Archaeological excavations provide us with important clues about the past. Excavated artefacts represent an important connection to civilisations that no longer exist and help us understand some of their customs, traditions and common practices. With the help of academics and practitioners from various disciplines the results of archaeological excavations can be analysed and a body of knowledge about the corresponding society can be created and shared with members of the general public. Museums have traditionally served the purpose of communicating this knowledge and backing it up with the help of the excavated artefacts. Many museum visitors, however, find it difficult to develop a coherent understanding of the corresponding society only based on the artefacts and annotations showed in museums. Effective modern techniques that have high potential in helping museum visitors with better understanding of the past are 3D reconstruction and Virtual Reality. 3D reconstruction offers a cost effective way of recreating historical settlements in a computer-generated virtual environment, while Virtual Reality helps with immersing people into such environments and reaching a high degree of real

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The aim of this paper is to evaluate the distribution of box (Buxus sempervirens L.) in the Holocene vegetation of NE Spain and its use during prehistory. The scarcity of box in pollen records contrasts with the frequent presence of box charcoal at archaeological sites in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Box charcoal has been documented in 41 Holocene sites, indicating its systematic use as firewood. To date, wooden artefacts have only been documented at La Draga, an early Neolithic site (5324-4977 cal BC) located on the shore of Lake Banyoles (Spain). The abundance of Buxus sempervirens among the artefacts is remarkable, with 85 out of 155 objects made from this wood, including sickle handles, digging sticks, wedges, adze handles, needles, combs and other objects of unknown function. The evaluation of Buxus sempervirens charcoal and pollen data from different Holocene sites, and the evidence of its use for the manufacture of objects, demonstrate the importance of this species for prehistoric societies.

Sixty-two 14C dates are analyzed in combination with a recently established local floating tree-ring sequence for the Early Neolithic site of La Draga (Banyoles, northeast Iberian Peninsula). Archaeological data, radiometric and dendrochronological dates, as well as sedimentary and micro-stratigraphical information are used to build a Bayesian chronological model, using the ChronoModel 2.0 and OxCal 4.4 computer programs, and IntCal 2020 calibration curve. The dendrochronological sequence is analyzed, and partially fixed to the calendrical scale using a wiggle-matching approach. Depositional events and the general stratigraphic sequence are expressed in expanded Harris Matrix diagrams and ordered in a temporal sequence using Allen Algebra. Post-depositional processes affecting the stratigraphic sequence are related both to the phreatic water level and the contemporaneous lakeshore. The most probable chronological model suggests two main Neolithic occupations, that can be divided into no less than three different “phases,” including the construction, use and repair of the foundational wooden platforms, as well as evidence for later constructions after the reorganization of the ground surface using travertine slabs. The chronological model is discussed considering both the modern debate on the Climatic oscillations during the period 8000–4800 cal BC, and the origins of the Early Neolithic in the western Mediterranean region.

During the Gravettian, Arbreda Cave was frequently occupied by hunter‐gatherer communities. Within this period, the archeological levels E (Iberian Middle Gravettian) and D (Final Gravettian), dated to ca. 26–20 kyr 14C BP, are of particular interest, since fieldwork carried out during the 1980s revealed dense accumulations of archeological materials with remarkable concentrations of burnt remains. The archeozoological and taphonomic studies conducted with faunal remains recovered from both levels have provided essential information about subsistence activities; however, the concentrations of these remains have not been subjected to spatial distribution analysis. In recent decades, spatial analysis has become a key tool for deciphering the formation dynamics of archeological levels, as well as for offering valuable clues with which to understand the relation of the occupants with the morphology of the site cavities. The aims of this paper are to pinpoint the principal activity areas of both Gravettian levels of Arbreda Cave focusing on the location of main hearth‐related assemblages and to interpret these activity areas in terms of the use of the space by hunter‐gatherer groups. To achieve these goals, our research has been based on the processing of archeozoological and taphonomic data obtained in recent studies applying different spatial statistics methods, including techniques of density analysis and spatial correlation. Furthermore, for each level, the results obtained from the geostatistical approaches are supplemented by a detailed taphonomic analysis of the complete assemblage of remains recovered from the principal hearth‐related square. Finally, in each case, an accurate analysis of the burnt remain assemblage of each square provides further elucidation of the large amount of combusted remains in the area. The study reveals that hunter‐gatherer communities established themselves in particular areas of the cave, close to the north wall and beneath the existing roof of the rock shelter. The dense accumulations of different remains found in these areas has enabled us to hypothesize about its hearth‐related origin, where hearths would have been settled and marrow exploitation activities would have been carried out around them. Furthermore, the high rate of breakage and charred and calcined remains and a relatively high percentage of burnt spongy bones indicate that bones were used as fuel to supplement firewood. On the whole, the low level of space organization complexity of levels E and D main activity areas supports a seasonal pattern of occupation during the Iberian Middle Gravettian and Final Gravettian periods.