The beginning of the Neolithic in the mid-Ebro valley and in Iberia’s Inland (Northern and Southern submeseta), Spain

Abstract This paper is a state-of-art of the Neolithisation process and Early Neolithic in Iberia’s inlands, specifically in the mid and upper Ebro Valley and Central Meseta of Spain. Firstly, a historiographical review of the hypothesis and models of the last decades are presented. In this section, the paper shows that the main theoretical concepts and ideas remain similar for a long time ago but they are nuanced by the last data and analysis. Next, these new data and revisions are analysed, in particular the existence of Neolithic settler pioneer communities and “Mesolithic context with Neolithic elements”, the role of colonization phenomena (DNA analysis, leapfrog colonization and landscape occupation), the pottery studies like main interpretative tool and, finally, the variable of rock art. The chronology is reviewed in the last section.