Habitat evolution in Iberian Levant, from Neolithic to the Bronze Age
Jiménez-Puerto, Joaquína; Bernabeu Aubán, Joana and Orozco Köhler, Teresaa
aDepartment de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Història Antiga, Universitat de València, Spain.
Abstract:
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 future urban phenomenon, later in the Iron Age.
The dawn of the Iron Age (around the 800 BC) will be the moment when the hierarchical organization, the control of the territory and the rising of a deeper degree of planning in the settlements, reach a tangible level in the archaeological record. But such phenomenon will not pop up suddenly in the eastern Iberia stage, and it will be the consequence of a series of previous social processes. The changes in the habitat and in occupation patterns are obvious, during the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age.
The purpose of this work is the study of the evolution in the social changes by analysing their imprints in the habitat: settlements, houses, topology and construction techniques used in the buildings, from Neolithic to Bronze Age (5000-1800 BC), in the Iberian Levant zone, using data from the better known archaeological sites.
Keywords: Habitat, settlement, Bronze Age, Neolithic, Iberian Peninsula.