Ramón Fábregas ValcarceUniversity of Santiago de Compostela | USC · Department of History
Ramón Fábregas Valcarce
Ph D
About
350
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
June 2000 - July 2020
Position
- Professor (Full)
Description
- I am a Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology. My research turns around the settlement and material culture in NW Iberia from the start of farming to the Earlier Bronze Age. Within that line of research I haver supervised numerous works on the Post-Paleolithic Art across that geographical area. In collaboration with researchers from other Spanish institutions I have been working on the Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies, particularly those found in the Eastern reaches of Galicia
September 1997 - May 2000
May 1993 - September 1997
Publications
Publications (350)
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.
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...
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...
The present paper aims to offer an evaluation of the cluster method analysis to settlement distribution of archaeological sites (k-means, DBSCAN, percolation analysis) and to show the potentiality of such methods on a regional scale. We analyse the distribution of Palaeolithic sites in Galician territory (NW Iberia) in order to identify the cluster...
In this paper, we deal with the locational analysis of the Cova Eirós site (Triacastela, Lugo), occupied from the Middle Palaeolithic to the present. From GIS and statistics, we intend to approach those environmental factors that define its importance as a place of occupation over time and on a recurring basis. Once we have analysed the variables t...
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....
Iberia, a natural cul-de-sac peninsula, plays a major role in the study of the Neanderthals demise and its eventual relationship with the spread of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in Europe. The site of Cova Eirós (Galicia, Spain), located in NW Iberia, contains Middle and Upper Palaeolithic levels, based on the cultural remains recovered at the s...
Northwest Iberia is a Paleozoic territory almost void of flint outcrops. The arrival of Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic groups, used to flintknapping, to a new lithological region implied a reorganization of their technological basis. The analysis of four lithic assemblages, ranging from the Aurignacian to the Final Magdalenian /Azilian, allows us to...
The Franco-Cantabrian group of cave art ranks among the best known examples of Paleolithic symbolic behaviour. For more than a century no decorated cave was reported beyond the Nalón valley in the center of Asturias, until the carvings and paintings from Cova Eirós were discovered. At more than 100 km from the Nalón, Eirós' art remains an isolated...
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...
Our knowledge about Paleolithic art has been changing substantially and new discoveries and dates are modifying some traditionally accepted considerations. In this context, the geographic spread and the end of this graphic-artistic cycle are two of the main topics of the current scientific debate. The discovery and study of rock art in Cova Eirós,...
In this paper, we deal with the analysis of the occupation pattern of the Lower Palaeolithic archaeological sites in the basin of Monforte de Lemos (Lugo, Galicia). The main locational variables that could condition the siting of these archaeological sites have been analysed, through the application of Geographic Information Systems and spatial sta...
Although some sculptures associated to the megalithic burial mounds were previously known, the discovery in 1980 of a large number of figures in the passage-grave of Cova da Moura (A Coruña) opened up new perspectives on the movable art linked to these funerary constructions. Subsequent findings in other tombs, generally with corridor, raised to ab...
El yacimiento de Cova Eirós, aunque ya conocido desde finales del siglo xx, se está erigiendo como una secuencia de referencia para el estudio del Paleolítico medio y superior del noroeste peninsular. Las intervenciones iniciadas en 2008 han proporcionado novedosos datos sobre los grupos neandertales del Paleolítico medio final. El hallazgo de arte...
This work focuses on the reconstruction of fuelwood procurement during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the southern central Pre-Pyrenees (Spain). The study combines wood charcoal identification with the application of dendro-anthracological approaches in the archaeological sequence of Esplugón (9.4–6.8 kyr cal BP) (Sabiñanigo, Huesca). Scots...
Key-words: Microtus agrestis, Late Pleistocene, Anteroconid complex
The introduction of farming had far-reaching impacts on health, social structure and demography. Although the spread of domesticated plants and animals has been extensively tracked, it is unclear how these nascent economies developed within different environmental and cultural settings. Using molecular and isotopic analysis of lipids from pottery,...
The Tardiglacial of Portugal has been associated with the Magdalenian culture and lithic industries characterized by tool miniaturization, a diversity of microlith types, and the absence of a intentional blade production. The technological characterization, the chronology and the phasing of the Portuguese Magdalenian have been defined based on data...
Fat residue analysis in sherds has allowed in the last years to target the cooking practices of prehistoric groups. Lipids identified in several ceramic samples from diverse sites in Northern Iberia show that dairy products were already present during the early stages of the regional Neolithic, side by side with meat derived from ruminants.
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...
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...
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...
During the 5th millennium BC, the gulf of Morbihan played a major role in the circulation of socially-valued goods, especially those made from Alpine jades (jadeitite, omphacitite, eclogite, some serpentinites and, more rarely, nephrite), in the form of disc-rings and polished axeheads.This contribution begins with a review of the findspot contexts...
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...
The discovery of a partially preserved vessel in the course of the excavations carried out in Cova Eirós brings forth new data on the material culture of the regional Neo-lithic. The pot, both in its bottle-like shape and decoration (shell impressed), recalls strongly the cardial ware, so characteristic of the archaeological record in the Early Neo...
Being at the western fringe of Europe, Iberia had a peculiar prehistory and a complex pattern of Neolithization. A few studies, all based on modern populations, reported the presence of DNA of likely African origin in this region, generally concluding it was the result of recent gene flow, probably during the Islamic period. Here, we provide eviden...
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...
Recentes traballos realizados no concello das Neves veñen
a aportar novos datos sobre a arte rupestre nesta
zona do Miño. Así, coas novas prospeccións incrementouse
considerablemente o número de estacións rupestres
coñecidas ata o de agora, con respecto ás recollidas
na Dirección Xeral de Patrimonio Cultural, o que nos
leva a pensar nunha distribuc...
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...
As Gándaras de Budiño es el yacimiento más emblemático del Paleolítico del noroeste pe-ninsular. la asociación de un registro lítico achelense con unas dataciones del Pleistoceno superior lo convirtió en uno de los yacimientos más controvertidos. Por ello, son numerosas las intervenciones arqueológicas y revisiones que intentaron comprender la prob...
As Gándaras de Budiño es el yacimiento más emblemático del Paleolítico del noroeste pe-ninsular. la asociación de un registro lítico achelense con unas dataciones del Pleistoceno superior lo convirtió en uno de los yacimientos más controvertidos. Por ello, son numerosas las intervenciones arqueológicas y revisiones que intentaron comprender la prob...
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...
The archaeological digs carried out in Cova Eirós (Triacastela, Lugo) since 2008 have brought to light
material culture from multiple chronologies. This paper deals with the analysis and interpretation
of the significant pottery finds from historical periods. Among these, Early and Middle Medieval
sherds are particularly numerous, together with a f...
Cova Eirós is located in the province of Lugo, north-western Iberia. The cave site contains a number of Palaeolithic engravings—narrow and shallow grooves—that are dispersed on the walls of the cave. As direct contact with the panel would be extremely harmful for the rock surface, we have decided to use 3D methods to record the motifs. Thus, we app...
Cova Eirós is located in the province of Lugo, north-western Iberia. The cave site contains a number of Palaeolithic engravings—narrow and shallow grooves—that are dispersed on the walls of the cave. As direct contact with the panel would be extremely harmful for the rock surface, we have decided to use 3D methods to record the motifs. Thus, we app...
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...