Cerro Ortega (Villanueva de la Fuente, Ciudad Real): a burial shelter with multiple burials during the Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in the south of the plateau. (2019)

This work is an update of the available documentation on the necropolis of Cerro Ortega, including new absolute dates and its cultural context. Unpublished data and materials are provided on some archaeological sites that are fundamental for understanding the processes of cultural change between the 4th and 3rd millennia BC in the peninsular interior: Cerro Ortega (Villanueva de la Fuente), Villamayor de Calatrava, Vega de los Morales (Aldea del Rey), Cueva Maturras (Argamasilla de Alba) and La Jalbegada (San Lorenzo de Calatrava), among others. The presentation of stone bracelets, idols, personal ornaments of shell, bone, slate, clinochlore, clinoferrosilite and calcite, as well as the orientation to astronomical events of a sepulchral shelter, provides information on the symbolic aspects of the first producing communities of La Mancha. The study allows us to advance in the knowledge of the Neolithic bases that allowed the formation of the Chalcolithic substrate of the Motilla Culture.