Archaeological site of Calle Embalse de El Vellón nº 21

Level 1 is the one that presents practically the entire lithic industry documented in the deposit. The origin of these materials would be associated with the activity of deposits with a certain slope. It would be a heterogeneous lithic set, deposited in a single episode of sedimentation by phenomena of diffuse stream (glacis type) and gravity (colluvium type). Therefore, the lithic material inserted in this deposit is in a clearly derived position, probably constituting a kind of palimpsest, since it is not possible to certify from the study of the lithic industry if it is the dismantling and dragging of several mixed archaeological sites or one, although through stratigraphic analysis it does seem that it is a single episode or at most two.

The deposition of these materials is decreasing towards the base, that is, towards the base of the deposit a smaller amount of both lithic industry and natural bases is documented. There is an accumulation of parts preferably around large flint kidneys, which in turn have also been mobilized due to these phenomena of diffuse arroya

Almost all the phases of the lithic production chain are represented: selection phase and exploitation phase of lithic raw materials. The original deposit (s) should have been found not far from the area where the excavation was made. Surely it would be flint outcrops where prehistoric man would have tested and selected the best material for exploitation there, as has been verified in other deposits in the area such as Los Berrocales, Ahijones and Cañaveral. As they are flint nodules of generally poor quality, with a large number of internal cracks, a lot of test material appears in the registry (nuclei with few extractions, which never exploit to the maximum).

In general, through the analysis of the heels of the flakes, a direct percussion with a hard hammer is evident for the entire lashing process, even for the attempts to make the bifaces documented. Despite the fact that almost all this industrial complex has an air of testing, several different modes of exploitation of the nuclei found can be documented, that is, ways in which a single face (unifacial) is exploited in a simple way, bifacial modes in which that two faces are exploded orthogonally, but also in a secant way, without there being a clear hierarchization in them and ways in which several faces of the same nucleus (multifacial) are occasionally exploited, surely the latter conditioned by the morphology of the natural bases themselves.

The lithic industry is clearly oriented to the production of flakes, some of which are retouched, also by direct percussion with a hard hammer, with abrupt touches generally and little invasive, in order to make what have been typologically called scrapers and denticulates. , although here, given the degree of rolling of the pieces, it would be impossible to carry out analysis of traces of use to find out their functionality. 

The deposit would have had a phase of abandonment, even leaving some raw materials brought from other areas, such as quartzites and quartz, probably originating from the Jarama basin, which were used as hammer drills. Certain materials would have been exposed to the elements for longer than others and would have undergone different stages of sedimentation, finally being transported naturally until being deposited in a fairly thick package that would fill the paleo-relief generated during the Quaternary.

The lithic industry would be in line with the modes of lithic exploitation that take place during the Middle Paleolithic (Musterian industry), although they could also fit with the industries made in the area during the Final Lower Paleolithic, due to the presence of rough bifaces. This roughness, however, could be due to the poor quality of the raw materials, a fact that would greatly condition the finish and configuration of the pieces.