The implementation of the Neolithic in the territory of present Asturias was a drastic cultural change versus traditional lifestyle of Paleolithic societies. The people who inhabited the region about 4,500 years ago felled forests, opened the first plots of land and forced the appearance of open spaces for pasture, domesticating animals and plants. The megaliths, with ritual and territorial sense, joined the Asturian landscape reflecting a complex new peasant society. At maturity of these Neolithic societies, technical mastery allowed the conversion of ore into metal. The intensive exploitation of the copper mines and the expansion of metallurgical phenomenon led to the development of increasingly complex societies. During this period, Asturias began his long career as a mining region.
