Beyond the scale. Building formal approaches for the study of spatial patterns in Galician moundscapes (NW Iberian Peninsula)

Abstract

In Galicia, works that studied the megalithic locational patterns developed only fieldwork-based approaches. As a result, the locational criteria were defined using ideas through a direct analysis at field, and never have been quantified and modelled with GIS methods until nowadays.In this work, a GIS methodology and a point pattern approach for the study of megalithic locational patterns is carried out. Starting from the definition of locational factors managed by literature, a number of first and second order properties were converted into spatial variables. From this point, specific regularities among the distribution of sites were established, which allows to determine trends in Galician megalithic occupation and open new possibilities of analysis in the study of Galician megalithic landscapes.