Western Iberia has one of the richest inventories of Neolithic chambered tombs in Atlantic Europe, with particular concentrations in Galicia, northern Portugal and the Alentejo. Less well known is the major concentration of tombs along the Tagus valley, straddling the Portuguese-Spanish frontier. Within this cluster is the Anta da Lajinha, a small megalithic tomb in the hill-country north of the River Tagus. Badly damaged by forest fire and stone removal, it was the subject of joint British-Portuguese excavations in 2006-2008, accompanied by environmental investigations and OSL dating. This volume takes the recent excavations at Lajinha and the adjacent site of Cabeco dos Pendentes as the starting point for a broader consideration of the megalithic tombs of western Iberia. Key themes addressed are relevant to megalithic tombs more generally, including landscape, chronology, settlement and interregional relationships. Over what period of time were these tombs built and used? Do they form a horizon of intensive monument construction, or were the tombs the product of a persistent, long-lived tradition? How do they relate to the famous rock art of the Tagus valley, and to the cave burials and open-air settlements of the region, in terms of chronology and landscape? A final section considers the Iberian tombs within the broader family of west European megalithic monuments, focusing on chronologies, parallels and patterns of contact. Did the Iberian tombs emerge through connections with older established megalithic traditions in other regions such as Brittany, or whether they are the outcome of more general processes operating among Atlantic Neolithic societies?

About the Author
Christopher Scarre is Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, and specialises in the Neolithic monumentality of the Atlantic facade of Europe. He has excavated at megalithic monuments in western France, Portugal and the Channel Islands. Luiz Oosterbeek is Professor of Archaeology at the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar and holder of the UNESCO chair in Humanities and Cultural Integrated Landscape Management. His archaeological research focuses on the transition to food producing economies in Portugal, Africa and Southern America. He also conducts research on heritage and landscape management, and is currently Secretary-General of the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences. He is author of Cultural Integrated Landscape Management: A Humanities Perspective (2017).

Reviews
This is a meaty volume [...] an important source of both evidence and synthesis of the megalithic monuments of western Iberia in their local, regional and international contexts. * Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society *



Book Information
ISBN 9781785709807
Author Chris Scarre
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Oxbow Books
Publisher Oxbow Books