New objects in old structures. The Iron Age hoard of the Palacio III megalithic funerary complex (Almadén de la Plata, Seville, Spain) (original) (raw)
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Cultural contact, exchange and interaction feature high in the list of challenging topics of current research on European Prehistory. Not far off is the issue of the changing role of monuments in the making and maintaining of key cultural devices such as memory and identity. Addressing both these highly-debated issues from a science-based perspective, in this paper we look at an unusual case study set in southern Iberia and illustrate how these archaeological questions can benefit from robust materials-science approaches. We present the contextual, morphological and analytical study of an exceptional Early Iron Age hoard composed of a number of different (and mostly exotic) materials such as amber, quartz, silver and ceramic. This hoard, found under the fallen orthostat of a megalithic structure built at least 2000 years earlier, throws new light on long-distance exchange networks and the effect they could have had on the cultural identities and social relations of local Iberian Early Iron Age communities. Moreover, the archaeometric study reveals how diverse and distant the sources of these item are (Northern Europe to Eastern and Western Mediterranean raw materials, as well as local and eastern technologies), therefore raising questions concerning the social mechanisms used to establish change and resistance in contexts of colonial encounter.
The Social Value of Things. Amber and Copper in the Iberian Chalcolithic
If the social meaning of objects is culturally attri- buted, and thus depends on a given specific con- text; if it has a dynamic and contingent nature and it is not a property inherent to materiality in itself; if the value of objects is ultimately the materialised reflection of an interpersonal relationship, how and through what processes do objects acquire value? How and through which processes do they change over time and space? And finally, how and through what indicators can we deduce the social value that prehistoric objects held in their day? In this article, we will carry out a comparative review of the role of amber and metal on the Iberi- an Peninsula. Drawing from the resource availability, working processes, and the use, exchange, and amortisation of objects, we will address the social meaning of both resources during Late Prehistory and how it changed over time.
Lillios, K. (Editor) (2008): Comparative Archaeologies: the US Southwest and the Iberian Peninsula, 81-102., 2011
This paper explores how Neolithic and Copper Age societies of southern Spain established highly patterned relationships between natural elements (matter, form) and human-made devices (artefacts, architectures) in order to maintain their cultural memory. These patterns of relationships involve 1) the selection of special types of rocks (natural substances) and their utilisation with both votive and architectural purposes, 2) the frequenting and sacralisation of anomalous natural spaces (conspicuous vs. hidden), 3) the material transformation and re-utilisation of certain funerary monuments, and 4) the visual connection of sites prominent in the collective memory. Over time, the interaction between "natural" and "artificial" elements lays of the landscape a complex web of references that are integrated in narratives of both mythical (cosmogony, foundational legends) and genealogical (ancestors, lineages) memories. In turn, this web of references becomes integrated in the dynamics of tradition and change embedded in the religious and political ideologies of the societies that in southern Spain during this long time span. This discussion will focus on two case studies on which the authors have ongoing research, namely Almadén de la Plata (Sevilla) and Antequera (Málaga).
European Journal of Archaeology, 2014
The contrast between monumentalized burials and almost invisible settlements has dominated Neolithic studies in western Europe, reinforcing an artificial divide between ceremonial and economically productive landscapes. By combining a material culture approach with a landscape scale, comparative artefact studies can trace connections between people, places, and social contexts. This paper investigates social networks in Late Neolithic Portugal by examining artefact provenance, biographies, and deposition on the Mondego Plateau. It focuses on three sites and four object categories characteristic of this period. The study reveals great diversity of raw materials, circulation of everyday objects, and regional availability of resources previously thought to be imports. It suggests that people used dispersed resource areas in an integrated way, and that exchange was an integral part of routine life. Evidence for links across the region is not restricted to tombs. Burial assemblages resulted from a complex web of social relations that preceded, accompanied, and followed the actions surrounding death. Understanding these places and fundamental questions about Neolithic social production and reproduction requires reconnecting tombs and settlements into wider lived landscapes.
Metal and the Symbols of ancestors in Northern Iberia
Conceptualising Space and Place, 2010
Our research on Megalithic Art in the Iberian Peninsula covers questions related to the role of human figures in domestic and funerary contexts of megalithism. In this paper we intend to analyse the graphic and ideological course manifested by the representation of armed figures in northern Iberia. The emergence of metal weapons does not imply a drastic ideological change but rather the transformation and use of already known mythologies to justify the prominent position of leaders who reiterate the graphic and funerary gestures of their ancestors. They set up as heirs of the tradition. At present, graphic representations assists in the analysis of significant aspects related with metallurgy in this area, supporting more complex perspectives than those traditionally admitted and disqualifying categorical statements about a degree of marginalization, which has never been documented by archaeological evidence. The study of the armed stela of Soalar, Navarra, provide elements for discussing the role of armed figures in Northern Iberia as well as issues on the presence or absence of specific weapons typologies, especially halberds. Statues, stelae, menhirs and decorated stones allow us to reconstruct an aggregated population model that, perhaps from the Mesolithic onwards, associates domestic areas and funerary monuments presided by anthropomorphic images. The respect for the memory of the ancestors enjoys a wide validity. Also, the confluence of later structures, like the stone settings of Sejos, Peña Oviedo or Soalar, allied to the use of natural caves in the 1st millennium BC, confirm that this memory still endorses the settlement of groups in the same territories. Naming these territories as ‘traditional’ is consistent with their constant use and, above all, relates with the ideological justification used by their inhabitants that rests upon long-standing consuetudinary recognition up to the Iron Age. Keywords: Neolithic, Copper Age; metalwork; ancestors; graphic expressions
Madrider Mitteilungen, 2022
The site of Cabecinho da Capitôa (Lisbon, Mafra) was identified and excavated in the context of a preventive archaeological intervention carried out during the con-struction of the A21 Highway in 2006. The archaeological investigations enabled us to identify stratigraphic contexts and material assemblages rarely found from this period (Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age) in this region, including ceramic vessels and one amber necklace. The site and its features are discussed in the context of their surroundings (Estremadura). The interpretation of the data is complemented with an evaluation of the human settlement at the regional level during the aforementioned chronological periods. Supra-regional dynamics are explored by considering amber circulation in Iberia during proto-historic and historic times. The nature of the use of the site also contributes to an understanding of the ritual deposition of artefacts and networks of product circulation in the Mediterranean.