Neolithic Flint Mines of Treviño (Basque-Cantabrian Basin, Western Pyrenees, Spain)

English: The prehistoric Treviño flint mine complex is located in the Sierra de Araico-Cucho (Berantevilla, Alava - Condado de Treviño, Burgos), inside the lacustrine-palustrine Cenozoic (Aquitanian, Miocene) materials of the South-Pyrenean syncline of the Basque-Cantabrian Basin. It is a landscape unit constituted by a set of carbonated layers with abundant nodular and stratiform silicifications. The extraction mining works (often referred to as ‘tailing’) are usually identified as dumps or trenches, subtly visible and associated with archaeological materials. An archaeological excavation was carried out in one potential mining structure (dump or pit) that was detected by LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in the mountain pass of “Pozarrate” near the villages of Grandival and Araico (Treviño, Burgos). In this work we present the results of the excavation of the last two years. The existence of a Neolithic mining dump (the tailings) with a chronology ca. 5000 cal. BC was confirmed. The base rock level with nodular flint was reached and the impressions of the exploited nodules have been identified. As well, the extraction front which reaches about 4.0-5.0 metres in height was delimited. Thousands of lithic remains associated with the extraction and the initial processing (shaping) of flint were collected, as along with mining tools. We have found and described three types of mining structures: trenches, linear dumps and crescent-shaped (or “half-moon-shaped”) dumps. This site is one of the few prehistoric flint mines dated in the Iberian Peninsula. Recent investigations in the Cantabrian Mountains and Western Pyrenees indicate that the circulation and use of Treviño flint during Prehistory reached many Holocene and Pleistocene archaeological sites, located hundreds of kilometres away from the outcrops. Español: El complejo prehistórico minero de sílex de Treviño se sitúa en la Sierra de Araico-Cucho (Berantevilla, Alava - Condado de Treviño, Burgos), en materiales lacustres-palustres del Cenozoico (Aquitaniense, Mioceno) en el Sinclinal Surpirenaico de la Cuenca Vasco-Cantábrica. Se trata de una unidad constituida por un conjunto de niveles carbonatados con presencia de abundantes silicificaciones nodulares y estratiformes. Habitualmente se identifican labores mineras de extracción como escombreras o zanjas sutilmente visibles y asociadas a materiales arqueológicos. Se ha llevado a cabo una excavación arqueológica en una estructura minera potencial (escomb