Locational preferences and spatial arrangement in the barrow landscape of Serra do Barbanza (North-western Iberia)

Miguel Carrero-Pazos,Julián Bustelo-Abuín,Víctor Barbeito-Pose,Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102351

Miguel Carrero-Pazos, Julián Bustelo-Abuín + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102351

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Abstract

As anywhere else around the world, GIS is an essential tool in Galician Archaeology (NW Spain) when examining and analysing spatial data. This is also true for the study of mounds in that area, since spatial analysis and statistics have become increasingly used for contrasting hypotheses regarding the locational preferences of these monuments, usually inferred from observations made during fieldwork or taken from studies conducted elsewhere. Drawing on this basis, in this paper, we have analysed the locational patterns of the tumuli of the upper tracts of the Serra do Barbanza (Galicia, NW Spain). Using a site-predictive modelling approach, several environmental covariates were analysed in order to explore their potential role in explaining the distribution of prehistoric mounds in the area. Subsequently, we studied the clustering of these monuments via second-order modelling. Our results suggest that tumuli in the Serra do Barbanza tended to cluster on a very local scale, a trend that can only be explained by intended site spacing strategies that may have taken place over millennia. Finally, by using significance testing via Monte Carlo Simulation, we have modelled both the effect of possible preferences regarding the location of mounds and the potential impact of tradition, with pre-existent megaliths possibly fostering the construction of more monuments in the nearby areas.

Highlights

Galicia is one of the areas of the Atlantic façade of Western Europe with the highest density of megalithic constructions, their number surpassing the 3,000 mounds in a territory of 29 thousand km2
The defined pattern confirms initial suspicions regarding elevation and slope cut-off as parameters that can define the megalithic distribution in this area. This does not mean that elevation, for example, is the unique important variable, as the relation of mounds with watershed borders is clear in this area, something already defended for other areas in Galicia (Carrero-Pazos et al 2019) and in other European regions, such as south-west England (Bradley 1991b) and Wales (Roese 1980)
From a GIS point of view, the question of visibility is more complex, as it is necessary to further conclude if it was the view from the mound, the visibility to the mound or the FINAL VERSION: Carrero-Pazos, M., Bustelo-Abuín, J., Barbeito-Pose, V., RodríguezRellán, C. (2020)

Summary

Introduction

Galicia is one of the areas of the Atlantic façade of Western Europe with the highest density of megalithic constructions, their number surpassing the 3,000 mounds in a territory of 29 thousand km2 (slightly larger than Wales). In this paper, a study of locational patterns of the megalithic sites located in the flattened top territories of A Serra do Barbanza (Galicia, NW Spain) is carried out.

Results

Conclusion