Use of cinnabar in funerary practices in the Central Pyrenees. Analysis of pigments on bones from the prehistoric burial of the Cueva de la Sierra cave in Campodarbe (Huesca, Spain)

• Published in: Journal of archaeological science, reports Vol. 48; p. 103849
• Main Authors: Rodanés-Vicente, José María, Cuchí-Oterino, José Antonio, Minami, Takeshi, Takahashi, Kazuya, Martín-Gil, Jesús, Lorenzo-Lizalde, José Ignacio, Martín-Ramos, Pablo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-04-2023
• Subjects: Archaeometry; Burial caves; Cinnabar; Ebro Valley; Funerary practices; Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic; Northeastern Iberian Peninsula; Sulfur isotope analysis; Funerary practices; Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic; Cinnabar; Northeastern Iberian Peninsula; Archaeometry; Ebro Valley; Burial caves; Sulfur isotope analysis
• ISSN: 2352-409X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103849

•The red pigment sprinkled in a burial in Campodarbe, dated 4400 ± 30 BP, was analyzed.•The chemical composition of pigment was unequivocally established as cinnabar.•This is the oldest documented occurrence of cinnabar in Aragón (Spain).•S isotope analysis points to an origin in NW Iberian Peninsula, ca. 500 km away.•The role of Ebro valley as an axis of communication in this period is corroborated.
The appearance of red pigments in prehistoric burial sites is frequent. In the study presented herein, the composition and provenance of the pigment sprinkled in a burial dated between the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic periods in the Cueva de la Sierra, in Campodarbe (Huesca, Spain), were characterized through X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, and sulfur (δ34S) isotope analysis. The chemical composition of the pigment used in the burial could be unequivocally established as cinnabar, and the S isotope signature pointed to an origin in the ores of the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula, ca. 500 km far from the burial site, suggesting an alternative provenance to the Almadén outcrop, the main cinnabar source in the Iberian Peninsula. The presence of cinnabar in the Ebro valley, on the southern slope of the Central Pyrenees, forces us to rethink the complex processes of interaction between communities that populated the north of the Iberian Peninsula during the final moments of the 4th millennium BC.