Unit 7 - Lesson 8. The Neolithic and the Metal Ages in Spain. Megalithic monuments

This is the last "lesson" of unit 7. I'm not posting a new one on Thursday: it's Castile and León Day
Next week we will do an activity or a test to see if you have understood the whole unit of Prehistory.
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(You can see the information about this in your book. Pages 116-119)

The Neolithic period in the Iberian Peninsula

Agriculture and livestock farming started in the Iberian Peninsula later than in the Fertile Crescent, around 5000 BC.
Cardium pottery ("cerámica cardial") is the most characteristic form of art of this this period. This name comes from Cardium edule, a species of cockle (a mollusc that we call berberecho in Spanish). The shells of Cardium were used for decorating pottery:

Cardium edule shell

The decoration of Cardium pottery was made
with the edge of Cardium shells and with other sharp objects

The Copper Age and megalithic monuments (c. 2500-2000 BC)

There were a lot of copper and tin deposits in the Iberian Peninsula. People from the East came searching for metals.
A characteristic form of pottery came with trade: the bell beaker ("vaso campaniforme"), a type of vase that existed in all Western Europe at the end of the Copper Age

Areas of Europe with bell beakers

A bell beaker: a recipient with the shape of a bell

The same people that made bell beakers made spectacular constructions called megalithic monuments or monuments made of gigantic stones. These monuments had a religious or magical meaning.

The most simple megalithic construction is just a large vertical stone: a menhir

A stone row ("alineamiento") is a series of menhirs forming a line.

Stone rows of Carnac, France

A cromlech is a megalithic construction in circle.  The most famous cromlech is Stonehenge, in England. The monument is oriented to the Sun on summer solstice: the monument has a religious meaning.

A dolmen is a megalithic construction made of vertical stones, situated as walls, and a large horizontal stone, in the shape of a roof. Originally, these constructions were covered with earth. They were tombs, for burying people.

This is how a dolmen originally looked like

When the dolmen has an entrance covered with stones, it is called a corridor tomb.

A corridor tomb from inside

There are a lot of megalithic constructions in the European Atlantic coast, from the west of the Iberian Peninsula to the Baltic Sea and from Southern Italy to the British Isles.

In the South-East of the Iberian Peninsula (Málaga, Almería), the culture of Los Millares produced dolmens and corridor tombs, called "cuevas" by local people: the most famous one is the Menga cave ("Cueva de Menga") (see page 119 of your book).

The Bronze Age in the Iberian Peninsula (c. 2000-1000 BC)

Bronze Age cultures in the Iberian Peninsula. Tin mines are very important for bronze.

The most important remains from the Bronze Age in the Iberian Peninsula are the culture of El Argar, in South-East Spain, and the Talaiotic culture in Majorca and Minorca.

The Talaiotic culture is characterised by three types of characteristic stone buildings:

Taula (the name in Catalan means table, we do not know the purpose of this type of megalithic construction).

Talaiot (the Catalan name is related to the Spanish word "atalaya"): a defensive watchtower (a tower for watching the enemies).

Naveta (the name means that it has the shape of a ship, "nave", upside down): a collective tomb for burying a lot of people.

Naveta des Tudons (Minorca)

Opposite view of the Naveta des Tudons

In the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, the culture of Cogotas I was the most important in the Bronze Age. The most important towns with walls ("castros") of this culture are located in the province of Ávila: Las Cogotas, Ulaca, La Mesa de Miranda.

Cogotas I pottery (Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid)

The most visible parts of Las Cogotas archaeological site today are from the Iron Age, though.

The Iron Age in the Iberian Peninsula (1st millennium BC)

Colonisers from the Eastern Mediterranean introduced iron in the Iberian Peninsula. They also introduced writing, so history starts with them: Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians. 

Tartessos was the most developed culture from the Iberian Peninsula, in the region of the Guadalquivir mouth.

Phoenicians and Greeks wrote legends about Tartessos. Some authors think that the name "Tarshish" in the Bible also means Tartessos.

Tesoro del Carambolo, from the Tartessian civilisation
(we do not know if the jewels were made by Tartessians or by Phoenicians)

In the interior region, Iberian and Celtic peoples made defensive castros.

Defensive methods (Las Cogotas): walls and sharp stones on the ground in front

"Verraco" from Las Cogotas in Ávila. This is the most typical element of the Iron Age Celtiberian cultures

Unit 7 - Lesson 7. The Metal Ages

Today's lesson corresponds to pages 114-115 of your book.

Have a look at this presentation:


Today, I'm giving you a glossary with the Spanish translation of some basic words from this lesson:
Copper - cobre
Tin - estaño
Bronze - bronce
Iron - hierro
Ore (copper ore, etc.) - mineral (metálico: mineral de cobre, etc.)
Smith - herrero
Forge - forja (o fragua)
Foundry - fundición
Cast - molde (para metal fundido)
Cart - carro
Potter's wheel - torno de alfarero
Plough (in American English, the spelling is plow) - arado
Sail - vela

In this video English kids explain you how an axe was made in the Bronze Age:


Please answer the questions of this form.

Unit 7 - Lesson 6. The Neolithic period

Update: the form is ready. Please scroll down to the end of this post and fill in the form. It gives your "marks" automatically at the end.


First of all, answer this question in your mind:
What is the most important difference between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic?
Why do we talk about the "Neolithic Revolution"?
–Later you are going to see if your mental answer is right or not.

Today we are going to start by reviewing some English vocabulary. Please make sure you know these words before studying the lesson.

This man is polishing a piece of marble

This towel is made of fabric...

...And this is not "a fabric"! It is a factory where machines weave fabric. (Weave =  tejer)

This is a craftsman, or an artisan: a person who makes things with his hands.

This is a sickle: a tool for cutting grass or harvesting cereal

This is an axe

This is a hoe (Spanish: azada)

This is a wind mill for grinding cereal (and producing flour)

Wheat is the most common cereal (in the Western world): most bread is made of wheat flour.

In East Asia and in other parts of the world, the most common cereal is rice. Maize (or corn) is a cereal that comes from America.

You can also make bread out of rye (centeno) flour, but this kind of bread is dark.

Barley (cebada) is mainly used for feeding animals, and also to produce beer.

Oats (avena) is the favourite food for horses.

Rye bread

Millet (mijo) is not so common in modern diet.

A farmer is a person who works in a farm. There are two types of farming:

- Agriculture: raising crops (plants for eating: cereals, vegetables...)

- Livestock farming: raising domestic animals, or farm animals: hens, rabbits, pigs, cattle (cows, bulls, etc. Livestock are all the farm animals in general. Cows and all the livestock of the same species are called cattle.

Some domestic animals:

Ram (adult male) and sheep (female). Their baby is called a lamb.  Sheep is the same word for the singular and plural. A group of animals is called a herd. If it is a group of sheep you can also call it a flock. A herdsman is a man who takes care of a herd. When he works with sheep he is called a shepherd (pronounced 'sheperd', with a p sound).

A goat.

Cattle: a bull (adult male), a cow (adult female) and a calf. A castrated bull is an ox (plural: oxen)

This is the presentation about the Neolithic period. It corresponds to pages 112-113 of your book.

In this video you can see a woman weaving on a Neolithic loom:

Unit 7 - Lesson 5. The Palaeolithic period: society, rituals and beliefs

This has been a busy day and I didn't have time to upload new contents until now. On Tuesday I didn't publish any content because you had homework to do. Thank you for your cards about Palaeolithic tools. You will see them soon in this blog (without your names, of course).

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This is our last lesson about the Palaeolithic period. After Easter holidays we'll continue studying the Neolithic.

In this lesson we are going to study pages 110-111 of your book.

First of all, some vocabulary that you may find here or in the book:

• A burial: when people die, you bury them: you dig a hole (this is called a grave) and you put the corpse (the dead person's body) inside. Then you cover it with earth, or with a stone.
• A healer: To heal a person is to make them recover from an illness. In a primitive society there are no doctors to heal people: healers tried to do their job using magic rituals.
• A shaman: a person that practises magic in primitive societies. ("Chamán")

  

  This person has religious beliefs

• A belief: something that you believe.
• Veneration: deep respect for somebody.
• An idol: an object that represents something or somebody that is venerated or adored as a god.
• A spear: a weapon that consists of a long stick and a sharp point (in the Paleolithic period this part was made of stone). ("Lanza" o "azagaya")
• A spear thrower: a tool for throwing a spear at long distances. ("Propulsor")

This is how the spear thrower was used:

This is the presentation of this lesson's contents:


In this video you can see the Paleolithic technique for making hand stencils:


Here I leave you a link to extra interactive material about the Palaeolithic. Click the "talking book" buttons and listen to the audio. WARNING: in the activities, you can't use the buttons that say "Guardar respuesta", because we can't register for that.
The Paleolithic period

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For homework, you are going to send to my e-mail your answers to exercises 1, 5 and 6 of pages 110 and 111 of the book. You have time until 14th April, but it's better if you do it soon, and then you've got the rest of the holidays free. Let me know if there is any difficulty.

Just in case you don't understand exercise 1, this is the same question in other words:
What differences do you think there were between the work of men and the work of women in the Palaeolithic? Did men and women do the same activities?