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Building up the land: a new appraisal to the megalithic phenomenon in the Barbanza peninsula (Galicia, NW Spain)

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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 on the high plateau, where spatial analyses were undertaken by researchers in the early 80’. One of the aspects on which research has most regularly focused regards the relationship between megaliths and movement, not just as the eventual correlation between mound location and paths across the landscape, but on a more general way by assessing the use of building materials or grave-goods of non-local origin. In the last decade, there has been a renewed effort at surveying the Barbanza peninsula leading to the discovery of scores of new mounds, thus significantly modifying the distribution of these monuments and breaking somewhat the paramount role of the high sierra with respect to this funerary phenomenon. Moreover, by employing new methodologies, such as Geographical Information Systems and spatial statistics, we can observe that mounds are indeed associated with transit routes and, at a local scale, with conspicuous areas more often than, for instance, rock art sites. Therefore, an image surges forward where megalithic architecture does not act exclusively as a static milestone but, rather, as a dynamic agent linked to a cognitive geography developed by communities in the Late Prehistory that undertake the exploitation of different landscapes and resources, from the very coast to the uplands. In the framework of this process, however, a marked variability can be observed regarding the conspicuity that these monuments might have had in the prehistoric landscape. This may suggest a multiplicity of roles or audiences, ranging from those intended to be real landmarks to others apparently designed to go unnoticed.
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DE GIBRALTAR AOS PIRENÉUS
Megalitismo, Vida e Morte na Fachada Atlântica Peninsular
Editores Cientícos
João Carlos de Senna-Martinez (Uniarq/FLUL)
Mariana Diniz (Uniarq/FLUL)
António Faustino de Carvalho (CEAACP/U. Algarve)
Edição
Fundação Lapa do Lobo
Design Gráco: Maria Tavares de Almeida
Impressão gráca: Granelas
Tiragem: 120 exemplares
Depósito Legal: 447242/18
ISBN: 978-989-98163-5-0
Ano: 2018
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índice
Prefácio.................................................................................................................11
Apresentação......................................................................................................15
Comissões............................................................................................................19
Ana Cristina Martins..........................................................................................21
Megalitismo e discursos identitários: textos, contextos e pretextos
Pedro Sobral de Carvalho e António Faustino Carvalho.............................37
Para uma recuperação do megalitismo de Lafões. O concelho de Vouzela (Distrito de
Viseu) enquanto case-study
José Manuel Quintã Ventura.............................................................................51
Núcleo Megalítico dos Fiais-Azenha (Carregal dos Sal): um balanço
Rita Peyroteo Stjerna, Ana Cristina Araújo e Mariana Diniz......................65
The dead at Escoural Cave (Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal): early farmer’s interactions in
south-western Iberian Peninsula
Ramón Fábregas Valcarce, Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán, Julián Bustelo
Abuín e Víctor Barbeito Pose...........................................................................85
Building up the land: a new appraisal to the megalithic phenomenon in the Barbanza
peninsula (Galicia, NW Spain)
Juan Carlos Castro Carrera .............................................................................99
Actuaciones de excavación y rehabilitación en los conjuntos de túmulos funerarios
de Chan de Castiñeiras y Chan de Armada, península del Morrazo, Galicia
Fábio Soares ....................................................................................................123
A invulgar localização de uma estrutura em negativo na Mamoa de Eireira
(Afe, Viana do Castelo)
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Pablo Arias Cabal e Miriam Cubas ..............................................................133
Muerte y ritual en el Neolítico del noroeste: El megalitismo y otras manifestaciones
del comportamiento funerario de las sociedades de los milenios V y IV a.C. en el
cuadrante noroccidental de la península ibérica
Elsa Luís e Telma Ribeiro................................................................................155
As comunidades neocalcolíticas de Trás-os-Montes: pensar a sua tradição cerâmica
numa perspectiva de perenidade
João Carlos Senna-Martinez...........................................................................167
A shrine in the Neolithic? Orca da Lapa do Lobo, Nelas (c.5000-3000 BC)
João Carlos Senna-Martinez e Margarida M. Carvalho.............................183
Ideotechnical representations in the Megalithism of Mondego´s Platform:
The stelae of Orca da Lapa do Lobo
António Faustino Carvalho ..........................................................................201
Anta da Lapa da Meruje (Vouzela, Viseu): resultados preliminares dos trabalhos
em curso
António Faustino Carvalho, Telmo Pereira, Juan Francisco Gibaja........217
Proveniências e utilização do sílex no Megalitismo de Lafões (Viseu, Portugal).
Primeira abordagem a partir dos conjuntos dos dólmenes da Lapa da Meruje
e de Antelas
Nelson J. Almeida, Luiz Oosterbeek, Chris Scarre, Cristiana Ferreira,
João Belo e Luís Costa....................................................................................233
Dawn of the dead: funerary behavior in the Middle Tagus Neolithic
Telmo Pereira, Sandra Assis, Patrícia Monteiro, Eduardo Paixão,
Soa Bárbara, David Nora, Vânia Carvalho e Trenton Holliday..............247
Abrigo da Buraca da Moira: contributos para o conhecimento da ocupação humana
do Neolítico nal/Calcolítico na região de Leiria, Portugal
Leonor Rocha, Gertrudes Branco, António Monteiro e Fernando Silva..83
Estudo do espólio arqueológico da Anta da Casa da Moura (Soure, Portugal)
João Carlos de Senna-Martinez.......................................................................51
Parasitic frequentation or cultural continuity? The re-use of megalithic monuments
in the Ancient/Middle Bronze Age of the Mondego’s Platform
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Mariana Diniz......................................................................................................45
The origins of Megalitism in Western Iberia: resilient signs of a symbolic revolution?
César Neves e Mariana Diniz............................................................................53
À procura da Terra dos Vivos: os lugares de povoamento das primeiras fases
do Megalitismo funerário no Centro e Sul de Portugal
Leonor Rocha e Pedro Alvim .........................................................................85
O menir do Cabeço da Areia (Brotas, Mora)
Marco António Andrade, Rui Mataloto e André Pereira.............................55
Territórios de fronteira: o Megalitismo nas abas da Serra d’Ossa
(Estremoz-Redondo, Alto Alentejo, Portugal)
Filipa Rodrigues.................................................................................................57
Muitas antas e muita gente! As relações entre os recintos de fossos
e os monumentos megalíticos no Alentejo Central
Maria João Neves e Ana Maria Silva...............................................................61
Uma análise arqueotanatológica em três hipogeus: os contributos dos sítios
de Monte Canelas I (Portimão) e do Monte do Carrascal 2 (Ferreira do Alentejo) para
a compreensão das práticas funerárias nos 4º e 3º milénio a.C. no Sul de Portugal
Pedro Sobral de Carvalho e Lara Bacelar Alves...........................................47
A Necrópole da Lobagueira, Viseu: expressões de arte e arquitetura do megalitismo
da Beira Alta, Centro de Portugal
Sérgio Monteiro Rodrigues e César Oliveira.................................................59
A Anta dos Currais do Galhordas (Castelo de Vide, Alto Alentejo, Portugal):
análise química de resíduos orgânicos identicados em recipientes cerâmicos
Yolanda Costela Muñoz, Vicente Castañeda, Iván García e Fernando
Prado ................................................................................................................87
La necrópolis de cuevas articiales de Los Algarbes (Tarifa, Cádiz). Un ejemplo
de la permanencia temporal de las construcciones megalíticas
María Lazarich, Antonio Ramos-Gil, Mercedes Versaci, María Narváez
Cabeza de Vaca..................................................................................................63
La necrópolis megalítica del Tajo de las Figuras (Benalup-Casas Viejas, Cádiz)
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José Antonio Linares Catela.............................................................................39
Megalitismos del área de Huelva. Investigación y puesta en valor
Estefanía Carrillo Vázquez ..............................................................................89
Bases para el estudio de los rituales de comensalidad en las sepulturas megalíticas
de la Península Ibérica
António Ramos Gil.............................................................................................71
¿Yarda megalítica o vara megalítica?
María Narváez Cabeza de Vaca Periñan........................................................91
Aportación al estudio de los cilindros decorados de la Prehistoria Reciente de la
Península Ibérica. Los hallazgos en megalitos
Autores..................................................................................................................95
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Building up the land: a new appraisal to the
megalithic phenomenon in the Barbanza peninsula
(Galicia, NW Spain)
Construindo o território: uma nova abordagem
do fenómeno megalítico na Península do Barbanza
(Galiza, NO de Espanha)
ABSTRACT
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 (western coast of Galicia) stands out for its numer-
ous barrows, with a noticeable cluster of those on the high plateau, where
spatial analyses were undertaken by researchers in the early 80’.
In the last decade, there has been a renewed effort at surveying the Barbanza
peninsula leading to the discovery of scores of new mounds, thus signican-
tly modifying the distribution of these monuments and breaking some-
what the paramount role of the high sierra. Moreover, by employing
new methodologies, such as Geographical Information Systems and
spatial statistics, we can observe that mounds are indeed associa-
ted with transit routes and, at a local scale, with conspicuous areas more
often than, for instance, rock art sites.
Therefore, an image surges forward where megalithic architecture does
not act exclusively as a static milestone but, rather, as a dynamic agent
linked to a cognitive geography developed by communities in the Late
Prehistory that undertake the exploitation of different landscapes and
resources, from the very coast to the uplands. In the framework of this
process, however, a marked variability can be observed regarding the
conspicuity that these monuments might have had in the prehistoric lands-
cape. This may suggest a multiplicity of roles or audiences, ranging from
those intended to be real landmarks to others apparently designed to go
unnoticed.
KEY WORDS: Prehistoric mounds, prehistoric mobility, perceptibility, GIS, spa-
tial statistics
Ramón Fábregas Valcarce1, Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán1, Julián Bustelo Abuín1, Víctor
Barbeito Pose2
1GEPN-AAT. Facultade de Xeografía e Historia. Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Praza da Universidade, 1. 15703.
Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña. Spain ramon.fabregas@usc.es
2Centro Arqueolóxico do Barbanza. 15991. Cespón, Boiro, A Coruña. Spain.
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RESUMO
Os túmulos funerários, sejam megalíticos ou não, destacam-se dentro da ar-
queologia galega e o seu número e monumentalidade têm atraído a atenção
dos estudiosos desde o nal do século XIX. A península de Barbanza (costa
ocidental da Galiza) destaca-se pelos seus numerosos tmulos, com um no-
tável agrupamento daqueles no planalto, onde as análises espaciais foram rea-
lizadas por investigadores no início dos anos 80.
Na ltima década, houve um esforço renovado de examiner península
de Barbanza, levando à descoberta de dezenas de novos tmulos, modi-
cando signicativamente a distribuição desses monumentos e quebrando um
pouco o papel primordial da alta serra em relação a esse fenómeno fune-
rário. Além disso, ao empregar novos métodos, como Sistemas de Informação
Geográca e estatísticas espaciais, podemos observar que os tmulos
estão de facto associados a rotas de trânsito e, em escala local,
com áreas conspícuas mais frequentemente do que, por exemplo, sítios de arte
rupestre.
Portanto, surge uma imagem onde a arquitectura megalítica não atua
como um marco estático, mas sim como um agente dinâmico
ligado a uma geograa cognitiva, desenvolvida por comunidades na
pré-história tardia que empreendem a exploração de diferentes paisagens e
recursos, desde a costa às terras altas. No âmbito deste processo, no
entanto, uma variabilidade acentuada pode ser observada em relação
à conspicuidade que esses monumentos poderiam ter na paisagem préhistóri-
ca. Isso pode sugerir uma multiplicidade de papéis ou audiências, variando
daqueles destinados a ser marcos reais para outros aparentemente destinados
a passar despercebido.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Tmulos pré-históricos, mobilidade pré-histórica,
perceptibilidade, GIS, estatísticas espaciais
1. FOREWORD
The relationship between megaliths and movement has been tirelessly explored
in the last three decades in almost every area of the Iberian Peninsula where
these monuments are present. Galicia has not been an exception, the impact
that “Landscape Archaeology” had in the area during the 90s, leading to the pub-
lication of numerous studies exploring the correlation between the mound loca-
tion and paths across the landscape (Criado & Vaquero, 1993; Criado & Fábre-
gas, 1994). Thus, Galician mounds have been systematically linked to what has
been called the “geography of movement” (Infante & alii, 1992), with their loca-
tion analysed in terms of proximity to paths and key points for the transit across
the prehistoric landscapes. In such a theoretical framework, monuments were
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understood as agents humanising and structuring the space, shaping it accor-
ding to the perceptions and beliefs of the groups responsible for the cons-
truction of the monuments (Criado & Villoch, 2000).
The Barbanza peninsula (Figure 1) has been the paradigmatic sce-
nario of several of the most inuential approaches of this kind (Criado
& Villoch, 1998; 2000; Villoch, 1995) and the research in the area
continues to the present, with work carried out after the genera-
lization of the GIS (Llobera, 2015; Rodríguez-Rellán & Fábregas,
I.P.). Still, several of these attempts share limitations from a metho-
dological and archaeological point of view. A thorough review of the inventory
of monuments -leading to the discovery of 29 new mounds- combined with the
use of GIS and statistics, can help us to take a step forward towards the unders-
tanding of the role that megaliths played within the landscape and the mobility
patterns of the prehistoric human groups in the Barbanza peninsula.
2. MOUNDS IN THE BARBANZA PENINSULA
The most up-to-date inventory for the Barbanza Peninsula comprises a total of
209 mounds, including 29 new monuments and discarding 6 sites mista-
kenly catalogued as such but being –in fact–accumulations of earth of natural
origin or recent chronology. This inventory shows that while the highlands of
the Barbanza peninsula follow the general distribution patterns of the funerary
Figure 1. Top: Location of mounds with-
in the Barbanza Peninsula. Bottom: Al-
titudinal distribution of mounds (line)
compared to that of the terrain in the
study area (bars).
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tumuli in north-west Iberia, which tends to show a noticeable concentration of
these along medium-height plateaus and the attened top of mountain ranges
(Figure 1), barely 46 (22 %) of the reported 209 mounds are located above
400 meters high, while 138 (66 %) are found on the coastal platform (0-200
m.a.s.l.) (Bustelo & alii, I.P.).
If we consider the relative presence of monuments against the weight of the
different altitudinal ranges within the study area (Figure 1, bottom), the per-
centage of mounds in the highlands is higher than the terrain in that specic
altitudinal range, but –again– so it is in the coastal platform. Moreover, the lat-
ter is densely populated and the landscape there has been much more altered.
It is quite possible –therefore– that the initial number of mounds in the coastal
platform were even greater, with a good proportion of monuments destroyed
over the last two centuries due to agricultural and building activities. Signi-
cantly, the 3 mounds that have been recently destroyed in the study area were
located in the coastal area.
Regarding the density of monuments in the highlands, the highest values identi-
ed (1.85 mounds per km2) are not superior to the lower areas’s (2.39 mounds
per km2). Finally, no signicant statistical differences have been found between
the mounds located at the top of the sierra and those in other areas of the Bar-
banza peninsula in terms of size (diameter, height or volume) or structural cha-
racteristics (Bustelo & alii, I.P.).
3. PREVIOUS APPROACHES
Despite recent analyses suggesting the absence of an altitudinal zonation of
the megalithic phenomenon of the Barbanza Peninsula, many of the studies
in the area have focused on the monuments located at the top of the Sierra
(Criado & Villoch, 1998; Llobera, 2015). These approaches have remarked the
existence of an alleged link between mounds and highlands (Criado & Fábre-
gas, 1994; Criado & alii, 1991), opposing the distribution of these monuments
to that of other archaeological sites, such as petroglyphs and settlements
(Fábregas & Rodríguez, 2012). These proposals have contributed to promote
a –somehow– dualistic vision of the landscape in which the highlands would
have been a territory with a high symbolic content and partially devoid of po-
pulation (Criado, 2005).
The reason why these works have focused almost exclusively on the highland
tumuli is difcult to determine, but it seems to be more aesthetic than strictly
archaeological. The landscape on the top of the Serra do Barbanza has been
signicantly less transformed by the pass of time, apparently retaining a more
“prehistoric” appearance. The absence of buildings, trees, etc…, makes the
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mounds more easily perceptible and its monumentality seems to be some-
what increased, therefore providing a good framework for testing hypotheses
about the role of these monuments in the creation and organization of terri-
tories. However, the results of these approaches are, in our view, dangerouly
skewed, given the reduced size and low variability of the sample used during
the analysis.
Although the results achieved by some of the traditional studies in the area are
undoubtedly useful (e.g. Criado & Villoch, 1998; Villoch, 1995), they tend to
show some of the limitations typical of these pioneering approaches, such as
the “gratuity” of many of the statements made regarding complex processes
such as movement and perception (Llobera, 2001). Thus, in most cases, the
paths and routes through which the movement would have been implemented
were dened in an ad hoc manner, based on eld observations conducted only
in the proximity of the sites subjected to analysis (Bradley & alii, 1994; Criado &
Villoch, 1998). As it happens, the resulting path networks do not actually connect
different places in the landscape, but rather different clusters of monuments (Cri-
ado & Villoch, 2000) and –as such– they have little in common with the tradition-
al road network (Figure 2). This kind of approaches increase the risk of articially
overestimating the spatial relationship between mounds or other sites (such as
petroglyphs) and transit routes.
The surge of the GIS technology has drastically changed the analysis of move-
Figure 2. A: Paths as proposed by Criado &
Villoch (1998). B: Historic paths across the
Barbanza (orange: The Way of Saint-James,
according to Nárdiz & alii, 1999; red: roads
in D. Fontán’s map). C: Least-Cost-Paths net-
work and density kernel derived from it.
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ment and perceptibility, allowing the calculation – in a quick and relatively simple
manner – of potential routes across the landscape, based on the economy of
effort and the energy consumption of the virtual walkers. Thus, least cost path
(LCP) analyses have become routine in the archaeological studies. Among the
numerous works applying this kind of simulations, some have included innova-
tive solutions trying to solve the limitations of the LCP analysis, such as those
derived from the impact of the election of different points of origin and destina-
tion on the nal outcome (Fábrega-Álvarez, 2006; White & Barber, 2012, among
many others).
The Barbanza peninsula has been also the subject to attention by other research-
ers using GIS (Rodríguez, 2012; Rodríguez & Fábregas, 2015). Among them, we
must highlight the recent work by Llobera (2015), which shows the existence of a
link between the mounds located –again– in the highlands of the Barbanza and
the transit corridors connecting different parts of the peninsula.
4. ONE MORE APPROACH FROM THE GIS
In this paper, we have taken into account variables such as altitude, slope,
distance to the nearest LCP, density of LCPs, topographic prominence (Llobera,
2001), cumulative viewsheds, horizon height (Hoerka & alii, 2007) and sky-
view factor (Zakšek & alii, 2011), registering their values in the locations of
the 209 mounds known in the Barbanza. In order to determine whether they
are different from those of any other place within the study area, the same
variables have been analysed in the location of 209 (the same number as the
mounds) points randomly distributed across the Barbanza peninsula. These
calculations have been conducted over a 5-metre resolution DEM and using
GRASS GIS (version 7.4). Aiming to detect the existence of signicant differenc-
es regarding the aforementioned variables, the mounds and random points
have been analysed together using a generalised linear model (GLM). Such
statistical analyses have been conducted on R, version 3.5.0 (R Core Team,
2018).
In order to contextualise the monuments within the general movement net-
work across the study area, we have used a simple approach based on the
calculation of a dense net of LCPs connecting those points in the study area
where prehistoric settlements have been documented (Fábregas & Rodríguez,
2012) that may be coetaneous with the construction and use of the megaliths
and thus may have belonged to the same communities, those areas that may
have played a signicant role in getting in and out of the Barbanza peninsula;
and –nally– random points located in both the Northern and Southern shores
of the Barbanza.
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The selection of these areas as points of origin and destiny of our LCP has
allowed us to calculate the movement network independently from the mounds,
contextualising these monuments in the general transit network across the
study area, which connected the settled zones with both shorelines and with
the paths in and out of the Barbanza peninsula. This network probably reects
some of the everyday movement patterns of the local groups during the prehis-
tory in a reasonably realistic way.
Thus, 5,800 LCPs have been calculated across the Barbanza peninsula. The
sum of all the routes – despite being sensibly lower in number than those cal-
culated by Llobera (2015) – allowed us to estimate the potential transit intensi-
ty for the study area, identifying those places with a higher probability of having
acted as nodes or key points in the transit network (Figure 2C). The results
identify several areas that would have higher probabilities of being walked,
some of which closely match some of the historical routes in the Barbanza,
such as the local branches of the Way of St. James (Nárdiz & alii, 1999) (Figure
2A) or the roads featuring in the map by Domingo Fontán (1817-1834) (Figure
2B), thus suggesting that this method might be useful for approaching the tra-
ditional movement strategies across the landscape.
The interaction between mounds, petroglyphs and the prehistoric landscape
was probably not only determined by the remoteness or proximity to important
transit routes, but also by their capacity of being noticed from the surroundings.
However, while remoteness is relatively easy to approach from a GIS perspec-
tive, the simulations of the level of perceptibility of a given spot/monument
have not yet been implemented in a satisfactory manner. Regarding the Gali-
cian prehistoric monuments, their perceptibility has only been addressed spo-
radically (Bradley, 2009), usually being confused with the “visibility” exerted
from the monuments (Fábregas & Rodríguez-Rellán, 2015).
The specic location, size or the presence of a cairn made of quartz cobbles or
other shining stones would have acted as important elements for modulating
the perceptibility of a given mound (Bradley & alii, 2000). However, it is impor-
tant to remember that the capacity to be noticed is not entirely (or even mainly)
based on physical factors: the social or ritual signicance of a specic mound
might have multiplied its perceptibility, regardless of its remoteness or size.
However, this kind of socially-based factors can hardly be managed by either
Archaeology or –more specically– spatial and GIS studies (Gaffney & Leusen,
1995). Nonetheless, very interesting approaches have been carried out trying
to determine the possible signicance of specic places within the landscape
(Rennell. 2012; Wheatley. 2000). Most of them are based on similar concepts:
those areas more noticeable from the surroundings are more likely to have
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acted as landmarks and thus might have played a signicant role within the
cognitive and symbolic geography of the human groups living nearby.
A recurrent setting of archaeological sites in those prominent or conspicuous
areas might imply that these were purposely built in those places where they
would have had a higher chance of being noticed and they also shared the im-
portance and/or symbolism of the place. One of the approaches to analyse the
potential signicance of a given area within the local landscape is the “topo-
graphic prominence”, described as the percentage of locations that lie below a
specic location within a certain radius (Llobera, 2001).
Another important characteristic for ensuring the perceptibility of a given mo-
nument is whether it is located in an open space where it could be easily seen
from the surroundings. In his work analysing the mounds of the Sierra del Bar-
banza, Llobera (2015) remarked upon the tendency of mounds to be located
in places that would have acted as local horizons, as a circumstance that he
relates with the will of modulating the perceptibility of these monuments, either
making them patent or restricting their view to certain areas (Ibid.).
We have also approached this variable, albeit in a much simpler way. For this
purpose, we have calculated the horizon height (Hoerka & alii, 2007) in the
areas where mounds, petroglyphs and random points are located. A type of
calculation with outcomes similar to these is the sky-view factor, a value deter-
mining the portion of the visible sky from each area as limited by the surround-
ing relief (Zakšek & alii, 2011). The higher this factor, the higher the openness
of the area where the monument is located, thus increasing its possibilities of
being noticed.
The next step in attempting to measure the perceptibility of mounds and petro-
glyphs of the Barbanza peninsula was to calculate the level of conspicuity of
their specic locations. The calculation of such a variable can be very difcult
to implement, although several approaches such as the “visual affordances”
or “visualscapes” have proven quite useful (Llobera & alii, 2010). These simu-
lations are based on calculating either a cumulative viewshed for a signicant
number of points unevenly distributed across the area of interest or a total
viewshed in which a viewshed analysis is conducted for each of the cells in the
study area. In our case, we have created a cumulative viewshed from points
generated every 500 metres along the 5.800 routes crossing the study area,
5.400 points randomly generated and 2193 points forming a grid separated
by 500 metres.
5. RESULTS
The distribution of the 209 mounds known in the Barbanza peninsula suggests
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that mounds are not specially linked to higher altitudes. As we have already no-
ted, only 22% of these are located above 400 meters high, while the 66 % are
found in the coastal platform. While the GLM suggests that the altitude may have
had some statistical signicance in explaining the location of mounds (Table 1),
the Estimate points to a decrease in the probability of nding mounds as the al-
titude increases, clearly indicating that the traditional link between mounds and
highlands in the study area should be qualied.
In fact, the results of the GLM show that -rather than altitude- slope gradient
is much more powerful as explanatory variable (Table 1), suggesting that the
mounds were preferentially located in places with no or gentle slopes rather than
in areas with a specic altitude. This circumstance may explain also the altitu-
dinal distribution of megaliths in the Barbanza Península, since mounds tend
to cluster in the ranges between 0 and 200 m.a.s.l. and –again– between 500
and 650 meters. Meanwhile, monuments are very scarce in those intermediate
altitudes, which –in the Barbanza peninsula– are characterized by the presence
of strong slopes.
The analysis of the monuments in our inventory suggests the existence of a
strong relationship between mounds and LCPs, especially in the case of the
Table 1. Generalized Linear Model showing the comparison between mounds and
random points. (*Signicant at 0.1 level, **Signicant at 0.001 level).
Figure 3. Detail of the den-
sity of Least-Cost-Paths and
accumulative viewsheds in
the mounds at the top of Ser-
ra do Barbanza.
94 |
cluster located at the top of the Sierra del Barbanza (Figures 2 and 3) –where
all the megaliths located on or immediately adjacent to those areas have a
higher probability of being walked, as Llobera (2015) has already reported- and
also in several areas of the coastal platform. The results of the GLM specically
comparing mounds and random points show that the variable LCP density is
signicantly different and thus the proximity to areas that are more likely to
have played an important role in the movement across the Barbanza peninsu-
la would be a useful predictor for the position of barrows (Table 1). This is not
the case for the variable “distance to LCP”, which –unlike in former analyses
(Rodríguez-Rellán & Fábregas, I.P.)– does not seem to be statistically relevant.
The distribution of mounds regarding the other variables considered in this
paper shows how mounds tend to be mainly located in those places with a low
horizon height and a high sky-view factor: that is, in open spaces with no ma-
jor topographic obstacles hampering their conspicuousness (Figure 3). Being
Figure 4. Classication of mounds according to the sum of accumulative viewsheds
of their locations.
| 95
| 2018
built in these areas, mounds may have been able to act as local horizons and
thus become signicant landmarks. Likewise, the analysis of the relationship
between mounds and topographic dominance points towards a trend of these
monuments to being located in places with a higher prominence than the im-
mediate surroundings (Rodríguez-Rellán & Fábregas, IP).
However, the GLM shows that the difference between mounds and random
locations is signicant in the case of the topographic prominence (Table 1), but
not for the variables, horizon and sky-view and viewshed, suggesting that the
latter have a low predictive power regarding the location of mounds within the
study area. Such a circumstance does not exclude the possibility of mounds
sometimes being preferentially located at open places where they could have
acted as local horizons and therefore being widely seen, as it seems to happen
in the clusters analysed in detail in this paper or previous ones (Llobera, 2015),
although our analyses suggest that this is not a characteristic widely shared by
the barrows in our area.
As a result, the analysis of mounds in the Barbanza peninsula seems to sug-
gest an important variability regarding the location of these monuments, with
monuments located near major routes or easily perceptible from the surroun-
dings, while others seem to have been conceived to go almost unnoticed
(Figure 4), resembling the relationship with the landscape shown by the rock
art (Rodríguez-Rellán & Fábregas, IP).
6. CONCLUSIONS
A case has been made for mounds in NW Iberia acting not as simple land-
marks but rather as reference points in a social landscape presided by a no-
ticeable degree of mobility. This seems to be t among communities whose life
was not altogether settled until well into the Copper Age and groups or individu-
als moved about relatively ample distances and exploited different sections of
the landscape, which included both high- and lowland or coastal areas. Assu-
ming this circumstance, we have tried to ascertain and objectify the relation-
ship between mounds and mobility across the landscape, choosing an area –
the Barbanza peninsula – that has been well studied in recent decades.
The results of the calculations made using the GIS and statistical tools suggest
that the mounds of the Barbanza peninsula tend to be located near those ar-
eas that might have played a signicant role as keypoints or nodes in the mo-
bility across the study area. Such a circumstance seems to endorse the results
of both the traditional approaches and previous GIS analyses implemented in
this area and it reinforces the notion of the Galician megaliths as monuments
linked to the movement between different sectors of the landscape.
96 |
However, at the same time, our results convey the idea that the levels of percep-
tibility or conspicuity of the monuments’ settings are highly variable, with mounds
placed in areas that may have acted as local landmarks and others situated in
spots that – at least apparently – would have made them less noticeable from the
surroundings. Such diversity calls for a qualication of the automatic consideration
of these monuments as landmarks intended to be seen. Although such a wish is
indubitable for some barrows in the study area, there would be other monuments
that may be intended to pass as unnoticed as possible. This variability is only un-
derstandable for a cultural phenomenon that – in NW Iberia – comprises several
thousand tumuli and lasted for more than 2,500 years.
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There have been many accounts of prehistoric ‘art’, but nearly all of them begin by assuming that the concept is a useful one. In this extensively illustrated study, Richard Bradley asks why ancient objects were created and when and how they were used. He considers how the first definitions of prehistoric artworks were made, and the ways in which they might be related to practices in the visual arts today. Extended case studies of two immensely popular and much-visited sites illustrate his argument: one considers the megalithic tombs of Western Europe, whilst the other investigates the decorated metalwork and rock carvings of Bronze Age Scandinavia.