https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1818-7024
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ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the landscapes of Neolithic communities found within Costa da Morte (Coast of Death), Galicia. Its goal is to uncover whether or not the megalithic monuments of a particular and coherent area of the south-eastern side of the Atlantic Façade are situated in relation to complex locational variables. In particular, in this paper, we explore the entirety of their surrounding horizon. For the very first time, we were able to demonstrate that very specific natural landscapes surrounding the dolmens of this region in Iberia were likely selectively drawn upon, expanding our understanding of the Neolithic of this area and the people's relationship with their natural world.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Acknowledgements
We are particularly indebted to Andrew Smith of the University of Adelaide. Andrew Smith constructed the 2D and 3D software, Horizon, as well as acting as a consultant in relation to the updating of Horizon and conversion of LiDAR data for the use in this bespoke software. We are also indebted to Felipe Criado-Boado for his support in carrying out this work. We would very much like to thank Anxo Rodriguez-Paz for the illustrations done for , Maria Gomez Faro for the maps and Andy M Jones for his helpful comments on the manuscript, acknowledging that all remaining errors are our own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Gail Higginbottom
Gail Higginbottom is a multi-disciplinary researcher & academic in European Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology and Cultural Astronomy. She is a Marie Curie Research Fellow 2019–2021 at Incipit (Spanish National Research Council-CSIC) with her own project entitled SHoW: SHARED WORLDS (No 800236). She is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide, School of Chemistry & Physics & a founding member of CAA Australia. Her research covers many methodological approaches from the statistical to the phenomenological and theoretical and the combination of these. Papers of interest include: “Origins of Standing Stone Astronomy in Britain", doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.05.025 and on the Bronze Age cosmological ideologies of Scotland see https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10963-020-09139-z. MSCA project website – https://gailhigginbottom.wixsite.com/mysite
A. César González-García
Antonio César González-García is a researcher at the Institute of Heritage Sciences – Incipit, of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, Santiago de Compostela Spain). He has a PhD in Astronomy from the Rijk Universiteit Groningen (The Netherlands) and his research focuses on Cultural Astronomy and the social impact of the sky in prehistoric and ancient societies. He is author of “Light and Shadow effects in megalithic monuments in the Iberian Peninsula” at the Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology (Oxford, 2018). Other relevant publications include Cambridge Archaeological Journal (2019), Culture & Cosmos (2017).
Miguel Carrero-Pazos
Miguel Carrero-Pazos is currently a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Archaeology (UK), developing the project “Comparative Models of Megalithic Landscapes in Neolithic Atlantic Europe” (MSCA-IF-EF-ST 2019, no. 886793). Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Specialist in computationally-informed landscape archaeology, his research focuses on the application of advanced spatial statistics and GIS techniques to model monumental landscapes. He is also interested in 3D imaging analyses for the study of rock art engravings. Recent publication includes – (2019), “Density, Intensity and Clustering Patterns in the Spatial Distribution of Galician Megaliths (NW Iberian Peninsula)”. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11 (5), pp. 2097-2108. SJR Impact Factor (Q1): 1.05 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0662-2. q.v: https://www.megascapesproject.com/the-megascapes-team
Benito Vilas-Estévez
Benito Vilas-Estévez works in the Cultural Heritage Management of Galicia, based in Vigo. He has a TFN in Archaeological Science (CSIC and USC and University of Vigo) and a Masters in Cultural Astronomy (University of Wales, Trinity Saint David).
Víctor López-López
Víctor López López, graduated from the University of Cordoba (Spain) with an M.A in Archaeology from the University of Granada. His awards include the Best Degree record of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Córdoba in the academic year 2018/2019, Fundación Caja Rural del Sur-UCO as well as for the best degree academic record of each centre of the UCO 2019. He was a research assistant at Incipit, CSIC in 2019–2020.