The protection and management of the megalithic art of Galicia, Spain (original) (raw)
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Megalithic art in the Iberian Peninsula Thinking about graphic discourses in the European Megaliths
Fonctions, utilisations et représentations de l’espace dans les sépultures monumentales du Néolithique européen, 2016
The presence of painted, carved or sculpted decorations in European funerary contexts makes megalithic art a basic reference in order to classify the use of burial areas. Complex graphic programmes of paintings, engravings and sculptures constituted an essential part of funerary rites. The burial models provided by the Iberian Peninsula are a great contribution to the study of funerary graphics. Moreover, their concurrent open air versions open unforeseen expectations for a re-evaluation of the whole of megalithic art in Europe.
Megalithic Skyscapes in Galicia
THE MARRIAGE OF ASTRONOMY AND CULTURE: THEORY AND METHOD IN THE STUDY OF CULTURAL ASTRONOMY, 2017
We present the results of our analysis of two singular Neolithic monuments and two prominent megalithic groups in Galicia. The two singular monuments are the dolmen of Dombate (Baio, Coruña county), perhaps the largest megalithic chamber in Galicia (or at least the most investigated and well-known) that houses an elaborate decorative program with engravings and paintings, and Forno dos Mouros (Bocelo mountains, Coruña county), also housing paintings and belonging to a bigger group aligned along an historical path following the mountain ridge. Both chambers house interesting illumination effects. The group analysis concerns the Barbanza (Coruña county) and Leboreiro, (Ourense county and borderland with Portugal) necropoleis. There, we find that apart from chamber orientation, location and spatial relations of the monuments within the landscape, the monuments incorporate skyscape associations that complemented and dialogued with that of the chamber orientations. Besides, if the particular directions that we find are related to the movements of the sun and/or moon they may indicate the appropriate ritual time for the dead. Of course, skyscape is not the only or the main factor to explain the location of the mounds within the necropolis but are part of a complex system of relations making those monuments part of a cultural landscape. When taking all factors into consideration a complex picture emerges where we can envisage the ways of construction of social time and space in the megalithic period.
(1998) Interpreting the "megalithic art" of Western Iberia : some preliminary remarks
Journal of Iberian Archaeology, Porto, ADECAP, 1998. vol.0, p. 69-81, 1998
This paper discusses briefly certain concepts as: prehistoric art, the megalithic phenomenon, megalithic art, and archaeological interpretation. It stresses the need to look at "megalithic art" as a structured whole, integrated in a certain kind of architecture, and not just as a series of particular "motifs". The most important "themes" of that art in Western Iberia are: the "skin skeuomorph", the "thing" and some subquadrangular motifs whose symbolic role may have been equally important. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures are considered to be minor elements of the megalithic conceptual world. We discuss the relationship between the themes and their localization in the general architecture of the megaliths, which shows that the most sacred zone of the chamber was the area near the backstone, at the far end of the passage grave, and also that, inside the megalithic construction the left side is more charged with signs than the right, suggesting another aspect of the topographic symbolism.
Approaching the landscape dimension of the megalithic phenomenon in Southern Spain.
Although the megalithic phenomenon in southern Iberia has received attention since the mid-nineteenth century, there has been very little attention paid to the role that megalithic structures played in the organization of prehistoric landscapes. Just as in other areas of Europe, however, southern Iberian megalithic structures must have played complex roles in the social organization of landscapes that go far beyond their use as funerary containers. Using examples from our work in southern Iberia, we employ GIS-based spatial analysis to explore for the first time various aspects of the landscape dimension of these monuments. We discuss three case-studies for which fresh field data have been recently made available. In the first (Almadén de la Plata) we find patterns of association between medieval transhumance routes and megaliths, and we use cost-surface modelling to suggest that medieval routes may reflect earlier, prehistoric patterns of movement which in turn suggest that megalithic structures functioned in this area as waypoints within an emerging mobility system for people and livestock. In the second case (Aroche) we show correlations between the locations of megaliths and theoretical territories defined by isochrones and contrast this pattern with the distribution of non-megalithic funerary sites of the Early Bronze Age, concluding that the spatial distribution of megaliths in this region may relate to their role as landmarks. Lastly we describe a far more specific relationship which we have encountered in the Antequera region, where we believe we have identified a relationship between the orientation of the megalithic structure of Menga, a prominent natural feature and several newly discovered prehistoric sites. Together, these three examples suggest that the current focus on typology, chronology and contents in the study of Iberian megaliths needs to be matched with efforts to identify and interpret the often highly complex structure of the prehistoric landscapes of which they form an integral part.
Breaking the borders of the Mediterranean Neolithic Schematic art in Iberian Megaliths
Breaking borders,crossing territories, 2022
The study of Iberian megalithic art has long demonstrated not only the contemporaneity of its engravings and paintings but also that both types of art are equally ancient in the post-glacial context. The iconography on the megaliths combines the largest amount of human images in hunting scenes, lineage and social aggregation of Iberian schematic art, if compared to the total number of sites. Interior and western regions of the Iberian Peninsula are presented here as key areas to discuss the elaboration of human imagery inherited from patterns that characterized the end of the last Ice Age. An integrative interpretation of open-air sites (engraved rocks, painted rock shelters, stelae, menhirs) and megaliths (stands, stelae, statuettes, decorated vessels) blurs classical Atlantic-Mediterranean boundaries. The role of Iberian images in Europe’s funerary contexts is then more relevant than what has been attributed to them in the inventories of the last century.
Joussaume, R.; Laporte, L. y Scarre, C. (eds.): Origin and Development of the Megalithic Phenomenon of Western Europe. Proceedings of the International Symposium (Bougon, France, October 26th-30th 2002), 473-484. , 2006
This paper describes the results of the fieldwork stage (2000-2002) of a project dealing with the megalithic phenomenon in Almadén de la Plata (Sevilla, Andalusia, Spain), carried out jointly by the universities of Seville and Southampton. On the one hand, this project aims to understand the spatial and landscape dimensions of the megalithic monuments of this region, where the density and diversity of such monuments is very high. This has involved systematic surface survey of a number of designated areas in order to provide the empirical basis from which to understand spatial distributions (relationships between the monuments themselves, between the monuments and settlement areas and between monuments and landscape features). On the other hand, this project is looking at aspects of the internal organisation of megalithic burials in the area. Thus excavations carried out at the site of Dolmen de Palacio III have permitted the retrieval and recording of an almost completely intact Copper Age tholos tomb, as well as providing extremely useful information about patterns of re-use of the monument between the Neolithic and the Iron Age.
From pigment to symbol: The role of paintings in the ideological construction of European megaliths
Megaliths – Societies – Landscapes Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation in Neolithic Europe Volume 3, 2019
The documentation of paint accompanying the engraved decorations in dolmens in the Iberian Peninsula has enabled the development of a tested methodology. Its application to engraved dolmens in Brittany and to materials and architecture in the Orkney Islands has determined the range and variability in the depictions at megalithic sites in Atlantic Europe. The possibility of obtaining direct dates has achieved results in the case of the Bury Stela and some painted objects at Ness of Brodgar. A new line of research into the symbology of megaliths has opened up, as well as new potential for their dating.