Amber Sources and Trade in the Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

The use of amber is documented in the Iberian peninsula since the Palaeolithic. The procurement and trade of this fossil resin has often been considered in discussions of long-distance trade and the emergence of social complexity, but so far no comprehensive view of the Iberian evidence has been produced to allow a more overarching interpretive model. This paper presents the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) characterization of archaeological amber from three Iberian prehistoric sites: a necklace recovered from the megalithic site of Palacio III (Almadén de la Plata, Sevilla), a pommel from PP4 Montelirio (Valencina de la Concepción, Sevilla), and a necklace from the Muricecs de Cellers cave (Llimiana, Pallars Jussà, Lleida). Based on these new data and a review of the literature, we present an overview that outlines fluctuations in the use of amber since the Upper Palaeolithic and demonstrates long-distance amber exchange connecting Iberia with northern Europe and the Mediterranean region since the Chalcolithic period at least. We discuss changes in the origins and cultural use of amber and their implications for the consolidation of trade networks.

A Palaeodietary Study of Stable Isotope Analysis from a High‐status Burial in the Copper Age: The Montelirio Megalithic Structure at Valencina de la Concepción–Castilleja de Guzmán, Spain

“…Schuhmacher et al ., ), amber (e.g. Murillo‐Barroso and Martinón‐Torres, ) and green stones (Odriozola et al ., ) have been found. The high‐status burial of Montelirio represents a good example of a specific segment of the society with excellent preservation.…”

El hacha pulimentada de jade de la colección Tubino (Museo Municipal, Valencina de la Concepción, Sevilla)

“…Revisiones recientes han puesto de manifiesto la gran cantidad y diversidad de rocas raras y materias primas exóticas halladas en contextos funerarios del IV-II milenios a.n.e. en el sur de España, y que incluye cristal de roca, ámbar, variscita, marfil entre otros (Costa Caramé et al 2011;Murillo-Barroso y Martinón-Torres, 2012;Schuhmacher et al, 2009, Banerjee et al, 2011. Los datos disponibles para el establecimiento de estos intercambios son de muy escasa calidad, dado que el número de dataciones radiocarbónicas obtenidas de los contextos en los que se han producido estos hallazgos es muy bajo.…”

Amber, beads and social interaction in the Late Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula: an update

“…The spectroscopic comparison between the simetite consensus spectrum and the 131 recorded spectra for the Montelirio tholos beads indicates that first, the bands in the origin fingerprint region (1240-970 cm −1 ) match both the consensus spectra for simetite and the described bands of published reference simetites (Beck and Hartnett 1993;Beck 1995;Angelini and Bellintani 2005;Murillo-Barroso and Martinón-Torres 2012;van der Werf et al 2016). Second, a feature band 3 at c. 1560 cm −1 that is absent from simetite consensus spectrum is attributed to succinate salt, a by-product of deterioration processes caused by the alkaline burial environment.…”