Manufacturing traces and pot-forming processes during the Early Neolithic at Cueva de El Toro (Málaga, Spain, 5280–4780 BCE)

•This study investigates pottery forming processes from the site of Cueva de El Toro.•The analysis of traces reveals the forming processes with coils and circular patches.•The use of internal supports, oval discs and the pinching technique are documented.•Relationship between forming techniques and pottery shapes and decors is discussed.•Results reflect similarities with the data from other European Early Neolithic sites. This paper reports the results of forming processes used in pottery manufacture at La Cueva de El Toro (Málaga, Spain) during the Early Neolithic (5280–4780 cal. BCE). La Cueva de El Toro is one of the most important sites of reference on the southern Iberian Peninsula for providing extensive and systematised data on early farming practices. The identification of manufacturing traces on pottery has enabled the assessment of the variability of forming techniques used by the communities of herders that seasonally inhabited the cave during the Early Neolithic. Forming processes were also compared with characteristic features of pottery products (typology, decorations) that are representative of the first pottery production in this area. Furthermore, this study provides new insights into the distribution of the first pot-forming processes in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, which suggest the use of similar techniques to the forming-sequences documented at other Early Neolithic sites (the use of coils and circular patches) and other forming processes (moulding process and the use of discs) which are still unknown in the Western Mediterranean.