Evolución del poblamiento prehistórico en los valles del Deva y Nansa(Cantabria)

Abstract

The PhD dissertation analyzes the development of settlement along Prehistory and Antiquity in the valleys of Deva and Nansa, in particular the valley of Liébana, in western Cantabria, mainly based upon the archaeological documentation. Special attention is given to the beginning and development of the economy of production, discussing the Neolithic characteristics of the area and putting value in megalithic monuments as the first testimony of the widespread occupation of mountain areas in the Cantabrian mountains. The ecological (pre)history of these two western Cantabrian valleys is traced through the observed changes in the modes of resource use since the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic (with sites such as the Fuente del Salin) to the Bronze Age (scattered findings in Pico Jano or Ledantes), looking at the first agriculturalist practices in the pasture lands of Picos de Europa (neolithic houses and megalithic chambers at Peña Oviedo) and the Cordillera Cantábrica (cromlech of Collado de Sejos).