Abstract
Archaeological, historical, and ethnographic research has demonstrated how mountainous environments influence the socio-cultural dynamics of the communities that live in them and in their neighbouring areas. The development of these communities tends to occur at the margins, often far away from centres of political power. This marginality is also extended to movement in these regions, where mountain ranges regularly constitute mighty obstacles on account of their natural configuration which plays a central role in strategy, commerce and travelling. In the case of western Sierra Morena in Spain, its constitution shaped both the ways of transit through the mountains during Later Prehistory and the historical routes of communication that traverse Andalucia. Using a GIS methodology developed specifically to identify particular characteristics of the landscape relevant to human movement, such as passageways, crossing points, and natural areas of transit, we examine the role that natural accessibility had for the late prehistoric societies of this region. We conclude that the location of their habitats and symbolic places are strongly related to corridors, possibly due to an increasing importance of herding activities.
Highlights
Iberia is one of the most mountainous regions of Western Europe
Investigating the spatial dimension of the Copper Age and Bronze Age sites of western Sierra Morena this paper addresses the issue of mobility within Iberian later prehistoric societies
The limitations of the available archaeological record must be taken into consideration, it is interesting to note that natural corridors in this region seem to have been heavily used during Prehistory
Summary
Its Central Plateau has an average altitude of 400 m and is surrounded by Patricia Murrieta-Flores major mountain ranges (Galician Mountains, the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees to the North, the Iberian System to the East and the Betic and Penibetic Systems to the South). It is traversed by the Central System and the Toledo Mountains in a NE-SW direction. This geographical configuration can be seen as one the reasons that explains the high fragmentation in ethnic, cultural and linguistic terms that characterised in the past (and still characterises) this vast territory. The restraints on human movement and cultural contact in this highly fragmented territory have generated a remarkable social and cultural variability since Prehistory that favoured, as it has happened in many other regions of the world, the use of inland waterways and the sea as the most prominent ways of communication and transportation
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