La Almagra pottery facts for kids

La Almagra is a special type of red pottery found in many ancient sites in Spain. It comes from the Neolithic period, also known as the New Stone Age. This was a time when people started farming and living in settled communities, instead of hunting and gathering. We don't know exactly how La Almagra pottery connects to other types of pottery from the same time.

First Farmers in Andalusia

Around 6,000 BC, the first farmers arrived in a region of Spain called Andalusia. We are not completely sure where these early farmers came from. One idea is that they came from North Africa. However, it's been hard for archaeologists to study ancient cultures there because the desert has grown, covering up many old sites.

These first farmers brought important crops with them, like different kinds of grains (cereals) and beans (legumes). They already knew how to grow these plants. We're not sure if they brought farm animals with them, but we have found many bones of pigs and rabbits. It's hard to tell if these were wild animals or early farm animals. These farmers also ate a lot of olives. We don't know if they grew olive trees or just collected wild olives.

A common item made by these early farmers was the La Almagra pottery. It came in many different shapes and styles.

Spreading Across the Land

Over time, the farming cultures from Andalusia spread to other places, like Southern Portugal. Around 4800 BC, the first dolmen tombs appeared in Portugal. These are large stone tombs, and they might be the oldest of their kind anywhere in the world!

Later, around 4700 BC, another pottery style called Cardium Pottery (sometimes called Mediterranean Neolithic) reached Eastern Spain. This pottery is known for its decoration, often made by pressing the edge of a seashell (a cardium shell) into the wet clay.

Where Did La Almagra Pottery Come From?

For a while, some researchers thought La Almagra pottery might have come from places far away, like the Near East, such as ancient Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) or northern Syria. They suggested it might be similar to pottery from a place called Ugarit, dating back to 2400-2300 BC. From there, it might have traveled to Cyprus.

Another idea was that some parts of the pottery, like its color or how it was made, came from a style called "Diana style" pottery found on an island called Lipari in Italy. However, the shapes of these two pottery types are very different.

But here's the important part: scientists used a method called radiocarbon dating to find out the age of La Almagra pottery. They found that the earliest pieces of La Almagra pottery in Spain are from the 6th millennium BC. This means they are at least 3,000 years older than the pottery from Ugarit or Lipari! So, it's very unlikely that La Almagra pottery came from those places. It seems to have developed much earlier in Spain.

See also

In Spanish: Cerámica almagra para niños