The land of the last hunter-gatherer groups in the Ebro basin: Forgers of their own destiny

Abstract

In this paper we adopt a new perspective on the chronology and settlement strategies of the last Mesolithic societies of the Ebro basin. For this purpose, we applied concepts from population biology (carrying capacity) and redefined the catchment area of the sites using GIS analysis tools. We concluded that the last hunter-gatherer groups lived below their means, so that physical and cultural reproduction was guaranteed. Therefore, the changes that the societies underwent—from Notches and Denticulate Mesolithic to Geometric Mesolithic, and from there to Neolithic—were not motivated by external factors, but rather were social decisions. The chronology suggests a rapid assumption of the new technological norms—in either of the technological transitions, although the process of experimentation with the production economy must have been slower, so that the Mesolithic territorial strategy remained in force during the first three centuries of the Neolithic. Throughout this process, the efficient Mesolithic networks allowed the transmission of objects, ideas and people.