Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula: From Paleolithic to Metal Age

Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula

Lower Paleolithic (5 million to 10,000 BC)

The Paleolithic is the era in which humans gathered food and collected resources, used fire and made stone tools. It is divided into three periods.

Lower Paleolithic (Homo erectus, Homo antecessor)

Lower Paleolithic humans lived in basic social groups in which everyone gathered food and reproduced. They used rudimentary stone tools. Early hominins did not know how to cook meat and had not yet mastered fire. Once fire was known, people lived in caves and worked as hunters.

Middle Paleolithic (Neanderthal)

Neanderthals lived in the Mediterranean region. They were about 1.50 m tall, had a strong build and used instrumental tools. They made points and scrapers from flint, and their skin was cleaned with tools. Remains have been found at Jativa, Girona, and Morin (Cantabria).

Upper Paleolithic (40,000 to 10,000 BC, Homo sapiens sapiens, Cro-Magnon)

Cro-Magnon humans had a cranial capacity and physical characteristics similar to ours. They were skilled hunters who lived in caves and in open-air settings. They made specialized tools such as needles, axes and harpoons. They buried their dead with rituals and beliefs, and social differentiation appeared through ornaments and carvings, such as bracelets. Notable sites include the Altamira cave, El Morin, the Castillo cave, El Pindal and Tito Bustillo, famous for their cave paintings. Levantine art depicted figures, geometric shapes, vertical lines and triangles, associated with male and female symbols.

The Neolithic Revolution (10,000 to 6000 years ago)

The Neolithic Revolution began with agriculture, livestock farming, pottery and changes in the working of materials. Social structures and especially the mentality changed: a predatory society became a sedentary one producing its own food. Surpluses gave rise to excess goods that were traded, which enriched some people. Villages grew, and at the center stood silos and military power to defend the surplus. Human groups formed social classes and a division of labor, with a soldier class emerging. Wealth and social inequality appeared.

Neolithic Innovations

• New ways to produce and store food, including the digging stick, the wheel and the sickle.
• Sympathetic hunting magic and art depicting the earth goddess.
• Dolmens and other burial structures linked to the cult of the divinities.
• Depictions of animals in motion.
• Livestock farming, mainly the domestication of animals.

Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula

Around 8000 BC, three cultural phases reached the Iberian Peninsula:

1. Cardial pottery, made with soft clay decorated with the cardium shell.
2. Fosa culture in Catalonia.
3. Collective burials (megaliths) with large dolmens.

The Metal Age (4000 BC)

The Metal Age began in the Iberian Peninsula around 4000 BC. Metal tools and objects began to be manufactured, and people learned to extract and work metals, a practice known as metallurgy. Cranial capacity increased over time. The Metal Age is divided into three stages.