Megalithic art in the Iberian Peninsula Thinking about graphic discourses in the European Megaliths (original) (raw)
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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.
Monumentality, Visibility and Routes Control in Southeastern Iberian Megalithic Sites
Archaeopress eBooks, 2014
Between the end of the V Millennium B.C. and the end of III Millennium B.C., megalithic tombs expand over the Southeastern Iberian Peninsula but their positions, distributions, associations, sizes, shapes and contents are very different according not only their chronology but mainly their ideological function. A new interpretation about the Tabernas Corridor (Almeria) megalithic graves situation analysis is proposed here before discussing the differences among the Los Millares tombs (Santa Fe de Mondújar, Almería) in terms of their location and grave goods as known from the old excavations by L. Siret and A.Almagro-A.Arribas. Both subjects are included in a wider study of the Late Prehistoric funerary ritual phenomenology in the Southeastern Iberian Peninsula and its relation to the social organization through different methodological strategies.
The protection and management of the megalithic art of Galicia, Spain
Conservation and Management of …, 2003
Megalithic art is an important cultural resource in many regions of Western Europe. In this contribution we look at examples from Galicia, in the north-west corner of the Iberian Peninsula. A vast project has been underway since 1998, surveying and characterizing megalithic paintings, a field of research previously unexplored in any systematic way. Through defining the extent and state of conservation of megalithic paintings, the aim of the project is to be able to recommend adequate measures for their protection and preservation. It is hoped that this interdisciplinary effort will be combined with a consistent policy of display and promotion that will ensure a growing public awareness of the value of these fragile artistic works, while avoiding unnecessary losses in this part of our cultural heritage.
(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.
Megalithic art: Funeral scenarios in western Neolithic Europe
Megalihs in the World, 2022
New developments in the study of European megaliths focus on two aspects: the extension of the decorated sites to continental, Northern European and Mediterranean areas; and the documentation of paintings beyond the Viseu complex in northern Portugal. Our research studied painting with the aim of contributing scientific data to the understanding of funeral rituals, including the direct dating of pigments. Colour was used to design funeral scenes of great visual impact. Its presence in megalithic structures in Brittany, northern France, Germany, the Caucasian plains and the Mediterranean, suggests the extensive range of this elaborate ritual. The sequences and superimpositions of paintings and engravings present a new way to analyse phases of reuse, maintenance and closure of these constructions.
G. Robin, A. D’Anna y M. Bailly (Eds.) Fonctions, utilisations et représentations de l’espace dans les sepultures monumentales du Néolithique européen., 2016
ABSTRACT. The Spanish Northern Meseta, a region of Central Iberia, shows a rich and diverse megalithic heritage. The analysis of the 4 th millennium cal BC domestic and funerary archaeological record from this region offers strong evidence on Late Neolithic territorial, ritual and political behaviour. This paper tries to find out the role of the collective monumental tombs within these questions. Some this evidence relates to 1) the development of non-funerary activities at the megalithic monuments; 2) the relationship between megalithic monuments and the domestic life; and 3) the presence of lavish amount of grave goods in some of the analysed burials. It is argued that during the Late Neolithic in this region the megalithic monuments served as a milestone for many of the physical and symbolic social needs. RÉSUMÉ. La Meseta Nord espagnole est une région de l’intérieur de la péninsule Ibérique avec un patrimoine mégalithique riche et varié. Une analyse du registre archéologique, domestique et funéraire, du Néolithique final nous offre de nombreux indices sur le comportement territorial, rituel-religieux et politique des gens qui ont vécu dans cette région pendant le IV e millénaire calibré avant J.-C. L’objectif de cet article est d’étudier le rôle joué par les sépultures collectives monumentales à cet égard à travers des évidences archéologiques documentées relatives à 1) la pratique dans les scènes dolméniques de différentes activités rituelles nonfunéraires, 2) la relation entre les mégalithes et la vie domestique et 3) le somptueux de certaines funérailles développées dans ces monuments. De tout cela on tire que les tombes mégalithiques ont agi comme l’élément fondamental de référence pour beaucoup de nécessités, autant physiques que symboliques, de ces communautés.
Mapping Portable Art in Late Iberian Prehistory
Zona Arqueológica 23. Mobile images of ancestral bodies: A millennium-long perspective from Iberia to Europe, 2021
Figurines were particularly abundant and diverse in Iberia during the Neolithic and above all in the Chalcolithic. They have traditionally been studied in terms of their format, the territory they are found in and the culture they belonged to. However, one of the main characteristics of the figurines is that they form part of the wide range of graphic expressions known in Iberian late prehistory, found in rock-shelters, on rocks and in megalithic monuments. This reality, which is usually documented partially, locally or regionally, is here presented cartographically. While aware of the difficulty in obtaining an exhaustive record, the picture obtained helps to understand the dispersion and typology of the figurines in the framework of post-glacial Iberian art. It is based on general inventories and partial repertoires, some of them published in the present volume, supported by information and communication technologies.
The megalithic tombs in the region of Belas (Sintra, Portugal) and their aesthetic manifestations
2011
"Within the region of Lisbon, artistic manifestations from megalithic tombs are virtually unknown, although they are frequent in other regions. The megalithic group of Belas has a particular relevance to this subject given its two types of aesthetic and artistic features already published by previous authors, but not properly emphasized or characterized. On one hand, the builders of the three known tombs –Pedra dos Mouros, Monte Abraão and Estria– made selective usage of certain types of rock slabs, based on their morphological characteristics on the slab surfaces, structuring them within an intentional aesthetic pattern. On the other hand, on the external surface of one of the slabs of Pedra dos Mouros, two engraved anthropomorphic fi gurines are known, but need to be reevaluated taking into account the most recent studies."