SINGULAR ARTIFACTS OF SOUTHERN RELATIONSHIP IN THE CALCOLITHIC OF THE NORTH SPANISH PLATEAU:

A CALCAREOUS GLASS FROM EL FONSARIO (VILLAFÁFILA - ZAMORA)

Singular artefacts with southern connections in the Northern Meseta Copper Age. A limestone cup from EL Fonsario (Villafáfila, Zamora)

ABSTRACT: The recovery of a stone vessel, an atypical object outside the chronocultural context of the southern Iberian Copper Age, at the El Fonsario site in Zamora, serves as a starting point for the elaboration of a catalog of other equally exotic artifacts from the material record. from the Precampaniform Chalcolithic of the northern Meseta. This is intended to carry out a succinct analysis that addresses the function of these elements in the sociopolitical sphere of North America and the incidence and the different supra-regional interactions. The singular nature of these objects, as well as some of their amortization contexts, suggest their use as elements of social distension obtained through exchange, local imitation as a result of individual trips or odysseys.^_ "Las Pozas" ^_ and another of isolation ^_ "Los Corderos" ^_ , a perspective that we clarify here due to the appearance of some of these artifacts in the second of the aforementioned areas. The use and function of these elements are part of a process of growing social complexity.

Keywords: Stone vessel. Symbolic pottery. Drilling axe. Idol. exotic objects

ABSTRACT: The recovery in the Zamorano field of El Fonsario of a stone vessel, atypical object outside the chronocultural context of the southern Iberian Copper Age, serves as a starting point for the elaboration of a catalog of other equally exotic artifacts from the material register of the precampaniform Chalcolithic of the North Plateau. The aim is to carry out a succinct analysis that addresses the role of these elements in the Normeseteña sociopolitical sphere and the incidence and the different supra-regional interactions. The very singular nature of these objects as well as some of their amortization contexts continue their use as elements of social relaxation obtained through the exchange, of local imitation as a result of individual journeys or odyssey. Regarding its distribution, it starts from the traditional dichotomy, within the Chalcolithic of the state of Nayarit, between areas of supra-regional interaction _ "Las Pozas" _ and another one of isolation _ "Los Corderos" _, a perspective that is nuanced here due to the appearance of some of these artifacts in the second of the aforementioned areas. The use and function of these elements are part of a process of increasing social complexity.

Keywords: Stone vessel. Symbolic pottery Drilling axe. idol exotic items

1. Introduction

The attraction of the saline resources of the Zamoran lagoons of Villafáfila could have exerted on the prehistoric communities of Normeseteños was confirmed, twenty years ago, with the identification of some evidence of the exploitation of this "white gold" in the deposit of the Age of Bronze from Santioste, in Otero de Sariegos (Delibes et al ., 1998). These material documents, together with the great density of archaeological sites of prehistoric affiliation identified in the Villafafileño environment (Rodríguez et al ., 1990), have served as an incentive to try to improve knowledge about the occupation and exploitation of this territory and its resources through through a series of intensive surface surveys (Abarquero et al .., 2010b) and excavations at two Campaniforme and Old Bronze salt factories (Abarquero et al ., 2010a). Within the framework of these new works, the study and drawing of material from one of the already known deposits, El Fonsario (Rodríguez et al., 1990:44), has made it possible to identify a unique artefactual element, to which we devote our attention here due to the exceptional nature of the Chalcolithic framework of both Zamora and Normese [1] .

2. Chronocultural contextualization of El Fonsario

In the municipality of Villafáfila, less than 2 km. To the northwest of the Laguna Salina Grande and on a flat land that gently dips towards the aforementioned body of water, is this 12-hectare site, identified as a pre-Campaniform Chalcolithic town. The strongest arguments to defend this chronocultural ascription emanate mainly from the stone masonry, characterized by shapes mostly derived from the sphere and decorations with different types of incisions and impressions. This is how horizontal comb motifs are formed – straight, wavy or mixed –, triangles filled with dots or small incised strokes, ciliary impressions, bands of dots framed by incised lines and even a galbo decorated with numerous incised strokes among which an oculate or soliform motif can be seen (Fig. 1). These are forms and decorative techniques that are recurrently present in other Zamoran pre-Balcolithic Chalcolithic sites, as can be seen in the stations of the Peñas de Quiruelas de Vidriales (Martín and Blanco, 1996), Los Bajo (Pérez Rodríguez et al., 1991 ), Las Bodegas (Larrén et al., 1999), Los Paradores de Castrogonzalo (Domínguez Bolaños, 1991), Viñalvo (López Plaza y Peñel, 1978) El Coto (Rodríguez Marcos y Val, 1980) or the emblematic town of Las Pozas (Val, 1992).

Despite the fact that the ceramic industry in this case provides a highly reliable chronological formation, the rest of the materials that accompany it do not disagree at all regarding this temporary description. Both the carved lithic production  – a stalked arrowhead with lateral appendages made on slate, a cut sheet of flint or various denticulated sickle elements on tabular flint and phyllite– as in other stone elements –an ax and an adze ordered and stone discs perforated and decorated with incisions– and even a fragment of clay "andiron" (Fig. 2) complete a tool whose parallels are easily traced in the deposits Chalcolithic in the same province of Zamora (Delibes, 1995: 68) as well as in several of the nearby Portuguese Tramontane settlements (Jorge, 1986).

In addition, an object has been recovered in this Villafafilo site, although it is not out of tune with the chronology of the first half of the 3rd millennium cal BC, which is followed by the rest of the material culture, if it represents an exceptional find within the framework of the Spanish northern sub-plateau: a small stone vessel assimilable to those of the Iberian Chalcolithic.

3. El Fonsario stone vessel and its parallels in the peninsular area

The piece in question is a glass of yellowish calcareous stone, with straight walls, flat base and about 5 cm in diameter x 7 in height. From this basic cylindrical shape in the interior, it has been worked hollowing it out and thus defining a succession in "v" with a rounded bottom, which has served to determine walls with a maximum thickness of 1.5 cm on the sides and 2 cm on the base. Its surface, well polished, is nevertheless somewhat rough due to the nature of the stone and shows no decoration of any kind (Figs. 3 and 4).

 Marble or alabaster limestone vases [2] are artifacts that during the Copper Age enjoyed a wide distribution in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. Its presence has been recognized for more than half a century, accompanying the materials of the traditional cultures of Los Millares or the mouth of the Tagus. The Siret brothers (1890: lam. 10) identified objects of this type in the town of Campos de Almanzora, as happened during the first interventions in the Ribetejano fort of Villa Nova de S ão Pedro (Jalhay and Paço 1945: 22). From these excavations, the pioneers among those referring to sites of this chronocultural framework, in a brief review of various forms of the findings of this type of artifact, allows us to briefly describe their distribution area. They are very common in Portuguese Extremadura in towns such as the aforementioned Villa Nova de São Pedro, Zumbajal and Penedo (Spindler, 1969). In the southern half of the Portuguese country they are also recognized in the Alentejo and the Algarve in Ferreira do Alentejo (Arnuand, 1982), Monte de Tumba (Tavares and Soares, 1987) or Cerro de Castelo de Santa Justa (Gonçalves 1989: 248). Already in Spanish territory, specimens have been recovered in the valleys of the Guadalquivir – Cabezo Juré in Huevla (Nocete et al., 2004) –Gandía – Algón (Enrique Navascues, 1989: 244) La Pijotilla (Hurtado, 1986) or San Blas (Hurtado, 2004) – and Tajo – Cerro de la Horca (González Cordero, 1993) –.

This distribution, for now based on finds from domestic sites, is complemented by funerary contexts, in which stone vessels are widely accepted grave goods. They tend to be common in tholos-type tombs in Portuguese Extremadura –Pria de Maças Sao Martího de Sintra, Barrro (Leisner 1965), O pi Mogo (Gonçalves, 2003)–, Alentejo necropolis of Alcalá (Leisner and Leisner 1943)–, valleys from the Guadiana tholos of La Pijota (Hurtado, 1986) – and from the Guadalquivir Matarrubia (Collantes de Teán 1969) or Almería Loma de Huéchar or the Millares necropolis (Leisner and Leisner, 1943) –. The preferential relationship of these objects with the tombs with a false dome does not, however, mean the exclusion of other funerary formulas from the Chalcolithic of the Peninsular Midi.

All the examples mentioned are stone containers for which there is a great variety, both formal and decorative. Briefly, with respect to his filmology, two basic varieties can be distinguished: derivatives of the sphere and cylindrical. In the first case we have hemispherical, globular and ellipsoidal. The cylindrical ones, on the other hand, are shaped as more or less stylized shapes. It should be noted, both in spheroidal and cylindrical, that the ratio between the capacity of the interior of these pieces with respect to their external volume is highly variable, and therefore the thickness of their walls is also variable. Another type, less common, are the small prismatic boxes (Fig. 6).

Between the spheroids and cylindrical ones, the surfaces are generally smooth, although there are nevertheless decorated examples. Among these, grooves are common –one or several horizontally arranged under the edge, zigzag in grids, etc. – and incisions –parallel lines along the edge, radial lines around the base, crosshairs or oblique lines filling bands, etc.–. As for the box-type containers, the decorated ones appear much more commonly, one could almost say that they are patterned, following a model of reticular grooves (Fig. 7).

We must not fail to mention other elements that, with the same chronology, appear exclusively in the Lisbon peninsula. Those labeled as "limestone votive artifacts" are objects as varied as pineapple/artichoke idols, moons or decorated adzes, and other rare and exceptional forms such as sandals, scale weights, octopus tentacles or engraved eggs (Gonçalves, 2005: 181). V. Gonçalves ( ibiden : 168) uses the exclusivity of such unique objects and the enormous abundance of limestone vases and betyls as firm arguments to maintain that calcareous vessels had their cradle in this region, from where they would later spread throughout the entire Sus Peninsular.

A more complex issue is trying to discern the function and meaning that can be attributed to calcareous vessels in the sociocultural context of the Iberian Southern Chalcolithic. On the one hand, its usual presence in the various Chalcolithic sepulchral contexts surely implies its relationship with a certain transcendental component. For example, in Campos de Alzamora, a marble container would form part of the funerary trousseau of a child, together with symbolic ceramics and a copper dagger (Martín Socas et al., 1987), the latter sumptuary element that also allows us to suppose his affiliation to a lineage. of range. As for other materials such as betilos, symbolic ceramics, copper daggers, bell-shaped vessels or ivory ornaments in a walled "citadel" hut in the Badajoz town of San Blas. This construction has been interpreted as the scene of cults related to social elites due to its location at a "semi-micro" level, its architectural typology and the artifacts produced inside it (Hurtado, 2004). Simulating circumstance can be seen in the Huelva fortified town of Cabezo Juré, in which stone vases along with seashells, gold linen and stone daggers are concentrated in its "acropolis". The monopolization of these elements, together with a differentiated diet rich in molluscs and game, seem to be the prerogatives of the leading group that would apparently organize the metallurgical economic activity of this enclave (Nocete et al., 2004). its architectural typology and the producing artifacts of its interior (Hurtado, 2004). Simulating circumstance can be seen in the Huelva fortified town of Cabezo Juré, in which stone vases along with seashells, gold linen and stone daggers are concentrated in its "acropolis". The monopolization of these elements, together with a differentiated diet rich in molluscs and game, seem to be the prerogatives of the leading group that would apparently organize the metallurgical economic activity of this enclave (Nocete et al., 2004). its architectural typology and the producing artifacts of its interior (Hurtado, 2004). Simulating circumstance can be seen in the Huelva fortified town of Cabezo Juré, in which stone vases along with seashells, gold linen and stone daggers are concentrated in its "acropolis". The monopolization of these elements, together with a differentiated diet rich in molluscs and game, seem to be the prerogatives of the leading group that would apparently organize the metallurgical economic activity of this enclave (Nocete et al., 2004).

The association of these stone vases with symbolic and sumptuary elements seems quite widespread in funerary settings, as well as the existence of certain social restrictions regarding their use in domestic contexts. Although there are explanatory criticisms of interpreting these artifacts as objects of prestige (Conçalves, 1979), the examples provided by San Blas or Cabezo Juré show a close link between these stone vessels and an elite social group whose way of life in terms of Diet, residence, economic activity or funeral sumptuousness seem to segregate him from the majority of the population. It cannot be said that the raw material of these stone artifacts, if we go by the criteria established by G. Clark (1986: 6), is especially appreciated given that, Except for the marble and alabaster specimens, they have been made on limestone, very common in much of the peninsular geolithological environment. On the other hand, the necessary expertise to make these products, of complex technical elaboration (Hurtado, 1980), must be taken into account, making it the most probably a fundamental requirement to have specialized knowledge.

This survey approach to the calcareous vessels and the inferences about their possible use in relation to the elites are applicable exclusively in the sociocultural framework of the Southern Chalcolithic. In this context, the widespread use of this type of objects suggests that they would store functionality and structured meaning. This is not the case when analyzing the isolated specimen of El Fonsario. Its recovery in an area where the absence of this type of production makes it unique for now necessarily implies, a priori, discarding these presumptions for our specimen. For this reason, in order to know the role or impact that the Zamorano vase in question could play, it must be analyzed in order to establish an adequate contextualization framework for the archaeological reality of Normese of the III millennium cal BC.

4. The "southern connection" and some examples of other unique artifacts in the Northern Subplateau Chalcolithic

At the time, the excavation of the Zamoran town of Las Pozas served to define the eponymous Cultural Horizon, in which G. Delibes and J. del Val (1990) noted the existence of a certain "southern connection" with the "cosmopolitan air" of the South. Of the peninsula. Ceramics with motifs such as triangles filled with dots, incisions, combs, embossed or solid tablets, and other objects such as andirons, concave-based points or the anthropomorphic idol of Las Pozas gave way to reflection on the nature of relationships – emulation, update, etc.– between the west of the northern Meseta and the southern peninsular (López Plaza 1987; Delibes and Val, 1990).

A review of the archaeological documentation from North America from the sites assigned in the first half of the III millennium cal BC, allows us to notice the presence, in several cases, of objects that could perfectly be described as singular or particular in these latitudes. Among them, resolutely more characteristic of other geographical areas, symbolic ceramics, arrowheads with a concave base and the anthropomorphic idol of Las Pozas can be enumerated in relation to the Chalcolithic towns of Zamora (Delibes and Del Val, 1990). If we broaden the perspective and refer to the northern Meseta as a whole, other "southern" elements could be added to these, such as plate idols or belitos, and even artifacts more typical of the Atlantic and trans-Pyrenean European façades, such as perforated axes.

4.1. symbolic pottery

Symbolic pottery, so well known in the Chalcolithic of the southeast (Martin Socas and Camalich, 1982), has been cataloged in a large number of Chalcolithic sites in Normesete. However, in each of these places fragments of vessels with a type of decoration are really scarce. In the province of Zamora, to the examples of Los Bajos (Pérez Rodríguez et al., 1991), Las Pozas (Val, 1992) or Los Paradores de Castrogonzalo (Domínguez Bolaños 1991) we can add the one recently recovered in El Fonsario (cf. Fig. 1, no. 5). They have also been documented in the middle Duero valley in Los Cercados (García Barrios, 2005) (Fig. 8, no. 2) or El Tomillar (Fabián, 2006) and, with greater profusion, in the Amblés valley, Ávila , in stations such as Los Itueros or Aldeagordillo (Fabián, 2006). In this same province, in the town of Bernuy-Salinero,

4.2. Concave base arrowheads

Flat roquette arrowheads with a concave base are very common in the southern Chalcolithic, with special incidence in the Portuguese area from where, ascending the Atlantic façade, they also constitute the majority type of arrowhead both in Tras-os-Montes (Jorge , 1986) and in Galicia (Fábregas, 1991: 136). Several examples are known in the Spanish Tagus Valley, such as, in Toledo, El Castillo de las Herencias (Álvaro, 1987) or the dolmen de la Estrella (Bueno, 1991), in Guadalajara in La Loma del Lomo (Valiente, 1987) and , in Madrid, in El Ventorro (Priego and Quero, 1992).

On the northern plateau, on the other hand, the pre-eminence of fin and peduncle or foliaceous tips is overwhelming, although they are recognized in some concave-based specimens in an exceptional and minority way. On the one hand, they have been documented in domestic spaces such as the Avila settlement of La Peña del Águila (López Plaza, 1976) and the Zamoranos of Las Pozas (Val, 1992), Los Bajos (Pérez Rodríguez et al., 1991) and Pozo de Moiro (Abarquero et al., 2010b). They have also appeared in two of the Salamanca dolmens with Chalcolithic reuse: El Torrejón de Villamayor (Arias, 1989) and La Casa del Moro in Casillas de las Flores (López Plaza, and Luis Salvador, 2000).

4.3. idols

La Meseta is not a space where it is common to find artifacts similar to those belonging to the complex world of Chalcolithic peninsular idols (Hurtado, 2005), although we do have some specific examples. These would be two idols from the town of Las Pozas -one of them in which the nose, cheekbones and eyes can be distinguished- (Del Val, 1992) and several fragments of plate idols and some possible betyls found in various Salamancan dolmens. The betilos are two specimens from El Castillo de Castro Enríquez and the Ermita de Galisancho (Delibes and Santoja: 1986: 37 and 75), while the various fragments of plate idols were also recovered in the Galisancho dolmen (Delibes and Santoja , 1986: 37), El Torrejón de Villamayor (Arias, 1989) and La Casa del Moro de Casillas de Flores (López Plaza et al .., 2000).

4.4 Pierced axes

Finally, the case of perforated axes, polished tools – generally axes or hoe blades, to be confused with the so-called "combat axes" – characterized – two by a perforation made in its proximal end, should be treated. Objects of this type, very common in Neolithic France (Pétrequin et al ., 2002), are known in the Iberian Peninsula along the Cantabrian coast and the central north coast of Portugal. Although unfortunately most of them come from chance finds and private collections, some examples have made it possible to trace their association with Chalcolithic chronologies (Fábregas and Vázquez Varela, 1982; Lillios et al .., 2000). This would contradict the proposal of P. Pétrequin and others, for whom the Iberian perforated axes, which they call "Cangas type" would be made in imitation of the trans-Pyrenean "Tumiac type" ones during the V millennium cal BC (Pétrequin et al., 2007) . Said problem of an adequate archaeological contextualization for the Iberian coastal specimens.

The situation in the northern Meseta is not very different since, except for one specimen, the rest of those known come from places with a long sequence of occupation from the Neolithic-Chalcolithic and even later. Only the almost 20 cm long perforated hoe blade (Fig. 8 No. 3) recovered at the Baldián site in Palencia comes from an exclusive Chalcolithic setting (Fernández Giménez et al., 1990). In other cases, the issue is much more complex. For example, in El Picuezo de Guareña, Ávila, a small tear-shaped hoe blade with holes at its proximal end was collected. In this case, the appearance in this place of both Neolithic and early Chalcolithic ceramics, and even bell-shaped ones, prevents us from granting greater chronological precision to this artifact (Fabián, 2006: 234-239). Two other specimens in Zamora and Ávila would have been recovered both from the palimpsests in which Neolithic dolmen tombs usually become [3]. During the excavation of the Casal del Gato, in the Sayago of Zamora, Father Morán was informed that "a lightning stone with a half-made hole" had previously been extracted from that same tomb (Morán 1935: 23). Among the materials from the Neolithic burial mound of Dehesa with Río Fortes –Mironcillo, Ávila–, a 22 cm hoe blade with perforation was recovered (Estremera and Fabián, 2003). In both cases there is a long Neolithic/early Chalcolithic/Bell-shaped useful life as indicated, among other elements, by a reed dagger in the tomb in Zamora and Ciempozuelos ceramic fragments in the one from Avila. However, in the latter case, the hoe would be associated with a "lot" of polishes that includes axes, gouges, chisel and mace, which together characterize the one defined as "Horizonte Rechaba"^os 5-8), typical of the first bars of the Chalcolithic in the Magaliticism of the peninsular northwest (Vázquez Varela, 1979).

For all these reasons, we believe that it is acceptable to defend a Chalcolithic chronology for these elements, although ultimately this must always be taken with reservations, pending the availability of more and better contextual information.

4.5. Others

In addition to the symbolic ceramics, concave-based points, idols or perforated axes, they can add other unusual elements that, however, appear occasionally in Calcolithic Normesete deposits. For example; the small ebony ornaments from the sepulcher of El Prado de las Cruces (Fabián, 1997: 85) and the town of Las Pozas [4] (Val, 1992) could be related to the abundant presence of all kinds of documented ivory ornaments in the southwestern half of the peninsula (Shuhmacher et al .., 2009). On the other hand, as part of the trousseau of the double burial of El Ollar in Donhierro, Segovia, a small potted copper knife (Fig. 8, no. 4) would represent a very abundant type in the towns of the mouth of the Tajo (Delibes, 1988) It is, for now, the only one in the northern Meseta, where the rest of the known ones would correspond to the type of notch dagger (Delibes et al ., 1996). Lastly, the small slate discs decorated with incisions from El Torrejón de Villarmayor (Arias, 1989). They would be similar to those that, although perforated, appear in the same decorations in various Chalcolithic enclaves in the north of Portugal (Jorge, 1986).

5 The role of the stone vase from El Fonsario and other unique artifacts in the Chalcolithic of the northern Sub-plateau

It has already been reported how in its original sociopolitical context, that of the Southern Chalcolithic, stone vessels are used in the funerary field and how they are related to social elites. Likewise, the rest of the artifacts analyzed are also linked to the sphere of the transcendent or appear associated with social rank. Both the various types of idols and the symbolic ceramics would be material representations of Chalcolithic mythology and beliefs (Martín Socas and Camalich, 1982; Hurtado, 2005). On the other hand, the perforated axes would function either as votive elements or as markers of social status (Fábregas, 1981; Fábregas and Vázquez Varela, 1982; Lillios et al., 2000). At first glance the arrowheads would be the most "functional" of these elements. However,

But the context in which these objects were received would not be a sociopolitical system comparable to the probably more complex one of the southern Chalcolithic (Delibes et al ., 2006). Furthermore, due to the fact that such objects appear punctually and sporadically in the northern plateau, their original functionality and meaning could not have been fully assimilated or understood.

Therefore, to try to identify the role that these elements would play among the Chalcolithic communities of the northern Meseta, it is essential to analyze the particular existing archaeological contexts. On two occasions it has been possible to link symbolic ceramics to quite significant activities. One is their participation in some type of funerary ritual, or at least with a certain relationship with their ancestors, due to the presence of a small galbo with a soliform in the burial chamber of the El Prado de las Cruces dolmen in Avila (Fabián, 1997 : 51). Another, more spectacular, is the hole in the Los Cardos deposit in Valladolid. Here a couple of ceramic fragments with ocular and facial decoration accompany, together with a carver's equipment, a canid and several suid skulls, to three female human skulls with clear evidence of execution in what is interpreted as a propitiatory sacrifice (García Barrios, 2007). The presence of symbolic ceramics, an evident act of ritual sacrifice, allows us to admit without any problem that the Chalcolithic communities of Normesetes would have granted certain relevance to this decorative motif. It is even possible to trace how this imprint survives with posterity among the bell-shaped masonry in different significant contexts. One of them is the Pico de Castro deposit in Valladolid: in this strategic town a cabin was excavated where evidence of metallurgical activity and several fragments of Ciempozuelos vessels were recovered, among which a solid clearing can be seen (Rodríguez Marcos, 2005).^_ accompanied by human bones, among others ^_ from La Calzadilla in Valladolid (Delibes and Guerra, 2004) and, very close to El Fonsario, in the Villafafileña de Molino Sanchón II salt factory (Abarquero et al. , 2010a: 115).

Another illustrative example is the perforated hoe blade from the Dehesa de Río Fortes burial mound. The funerary context and the association of the plate with the artifacts, unusual in the Meseta, of the "Rechaba Horizon" ^_ guiba, chisel and mace ^_, have made it possible to interpret the case as an act of displaying wealth (Estremera and Fabián, 2002). The "lightning stone with a half-made hole" to which we alluded before comes from another collective tomb, in this case the Zamora dolmen of El Casal del Gato (Morán, 1935:23). Also located in funerary contexts, other of these objects have been documented. Most of the rare concave-based arrowheads appear among the most abundant fin-and-stalk or foliaceous arrowheads found in dolmens such as Torrejón de Villamayor (Arias, 1989) and La Casa del Moro de Casillas de Flores (López Plaza et al. , 2000). From these last two tombs and in El Castillo de Castro Enríquez and La Ermita de Galisancho (Delibes and Santoja 1986: 37 and 75) come from betilos and plate idols.

The use of these unique artifacts in propitiatory and/or ancestral rituals, some celebrated in the ancient Neolithic megaliths, serve to defend that, effectively, they would play a role of certain relevance among the Chalcolithic communities of Normesete. Based on this premise, this issue can be deepened if we analyze and interpret the means and circumstances by which these objects have finally landed on the northern plateau.

One of the existing possibilities would be local production in imitation of the original exotic models. Although this procedure has been proposed for some symbolic ceramics (García Barrios, 2005) or concave base fleca points (Santoja, 1987), the technical complexity that the manufacture of a stone vessel would require must be remembered (Hurtado, 1980). The El Fonsario piece could hardly have been made in a context where no such craft tradition exists. However, we must mention a curious piece of raw clay from the Chalcolithic site of El Soto de Dueñas/Veloria la Buena, solid and pseudo-cylindrical, with a flat base and hollowed out at the top (Herrán et al .., 1995: fig. 2, no. 6). Its morphology (Fig. 8, no. 1) recalls some of the southern stone vessels. This example could perhaps be an attempt at local imitation in an easier technique to master, the potter, although it must be admitted that, due to the exceptional nature of the El Soto piece, this tuning is particular and cannot yet be very consistent.

Discarded the idea of ​​local production for some objects, another possible method would be to explain their presence through exchange . In this way, the appearance of isolated southern idols in some Salamancan dolmens has been defended (Benet et al., 1997) and would serve to explain the acquisition mechanism of small objects, mainly ornaments, made from exotic raw materials such as those documented in the northern Meseta since the final Neolithic (Guerra et al., 2009; Villalobos, 2012). During the Chalcolithic this practice persists, as evidenced by the ebony element identified in the dolmen of El Prado de las Cruces (Fabián, 1997: 85). The presence of sanctuary objects fits in seamlessly with the much-recurred exchange model of the "prestige chaing" type (Renfrew, 1972: 467), which would define a reciprocal exchange system of prestige objects used exclusively in the social sphere between high-status individuals. .

Despite the fact that, theoretically, the gift-exchange model makes it possible to respond satisfactorily to this reality ^_ the transfer of gifts by local hands ^_ it can, in turn, err on the side of being optimistic by simplifying the entanglement of the possible systems of social meaning that could have developed in a complex society like the one we are dealing with here. ^{In recent years, the role that the mobility of some individuals _} trips, pilgrimages, odysseys, etc., has begun to have relevance in archaeological interpretation . ^_regarding various issues such as the transmission of knowledge, the configuration of the landscape or the sociopolitical structure of primitive communities (Helms, 1988; Kristiansen and Larsson, 2006: 49; Cummings and Johnston, 2007; Lillios, 2008: 175). Archaeological evidence is added to these ethnographic evidence and theoretical elaborations, such as the analyzes carried out on the dental enamel of various individuals in the surroundings of Stonehenge during the III millennium cal BC. The isotopic levels of strontium and oxygen that several of them would have been raised in Wales and Central Europe before traveling and being buried in England (Evans et al., 2006). Without wanting to propose a proposal opposed to the network model for the exchange of prestige objects, its correct adaptation to the archaeological reality that we are here to deal with is quite satisfactory. It is not about uncritically submitting to a new interpretive fashion, but about incorporating new ideas and considering a set of available possibilities.

There is no stumbling block that prevents us from admitting that several of the treated objects could have arrived at their destination, having been carried by certain Meseteño individuals on their way back from a "transit" ^_ pilgrimage, initiatory journey, apprenticeship period, etc. ^_ developed in other peninsular areas, which would have made available to this "prodigal son" strange knowledge and accounts of personal exploits as well as material evidence ^_ stone vessels, idols, points with concave bases, etc. ^_to the fascination of his countrymen. Another possibility that is introduced with these premises is an interesting way of scrutinizing the so-called "local imitation" objects, by taking into account the power and sociopolitical prestige that would radiate from specialized knowledge (Kristiansen and Larsson; 2006: 70; Risch and Martinez Fernandez 2008). Possessing the exclusivity of making certain artifacts would be, for the artisans who have acquired novel and strange knowledge ^_ not only the merely technical, but also the symbolic and mythological component that always accompanies a religious or prestigious object ^_ , a social value that does not must be disdained.

Since the end of the Neolithic we can identify, through some elements made from exotic raw materials, the existence of contacts from the Meseta and other peninsular regions (Guerra et al. , 2009; Villalobos, 2012). The unique artifacts analyzed in these pages come from Chalcolithic contexts, mostly pre-Campaniform, and generally relapse into the old idea already mentioned of the relationship between the northern Meseta and the southern peninsular area. The distribution of "southern" artifacts such as symbolic ceramics, concave-based points or idols ^_ to which we add the present case of the stone vessel from El Fonsario ^_refers to the southern and western area of ​​the northern Meseta (Fig. 9). In its day, this fact served to suggest the existence of a cultural dichotomy within the Calcolithic of North America between a "Las Pozas horizon", southwestern and more in tune with the world of the southern peninsula, and another called "Los Cercados", central-eastern, characterized in contrast to a "certain introversion" (Herrán et al., 1993: 38). We must consider that recent works allow modifying the delimitation of these areas ^_ let us not forget that the review of the eponymous site of Los Cercados itself allowed the identification of two symbolic ceramics (García Barrios, 2005) ^_, but it is also true that the northeastern sites of the northern Meseta seem to remain outside the distribution of "southern" artifacts.

However, we have introduced here the question of the perforated axes, an element of more northern air, which appears both in the environment of Las Pozas and in Los Cercados, and that we could use to nuance the idea of ​​the latter's isolation. It is also worth adding the appearance of ceramics with embossed tablets in Chalcolithic settlements in the area of ​​Los Cercados in the middle valley of Arlanzón, in Burgos [5], since this decorative motif allows us to follow a continuous path between the peninsular southeast and trans-Pyrenean Europe (Hurtado and Amores, 1982). Lastly, we do not want to fail to mention the persistence in the northern plateau of these possible northern contacts during the second half of the 3rd millennium cal BC, as suggested by the marked extra-peninsular influence of certain goldsmithing and pottery from the Bell Beaker world present, respectively, in Tablada del Rudrón, Burgos (Campillo, 2004), and La Sima, Soria (Rojo et al. , 2006).

These material documents demonstrate the existence of relationships ^_ exchanges, imitations, trips, etc. ^_ between the northern Meseta and other areas such as the south of the peninsula and, also, trans-Pyrenean Europe, during the Copper Age. The framework in which the Normese Chalcolithic communities lived probably had a certain component of conflict and social connectivity. The socioeconomic transformations contrasted by this stage ^_ a new settlement model, revolution of secondary products, metallurgy ^_they would aggravate the social dissymmetries born during the final Neolithic, which, advancing in this III millennium cal BC, would be covered with the Ciempozuelos warrior-elitist tooling. In this context, certain particular individuals or social groups could well have tried to arrogate, in one way or another, the symbolic value of  remoteness related, on the one hand, to geographical distance ^_ exotic raw materials, strange artifacts ^_ and, in some cases, , with an action scenario referring to the temporal distance ^_ the Neolithic dolmens reused in the III millennium cal BC as ancestral monuments ^_. The adequate application of the concept of "strange" or "distant" would provide a powerful tool of social meaning ^_ among the many others that exist, show archaeological visibility or not ^_ for its use in the sociopolitical game of the Normesete Chalcolithic communities.

Author:

                   Rodrigo VILLALOBOS GARCIA

                   Department of Prehistory, Archaeology, Anthropology and Historiographical CC and TT.

                   University of Valladolid: rodrigovillalobosgarcia@gmail.com

                   Reception 02/09/2012; Revision: 07/26/2012; Acceptance 10/19/2012

                   BIBLID [ 0514-7336 (2013) LXXI, January -June; 131-148]

                  http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/0514-7336/article/view/9960/11892

       Photographs and drawings: Á Rodríguez González, FJ Abarquero, Leisner and Leisner, Gonçalves, Arnaund, Tavares and Soares, Herrán, Fernández Giménez and Pérez Rodríguez, García Barros, Fernández Giménez Pérez Rodríguez and Puertas, Delibes, Estremera and Fabián.

       Transcription and montage: villafafila.net

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