El megalitismo en el sur de la Península Ibéricaarquitectura, construcción y usos de los monumentos del área de Huelva, Andalucía occidental

Resumen

The area of Huelva stands out for the architectural variability and singularity of the megalithic monuments. The study of this area allows us to propose an architectural sequence and a temporality from the Neolithic to the Eariy Bronze Age in western Andalusia, contrasting with the southern models of the Iberian Peninsula and contextualizing the dynamics of western European megalithism. To do this, the research focuses on the study of three spheres of monuments: architecture, construction and uses (funerary, ritual and territorial). The identification and characterization of the architectural projects of the analyzed sites (Los Llanetes and Ei Seminario) has been carried out through a methodology oriented to the knowledge of construction works, architectures and diachronies. The architectural sequence of western Andalusia encompasses a temporality from the beginning of the IV millennium to the beginning of the II millennium BC. During this chronology several models of funerary monuments and rituals erected with a variety of constructive techniques, representing the existence of regional styles or local specializations according to the different social groups. By way of synthesis, the regional sequence evidences the following process: - The construction of the first dolmens at the beginning of the 4th millennium cal BC, as evidenced by the oval-elongated chamber monuments of Los Llanetes, built c. 3950-3750 cal BC. In the south of the peninsula c. 3800 cal BC burst the funerary collectivism as a ritual of death, developing burials in simple chamber dolmens, proto-megalithic tombs, necropolis-caves or sepulchral caves. - The formation of the elongated-chamber dolmens, c. 3750-3650 cal BC, through two ways: a) ex novo models; b) by processes of transformation of old monuments, case of Los Llanetes. The reiteration of similar architectural projects would condition the development of elongated monuments, as has been confirmed in the dolmen 4 of El Pozuelo, c. 3650-3200 cal BC. Characteristics and similar architectural formulas could be presented in the "covered gallery graves" of Andalusia, built during the central centuries and the second half of the 4th millennium BC. - The dual chamber dolmens of Los Llanetes were built on the previous monuments, c. 3650-3200 cal BC, parallel to the passage grave and elongated structures of other areas. The monuments of multiple chambers (El Pozuelo, Mesa de Las Huecas, Los Gabrieles, etc.) had to present equivalent transformation processes, being unique, particular and exclusive models of the area of Huelva and surrounding areas. - In the various orthostatic monuments were carry out the monumentalization projects and structures arranged in the atriums and external spaces according to the new ritual uses of the Copper Age, c. 3300- 2600 cal BC, in addition to the integration of other funerary constructions (tholol) in the tumular Monuments, c 2600-2250 cal BC, case of the dolmen 2 of Los Llanetes. - The implantation and consolidation of three models of funerary monuments in the Copper Age: hypogeums, mixed hypogeums and tholol, as witnessed by the diachronic sequence of the collective graves of El Seminario, c. 3000-2400 cal BC. These tombs share common space elements and funerary practices. - The existence of other forms of monumentality of the Ancient Bronze Age, c. 2250-1950 cal BC, as a consequence of the reappropriation of the ancestral spaces: 1) the terrace enclosures of the Llanetes group; 2) the funerary monumentalism of El Seminario, integrating individual tombs (subterranean caves, pits and structures with tumuiar coverings) and collective graves (pits) in the chalcolithic tombs. - Reuse in various phases of the Bronze Age and in several historical periods.