elements were absent. They were classified as “indeterminate .” In some other cases we have used the term “type” (abbreviated “tp.”; e.g., Bromus tp.), which indicates that the specimen is similar to the cited genus. As for parenchymatous fragments, we have only recorded their presence or absence within the samples. results This section summarizes the plant remains only from theHolocenelevels(BronzeAge,Chalcolithic,andNeolithic strata), from which a total of 368 samples have been analyzed (table 10.1). Results of the analysis are presented below, including a description of the samples and the major plant categories present. In general, the number of remains is very low, and therefore it has not been possible to carry out analytical calculations. The Neolithic Levels Neolithic samples were collected from two different areas of the cave: the Cabin area, or outer vestibule (Strata8,9,10),excavatedin1997and1998,andtheMidVestibule Trench (Strata 303, 303.1, 303.2, 303.3), excavated in 1999 to connect the outer vestibule with the vestibule rear, which itself presents no post-Paleolithic deposits. The Cabin Area: Stratum 10 The excavation of this stratum during both the 1997 and 1998 seasons produced several samples for archaeobotanical study. Two AMS dates of 5570±50 BP and 5690±50 BP are available for Square I3. From the 1997 excavation, only one sample was analyzed (Sample 6, from Square I3B, Spit 18), while from the 1998 season 4 samples were sorted out (Samples 459, 460, 463, and 476 from Squares H2C and J4ABC). The only plant remnant is a seed of a sedge species (Carex sp.) from use as part of human subsistence at the site; (b) to detect the appearance of the first cultivated plants, and (c) to analyze the...

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