ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on archaeobotantical evidence for farming in the Atlantic region of northern Iberiathe coastal fringe along the Bay of Biscay in the Basque-Cantabrian area. Modern Basques are genetically one of the best-studied populations in Europe. A non-IndoEuropean language is still spoken in the region and, historically, the area has not been subject to major in-migration. Basques stand as a genetic outlier for several loci besides the Rh-negative allele, and some genetic studies have interpreted that Basques represent a pre-Neolithic population that has survived in isolation. Research on the Neolithic has mainly been focused on megaliths, the most visible structures of the period. The information about crops for northern Iberia is extremely limited, for example, pollen at Herriko Barra and a few cereal grains at the cave sites. Atlantic agriculture in Iberia might have peculiar features due to the ecological setting where it developed.
