Un espacio compartido por vivos y muertos: El poblado calcolítico de fosos de Camino de las Yeseras (San Fernando de Henares, Madrid)

Abstract

The preliminary results are presented of the excavations in a large, ditched enclosured Chalcolithic settlement. The site was probably a central place in the production and long-distance exchange of surplus. The accumulations found of raw materials (flint, granite and metamorphic stones) and agricultural, stockbreeding and industrial products were exchanged by other foreign products (variscite, cinnabar, ivory and gold). Ritual data are also remarkable: a significant number of individual and collective burials have been recorded in pits, small artificial caves and hypogeos, delimited in special areas. The richer burials had Ciempozuelos-style Bell-beaker elements and prestige items, such as gold and ivory beads. Osteomorphic and size features of some Bell-beaker individuals point out a remarkable physical aspect during their life time. The faunal deposits, which included mixed species associations, evidence a complex symbolic relationship with animals. The site is essential for the knowledge of the Chalcolithic period and the impact of Bell-beaker customs and funerary rituals in the consolidation of social inequalities amidst the first metallurgical societies of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula.