CENTROS DE EXPLOTACIÓN DE SÍLEX EN LA ZONA CENTRO DEL VALLE DEL EBRO. LA MUELA (ZARAGOZA)

Abstract

Archaeological surveys carried out in the municipality of La Muela (Zaragoza), between 2008 and 2009, have allowed us to document a complex and interesting flint mining activity. That occupation produced large stone dumps and open-air mines with different morphologies. Attending to extraction zones, there were documented wide areas with a large number of knapping remains and cores with an extraction technique quite similar to that from the Middle Paleolithic: because of their appearance, we have called them pseudo-levallois. This paper highlights the importance of a flint mining industry in the area for knapping gunflints from the 18th century and especially in the early 19th century, because of the War of Spanish Independence.