The Unsuspected Circles. On the Late Recognition of Southern Iberian Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ditched Enclosures

Abstract

Neolithic ditched enclosures appear to be widely distributed across Central and Western Europe, and from the Mediterranean area to Scandinavia. They have been known in areas of Europe for a long time, but particularly in the last 25 years studies on British, French, Central European, and Scandinavian ditched enclosures have flourished. In line with this, a number of international meetings occurred in the last three decades. In southern Iberia, by contrast, ditched enclosures only began to be known in the 1970s, and even then methodological deficiencies and lack of funding hampered their characterisation. As a consequence of this, Iberian Neolithic and Copper Age ditched enclosures were largely unknown outside Portugal and Spain. They were not represented in any of the international meetings above, nor included in any of the syntheses made about the topic. Not only that, for decades, Spanish and Portuguese archaeologists were not aware of the potential analogies themselves, and the research that was being carried out elsewhere in Europe had almost no influence on the way ditched enclosures were surveyed, excavated, and interpreted in the peninsula. The main objective of this article is to advance the recognition of the southern Iberian evidence by other European researchers and the integration of the Iberian conversation into the general discussion. The focus will be on how these sites have been studied by several generations of Iberian archaeologists, in an attempt to explain why it has taken Portuguese and Spanish archaeologists so long to realise that Iberian enclosures should not be understood in isolation.

Veinte años de arqueología de la Prehistoria tardía en la Península Ibérica. Mirando hacia atrás y hacia adelante

“…With more systematic survey, megaliths have been found to be abundant in the Meseta, with the earliest tombs, such as the dolmen of Azután and tumulus of El Castillejo (Toledo), dating to the second half of the 5 th millennium BC, displaying a surprising polymorphism. Their locations correspond closely with that of Early Neolithic settlements, demonstrating the link between the earliest farming peoples of central Iberia and megalith-building (Bueno et al 2002;2005a;2015). Also notable are the discovery and investigations of the deliberately burnt charnel houses or 'lime-kiln' tombs (tumbas calero) in the Ambrona valley (Soria), such as La Peña de la Abuela and La Sima Barrow, both dated to 3800-3700 BC (Rojo 1999; Rojo and Kunst 1999Kunst , 2002Görsdorf 2000;Rojo-Guerra et al 2010).…”

“…As noted above, remote sensing (GPR, magnetometry, etc.) have been instrumental in identifying and mapping late prehistoric sites, particularly ditched enclosures and other sites with negative structures (Márquez-Romero et al 2011;Wheatley et al 2012;Becker 2013;Valera et al 2013;Jiménez-Jáimez 2015).…”

Caracterización morfológica y tecnológica de la cerámica prehistórica del yacimiento arqueológico del Cerro de los Vientos (Puente del Obispo-Baeza, Jaén)

“…El Cerro de los Vientos se puede encuadrar en los yacimientos definidos como recintos de fosos. Durante las últimas décadas, gracias a distintos investigadores y estudios (Jiménez-Jáimez 2015;Márquez 2001Márquez , 2002Delibes 2001), se ha mejorado la comprensión de los mismos, de manera que en el sur peninsular se ha pasado de conocer apenas una decena de asentamientos a principios de los años 90, a más de ochenta en la actualidad. En la provincia de Jaén se tiene constancia al menos tres que responden a las características que los definen: los yacimientos de Martos (Lizcano et al, 1993), Venta del Rapa (Lechuga et al, 2014) y Marroquíes Bajos (Zafra et al, 1999).…”

Counting with the invisible record? The role of LiDAR in the interpretation of megalithic landscapes in south‐western Iberia (Extremadura, Alentejo and Beira Baixa)

“…However, data has been available for Spain since 2015, and this has allowed a reappraisal of some megalithic territories (Carrero‐Pazos, Vilas Estévez, Romaní Romaní, & Rodríguez Casal, ; Cerrillo‐Cuenca, ), but this is not the case of Portugal. The systematic application of photo‐interpretation is very recent and has been focused mainly on ditched enclosures (Jiménez‐Jáimez, ; Valera & Pereiro, ).…”