Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán

• PhD
• Emergia Fellow at University of Granada

Excellent indicators of technology, social organization, exchange patterns, and even beliefs, beads are a topic of research in their own right. Findings made between 2010 and 2011 at the Montelirio tholos burial, part of the Valencina Copper Age mega-site, in south-western Spain, revealed what amounts to the largest single-burial ever-documented as...

The Iberian Peninsula has traditionally been considered a region on the margins of the distribution circuits of Alpine axes that spread across much of Europe during the Neolithic. However, the cataloguing efforts undertaken during the JADE projects have certified that, although it was a peripheral ter- ritory within the Alpine phenomenon, Iberia wo...

Anthropogenic and environmental processes present unique challenges for preserving cultural heritage in North Africa. Large parts of this region are characterised by unfavourable arid and semi-arid conditions and rapid changes to the landscapes caused by heightened regional development (e.g., urban expansion, road building, agricultural intensifica...

Las dificultades para determinar su número real, el material concreto en el que fueron realizados o la cronología exacta de su deposición, hace de los objetos de adorno un campo de estudio enormemente complejo. Quizás por esta razón, buena parte de las aproximaciones anteriores a estos objetos se centraron en su caracterización y proveniencia así c...

The warrior stelae, also called southwestern stelae or western stelae, emerge as one of the most characteristic manifestations of the Bronze Age in Iberia. Since the earliest findings more than a century ago, these monoliths have received great attention from scholars, becoming the subject of an intense debate, without a consensus having been reach...

This dataset contains archaeological and heritage sites of the Marmarica region (NE-Libya/NW-Egypt), ranging from the Late Bronze to the Roman times. It has been developed in the framework of the PERAIA project, which aims to analyse the long-term history and interaction patterns along the harsh environments of northeastern Africa. The records cont...

The perceptibility of a prehistoric monument (the property of being perceptible from its surrounding landscape) can be quite difficult to analyse by means of traditional static models. Such difficulty lies in the fact that perceptibility depends upon many other factors beyond simple topographical position, such as size, colour, contrast with the su...

A state-of-the-art regarding the Holocene open-air rock art in Galicia, basically comprising several thousands of carvings on granitic exposures plus the recent discovery of painted rock-shelters in the Iberian Schematic tradition.

Prime GIORNATE DI STUDIO multidisciplinari e geo-archeologiche sul MEGALITISMO MEDITERRANEO Palermo 2023 IL MEDITERRANEO E IL MEGALITISMO DURANTE IL III E II MILLENNIO a.C. ATTI del Convegno Internazionale Architetture megalitiche, strutture cultuali archeo-astronomiche, siti geo-archeologici, contatti, riadattamenti, morfo-facies della architettur...

Archaeological excavations and explorations carried out in the last decades across the provinces of Pontevedra and Ourense (southern Galicia), have reported a large number of open-air domestic sites corresponding to the Late Prehistory. With the information extracted from the inventory of the Dirección Xeral de Patrimonio Cultural of the Xunta de G...

DÍAZ-ANDREU, Margarita y PORTILLO, Marta (coords.) (2021): Arqueología e interdisciplinariedad. La microhistoria de una revolución en la arqueología española (1970-2020), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 410 pp. ISBN: 978-84-9168-386-5

O volume que agora sai a público reúne um conjunto de estudos e reflexões apresentado no Colóquio Internacional Romper Fronteiras, Atravessar Territórios. Identidades e Intercâmbios da Pré-história Recente no Interior Norte Peninsular, que se realizou nos dias 23 e 24 de setembro de 2021, e organizado pelo Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar «C...

El análisis arqueométrico de un hacha de color verde recuperada en los años 20 del pasado siglo en el entorno de Monte Aberto-Elviña (A Coruña), que probablemente habría formado parte del ajuar de uno de los tres túmulos que componían la necrópolis homónima, ha permitido determinar que se trata de un hacha tipo Durrington “goutte d’eau”, fabricada...

El enfoque procesual desarrollado durante las últimas décadas en los estudios líticos ha permitido superar el supuesto carácter "arcaico" de los conjuntos en cuarzo. El progresivo abandono de las clasificaciones exclusivamente tipológicas y las innovaciones metodológicas han posibilitado sobrepasar la apariencia informal de los artefactos de cuarzo...

Between the V and III Millennium BC, the communities in Western Europe were deeply attracted to objects made of certain raw materials, such as jade or variscite. The choice of these rocks may have been due to their rarity as well as to physical characteristics such as their tenacity and, especially, a very attractive green color and glossy aspect....

The Vilapedre axe (Lugo, Northwest Iberia) has been traditionally considered by archaeologists as evidence of prehistoric long-distance contacts along the Atlantic Coast of France and Spain. This artefact-as other "Tumiac type" axes (long polished blades, generally butt-perforated)-would have been produced in Brittany during the Neolithic (5th mill...

The existence of a fire event at the Iron Age hillfort of Nabás, which is located on the southern bank of the Ría de Vigo (Galicia, NW of the Iberian Peninsula), favoured an extraordinary preservation of carbonised plant remains and offered an unusual opportunity to focus our research on the study of the final episode of a house life-cycle. The arc...

As anywhere else around the world, GIS is an essential tool in Galician Archaeology (NW Spain) when examining and analysing spatial data. This is also true for the study of mounds in that area, since spatial analysis and statistics have become increasingly used for contrasting hypotheses regarding the locational preferences of these monuments, usua...

La investigación sobre el fenómeno megalítico en Galicia se remonta a principios del siglo XX y su cultura material ha atraído la atención de los estudiosos desde entonces. Aunque se habían recuperado algunos objetos cultuales en los túmulos gallegos y del Norte portugués, su presencia en las tumbas era notablemente escasa. Esta situación va a camb...

Tanto la evidencia arqueológica como las características geo- gráficas y geológicas del noroeste de Iberia permiten pensar que esta región se corresponde con el lugar, mencionado por la fuentes clásicas, al que los fenicios navegaron para establecer relaciones comerciales con las comunidades locales y obtener estaño. Las rías y sus espacios in- sul...

The history of research on the Neolithic of the Atlantic façade shows how speculation about prehistoric mobility, especially across the sea, is mainly based on three types of archaeological evidence: megalithic monuments, rare stones, and pottery decoration. With the aim of approaching the issue from other perspectives, we have focused on the Morbi...

The history of research on the Neolithic of the Atlantic façade shows how speculation about prehistoric mobility, especially across the sea, is mainly based on three types of archaeological evidence: megalithic monuments, rare stones, and pottery decoration. With the aim of approaching the issue from other perspectives, we have focused on the Morbi...

Often along vast expanses, ancient societies traded certain commodities that were considered valuable either for functional or symbolic reasons-or, rather, a mixture of both factors. A Taste for Green addresses latest research into the acquisition of jade, turquoise or variscite, all of which share a characteristic greenish colour and an engaging a...

Greenstones were a pervasive presence in the material culture of Iberian Late Prehistory. Mostly in the form of perforated beads or pendants, stones such as variscite and, to a lesser degree chlorite, talc, sericite, steatite, muscovite or fluorite were a common occurrence in burial contexts, particularly in the 4th and 3rd millennia cal BC. Other...

La parure en callaïs du Néolithique européen La callaïs désigne les pierres vertes dont sont faites les remarquables parures découvertes dans plusieurs sites néolithiques d'Europe occidentale. Terme utilisé au début de notre ère par Pline l'Ancien et repris par les premiers archéologues du début du XXème siècle lors des premières fouilles des grand...

In this paper, we have conducted an extensive literature review aiming at offering a state of the art and quantification of the distribution of the variscite and other green stone adornments across Western Iberia during the Late Prehistory (5th-2nd millennium BC). The study area played a central role in the production and distribution of green impl...

We undertook an extensive review of the literature about the distribution of variscite and the other green stone adornments across western Spain. This region has a crucial importance for the understanding of this phenomenon, since two of the three main variscite mines, exploited during prehistory, are located there. Perhaps due to such importance,...

Ever since the first mention was published in 1970, Palazuelo de las Cuevas (Zamora) became known as 􏱚the variscite source􏱛 for North-􏱖est Iberia. Later geological surveys and casual finds have shown this mineral to be much more widespread, including other localities in Zamora, Northern Portugal, (Tras-os-Montes), 􏱖estern León (Bierzo) and Eastern...

Research on the provenance of rare green stone materials has produced new insights into the value systems of societies in western and central Europe between the 6th and 3rd millennia cal BC. This contribution presents the results of a Bayesian statistical analysis of 406 current available radiocarbon results from variscite and turquoise (callaïs) c...

RESUMEN: En este artículo se describen los resultados del análisis preliminar de la pintura y de la excavación arqueológica del abrigo de Cova dos Mouros (Baleira, Lugo). En esta pequeña cavidad se han identificado varios paneles de arte esquemático representando motivos tanto geométricos (zigzags, chevrons,…) como naturalistas (antropomorfos) real...

Monuments as such implicitly have a perennial charac- ter and act as a presumed means for consecrating or marking out especial places. This would be the case with megalithic mounds, which add their funerary character to the afore- mentioned features. However, in recent decades an increasing emphasis has been placed on the relationship between megal...

In an earlier presentation in Kiel in 2011 (›Measuring dis- tinction in the megalithic architecture of the Carnac region‹), we used the concept of distinction to explore the ways in which identity was expressed in the world of the Neolithic Armorica through materials, object-signs and representations. For this paper, we shall turn to the notion of...

Resumen En el presente estudio, de naturaleza fundamentalmente exploratoria, se ha aplicado el marco teórico de la difusión de la innovación (modelos de E. Rogers, F.M. Bass y G. Moore) con el objetivo de profundizar en el análisis de los niveles de adopción de las Plataformas de Servicios Bibliotecarios entre bibliotecas académicas y públicas dura...

Funerary mounds, whether megalithic or not, feature prominently among the Galician archaeology and their sheer number and monumentality have attracted the attention of scholars ever since the end of the 19th century. The Barbanza peninsula, set in the western coast of Galicia, stands out for its numerous barrows, with a noticeable cluster of those...

The mound phenomenon is one of the most common topics in the studies of the Prehistory of the Iberian Nortwest and, more specifically, of the Barbanza Peninsula. A topic still determined today by a whole series of questions that have been around for a long time, in spite of the advances in the discipline. In order to help to solve some of them, we...

Abstract: This work deals with the structural evidence and the material culture recovered during the archaeological excavation of the prehistoric settlement of Monte dos Remedios (Moaña, Pontevedra) by using Geographic Information Systems (GRASS-GIS, Quantum GIS, etc...) and open-source statistical analysis programs (R). Thus, we will focus on desc...

We undertook an extensive literature review of the distribution of the variscite and other green stone adornments across Western Spain. This region has a crucial importance for the understanding of this phenomenon, since two of the three main variscite mines exploited during the prehistory are located there. Perhaps due to such importance, Western...

Figura Chan da Isca (Carrero Pazos, M.; Vilas Estévez, B., Vázquez Martínez, A. (2017) "Revisitando Campo Lameiro (Pontevedra) Resultados preliminares dun proxecto de Investigación para o Estudo dos Cérvidos na Arte Rupestre" en (Re)escribindo a Historia: achegas dos novos investigadores en Arqueoloxía e Ciencias da Antigüidade)

Throughout the decades different views about the Galician petroglyphs has been put forward by the researchers in regard to the context and significance of this artistic phenomenon. In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the corpus of carved sites and different topics have been addressed, from spatial analysis to the application of ne...

Throughout the decades different views about the Galician petroglyphs has been put forward by the researchers in regard to the context and significance of this artistic phenomenon. In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the corpus of carved sites and different topics have been addressed, from spatial analysis to the application of ne...

With the aim of offering a first approach to issues of such importance as the number of sites that make up the Gali- cian rock art, their iconographic variability or geographical distribution, we have analysed the official archaeological in- ventory of the Galician autonomous government (Servizo de Arqueoloxía da la Dirección Xeral do Patrimonio Cu...

Monuments, as such, have implicitly a perennial character and they act as presumed means for consecrating or marking out especial places. That would be the case of megalithic mounds, which add their funerary character to the aforementioned features. But, in the last decades, an increasing emphasis has been placed on the relationship between megalit...

Los estudios de industria lítica en la Prehistoria gallega se han focalizado en la carac-terización crono-cultural de los conjuntos dejando a un lado el estudio de las materias primas y estrategias de abastecimiento. Por otro lado, el predominio de materias primas locales, como cuarzos y cuarcitas, ha colocado en un segundo plano el estudio de ma-t...

https://c-rellan.shinyapps.io/petroglifos_galicia/ This is simple web app displaying the inventory of rock art sites in Galicia (Northwestern Spain). The app was made using the R Shiny, Leaflet and ggplot2 packages. The inventory was collected from the "Preinventario de Bens Arqueolóxicos da Dirección Xeral de Patrimonio Cultural" (Consellería de...

The paper deals with the importance of Alpine axe production, not only in much of central and Western Europe, but particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. Its distribution from Catalonia to Galicia has led us to consider the relevance that in the Neolithic, as well as in more recent periods, acquired exchange networks. Contacts between groups hundred...

From the sierra to the lowlands: new data on the settlement of the Barbanza Peninsula from Prehistoric to Medieval times. We review the survey works carried through in the district of Barbanza, now extended to the parishes of Macenda and Bealo in search of livestock / pastoral settlements. In the course of these explorations a Copper Age site was d...

The stone of Saint-Samson is a Neolithic stele of 70 tons and 10 m of probable length. Its intriguing leaning position and its very regular morphology have aroused curiosity since medieval times. Three of its four faces—oriented towards the cardinal points—display engravings that were discovered in the 1970s. Now, a new recording protocol has combi...

'Basic features of the variscite extraction in Palazuelo de las Cuevas (Zamora)' Ever since first published in 1970, Palazuelo de las Cuevas (Zamora) became known as “the variscite source” for NW Iberia. Later geological surveys and casual finds have shown this mineral to be much more widespread, including other localities in Zamora, Northern Portu...

Desde que se dio a conocer en 1970, Palazuelo de las Cuevas (Zamora) se convirtió en ‘la fuente de variscita’ para el no ibérico. Estudios geológicos posteriores y hallazgos casuales han demostrado que este mineral posee una distribución mucho más amplia, incluyendo otras localidades de Zamora, Norte de Portugal (Tras-os-Montes), el o de León (Bier...

This paper focuses on the relationship between human communities and wood resources in the Sabor valley (Trás-os-Montes region, northeast Portugal) during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Charcoal from three archaeological sites—Terraço das Laranjeiras, Foz do Medal and Quinta de Crestelos—was analysed. As in other Early-Middle Bronze Age sites in...

Pits are the most common archaeological features in late prehistoric Europe, yet their function and formation dynamics remain obscure. This paper draws on stratigraphy, contextual observations, and a novel analytical protocol to address such topics. The article presents an interdisciplinary and comparative post-excavation procedure to evaluate some...

Often along vast expanses, ancient societies traded certain commodities that were considered valuable either for functional or symbolic reasons –or, rather, a mixture of both factors. We shall address the state of the art with regard to the acquisition of jade, turquoise or variscite, all of which share a characteristic greenish color and an engagi...

Large polished axes of Alpine jade have circulated across Europe during the 5th and 4th Millennia BC. The presence of Alpine axes in the Iberian Peninsula is more restricted than elsewhere in Western Europe, but still significant.Thirty-seven pieces of probable Alpine origin have been catalogued in Iberia. Along with those Alpine jades, there are l...

Across the millennia spanning from the first peopling of NW Iberia to the last tracts of the Bronze Age, the human groups have adapted themselves to the environment. Moreover, they were affected by the shifting temperatures, the changes of the vegetal cover and other modifications of the landscape and far from being a passive subject, they often pl...

Traditionally, the province of A Coruña has not been a particular focus of interest in Galician rock art studies, the main research efforts being devoted to Pontevedra. While not starting from scratch when approaching the subject, it is important to keep in mind that the first considerations about the spatial distribution of the petroglyphs were no...

The Equotip Hardness Tester is applied to different types of quartz and other lithic raw materials in order to determine if variations in the rebound hardness measured by this device may serve as a proxy for detecting the levels of continuity and isotropy of toolstones. Continuity, the amount of cracks and other internal defects; and isotropy, the...

The application of the Chaine operatoire approach developed in the lithic studies during the last decades has overcome the assumed “archaic” character of the quartz lithic assemblages. These studies have gone beyond the informal appearance of the quartz artefacts in order to achieve a positive understanding of the technological strategies that rule...

A Serra do Barbanza espertou especial interese entre os investigadores galegos para o estudo do fenómeno tumular dada a gran concentración que presenta, contrastando coa total ausencia de xacementos domésticos; pero nos últimos anos están aflorando un conxunto de xacementos arqueolóxicos extraordinarios, tanto pola densidade dos mesmos como polas s...

A Serra do Barbanza espertou especial interese entre os investigadores galegos para o estudo do fenómeno tumular dada a gran concentración que presenta, contrastando coa total ausencia de xacementos domésticos; pero nos últimos anos están aflorando un conxunto de xacementos arqueolóxicos extraordinarios, tanto pola densidade dos mesmos como polas s...

The O Barbanza mountain range is located between the Ria de Arousa to the south and the Ria de Muros-Noia to the north, on the Atlantic coast of Galicia. The upper reaches of the Barbanza river flow through a gently sloping area with an open valley following fractures in a NW-SE direction. The course of the river follows a winding path directed by...

Galician open-air rock art has been often considered as an active element in the configuration of the economic and symbolic signification of prehistoric landscapes. Thus, in the last 20 years, the spatial setting of petroglyphs was analysed and repeatedly linked to the control of certain resource-rich areas or the routes leading into them. Neverthe...

Today, despite the notable progress on the knowledge about Galician carvings, we still lack an updated census of these and, as a result, we do not have adequate information about the precise number or the geographical distribution of the main groups of motifs that make up this artistic phenomenon. In order to tackle this problem, we have gone throu...

En los últimos treinta años, los arqueólogos han comenzado a superar su tradicional desinterés por las industrias líticas realizadas en cuarzo, con un número creciente de trabajos centrados en esta materia prima. Sin embargo, la mayor parte de estas aproximaciones se han centrado fundamental o exclusivamente en el cuarzo xenomorfo o “cuarzo de filó...

Over the last two decades, the traditional descriptive paradigm has given way to other views focusing on the relationship between petroglyphs and prehistoric landscapes, seeking to understand that artistic phenomenon in the framework of societies undergoing deep socioeconomic changes and increasingly altering their environment. We shall review, in...

Over the last two decades, the traditional descriptive paradigm has given way to other views focusing on the relationship between petroglyphs and prehistoric landscapes, seeking to understand that artistic phenomenon in the framework of societies undergoing deep socioeconomic changes and increasingly altering their environment. We shall review, in...