The spatial structure of Galician megalithic landscapes (NW iberia): A case study from the Monte Penide region

Miguel Carrero-Pazos,Andrew Bevan,Mark W Lake

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2019.05.004

Miguel Carrero-Pazos, Andrew Bevan + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2019.05.004

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Abstract

It is well known that Neolithic megalithic landscapes are the result of complex locational logics governing where communities chose to site their funerary monuments. These logics in turn respond to broader environmental and cultural affordances, and the relationship between these has been a major topic in the megalithic archaeological literature for the last few decades. Thanks to new approaches in spatial statistical modelling, there is now considerable opportunity to revisit traditional megalithic locational concepts from a more systematic point of view, not least in Galician studies (NW Iberian Peninsula). In the paper that follows, we apply such a modelling approach to a large set of megalithic monuments located in the south of Galicia (Monte Penide and surroundings) with a view to exploring locational choices, spatial hierarchy and territoriality in these funerary landscapes. The results indicate that the distribution of megalithic mounds in this region reflects a preference for locations with particular environmental properties, while at a more local scale the spacing of these mounds seems to reflect some kind of social partitioning of the landscape. Via spatial cluster analysis and a further novel method for testing site hierarchy, we conclude that the mound sizes within nine different mound clusters exhibits a non-random hierarchical structure, with a larger mound per group and smaller ones around that, and with what appears to be a preference for the large monument to be at or near the meeting point of several watersheds and upland ridge-routes.

Highlights

Megalithic tombs are a common social and funerary feature of Atlantic European landscapes during the Neolithic, involving the construction of large-scale stone monuments, typically but not exclusively collective graves covered by a mound (Laporte, Scarre 2011)
We have been able to demonstrate that distribution of megalithic mounds in the Monte Penide region reflects a preference for locations with particular environmental properties, but at a more local scale the spacing of these mounds seems to reflect some kind of social partitioning of the landscape
The results described above allow us to conclude that megalithic sites in the Monte Penide region concentrate at specific elevations (300-500 mASL) close to the ridgelines that define the main watersheds draining to the sea

Summary

Introduction

Megalithic tombs are a common social and funerary feature of Atlantic European landscapes during the Neolithic, involving the construction of large-scale stone monuments, typically but not exclusively collective graves covered by a mound (Laporte, Scarre 2011). After much wider exploration of the possibilities (Carrero-Pazos 2017) we have opted to consider just two of the simplest but most important variables – elevation and distance to major watershed boundaries (both variables were discussed by Bradley 1991a: 78; 1991b in the case of south-west England burial mounds; by major watersheds here we generally mean those that have maritime outlets) This simpler starting point allows us to conduct a more rigorous analysis and investigate both first and second-order patterns and site sizes (for the definition of these terms, see below and Bevan et al 2013; Baddeley et al 2016). B: Field plans of the excavations carried out by C. Mergelina (1936) in some of the monuments

Data and methods

Second-Order Clustering of Mounds

Discussion

A: Univariate logistic regression