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Production and exchange of bifacial flaked stone artifacts during the Portuguese Chalcolithic

This study focuses on the economic organization of bifacial flaked stone industries that characterize the Late Neolithic and the Chalcolithic of Portugal. It is often claimed that social hierarchies first appeared in Western Iberia during this period (ca. 3500-2500 BC). Concentration of authority in the hands of individuals should be accompanied by centralization of the economy (production, exchange, distribution, and consumption), which should produce recognizable patterning in the archaeological record. This study investigates if such patterning is discernible in the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic Portuguese lithic materials. The abundance and accessibility of chipped stone assemblages from all relevant contexts (extraction, production, and consumption) lends an opportunity for comprehensive study of this segment of economy, within a context of emerging sociopolitical complexity. The specific research goals were: determining the production repertoire at special-purpose lithic production sites, examining the possibility of craft specialization (with particular regard to artifact standardization), as well as investigating the geographic distribution of artifacts in settlement and burial contexts, in order to detect evidence of control by a central authority. Most of the proposed analyses were carried out on archaeological materials from existing collections, and were augmented by fieldwork at one of the production sites. The analyses show that the organization of production, distribution and consumption differed markedly between different classes of bifacial flaked stone artifacts. Production of subsistence-related lithics was decentralized, and they circulated primarily through local exchange networks. Certain subsistence-related lithics, however, regularly entered long-distance prestige-exchange. For prestige-related items, there is evidence of specialized craft production. Such items were regularly exchanged over large distances. The level of craft specialization, and its importance for the economy in general, however, remained rather modest. There is no evidence for effective large-scale sociopolitical integration.

production; exchange; flaked stone artifacts; Portugal; Copper Age

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