Hoe teeth

Earliest Agricultural and Stock-Rearing Societies

The forest and sea resources were an essential component of the diet, with rabbit and deer meat, birds, fish, mollusc and wild fruit, such as wild olives and acorns, being among the most popular food.

Agricultural and livestock products were progressively introduced in the diet. The most direct and oldest proof of agriculture is the existence of cereals at archeological sites such as El Arteal (Cuevas del Almanzora) and El Gárcel (Antas), which are the precedent of the barley and wheat culture in the fertile river silts.

Some of the tools and structures point to land preparation (axes and adzes), reaping (sickle pieces), milling (mills) and storage (storage pits and large vessels). As this element sickle in which we find a patina produced by the cereal.

Jagged element on a stone chip of silex ocher, with transverse triangular section, with some retouches in the edge, very spoiled, and abrupt retouches in the opposite edge. It presents a micropolished bifacial in the edge which is less broad in one of the faces and in the end, where it seems to have be reintensified. It has deep oblique marks to the edge.

Material: Ocher flint
Dimensions: Length 3,80 cm; Maximum width 2,20 cm; Thickness 1,80 cm
Provenance: Cabecicos Negros-Pajarraco, Vera (Almería): Sector oriental
Excavation, Cámalich Massieu, Mª Dolores