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V

M A R IN E R E SO URC E S I N T H E PAST

JUNE - NOVEMBER 2021
MUSEU DE PREHISTÒRIA DE VALÈNCIA

V

PREHISTORY ND THE SE

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This exhibition presents the results
of recent research into the use of
marine resources on the Mediterranean
coastline of Spain in prehistoric times.
It comprises more than a hundred
exhibits from a dozen sites in the region
of Valencia, preserved today in the city’s
Museum of Prehistory. The pieces date
back between 30,000 and 3,000 years.

Pendant. Mimachlamys varia.
L’Hort de Cortés-Volcán del Faro. Upper Palaeolithic.

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Very little is known about the use of
marine products as sources of nutrition
during the Upper Palaeolithic. The
coastal deposits are currently under
water, due to the flooding of the coastal
platforms after the sea level rise of the
end of the glacial period. Ten thousand
years ago, during the Mesolithic period,
molluscs such as cockles, limpets and
snails, and fish such as bream, rays,
mullet and meagre were all consumed.

Ichthyological remains. El Collao. Mesolithic.

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Interestingly, these marine products have
been found in deposits more than 40 km
from the coast, thus confirming the use
of preservation systems such as drying
in the sun or smoking. Their shells
were used for decorative purposes, or as
containers, or as smoothers and scrapers.
Other shells were used to make spoons,
ladles, needles and musical instruments
(conches), and the vertebrae of cetaceans

Scallop spoons. Ereta del Pedregal and Sanxo Llop. Chalcolithic.

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were used as work benches or anvils.
Shells were also used to manufacture
personal adornments. The display
features the manufacturing processes
of three types of adornment: discoidal
beads, bow-shaped pendants or buttons,
and oval pendants.
From the Neolithic onwards, more
elaborate ornaments were made: in the

Whale rib with signs of wear. Sanxo Llop. Chalcolithic.

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early Neolithic oval pendants, rings
and bracelets, and from Chalcolithic
times discoidal buttons and beads. Fish
vertebrae, from rays and sharks, were
also used. Many of the ornaments may
have had symbolic value, often associated
with the funerary world: examples are
the shells recorded in burial caves dating
from 5,000 years ago, which had not
been perforated or manipulated.

Gibberula miliaria shell necklace. Cau Raboser.
Chalcolithic.

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An exceptional finding is the presence
of a bottlenose dolphin deposited in a
secondary burial located in a grave near
the mouth of the Serpis. This is a unique
event – the only cetacean ever found in a
funerary context.
In summary, then, the exhibition reveals
to us the wide variety of uses that
prehistoric societies made of marine
resources.

Bottlenose dolphin skeleton during excavation. Sanxo Llop.
Chalcolithic.

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Cerithium vulgatum, very rolled. Sanxo Llop. Chalcolithic

TRESORS

DEL MUSEU
DE PREHISTÒRIA

JUNE - NOVEMBER 2021
MUSEU DE PREHISTÒRIA DE VALÈNCIA
Corona, 36. 46003 València · www.museuprehistoriavalencia.es
Tel: +34 96 388 35 65. Follow us on

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