From pigment to symbol: The role of paintings in the ideological construction of European megaliths (original) (raw)
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Natural and artificial colours: the megalithic monuments of Brittany
Antiquity, 2015
Megalithic art is a well-known feature of the Neolithic chambered tombs of Atlantic Europe. The surviving evidence consists largely of carved motifs, and, until recently, painted megalithic art was thought to be restricted to western Iberia. Recent discoveries have expanded that distribution, assisted by new methods of detection, recording and analysis. The discovery of painted motifs at Barnenez in Brittany, reported here, marks a breakthrough and raises the possibility that many megalithic tombs in northwest Europe were once coloured as well as carved. Similarities in motifs and techniques also point to the likelihood of direct connections with Iberia.
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.
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.
The mid - seventh millennium BP witnessed the emergence of a European pictographic language based on a common repertoire of abstract and fi gurative motifs. Although largely confi ned to passage grave communities occupying the coastal fringes of Atlantic Europe, the megalithic art tradition unifi ed much of the Neolithic world from the Mediterranean to northern Scotland over a period of some 3,000 years. The art itself appears to have acted as a personal signature, unique to each monument and its builders, but drawing on a limited set of symbols. This chapter explores the geographic extent of this mainly abstract motif repertoire, and proposes that, over time and space, key symbols may have changed their meaning(s).
Colour Out of Space: Colour in the Construction and Usage of Monuments of Neolithic Atlantic Europe
2019
The information board at suburban megalith D47 85. People of the Funnel Beaker Culture 86. The Boulder Garden at the Hunebedcentrum, Borger 87. D27, sitting in the dappled midsummer sunlight in its wooded glade 88. D27 site plan in colour 89. View along the western side of the kerb at Schimmeres 90. D43 site plan in colour 91. D 47-Hunebed in a housing estate 92. D47 site plan coloured 93. The eastern side of the hunebed D46 94. D43 coloured site plan 95. The slanting capstone of D38 96. D38 coloured site plan 97. D39, slowly being overtaken by the forest to the west 98. D39 coloured site plan 99. D40, reconstructed 100. D40 site plan in colour 101. D21, grown through by oak 102. D21 coloured site plan 103. D22, a haunting Hunebed 104. D22 coloured site plan List of Tables 1. Colour symbology and significance among the Ndembu-collated from Turner 2. Jacobson-Widding's broad interpretations of red, white, black associations in the peoples of the Congo 3. List of R packages used to interrogate data and output findings into QGIS 4. Raw data from initial pilot study phase at Bryn Celli Ddu 5. Raw data, including blue filtered readings, from Calderstones pilot study 6. Plas Newydd data 7. Hendrefor site data 8. Bodowyr site data 9. Ty Newydd site data 10. Trefignath site data 11. Presaddfed site data 12. Lligwy site data 13. Pant y Saer data 14. Bryn yr Hen Bobl data 15. Llech y Tribedd data 16. Trellyfaint data 17. Carreg Coetan data 18. Cerrig y Gof data 19. Pentre Ifan site data 20. Bedd yr Afanc data 21. Ffyst Samson data 22. Carreg Samson data 23. Coetan Arthur data 24. Treffynon data 25. St Elvis Farm data 26. Carn Llidi data 27. Hanging Stone data 28. Devil's Quoit data 29. King's Quoit data 30. Avebury data 31. Avebury stones texture notes 32. West Kennet data 33. Stonehenge data 34. Kong Asgers Høj data 35. Sprovedyssen data 36. Klekkende-Høj data 37. Sømarksdyssen data 38. Kyrkerör data 39. Lusthushögens data 40. Kung Björns Grav data 41. Ängshögen data 42. Åttagården data 43. Hjelmsrör data 44. Girommen data 45. Klövagårdens data 46. Ragnvalds Kull data 47. Logårds Kulle data 48. D27 data 49. D43 data 50. D47 data 51. D46 data 52. D38 data To all of my family, whose financial and emotional support have made this research possible-and who have had the good grace to decline with politeness a thousand image slideshow of stones studied within it. To Richard MacDonald, formerly of the Reader Organisation, Calderstones, Liverpool, for private access to the Calderstones and expert guided tour of their surroundings. To the University of Sheffield's Andrew Sherratt fund, who enabled me to very literally cross bridges into Scandinavia. To my sisterhood of strong women archaeologists, whose solidarity and strength have seen me through many hard days and nights
Menga: Journal of Andalusian Prehistory, Monograph nº 1., 2011
"This book presents the papers and discussions held at the second meeting of the European Megalithic Studies Group (Seville, Spain, November 2008). This is therefore a cooperative, international book that brings together leading specialists from several European countries, including France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, and Spain. This volume revolves around two crucial aspects of recent research on prehistoric monuments: time (chronology) and matter (raw materials as used in both architecture and artefacts). Both topics have generated much discussion in recent years and form one of the main cutting edges of current research on prehistoric monuments. These two main themes have recently witnessed major advances thanks to the application of new scientific techniques to old and new archaeological problems. For the chronology theme, specific issues include the origin of prehistoric monuments, the limitations and advantages of newly available high-resolution dating techniques (such as AMS radiocarbon analysis of pigments, thermoluminiscence and OSL), and patterns of utilisation, re-utilisation and abandonment. For rare rocks, some of the specific issues covered by this book are rock selection, the frequency and type of rare materials (variscite, quartz, amber, etc.), trade and exchange, the manipulation of raw materials, the symbolic catchment of geological landscapes, and the sourcing of stones. The idea here is to explore the value, function and symbolism of the materials in their prehistoric context, their placement and positioning in relation to funerary structures (architecture) and human remains (individuals), and the evidence they provide for interregional interaction."
A Multi-Analytical Study of Rock-Art Paintings from Megalithic Barrows of the North-Western Portugal
2018
The colourant composition of a northern Portugal megalithic barrow decorated with 'solar' motifs was studied using a multi-analytical approach, allowing the characterisation of the painting techniques, pigments and binders. The red pigment was prepared with iron oxide minerals, using vegetal oils as organic additives, while the black pigment was charcoal without any organic additives or binders. The solar motif was first drawn with charcoal and subsequently painted with a red pigment.
Graphical Markers and Megalith Builders in the International Tagus, Iberian Peninsula.
One of the parameters established in the analysis of social inequalities is the presence and role of prestige elements within the funerary sphere. And among these, Bell Beaker materials have gained important connotations, alongside their interpretation within the context of individual funerary rituals that may have highlighted the position of distinguished persons. This interpretative version currently has many nuances, in particular the debate over the representativity of the Beaker materials within collective burials and, moreover, regarding the reflections upon the megalithic development and the construction of tombs by people with Beaker material culture. The area with which we are concerned finds itself in a singular position with regards to the distribution of Iberian Beaker finds. On one side the spectacular finds of the Lisbon area, and on the other, in the interior of the basin, the Ciempozuelos group. Between them, a void, understood as populational and, by extension, as social in which destructured groups of transhumant herders were thought to have played no role in the cultural dynamics of the 3rd millennium cal. BC. In addition, the area was associated with an important absence of population throughout the Later Prehistoric periods. This was the interpretation which dominated the analysis of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic groups of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula through great part of the 20th century. But recent work has confirmed the continued populational occupation that in turn impinges on the funerary occupation of the area. The work that we area presenting compiles all of the evidence that assesses the presence of Beaker materials in the dolmens of the International Tagus, as well as the radiocarbon dates, which, although few, support a long constructive discourse that includes the use and reuse with collective intentionality by the Beaker people. To these we add data that also assesses the reuse of previously built tombs in order to highlight that in the International Tagus, as in other important European megalithic regions, there are megalithic necropoli that were used and built between the 5th and the 2nd millennia cal. BC. The central dates in the 3rd millennium cal. BC constitute one of the moments of greatest ritual and symbolic implementation. This places the Beaker people as one of the most distinguished groups in the use and construction of the megalithic tombs, as part of necropoli with marked visible differences between the tombs. The coexistence between the use of these symbolic resources andindividual burials offers a sample of the variety of different containers displayed by Beaker groups in the rest of Europe.