| Summary: | This study defines concepts of prehistoric economy and uses them as a means of understanding the integration of sites. The environmental setting is shown through a discussion of the available evidence for environmental change, and the detailed chronology is shown using Radiocarbon dates and dated stratigraphic sequences of artefact typology. The work is based on faunal analysis for Parpalló, Les Mallaetes and other sites near-the Valencian-coast, which were used during one or more periods between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago, and on the excavation and analysis of the Cueva del Niño, Albacete province. The faunal analysis shows that the pattern of exploitation of the different species in the faunal community at Parpalló and Les Mallaetes changes through time, but that over comparable periods the changes are different at the two sites, despite the similarity of the environments from which the resources were drawn. These changes are interpreted in terms of changes in the use of sites within an annual territory, and further evidence of the range of activities practised by groups in this area is shown by the site of Volcán. The excavation of the Cueva del Niño, on the edge of the inland, upland plains, showed an entirely different pattern of site use which is interpreted as the result of sporadic visits from sites of the types described earlier. It is suggested that such temporary stopping places account for a large number of sites on the edges of the plateaux. This model of differential site use is discussed in other areas of eastern Spain, from Gibraltar to the Catalan Pyrenees, and the patterns of subsistence change are discussed in the context of the later introduction of agriculture to the peninsula, and the role of technology in economic change. The work is presented in two parts: a volume of text and bibliography, and a volume of tables and figures. Specialist reports whose implications are used in the thesis, are presented as appendices in the second volume.
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