PreprintPDF Available
Preprints and early-stage research may not have been peer reviewed yet.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of various analyses conducted on the megalithic complex of the Gor River valley (Granada, Spain) with the aim of exploring the visual landscape of this area on a larger scale during the Late Prehistoric period. The analyses performed include clustering of burial mounds using DBSCAN, calculation of Relative Topographic Position, calculation of fuzzy viewsheds, and statistical analysis of the existence or non-existence of relationships between dimensions, topographic prominence, and visibility. Fuzzy viewshed analysis is implemented to refine other visibility analyses that had previously been conducted on the complex, without considering the fuzziness variable, which is obtained by taking into account distance and size. The results are consistent with previous analyses that indicate no relationship between the size of the megaliths, topographic position, and visibility. It reveals the importance of the entire complex to define the related territory although the existence of possible particularities associated to various ecological niches in the study area can be also suggested.The results are consistent with previous analyses that indicate no relationship between the size of the megaliths, topographic position, and visibility, as well as the existence of possible particularities related to various ecological niches in the study area. Finally, a fuzzy viewshed analysis is implemented to refine other visibility analyses that had previously been conducted on the complex, without considering the fuzziness variable, which is obtained by considering distance and size.
A larger-scale study of the visual dominance at the Gor River megalithic
landscape (Granada, Spain)
Carolina Cabrero Gonz´
alez
a,*
, Juan Antonio C´
amara Serrano
a
, Enrique Cerrillo Cuenca
b
a
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Granada, Spain
b
Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
Late Prehistory
Southeastern Iberia
Megaliths
GIS
Visual landscape
Location patterns
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of various analyses conducted on the megalithic complex of the Gor River valley
(Granada, Spain) with the aim of exploring the visual landscape of this area on a larger scale during the Late
Prehistoric period. The analyses performed include clustering of burial mounds using DBSCAN, calculation of
Relative Topographic Position, calculation of fuzzy viewsheds, and statistical analysis of the existence or non-
existence of relationships between dimensions, topographic prominence, and visibility. Fuzzy viewshed anal-
ysis is implemented to rene other visibility analyses that had previously been conducted on the complex,
without considering the fuzziness variable, which is obtained by taking into account distance and size. The re-
sults are consistent with previous analyses that indicate no relationship between the size of the megaliths,
topographic position, and visibility. It reveals the importance of the entire complex to dene the related territory
although the existence of possible particularities associated to various ecological niches in the study area can be
also suggested.
1. Introduction
The megalithic group of the Gor River Valley (Granada, Andalusia,
Spain) (Fig. 1) is one of the primary clusters forming the so-called
Megalithic Phenomenon of the Southeastern Iberian Peninsula (García
Sanju´
an 2009),being one of its main characteristics the high density of
megaliths per km
2
. Initially, 238 dolmens were recorded along 17 km of
the valley during early surveys (Siret 2001). However, only 151 mega-
lithic monuments have been found in the most recent systematic survey,
which is explained by the mechanisation of the agricultural lands since
the mid XX century and the lack of legal and practical protection of the
monuments till the 10 s (Cabrero et al. 2021). Other specic charac-
teristics of this ensemble include varied chamber typologies, primarily
small in size, and the use of the tombs over a wide temporal rangefrom
the late Neolithic to the Chalcolithic periodwith frequent reuses in the
Late Bronze Age (Dorado et al. 2023). This aspect has been widely
registered by the study of the objects found in the chambers (Lorrio
2008) and by the 11 radiocarbon dates obtained till the present, with
data between 4307 ±33 and 2690 ±30 cal. BP (Cabrero et al. 2023a:
4). This characteristic is shared by many megaliths located in Hoya de
Guadix (Aranda et al. 2022) and other Southeastern Iberian areas
(Lorrio 2008; Dorado et al. 2023).
Given the scarcity of data for sites related to settlement, megalithic
monuments are virtually the only evidence we have to analyse the
occupation and settlement patterns in this area during Late Prehistory.
Megaliths are considered to never be placed outside the space exploited
by the community that built them (C´
amara 2001; Furholt and Müller
2011; Schmitt et al. 2019). Besides their primary funerary use, they
served as markers of routes and territories of exploitation (García
Sanju´
an et al. 2009; Scarre 2011), although the type of exploitation
(extensive or intensive, pastoral, agrarian, or other) may vary. The ter-
ritory is understood as the space modied and appropriated by human
social activity (H¨
agerstrand 1973, 1975; Carlstein 1983; Tuan 2001,
2004). Thus, the distribution of megaliths forming necropolises would
not be random but would have a specic conguration related to land
ownership, anthropization, and sacralization of the terrain by Late
Prehistoric farming communities through the burial of their ancestors
(Criado 1984; Godelier 1989; Aug´
e 1992; Fabietti and Matera 2000;
L`
evi-Strauss 2000; C´
amara 2001; Shaffer 2005; Littleton 2002, 2007;
Ch´
enier 2009).
If we accept that the landscape is a space modied by human expe-
rience and activity, and that it conditions human life (Ingold 1993;
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ccabrero@correo.ugr.es (C.C. Gonz´
alez), jacamara@ugr.es (J.A. C´
amara Serrano), enriqcer@ucm.es (E.C. Cuenca).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104912
Received 10 July 2024; Received in revised form 21 November 2024; Accepted 29 November 2024
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
2352-409X/© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc/4.0/ ).
Tilley 1994; Ashmore and Knapp 1999; Bongers et al. 2012; Cruz et al.
2024; Grier et al. 2017; ˇ
Sprajc et al. 2022), the study of the distribution
of megaliths and their relationship with the environment, space, and
geography can be one of the best approaches to understanding the
communities that built the tombs (Schiffer 1987; Hodder 1990; Criado
1997; Lock and Molineaux 2006; Gillings and Pollard 2016; Whittle
2017; Lock and Puncett 2017; C´
amara et al. 2021), especially consid-
ering the absence of other evidence related to these communities in our
study area.
This substantial quantity of megaliths and their proximity to one
another have traditionally been interpreted as a manifestation of an
intense degree of appropriation and demarcation of the territory by Late
Prehistoric communities. Therefore, studying the distribution of
megaliths and their relationship with the environment is key to under-
standing these past communities, especially in light of the scarcity of
other archaeological data (Renfrew 1976; Sherratt 1990; Binford 1999).
In this paper, we present a new approach to understanding the
experience and perception of these communities on the territory, mainly
through the analysis of fuzzy visual basins applied to the preserved
megaliths. Although visibility analysis has a long history in this region
(Cabrero et al. 2024), this research aims to rene previous results and
extend the study radius to analyse the territory on a larger scale.
Fig. 1. A) location of the Gor River in the region of Andalusia (South of Spain). b and c, Hoyas del Conquín 134 and Majadillas 69, two of the most known
monuments of the area.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
2
2. Background. Approaches to the visual landscape of the Gor
River
One of the best ways to analyse the relationship between megaliths
and the territory is through visibility analyses ( ˇ
Cuˇ
ckovi´
c 2016). Visi-
bility is a broad aspect that allows exploration of the relationship be-
tween an archaeological item and its surroundings, the existence or
absence of interrelation between various archaeological structures, the
prominence of a site over its surroundings, or the perceptibility of a
particular element, among many other aspects (Wheatley and Gillings
2000; Llobera 2003, 2012). These different issues help us approach the
visual landscape from a specic site or set of sites (Llobera 2007), closely
related to the perception and signicance of the sites for past commu-
nities (Criado 1984, 1999; Gillings and Wheatley 2001; Scarre 2010;
Rodríguez-Rell´
an and F´
abregas 2023).
In the case of the Gor River area, early 21st-century studies were
conducted by a team from the University of Granada focused on aspects
related to the domain of burial mounds over the landscape (Afonso et al.
2006, 2008, 2010; Spanedda et al. 2014). Although these publications
did not analyse the entire cluster or use GIS techniques, they established
interesting hypotheses about the visual landscape. Their conclusions
suggested the existence of a single visual network where the megaliths
were strategically positioned to control the entire territory, emphasizing
routes from the steep-sided valley to the surrounding plateau. However,
individual differences related to construction typologies or the specic
topographic positions of individual megaliths were noted within each
necropolis.
The rst studies using GIS techniques on the entire cluster were
recently conducted as part of a PhD thesis focused on the Gor River
dolmenic complex and their spatial dimension (Cabrero 2023). This
research considered the 151 preserved megaliths and other Chalcolithic
archaeological structures related to valley access defence (Cabrero et al.
2024). Visibility was analysed from each megalith, the megaliths as a
whole, and the visual relationship between the megaliths and other
archaeological sites. The results reinforced initial research conclusions,
showing a well-planned network with no aws in the intervisibility of
the main dolmenic group. Differences appeared in more distant
necropolises like Ba˜
nos de Alicún and El Baúl, which seemed to form
separate groups based on visibility and distance, with differences in
constructive and topographical patterns (Cabrero et al. 2021). Also in
the frame of the cited PhD work, a research focused on the comparison of
the architectonic features between the megaliths and the necropolises
(typology, presence or lack of corridor, measures of the chambers and
corridors) was carried out (Esquivel et al. 2022). This approach served to
emphasize these particularities. These differences have been interpreted
as cultural boundaries related to the exploitation of different ecological
niches, with megaliths near other riverbeds apart from the Gor River.
However, establishing peripheral and resistance areas in Hoya de Gua-
dix has been challenging due to the scarcity of settlement data (Leisner
and Leisner 1943).
Despite consistent visibility results, these studies had limitations due
to partial data regarding variables like grave goods, shape, and size, and
methodological issues, as they used simple binary visibility analyses
without considering distance gradation. This is particularly relevant for
intervisibility studies where megaliths are far apart, potentially yielding
different results with added distance variables. Previous analyses were
limited to a 3 km radius, excluding distant geographical elements (e.g.,
mountain peaks) despite their visibility above the horizon line due to
size, as it has been already pointed out by other studies (Wheatley 1996;
Parcero et al. 1998; Van Leusen 1999).
This paper aims to improve upon previous research through a rened
visibility analysis using fuzzy viewsheds from each megalith, consid-
ering a larger scale and expanded visibility radius to study the rela-
tionship between megaliths and the entire landscape. This will allow to
nuance and to rene the results of the cited previous works, as long as to
contrast them.
3. Materials and methods
Probability in viewshed analysis was introduced to address issues in
simple viewshed analysis, that considered only if a given point is
completely visible or completely invisible, which can hardly be adjusted
to the reality of human experience. P.F. Fisher added the statistical
probability range of visibility between two points, taking into account
that vision decays exponentially and not constantly as a function of
distance (Fisher 1992). D. Ogburn (2006) later rened this by adding the
size component, acknowledging that larger objects remain visible over
greater distances before becoming blurry. Although more realistic for
visibility and human perception, this complex analysis is rarely used in
archaeology (Cerrillo Cuenca and Liceras 2016), contrasting with the
success of simplied analyses (see Criado 1988; Criado and F´
abregas
1989; Wheatley 1995, 1996; Villoch 2000; Ericson 2002; L´
opez-Romero
2007; Scarre 2010; Nash 2013; Llobera 2016; Carrero-Pazos 2018,
2022), which is mostly explained due to the technical complexity or the
frequent difculty in clearly dening the boundaries of archaeological
sites and structures (Davis et al., 2019). In other words, in this case, the
combination of fuzzy logic and viewsheds allows for the representation
of degrees of visibility, instead of the usual viewsheds that present in-
formation in a dichotomous all or nothing manner. This procedure
more adequately captures the continuous and ambiguous nature of
human perception.
The data for these analyses were obtained during the last survey
campaign in the Gor River area in summer 2019 (available at https://
zenodo.org/doi/https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8351123). We pri-
marily used the geographical location of the tumuli in UTM ETRS89
coordinates. The base cartography is provided by the National Aerial
Orthophotography Plan by the National Geographic Institute of Spain,
mainly DTMs based on LiDAR data, publicly available at https://pnoa.ig
n.es/web/portal/pnoa-lidar/presentacion. These DTMs were created
during the second coverage of the national territory (between 2015 and
2021), and provide a minimum point density between 0.2 and 2/m
2
, an
altimetric accuracy of 30 and a RMSE Z 20.
1
As noted in section 2, isolating a specic moment in the landscape is
difcult due to continuous changes and the changing perception and
signicance by past communities (Tuan 2001, 2004). This challenge is
compounded by the scarcity of radiocarbon dates, with only 11 dates
available between the Early Copper Age and Final Bronze Age
(43002700 BP) (Cabrero et al. 2023a). Thus, following previous
research, we consider all megaliths as contemporary at a certain
moment, assuming all were built by the end of the 3rd millennium and
served as visible territorial markers, although their use for new burials at
concrete periods and building date could be uncertain.
The specic methodology used is as follows:
3.1. Vectorization of burial mounds
Firstly, the burial mounds were digitized using the data from the
second LiDAR coverage of the National Aerial Orthophotography Plan
by the National Geographic Institute of Spain as a reference. For pro-
cessing, all non-ground classied points were ltered out. The remain-
ing terrain points were interpolated with a mesh step of 0.5 m using the
Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) algorithm, implemented in the
WhiteboxTools toolkit for Python. The digitization was performed
considering the visible footprint of the construction on the ground,
which may introduce some inaccuracies due to the preservation state of
the mounds.
1
All technical specications are available at https://pnoa.ign.es/web/port
al/pnoa-lidar/especicaciones-tecnicas.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
3
3.2. Clustering of burial mounds using DBSCAN
For a better statistical analysis, the sites were grouped into natural
clusters to evaluate trends. The archaeological data does not allow dis-
tinguishing specic groups of tombs within the necropolis; thus, the
purpose of this analysis is merely to make comparisons within the
extensive group of mounds we have. These clusters were created using
the DBSCAN algorithm from Scipy, congured to ensure clusters con-
tained at least three elements with a maximum dispersion of 200 m
between them. DBSCAN has been used, for example, by Carrero-Pazos
(2019) in the study of Galician megaliths. These distances can be chal-
lenging to establish, especially to objectify in cultural terms, but they
help to characterize the spatial properties of the necropolises and should
be understood only from this perspective. Of all the metrics available in
the DBSCAN implementation in Scipy, we have chosen the Euclidean
distance, as it is closest to the intuitive distance of human space, which
ultimately could have determined the grouping of the tombs. However,
it should be noted that this metric does not consider topographic fea-
tures such as terrain slope or accessibility to certain topographic posi-
tions. It is important to note that the sample is initially biased as not all
the mounds catalogued by G. and V. Leisner (1943) could be recognized
by recent surveys (Cabrero et al. 2021) and as many mounds are not
visible in surface and partially destroyed (Cabrero et al. 2023b). The
groupings, therefore, may be coherent, but it is necessary to keep in
mind that these combined factors can inuence the clustering of the
monuments.
3.3. Implementation of fuzzy visibility
To analyse the fuzzy visibility of the ensemble, the distance decay
function implemented by Ogburn (2006) was applied. The function was
programmed in Python using various scientic libraries such as Scipy,
Geopandas, Rasterio, and WhiteboxTools, among others. The code is
available at https://github.com/ecerrillo/fuzzyviewshed. All calcula-
tions were performed on the 5-meter resolution Digital Terrain Model
provided openly by the National Geographic Institute of Spain (publicly
available at https://pnoa.ign.es/web/portal/pnoa-lidar/modelo-digita
l-del-terreno). The process considered a surface of 45 by 39 km,
covering the entire study area and its surroundings.
The process started by considering the morphology of the digitized
mounds. The centroids of all mounds were automatically found, and the
maximum distance between nodes was calculated, allowing estimation
of the maximum preserved mound size. The Euclidean distance from
each centroid to the rest of the raster cells was calculated. Visibility was
calculated using the viewshedcommand of WhiteboxTools, using the
centroid of each mound as the observation point with an observer height
of 1.65 m, which is the medium high identied by the most complete
anthropological study upon the buried individuals found in past
archaeological campaign in the Gor River valley (García S´
anchez, 1961).
Using the visible area returned by this algorithm as a mask, the fuzzy
visibility map was calculated using the formulae established by Ogburn
(2016, 410):
μ
xij=1fordvpij b1
where
μ
xijrepresents the fuzzy membership value for a cell at position
Fig. 2. Fuzzy viewshed of site number 100. The colour scale represents the visibility value attributed to the pixel in the range [0,1].
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
4
xij
.
dvpij is the distance in meters from the viewpoint to a given cell. b1
represents the limit of the foreground zone where visibility is considered
perfect, meaning that any object within this distance is assumed to be
fully visible. b1 was set to 1 km, as suggested by Ogburn (2006). This
distance is chosen because it represents a foreground zone of high visual
clarity, where object details are still sharp to the human eye, in addition
to being consistent with previous research on visual ranges.
For pixels beyond the foreground limit the modied formula pro-
posed by Ogburn (2006) was used.
μ
xij=1
1+2db1
b22fordvpij >b1
This formula adjusts the decay function to account for the size of the
target object, using a visual arc of 1
. Thus, b2 is the distance from b1 to
the point where an object subtends a visual arc of 1
. The factor of 2 in
the denominator ensures that the drop-off in visibility is appropriately
gradual.
For each of the studied sites, the resulting (xij) values from both
Fig. 3. Map representing the RTP values in the study area for a calculation radius of 500 m.
Fig. 4. Map representing the RTP values in the study area for a calculation radius of 5000 m.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
5
formulas were combined into a single raster, which was then reclassied
using the conventional binary visibility raster as a mask, forming the
fuzzy visibility map. Each of these rasters presents probability
μ
values
in the range 01, where 0 generally corresponds to non-visible areas
those excluded from conventional viewshed analysis and 1 to the
highest fuzzy membership value. It is essential to remember that each
pixel in this raster should be understood as expressing the likelihood of
belonging to the visible category. An example of a fuzzy viewshed is
represented at Fig. 2.
3.4. Calculation of relative topographic position
Topography plays a fundamental role in relation to the visibility of
cultural elements in the landscape, which is why it is advisable to
analyse prominence. The use of this variable is already described in
Llobera (2001). To put in a wider perspective the results, an analysis of
relative topographic prominence (RTP) was performed using the Rela-
tiveTopographicPosition command from WhiteboxTools. This function
(Newman et al. 2018) considers a neighbourhood with a given buffer
size and establishes the relative position of cells based on the maximum
and minimum values in the vicinity. If a given pixel is lower than the
neighbourhood mean, the prominence value is calculated by subtracting
the pixel value from the mean, divided by the mean minus the minimum
value of the vicinity. If the value is equal to or greater than the mean, the
last term in the division is replaced by the maximum value of the vicinity
minus the mean. The resulting value ranges from [-1,1], where 1 in-
dicates a depressed value in the surrounding topography and 1 indicates
a high prominence. For this calculation, the 5-meter resolution DEM was
used, and values were obtained with the centroids of the mounds.
Although in previous papers we have used the calculation of topo-
graphic prominence in comparison with fuzzy visibility (Cerrillo Cuenca
and Liceras 2016), in this work we opt for a function already
implemented in a Python library due mainly to its higher degree of
optimization in the calculation of the variable. The differences between
the topographic prominence (Llobera 2001) and the formula used in this
article essentially lie in the fact that the prominence proposed by Llobera
calculates the percentage of points that, within a given radius, are
located lower than the observed position, while the described approach
compares the elevation of a point with the mean and its extreme values.
In itself, the prominence calculation has the advantage of being intui-
tively interpretable, while the RTP, as presented in this article, is more
sensible to extreme values and can provide positive or negative values,
potentially offering more nuanced information about a location in the
landscape.
The neighbourhood was set with radii of 100, 500, 1000, 2000,
4000, and 5000 m, as recommended by other authors (Llobera 2001).
This allows for understanding different behaviors of topographic
prominence at various radii, enabling a more detailed exploration of the
relationship between monuments and topography. An example of an
RTP raster is shown in Figs. 3 and 4.
The analysis of visualscapes certainly encompasses other possi-
bilities. The ability to explore the relationship between the most
prominent positions and those most visually exposed is something that
has been previously tested, for example through the analysis of total and
cumulative visibilities (Llobera 2006b, 2007). These approaches are
certainly an appropriate way to contrast the impact of cultural sites on
the landscape, combined with the analysis of topographic features. In
this work, we have chosen to make the contrast with fuzzy visibility, as it
contemplates certain granularity in the analysis of individual tombs and
groups, allowing the introduction of gradual nuances of clarity in
observation. By integrating RTP with fuzzy viewsheds, we can explore
the visual and topographic landscape of the monuments based on their
positions (Cerrillo Cuenca and Liceras 2016), allowing an approach to
hypothetical symbolic logics of megalith location.
Fig. 5. Distribution of clusters generated by DBSCAN in the study area.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
6
4. Results
4.1. Clustering of burial mounds using DBSCAN
The DBSCAN analysis identied 13 spatially signicant mound
clusters, ranging from 21 monuments to 3. This information is
summarized in Fig. 5 and Tab. 1. Of a total of 151 recognized mounds,
28 remained isolated from the clusters proposed by DBSCAN. This
means they correspond to groups of at most two tombs are far from the
main distributions and not integrated into these. This lack of integration
may also be due to preservation issues because many tombs, especially
at the plateau area, have disappeared or cannot be identied (Spanedda
Fig. 6. Histogram representing the mound sizes in the study area.
Fig. 7. Boxplot of the distribution of mound sizes by cluster number.
Table 1
Results of the DBSCAN analyses clustering in relationship to the size of the mounds.
Cluster Number of
mounds
Mean size
(m)
Standard
Deviation
Mound Minimum Size
(m)
Mound maximum size
(m)
Signicant mean differences regarding other clusters
(Turkey HSD)
0 17 7.9 2,61 4,9 16 1, 9
1 11 11 3,05 7,1 16,6 0, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,12
2 11 8.9 1,31 6,8 10,8 9
3 4 6,5 1,02 5,9 8 1
4 12 8,4 1,57 6,8 11,9 1, 9
5 3 10,4 1,58 9,3 12,4 9, 10
6 8 7,2 1,71 4,7 9,6 1
7 21 6,9 1,43 3,9 9,2 1, 9
8 4 6,1 1,47 5 7,7 1
9 17 4,6 1,46 1,6 7,7 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7
10 3 5,3 1,81 5,1 5,5 1
11 6 6,9 0,62 5,8 7,5 1
12 6 7,2 0,62 6,2 7,8 1
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
7
et al., 2014; Cabrero et al., 2023b), because of recent alterations, mainly
by farming activities. The resulting separation of some little clusters in
peripheral areas might have inuenced the spatial analysis.
4.2. Characterization of mound size and its Relevance to visibility
The documented mound widths range from 1.6 to 16.6 m (Figs. 6 and
7), with an average maximum width of 7 m (standard deviation of 2.5).
An ANOVA test was performed to evaluate if there were signicant
differences in the size of the mounds between the clusters determined by
DBSCAN, resulting in F(12, N-13) =9.447, p <0.001. This rejects the
null hypothesis, which states that the mean mound sizes are equal for the
different clusters. Given the signicant differences, a post-hoc Turkey
HSD (Honest Signicant Difference) test was conducted to identify
clusters with signicant differences in their mean sizes. Signicant dif-
ferences between clusters can be found in Table 1. The mounds in cluster
1 stand out for their larger sizes, while clusters 9 and 10 have smaller
mean sizes. Clusters 0 and 1 returned higher standard deviation values,
indicating greater variability in mound sizes compared to other clusters.
Conversely, clusters 11 and 12 appear more regular, with sizes ranging
from 5.8 to 7.8 m.
Although recorded mound sizes are inuenced by alteration pro-
cesses, it can be thought that the majority of graves could experience in a
similar way these reductions by erosion and farming activities. Conse-
quently, results can be thought as signicant and can be explained by
social factors (differences between areas and/or social differences inside
every necropolis). In fact, mound sizes also vary in clusters located in
relatively plain areas as shown by cluster one standard deviations and a
social explanation can be searched for these differences.
In addition, mounds are greater in this northern necropolis (cluster
1), whose distance to the central clusters and typological differences had
already been used to referred possible boundaries reected on those
architectural differences (Esquivel et al., 2022).
4.3. Characterization of relative topographic position (RTP)
In absolute terms, the RTP behavior does not show expressive results.
In smaller buffers of 100 m, the value is 0.51, with a standard deviation
of 0.32, indicating a tendency to locate mounds in moderately elevated
positions, though with some variability. In larger RTP calculation scales,
the mean signicantly decreases (1000 m: 0.37, 2000 m: 0.31, 5000 m:
0.12), with more or less homogeneous standard deviations.
The relationship between mound size and relative topographic po-
sition (RTP) was analysed, as these are the two most direct resources
that can increase tomb visibility in the landscape. A Spearman correla-
tion analysis (Fig. 8) for all megaliths (n =123) indicates no relationship
between mound size and their topographic prominence within a 1000-
meter radius of the analysed area (rs(98) =-0.037, p =0.651).
Among the clusters, only cluster 8 shows a perfect negative relationship
between tomb size and topographic prominence (rs(2) =-1, p =0), but
due to the limited sample size (n =4), this result should not be
considered signicant. Signicant results were obtained only for cluster
2 (n =11), showing a moderately strong positive relationship between
size and RTP in 2000-meter (rs(9) =0.7, p =0.01) and 4000-meter
buffers (rs(9) =0.75, p =0.008). This relationship suggests an in-
crease in mound size as they occupy more prominent positions in the
environment. Among the 13 clusters analysed, this is the only signicant
association, based on a slightly larger number of monuments, making it
a noteworthy correlation.
4.4. Evaluation of fuzzy visibility
Considering the total values of fuzzy viewsheds, the average proba-
bility of visibility for all analysed locations is 0.53 (standard deviation
0.27). Excluding the b2 areas, the majority of probabilities are around
0.3. This suggests that neither the site choice nor the mound size aimed
to enhance the visibility of tombs in the distant landscape. Within
clusters, the common trend is consistent: the probability rapidly declines
inside the b2 areas, especially evident in cluster 1 (n =11), which has
the largest mounds. This indicates no clear relationship between mound
size and their perceptibility in the landscape.
As suggested above, differences in mound size exist, but if graves
were not necessarily designed to be seen from long distances, other so-
cial factors should be taken into account to explain their differences in
size, probably related to increasing hierarchy.
Fuzzy visibility was evaluated considering two levels: intra-group
analysis, visibility among tombs within each cluster, and inter-group
analysis, evaluates the quality of intervisibility among the megaliths
within and between clusters.
For inter-group fuzzy visibility, partial dissimilarity matrices were
obtained, and averages below the diagonal were calculated. Clusters 3
(n =4), 4 (n =12), and 11 (n =6) have a mean value of 1, indicating full
Fig. 8. Barplot representing Spearmans r values for the intra-group relationship between RTP and mounds size in clusters.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
8
visibility among tombs within these clusters. Cluster 5 (n =3) showed
no visibility among its tombs (
μ
=0). The general trend shows an
average between 0.7 and 0.3, indicating potential visibility loss among
the necropolis tombs.
To analyze inter-group relationships, we extracted submatrices from
the general dissimilarity matrix comparing each pair of clusters and
excluding intra-group comparisons. The mean value was calculated for
each submatrix, resulting in the average probabilities of inter-group
visibility presented in Table 2. Generally, inter-group studies show
low visibility probability among groups. Clusters 3 (n =4) and 4 (n =
12) have the highest visibility probability (0.96), possibly due to their
proximity. Clusters 2 (n =11) and 5 (n =3) show a mediumhigh vis-
ibility probability (0.73), also likely due to proximity. These data should
be interpreted cautiously, considering the potential articial division by
DBSCAN, which might have split originally coherent groups.
In fact, as previously referred according to intervisibility analysis,
cumulative and total viewshed (Cabrero et al., 2024), the design of a
dense network of connected graves could play an important role in
territorial control, but the results of this analysis suggest that system was
thought for short distances and not for long ones. It can be asserted that
graves lines served more as inner markers, maybe related to different
groups that boundary ones.
Medium-high visibility probability (0.73) between clusters 0 (n =
17) and 9 (n =17) can be explained by their location at the valleys
edge, highlighting them in the landscape. Other clusters show proba-
bilities close to 0.5 or very low, suggesting that tomb intervisibility was
not a sought-after visual pattern.
5. Conclusions
The results of the cluster analysis using DBSCAN show considerable
heterogeneity, which corresponds to the diversity in the size of the
burial mounds, ranging from 1.6 m to 16.6 m. This reality is undoubt-
edly the result of a constructive evolution linked to the wide temporal
frame during which the tombs were constructed (and, of course, used
and remodelled). This architectural variability was alsoanalysed in a
previous work by taking into account the measurements of the ortho-
stats, rather than the mound size (Esquivel et al. 2022). This study show
also a great variability and size dispersion. In this case, apart from the
grouping based on architectonic features, another one based on loca-
tional factors such as distance to the Gor River, altitude, and UTM X and
Y coordinates was carried out, revealing 13 groups. In this way, it is
Table 2
Dissimilarity matrix representing the means of fuzzy viewshed values between clusters (inter-group).
c0 c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7 c8 c9 c10 c11 c12
c0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0,07 0,01 0,73 0,02 0,19 0
c1 0 00000000000
c2 0 0 0,18 0 0,73 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
c3 0 0 0,18 0,96 0,33 0,37 0,38 0,25 0,32 0 0 0
c4 0 0 0 0,96 0 0,37 0,42 0,16 0,23 0 0,01 0
c5 0 0 0,73 0,33 0 0000000
c6 0 0 0 0,37 0,37 0 0,41 0,09 0,09 0 0 0
c7 0,07 0 0 0,38 0,42 0 0,41 0,2 0,1 0 0 0
c8 0,01 0 0 0,25 0,16 0 0,09 0,2 0,1 0 0 0
c9 0,73 0 0 0,32 0,23 0 0,09 0,1 0,1 0,57 0,59 0
c10 0,02 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0,57 0 0
c11 0,19 0 0 0 0,01 0 0 0 0 0,59 0 0
c12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fig. 9. Several burial mounds in the Llano de Olivares necropolis. All of them are very small in size and have a wide visibility index due to their position at the edge
of the high plateau.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
9
important to note that the DBSCAN cluster serves as a basis for the an-
alyses presented here, and are not aimed to present a new internal di-
vision of the complex (Cabrero et al. 2023).
The lack of a relationship between tomb size and topographic loca-
tion had also been suggested in larger studies aiming to nd possible
correlations explaining visibility, specically considering tomb size and
their position in prominent areas as key factors (Cabrero 2023). The
absence of a positive relationship between these variables suggests that
there was no intent to achieve broad visibility for individual megaliths.
This idea had already been proposed, emphasizing the concept of the
complex as a network of intervisibility over the terrain, creating a sort of
landscape scenography or monumentality through the appropriation of
the territory with an extensive and dense network of monuments
throughout the area (Cabrero, 2023). In this regard, we cannot overlook
the positive statistical relationship between large size and elevated po-
sitions in cluster 2 (corresponding to the Majadillas necropolis). How-
ever, it should be noted that this cannot be generalized, as other
necropolises in high plateau areas have particularly small sizes, such as
the Llano de Olivares necropolis (Fig. 9), making this an isolated result,
not extensible to the entire complex. In any case, it must be highlighted
that Majadillas is also the only necropolis where a certain relationship
between situation, size and abundant grave goods can be found
(Spanedda et al. 2014). For this reason, as referred above regarding
mound sizes at cluster 1 Ba˜
nos de Alicún, we can suggest that social
differences were also marked at Las Majadillas necropolis through
graves situation.
An exception that seems particularly interesting appears in the
relationship between tomb size and geography for clusters 1, 11, and 12.
Cluster 1 refers to the Ba˜
nos de Alicún necropolis, the northernmost in
the complex, cluster 11 to three closely located tombs in Hoyas del
Conquín, in the Umbría del Conquín subgroup, and cluster 12 to the
easternmost necropolis, El Baúl. The particularity lies in the fact that the
Ba˜
nos de Alicún and El Baúl necropolises have been identied in other
studies as groups with evident anomalies in their geographical position
and constructive characteristics (dimensions and typology, hypogeic
nature in the case of Ba˜
nos de Alicún) (Fig. 10). Considering the analysis
that regrouped the megaliths into necropolises based on topographic
variables such as distance to the Gor River, altitude, and UTM X and Y
coordinates, these groups appear as distinct zones not belonging to the
megalithic complex of the Gor River area (Esquivel et al. 2022). An
interesting hypothesis was developed, suggesting that these groups are
slightly closer to other watercourses, the Fardes and Baúl rivers,
respectively. Thus, the differences in location and architecture might
reect neighbour communities with some cultural differences, probably
exploiting different ecological niches. These differences or particular-
ities might be subtle, explaining the difculty in tracing them in other
aspects of the archaeological record (generally summarized in the scarce
grave goods found) (Cabrero, 2023).
Finally, regarding the results of the fuzzy viewshed analysis,
although it had previously been noted that there was signicant visi-
bility among the tombs of each group and in relation to neighbour
groups with few differences between the tombs regarding the area
visually controlled from them (Cabrero et al., 2023a, 2024), the results
of the analysis conducted here show that, largely, this pattern derives
Fig. 10. On the top, Llano de la Ermita 5 (left) and 9 (right), in Ba˜
nos de Alicún, hypogeic and presenting a large size. At the bottom, El Baúl 193 and 194, with small
dimensions and presenting a square typology without a corridor.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
10
from the proximity of the tombs and their multiplication, given that the
perceptibility of the mounds decreases considerably with distance. This
aspect largely depends on the fact that neither size nor prominence was
emphasized when the tombs were erected. The difculty in perceiving
monuments from certain distances has already been identied in other
cases (Rodríguez-Rell´
an and F´
abregas 2022). This can be interpreted in
cultural terms, since megaliths are only recognizable if the observer is
placed at a short distance and, above all, if they already know their
position or appearance. In this way, megaliths would be an identifying
element of the same community, not identiable by outside and un-
aware groups. This hypothesis goes along the lines already mentioned of
the existence of different groups, probably linked to different ecological
niches or riverbeds. Anyway, this is more related to the perceptibility
(the visibility to the megaliths) than to the visibility from the megaliths,
so specic researches would be needed to explore this line.
It is evident that some of these aspects depend on the preservation
state of the mounds, which in many cases, due to erosive or anthropic
processes, have lost part of their original perimeter or even the tombs
themselves were almost levelled, leading to clear problems of identi-
cation and interpretation (Cabrero et al., 2023b). However, the multi-
plication of tombs that must have existed in the Gor River area during
the Late Prehistoric period, from the 151 now clearly dened (Cabrero
et al. 2021) to the approximately 240 estimated as the minimum number
actually constructed in the area (Spanedda et al., 2014; Cabrero et al.,
2023b), would only facilitate visibility among the closest mounds
without modifying long-distance visibility, visually controlling specic
areas of their immediate surroundings, especially those not favoured by
the inherent visibility of the area, as a way to ensure the sacralized
domination of the entire exploitation/circulation territory (Cabrero
et al. 2024).
The results presented here suggest that the Gor River megalithic
group was designed in order to mark the territory owned by one (or
several communities). In any case, it would be interesting to extend
surveys and studies to other areas also identied within the Megalithic
Phenomenon of the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, such as the
nearby Fardes River area, so that cultural and constructive differences,
as well as placement or visibility patterns, could be contrasted on a
larger scale.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Carolina Cabrero Gonz´
alez: Writing original draft, Investigation,
Data curation. Juan Antonio C´
amara Serrano: Writing review &
editing, Supervision. Enrique Cerrillo Cuenca: Validation, Methodol-
ogy, Formal analysis.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing nancial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to inuence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work is related to the development of the projects
(1)Producci´
on artesanal y divisi´
on del trabajo en el Calcolítico del
Sudeste de la Península Ib´
erica: un an´
alisis a partir del registro
arqueol´
ogico de Los Millares (PARTESI) (PID2020-117437 GB-I00/AEI/
10.13039/501100011033) nanced by the Agencia Estatal de Inves-
tigaci´
on del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci´
on and (2)Din´
amicas de
continuidad y transformaci´
on entre el Neolítico y el Calcolítico en el
Alto Guadalquivir (DINAGUA) (Proy_Exc00002) funded by the Con-
sejería de Universidad, Investigaci´
on e Innovaci´
on de la Junta de
Andalucía.
Data availability
The link to the repository of the data used is in the manuscript.
References
Afonso, J.A., C´
amara, J.A., Molina, F., 2010. La organizaci´
on interna de las necr´
opolis
del Río Gor (Granada) a partir de la ubicaci´
on de sus tumbas. MUNIBE Extra 32,
270284.
Afonso, J.A., C´
amara, J.A., Haro, M., Molina, F., Montufo, A.M., S´
anchez Jim´
enez, I. and
Spanedda, L. (2006). Organizaci´
on territorial en el valle del Río Gor en la Prehistoria
Reciente. In N. Bicho and M.S. Corch´
on (Coords.), Simbolismo, arte e espaços
sagrados na Pr´
e-historia da península ib´
erica: Actas do IV Congresso de Arqueología
Peninsular (pp. 39-53). Faro: Centro de Estudos em Arqueologia, Artes e Ciˆ
encias do
Patrimonio.
Afonso, J.A., C´
amara, J.A., Haro, M., Molina, F., Montufo, A.M., Salas, F.E., S´
anchez
Jim´
enez, I. and Spanedda, L. (2008). Tipología y seriaci´
on en el megalitismo
granadino. El caso de Gorafe. In M. Hern´
andez, J. Soler and J.A. L´
opez (Coords.), IV
Congreso del Neolítico peninsular (pp. 64-76). Alicante: Museo Arqueol´
ogico de
Alicante.
Aranda, G., Milesi, L., Hamilton, D., Díaz-Zorita, M., Vílchez, M., Robles, S., S´
anchez, M.,
Benavides, J.A., 2022. The tempo of the Iberian megalithic rituals in the European
context: The cemetery of Panoría. J. Archaeol. Sci. 140, 105579. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.jas.2022.105579.
Ashmore, W., Knapp, B. (Eds.), 1999. Archaeologies of Landscapes: Contemporary
Perspectives. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
Aug´
e, M., 1992. Non-Lieux. Introduction ´
a une anthropologie de la surmodernit´
e. Le
Seuil, París.
Binford, L., 1999. Forces that shaped the past origins of the new archaeology.
Archaeology 52 (1), 54.
Bongers, J., Arkush, E., Harrower, M., 2012. Landscapes of death: GIS-based analyses of
chullpas in the western Lake Titicaca basin. J. Archaeol. Sci. 39 (6), 16871693.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.11.018.
Cabrero, C., Bueno, J.A., Esquivel, F.J., Garrido, A., 2021. Una revisi´
on del megalitismo
del valle del Río Gor desde los GIS y el an´
alisis estadístico. Nuevos datos y nuevas
preguntas. Cuadernos De Prehistoria y Arqueología De La Universidad De Granada
31, 7594. https://doi.org/10.30827/CPAG.v31i0.17010.
Cabrero, C., C´
amara, J.A., Esquivel, F.J., Spanedda, L., Garrido, A., 2023a.
A geographical dataset describing the complexity of the Gor River megalithic
landscape. J. Open Archaeol. Data. https://doi.org/10.5334/joad.117.
Cabrero, C., Garrrido, A., Esquivel, F.J., C´
amara, J.A., 2023b. A model of spatial location.
New data for the Gor River megalithic landscape (Spain) from LiDAR technology and
eld survey. Archaeol. Prospect. 30 (2), 89103. https://doi.org/10.1002/arp.1879.
Cabrero, C., C´
amara, J.A., Garrido, A., 2024. Approach to the visual landscape of the Gor
River megalithic necropolises (Granada, Spain). Digital Appl. Archaeol. Cult.
Heritage 33, e00335.
Cabrero, C. (2023). El fen´
omeno megalítico del Sudeste de la Península Ib´
erica a partir
de su dimensi´
on espacial. El caso del paisaje megalítico del valle del Río Gor.
Doctoral Dissertation. Granada: University of Granada. https://hdl.handle.net/
10481/84744.
C´
amara, J.A., Dorado, A., Spanedda, L., Fern´
andez, M., Martínez, J., Haro, M.,
Martínez, G., Carri´
on, F., Molina, F., 2021. La demarcaci´
on de los espacios de
tr´
ansito en Los Millares (Santa Fe de Mondujar, Almería) y su relaci´
on con el
simbolismo megalítico. Zephyrus 88, 6586. https://doi.org/10.14201/
zephyrus2021886586.
C´
amara, J.A. (2001). El ritual funerario en la Prehistoria Reciente en el sur de la
península ib´
erica. British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 913. Oxford:
Archaeopress. DOI: 10.30861/9781841711669.
Carlstein, T., 1983. Time Resources, Society and Ecology. Pre-Industrial Societies. Allen
& Unwin, Londres.
Carrero-Pazos, M., 2018. Modelando din´
amicas de movilidad y visibilidad en los paisajes
megalíticos gallegos. El caso del Monte de Santa Mari˜
na y su entorno (Comarca de
Sarria, Lugo). Trab. Prehist. 75 (2), 287306. https://doi.org/10.3989/
tp.2018.12216.
Carrero-Pazos, M., 2019. Density, intensity and clustering patterns in the spatial
distribution of Galician megaliths (NW Iberian Peninsula). Archaeol. Anthropol. Sci.
11 (5), 20972108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0662-2.
Ch´
enier, A., 2009. Bones, people and communities: tensions between individual and
corporate identities in secondary burial ritual. Nexus: the Canadian Student.
J. Anthropol. 21, 2740.
Criado, F., 1984. El tercer factor o la l´
ogica oculta del emplazamiento de los túmulos
megalíticos gallegos. Cuadernos De Estudios Gallegos 35, 718.
Criado, F., 1988. Arqueología del Paisaje y espacio megalítico en Galicia. Arqueología
Espacial 12, 61117.
Criado, F., 1997. Introduction: Combining the different dimensions of cultural landscape:
is a total archaeology of landscape possible? Trabajos En Arqueología Del Paisaje 2,
59.
Criado, F., 1999. Del terreno al espacio: planteamientos y perspectivas para la
Arqueología del Paisaje. University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de
Compostela.
Criado, F., F´
abregas, R., 1989. Aspectos generales del megalitismo galaico. Arqueología
19, 4863.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
11
ˇ
Cuˇ
ckovi´
c, Z., 2016. Advanced viewshed analysis: a Quantum GIS plug-in for the analysis
of visual landscapes. J. Open Source Softw. 1 (4), 32. https://doi.org/10.21105/
joss.00032.
Davis, D.S., Lipo, C.P., Sanger, M.C., 2019. A comparison of automated object extraction
methods for mound and Shell-ring identication in coastal South Carolina.
J. Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 23, 166177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.10.035.
Dorado, A., Rodríguez, C., Spanedda, L., Cabrero, C., Molina, F., C´
amara, J.A. (2023): La
temporalit`
a dei riusi dei megaliti nel Sud-Est della penisola iberica durante let`
a del
bronzo e le loro implicazioni sociali. In F. Mercadante (Ed.): Atti del Convegno
Internazionale Il Mediterraneo e il Megalitismo durante il III e II millennio A.C.
Architetture megalitiche, strutture cultuali archeo-astronomiche, siti
geoarcheologici, contatti, riadattamenti, morfo-facies della architettura megalitica
nei territori, nelle Isole e nelle coste del Mediterraneo (27-28-29 settembre 2023.
Villa Riso ai Colli, Palermo) Palermo: Edizioni del Mirto, 23-31. https://hdl.handle.
net/10481/91455.
Ericson, K., 2002. Visible intentions? Viewshed analysis of Bronze Age burial mounds in
Western Scania (Sweden). In: Scarre, C. (Ed.), Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic
Europe. Perception and Society during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age,
pp. 179191.
Esquivel, F.J., Cabrero, C., C´
amara, J.A., Esquivel, J.A., 2022. Statistical analysis on
metric and geometric features of dolmens in the Gor River megalithic landscape
(Granada, Andalusia, Spain). Archaeometry 64 (4), 815832. https://doi.org/
10.1111/arcm.12750.
Fabietti, U., Matera, V., 2000. Memorie e identit`
a. Simboli e strategie del ricordo.
Maltemi Editore, Roma.
Fisher, P.F., 1992. First experiments in viewshed uncertainty: simulating fuzzy
viewsheds. Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens. 58, 345.
Furholt, M. and Müller, J. (2011). The earliest monuments in Europe: architecture and
social structures (5000-3000 cal b. C.). En M. Furholt, F. Lüth and J. Muller (Eds.),
Megaliths and identities (pp. 15-32). Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH.
García S´
anchez, M., 1961. Restos humanos eneolíticos procedentes de los d´
olmenes de
Gorafe (Granada). Archivo De Prehistoria Levantina 9, 4978.
García Sanju´
an, L., 2009. Introducci´
on a los sitios y paisajes megalíticos de Andalucía. In:
García Sanju´
an, L., Ruiz Gonz´
alez, B. (Eds.), Las Grandes Piedras De La Prehistoria.
Sitios y Paisajes Megalíticos De Andalucía. Junta de Andalucía, Sevilla, pp. 1232.
Gillings, M. and Wheatly, D. (2001). Seeing is not Believing. In B. Slapszak (Ed.), On the
Good use of gepgraphic Information Systems in Archaeological Landscape studies
(pp. 25-36). Bruselas: Ofce for Ofcial Publications of the European Communities.
Gillings, M., Pollard, J., 2016. Making megaliths: Shifting and unstable stones in the
Neolithic of the Avebury landscape. Cambridge Archaeol. J. 26 (4), 537559.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774316000330.
Godelier, M., 1989. Lo ideal y lo material. Pensamiento, economías, sociedades. Taurus,
Barcelona.
Grier, C., Angelbeck, B., McLay, E., 2017. Terraforming and monumentality as long-term
social practice in the Salish Sea region of the Northwest Coast of North America.
Hunter Gatherer Research 3 (1), 107132. https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2017.7.
H¨
agerstrand, T., 1973. The domain of human geography. In: Chorley, R.J. (Ed.),
Directions in Geography. Methuen, Londres, pp. 6787.
H¨
agerstrand, T., 1975. Space, Time and Human Conditions. In: Karlqvist, A.,
Lundquist, L., Snickars, F. (Eds.), Dynamic Allocation of Urban Space. Saxon House
Lexington Books, Lexington, pp. 314.
Hodder, I., 1990. The domestication of Europe: structure and contingency in Neolithic
Societies. Blackwell, Oxford.
Ingold, T., 1993. The temporality of the landscape. World Archaeol. 25, 152174.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1993.9980235.
Leisner, G. and Leisner, V. (1943). Die Megalithgraber ¨der Iberischen Halbinsel. Der
Süden Verlag von Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin.
L`
evi-Strauss, C., 2000. I churinga degli aborigini australiani. In: Fabietti, U., Matera, V.
(Eds.), Memorie e Identit`
a. Simboli e Strategie Del Ricordo. Maltemi Editore, Roma,
pp. 7073.
Littleton, J., 2002. Mortuary behaviour on the Hay Plain: do cemeteries exist? Archaeol.
Ocean. 37, 105122. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4453.2002.tb00513.x.
Littleton, J., 2007. From the perspective of time: huntergatherer burials in southeastern
Australia. Antiquity 81, 10131028. https://doi.org/10.1017/
S0003598X00096083.
Llobera, M., 2001. Building past landscape perception with GIS: Understanding
topographic prominence. J. Archaeol. Sci. 28 (9), 10051014. https://doi.org/
10.1006/jasc.2001.0720.
Llobera, M., 2003. Extending GIS based analysis: the concept of visualscape. Int. J.
Geogr. Inf. Sci. 17 (1), 2549.
Llobera, M., 2007. Reconstructing visual landscapes. World Archaeol. 39 (1), 5169.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00438240601136496.
Llobera, M., 2012. Life on a pixel: challenges in the development of digital methods
within an interpretive landscape archaeology framework. J. Archaeol. Method
Theory 19, 495509. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-012-9139-2.
Lock, G. and Molyneaux, B. (2006). Confronting Scale in Archaeology: Issues of Theory
and Practice. Nueva York: Springer.
Lock, G., Puncett, J., 2017. Spatial thinking in Archaeology: is GIS the answer?
J. Archaeol. Sci. 84, 129135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.06.002.
L´
opez-Romero, E., 2007. Factores visuales de localizaci´
on de los monumentos
megalíticos de la Cuenca del Sever (Portugal-Espa˜
na). Trab. Prehist. 64 (2), 7394.
Lorrio, A.J., 2008. Qurenima: el Bronce Final del sudeste de la Península Iberica. Real
Academia de la Historia, Madrid.
Nash, G., 2013. Megalithic art: A visual repertoire for the dead. In: Smith, C. (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Nueva York, pp. 47584769.
Newman, D.R., Lindsay, J.B., Cockburn, J.M.H., 2018. Evaluating metrics of local
topographic position for multiscale geomorphometric analysis. Geomorphology 312,
4050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.04.003.
Ogburn, D.E., 2006. Assessing the level of visibility of cultural objects in past landscapes.
J. Archaeol. Sci. 33 (3), 405413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2005.08.005.
Parcero, C., Criado, F., Santos, M., 1998. Rewriting landscape: incorporating sacred
landscapes into cultural traditions. In: Bradley, R., Williams, H. (Eds.), The past in
the past: the Reuse of Ancient Monuments. Routledge, London, pp. 159176.
Renfrew, C., 1976. Megaliths, territories and populations. Dissertationes Archaeologicae
Gandenses 15, 198220.
Rodríguez-Rell´
an, C., F´
abregas, R., 2023. Assesing the Perceptibility of Prehistoric
Monuments on their Landscape. An Exploratory Approach Using Agent-Based
Modelling. Vegueta 1 (23), 115145. https://doi.org/10.51349/veg.2023.1.05.
Scarre, C., 2011. Stone people: monuments and identities in the Channel Islands.
Megaliths and identities. Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn, pp. 95104.
Scarre, C. (2010). Megaliths, memory and the power of stones. In D. Brandherm and M.
Trachsel (Eds.), Monumental questions: prehistoric megaliths, mounds, and
enclosures (pp. 91-96). BAR International Series 2122. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Schiffer, M., 1987. Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. University of New
Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Schmitt, F., Bueno Ramírez, P., Bartelheim, M., 2019. Just passing by? Investigating in
the territory of the megalith builders of the southern european plains. The case of
Azut´
an, Toledo. In: Müller, J., Hinz, M., Wunderlich, M. (Eds.), Megaliths Societies
Landscapes. Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation in Neolithic Europe.
Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn, pp. 601619.
Shaffer, G.D., 2005. Nanticoke Indian burial practices: Challenges for archaeological
interpretation. Archaeol. East. N. Am. 33, 141162.
Sherratt, A., 1990. The genesis of megaliths: Monumentality, ethnicity and social
complexity in Neolithic North-West Europe. World Archaeol. 2, 147167. https://
doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1990.9980137.
Siret, L., 2001. Espa ˜
na prehist´
orica.1891-2001. Junta de Andalucía, Sevilla.
Spanedda, L., Afonso, J.A., C´
amara, J.A., Molina, F., Montufo, A.M., Pau, C., Haro, M.,
2014. Tomb location and grave goods: continuous use and destruction in the Río de
Gor megalithic necropolis. In: Schulz Paulsson, B., Gaydarska, B. (Eds.), Neolithic
and Copper Age Monuments. Emergence, Function and the Social Construction of the
Landscape. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 2625, Oxford,
pp. 107124.
ˇ
Sprajc, I., Marsetiˇ
c, A., ˇ
Stajdohar, J., Dzul G ´
ongora, S., Ball, J.W., Esparza Olguín, O.,
Kokalj, ˇ
Z., 2022. Archaeological landscape, settlement dynamics, and sociopolitical
organization in the Chactún area of the central Maya Lowlands. PLoS One 17 (1),
e0262921.
Tilley, C. (1994). A Phenomenology of Landscape. Places, Paths and Monuments. Oxford:
Beg.
Tuan, Y.-F., 2001. Space and place. The perspective of experience. University of
Minnesota Press, Minnesota.
Tuan, Y.-F., 2004. Cultural geography: Glances backward and forward. Ann. Assoc. Am.
Geogr. 94 (4), 729733.
Van Leusen, P.M. (1999). Viewshed and cost surface analysis using GIS (cartographic
modelling in a cell-based GIS). In J.A. Barcelo, I. Briz and A. Vila (Eds.), New
techniques for old times: computer applications and quantitative methods in
archaeology (pp. 215-223). Barcelona: Tempus Reparatum.
Villoch, V. (2000). La conguraci´
on social del espacio entre las sociedades constructoras
de túmulos en Galicia: Estudios de emplazamiento tumular. Doctoral Dissertation.
University of Santiago de Compostela: University of Santiago de Compostela.
Wheatley, D., Gillings, M., 2000. Vision, perception and GIS: developing enriched
approaches to the study of archaeological visibility. Nato Asi Series a Life Sciences
321, 127.
Wheatley, D. (1995). Cumulative viewshed analysis: a GIS-based method for
investigating intervisibility, and its archaeological application. In G. Lock, G. and Z.
Stancic (Eds.), Archaeology and Geographic Information Systems: a European
Perspective (pp. 171-185).
Wheatley, D. (1996) The use of GIS to understand regional variation in earlier Neolithic
Wessex. In H.D. Maschner (Ed.), New methods, old problems. Geographic
Information Systems in modern archaeological research (pp. 75-103).
Whittle, A., 2017. Places of special virtue: Megaliths in the Neolithic landscapes of Wales.
Oxbow Books, Oxford. Recuperado de: http://digital.casalini.it/9781785705441.
C.C. Gonz´
alez et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61 (2025) 104912
12
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the results of several visibility analysis carried out upon the 151 preserved megaliths of the Gor valley (Granada, Andalusia, Spain) as well as upon the 5 known settlements in the area with Chalcolithic chronology. In order to analyse the relationship between megaliths, settlements and territory during the Late Prehistory in Southeastern Iberia, the analyses carried out have been intervisibility and individual, cumulative and total or inherent viewshed. The results underline the existence of a noticeable network of visual connection between the megaliths as a whole, as well as with the settlements, especially in the middle river course. This interrelationship is only broken by some more distant necropolises that were already noted as they differ from the rest in both topographical and formal aspects. The results of cumulative and total viewshed show the existence of a defined strategy to choose megaliths locations, in order to visually control areas of the terrain that are not naturally privileged as observation points. The conclusions clearly point to the existence of an increasing network aimed at achieving the demarcation and total control over the exploited territory, creating a new landscape mainly linked to funerary monuments, from which ancestors tie past to present for defining territorial appropriation.
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the data that have served as the basis for the study of the spatial patterns of the megaliths of the Gor River Valley (Granada, Spain) as part of a PhD dissertation presented in July 2023 at the University of Granada. This complex, of which 151 dolmens are currently preserved, is one of the largest in Europe, standing out fundamentally because of its density. This feature undoubtedly points out the importance of symbolic territorial control searched by Late Prehistoric communities that built these graves. The geographical databases here presented are two: on the one hand, the database made up of up to 70 quantitative and qualitative variables that has been used to carry out the bulk of the doctoral study on the 151 referred dolmens and, on the other hand, the database made up of a total of 230 points identified through the review of DTMs based on LiDAR data and which could correspond totally or partially to burial mounds that have practically disappeared or are poorly preserved on the surface.
Article
Full-text available
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 surroundings or even the specific circumstances of the audience, many such circumstances being of an immaterial nature. In this paper, we explore the potential use of Agent-Based Modelling for the analysis of archaeological perceptibility.
Article
Full-text available
Until recently, an extensive area in the central lowlands of the Yucatán peninsula was completely unexplored archaeologically. In 2013 and 2014, during initial surveys in the northern part of the uninhabited Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in eastern Campeche, Mexico, we located Chactún, Tamchén and Lagunita, three major Maya centers with some unexpected characteristics. Lidar data, acquired in 2016 for a larger area of 240 km², revealed a thoroughly modified and undisturbed archaeological landscape with a remarkably large number of residential clusters and widespread modifications related to water management and agriculture. Substantial additional information was obtained through field surveys and test excavations in 2017 and 2018. While hydraulic and agricultural features and their potential for solving various archaeologically relevant questions were discussed in a previous publication, here we examine the characteristics of settlement patterns, architectural remains, sculpted monuments, and ceramic evidence. The early Middle Preclassic (early first millennium BCE) material collected in stratigraphic pits at Tamchén and another locale constitutes the earliest evidence of colonization known so far in a broader central lowland area. From then until the Late Classic period, which was followed by a dramatic demographic decline, the area under study witnessed relatively constant population growth and interacted with different parts of the Maya Lowlands. However, a number of specific and previously unknown cultural traits attest to a rather distinctive regional development, providing novel information about the extent of regional variation within the Maya culture. By analyzing settlement pattern characteristics, inscriptional data, the distribution of architectural volumes and some other features of the currently visible archaeological landscape, which largely reflects the Late Classic situation, we reconstruct several aspects of sociopolitical and territorial organization in that period, highlighting similarities with and differences from what has been evidenced in the neighboring Río Bec region and elsewhere in the Maya area.
Article
Full-text available
The construction of dolmens took place in Europe from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (fifth millennium BC–second millennium BC) and had a rapid development along the Atlantic façade, with an important focus in Andalusia. Within this area, the megalithic necropolises located in the banks of the Gor River (Granada, Andalusia, Spain) are studied. In this paper, multivariate techniques are applied to characterize the dolmens associated with the Gor river megalithic landscape by means of two analyses. First, a new classification of the dolmens in necropolises using their location variables produces an optimal number of 8 necropolis instead of the traditional 11. In addition, this classification improves the traditional spatial division of the dolmens because there is no overlapping between necropolises. Secondly, a multivariate analysis of the dimensional variables, which aims to detect possible constructional patterns, is performed obtaining three main variables of grouping. The first two, length and width of the chamber, can be summarized as the area of the chamber and, in terms of this, the dolmens can be classified into two main groups. The third one, the length of the corridor, can be considered as a factor for intragroup discrimination.
Article
Full-text available
El conjunto megalítico del valle del río Gor (Granada) es una de las mayores agrupaciones dolménicas que se encuentran en Europa. A pesar de su gran entidad, encontramos aún en la actualidad grandes lagunas en la investigación de estas necrópolis, así como una evidente falta de medidas de conservación de las mismas. En este trabajo presentamos los resultados de una nueva campaña de documentación de estos megalitos realizada en el verano de 2019 con un triple fin: el registro y documentación de la totalidad de los dólmenes conservados en la actualidad, la evaluación del estado de conservación de los mismos y la creación de una base de datos completa y exhaustiva que sirva como base para la investigación de los monumentos desde el punto de vista de la Arqueología del Territorio. A lo largo de este trabajo de documentación se han registrado un total de 151 dólmenes conservados, de los cuales 5 no habían sido referenciados previamente. De forma paralela se han identificado una serie de problemas que han marcado el actual estado de conservación o la desaparición de los monumentos. La base de datos georreferenciada a partir de coordenadas UTM (ETRS89), objetivo último de esta campaña, consta de 65 variables, muchas de ellas calculadas mediante algoritmos GIS, lo que ha permitido la aplicación de técnicas estadísticas para extraer y categorizar la información registrada. Un primer análisis descriptivo muestra aspectos que ayudan a avanzar en el conocimiento del megalitismo en el valle del río Gor, señalando también futuras líneas de investigación relativas a la caracterización, detección de patrones constructivos o la necesidad de una nueva propuesta de clasificación espacial de los dólmenes.
Chapter
Full-text available
For years, it was believed that little happened during prehistoric times in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. The different peoples of the end of the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic were said to be living almost exclusively at the Iberian coasts, while only poor temporal settlements of small size would have existed on the Spanish Mesetas. Like in other parts of Europe, development and progress were believed to derive from the »blessed« lands of the Eastern Mediterranean, whereby the coastland of the peninsula was influenced and developed faster and the hinterland was supposed to remain at the same low level of economy, social differentiations, etc. until the Iron Age. Since research in the centre has intensified since the late-1980s, this view on Spanish prehistory is eventually changing. A sub-project of the Collaborative Research Center 1070 Resource Cultures of the University of Tübingen (Bartelheim et al. 2015) is currently conducting research in different areas of the Iberian Peninsula. In close collaboration with the University of Alcalá de Henares, the project is also focusing on the Southern Meseta, with an emphasis on the surroundings of the dolmen of Azután. New intensive archaeological and geomagnetic surveys conducted in spring and autumn of 2014, respectively, focused on finds and features from the end of the 4th and the whole 3rd millennium BC. This already provided insights into the impressive late Neolithic and Chalcolithic structures that – little by little – bring the contemporaneous environment and landscape of this important megalithic monument back to life. With today’s possibilities of different survey methods, the interpretation of aerial and satellite images and the close collaboration with archaeobiology, palynology as well as digital humanities, the aim is to reconstruct the environment and integration of the research area within the communication network of the 3rd millennium BC, showing not only the important location of the dolmen – which has already been stressed by P. Bueno and her team – but also the position of the enclosure in its environment during the Recent Prehistory of Iberia
Article
Our ability to build precise narratives regarding megalithic societies largely depends on the chronology of the multi-ritual events that usually shaped these complex sites. The cemetery of Panoría offers an excellent opportunity for exploring ritual complexity in Iberia through radiocarbon chronology, as four of the nine recently excavated dolmens are remarkably well preserved. For this purpose, seventy-three radiocarbon dates were obtained and analysed within a Bayesian framework. The resulting refined chronology has led us to three main conclusions: i) in all tombs, the second half of the 4th millennium cal BC was an intensive but brief period of funerary depositions, probably over three to six generations; ii) after a long hiatus, most of the dolmens were reused in the 25th and 21st centuries cal BC during even shorter periods, spanning just a few decades and approximately one to four generations; and (iii) long after the funerary rituals had ended in the 21st century, the memory of the cemetery was revived in Late Antiquity. These short, punctuated periods of use are highly consistent with those seen in a growing number of European megalithic monuments. From Britain to Iberia, a pattern of short spans of use is dramatically changing our perception of the social and political roles of these complex monuments.