The Neolithic flint mining quarry of Pozarrate (Treviño, North of Spain)

Abstract

The Neolithic quarry of Pozarrate is located in the Sierra the Araico (Grandival, Treviño) in the South Pyrenean Syncline of the Basque-Cantabrian Basin (North of Spain). The geological formation (Palustrine-Lacustrine carbonates) offers an exceptional quality nodular flint that was available for human groups knapping works since Prehistory. On the terrain surface, eight hillside dumps with half-moon morphology are identified. They have about 40 meters in diameter and in their centre they have a small depression. In the lower of these dumps an archaeological excavation is being carried out in order to understand the dynamics of its formation and its covering and abandonment. So far, a very high number of lithic remains has been recovered associated with the extraction and first manipulation phases of flint (tens of thousands of evidences) and tools related to quarry works: tools on deer antlers, dolerite maces, mining picks and flint hammers fundamentally. Two radiocarbon dates have been made on a fragment of deer antler and an oak coal and they have confirmed that it is a Neolithic exploitation, with chronologies between 6000-5600 BP (uncalibrated). It is one of the few prehistoric flint mines dated up to now in the Iberian Peninsula.