Casa Montero is a mining complex located outside Madrid (Spain), dated from the Early Neolithic (c. 5400–5000 cal bc). An area of some 4 ha has been investigated and some 4000 shafts recorded, of which 324 have been excavated. The characterization of its raw flint materials and the establishment of its diagnostic features are indispensable in the reconstruction of the distribution of the mine's products beyond the immediate site. This work reports the geological study of the mine's Miocene flint layers and their petrological characterization. Archaeological samples from the mine's shafts were classified according to macroscopic features and petrological characteristics.

Varieties of chalcedony (calcedonite, quartzine, and lutecite) and other optical micro-and cryptocrystalline textures of quartz and opal from Miocene silcretes of the Madrid Basin were studied using a Thermo Fisher DXR Raman microscope. The microscope has a point-and-shoot Raman capability of 1 mm spatial resolution and was coupled with a standard optical microscope. Our results show that all the varieties of chalcedony can have a composite Raman spectrum of both quartz and moganite. The spectra are independent of the chalcedony origin by ageing, direct replacement, and cementation processes. Moganite was absent only in some calcedonite cements. The presence of moganite is independent of the surface sedimentary setting of the host rocks in which the silcretes are formed.

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