Operational chain and techno-typological analysis of the prehistoric adornments of variscite from the center-south-west of the Spanish North Plateau. History of an artisan tradition

Abstract

During Late Prehistory adornments worked out of variscite are widely used as prestige items all over Europe. The archaeological record of centre-south-west Northern Spanish Meseta is an ideal case study to fully reconstruct the chaîné opératoire from 1. Mining at Aliste area (Palazuelo de las Cuevas and other nearby mines), 2. adornment manufacturing at the production locii of Quiruelas de Vidriales sites, 3. Adornment consumption in about 30 tombs and settlements from Late Neolithic to Copper Age in the nearby areas to the mining and manufacturing places. This paper analyses the techno-typological features, scale and organisation of variscite adornment production patterns along time. Results allows to argue about a craft tradition born during the Late Neolithic that keep up its techno-tyopological features as grew up on intensity, concentration and most likely specialisation of the production during the Copper Age.