On the presentation of the book ‘Prehistoric art as Prehistoric culture. Studies in honour of Professor Rodrigo de Balbín-Berhmann’. Rodrigo de Balbín Behrmann’s contributions to the interpretation of Palaeolithic Art are the starting point for presenting the state of the art of research, based on the latest works of Portuguese, Spanish, German and English colleagues, and for disseminating them in the English-speaking world.
The authors of the 17 papers that comprise it are part of the most important European research teams. The presence of some of the authors at this round table will allow us to approach some of the current problems regarding the interpretation of Palaeolithic art. In particular, their sequence, extension, topography and, of course, the role of archaeometry in the evaluation of ancient chronologies, which allow us to consider the relationship between these symbolic productions and Neanderthal groups.
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Since their discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have gone from being seen as the losers of the human family tree to being considered first-rate hominids. In her essay “Neanderthals”, Rebecca Wragg Sykes uses cutting-edge research on the Palaeolithic to debunk clichés about our “distant cousins” and reveals Neanderthals as curious and intelligent humans, knowledgeable about their world, technologically creative and adaptable, who managed to survive for over 300,000 years through periods of colossal climatic upheaval.
This book is an open window for discussion and debate, aimed at both laymen and scientists who are tackling a task that is becoming ever more difficult, with surprising new discoveries that require detours and even 180° turns. Exciting research is becoming increasingly topical.
Updated overview of the results of a research project on the prehistoric exploitation of salt in the Villafáfila lagoons (Zamora). The main focus is on the operational chain of the factory at the Molino Sanchón II site, where salt was obtained by the evaporation of the salt flats. But it also discusses the role of the luxurious Campaniform Vessels in this production centre, concluding that they were a symbolic marker used by the elites of the time to control such a lucrative activity.
In 2017, the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha published the Catalogue of Cave Art in the Sierra de las Cuerdas on the occasion of the centenary of the discovery of the Villar del Humo shelters. This is one of the most unique sets of Levantine art declared World Heritage. On the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the declaration of the Cave Art of the Mediterranean Arc of the Iberian Peninsula in 1998, the dissemination of this volume is proposed, which is designed to bring all citizens closer to the knowledge and understanding of these assets in their cultural and natural context.
The ancient Neolithic flint mines of Casa Montero were discovered in the summer of 2003, when archaeological work was being carried out prior to the construction of the Madrid M-50 ring road. A project financed by the 1% Cultural Fund has maintained the research for more than 6 years. The interdisciplinary team made up of more than 59 researchers from 19 institutions and 13 companies has dedicated its efforts to protect, study and publicise the traces left by the communities that came to this enclave to extract flint from the interior of the earth more than 7000 years ago. In this conference we will tell you when, how, who and why they did it.
Prehistory and Romanisation in the Eria Valley (León-Zamora) is an informative work that brings together, in an entertaining and didactic way, a series of historical events, based on the archaeological discoveries made over the last 50 years in this valley located between the provinces of León and Zamora. The book aims to be a tribute to the first researchers who delved into the distant past of this valley and a plea in defence of the natural and historical heritage of the rural environment. The authors present little-known aspects of its environment, from a multidisciplinary point of view, which condition the first occupations during Prehistoric times and the extensive development that began with metallurgy until the Roman occupation. Archaeological findings and historical documents help to explain the planning of the territory based on geological and mining resources, and the development achieved by the cultures that occupied the area.
The different works on megalithic art by the team of the Prehistory Department of the UAH have characterised the informative potential of the study of the decorations of Iberian megalithic supports, within the framework of systematic elaborate funerary scenarios. Components of the past visible in the reuse of supports, figurines, recovery of ancient corpses…, are added to applications of artificial colour to establish some patterns of funerary rituals that extend to other areas of Atlantic Europe.
Research into the role of the first large stones in the most ancient megalithic constructions, which had been located almost exclusively in Brittany in France, offers a rich record in Iberia, which constitutes a very revealing argument for the presence of a megalithic system at least as old as the Breton one. The demonstration that the study of the paint applied to some of these pieces offers C14 dating opens up a new line of research that already has initial results in Iberia, France and the Orkney Islands, based on the results obtained in this project.
This presentation will present some of the methodological aspects that we have developed and the results already obtained.
In the scientific-academic field, why prehistoric art is important to study prehistoric art and what issues can be relevant and incident in our society (for example, because it helps us to understand what symbols are and how we use them; because it is a way of tracing areas such as inter- and multiculturalism, and even globalisation, as well as the links between these and the feelings generated in the field of culture and their implications in territoriality; because it helps us understand elements linked to communication and the durability of information; etc.).
In its social projection, how prehistoric art is made to participate, through talks, exhibitions, etc., in our society and how it does or does not affect the citizens. The impact on tourism, in rural areas, etc.
And finally, the role of Palaeolithic art in Cultural Heritage and how it (and Spanish, or even peninsular) is representative of understanding Spain as a potential in cave heritage. Can it be an element of Marca España or whatever you want to call it or say?
Although archaeological research began as early as the 1840s, the Menga dolmen, the true ‘flagship’ of the Antequera dolmen site (listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2016) has been largely unknown until very recently.
In this conference we present the main results of the scientific research carried out in the last eight years in this great monument. Special attention will be paid to the study of the evidence collected during the excavations carried out between 2005 and 2006, which has been a decisive step forward in the understanding of the origins, temporality, biography, architecture and social and cultural significance of this great dolmen.
This research has been carried out as part of the projects “Megalithic Biographies: The Monumental Landscape of Antequera in its Temporal and Spatial Context” and “Nature, Society and Monumentality: High Resolution Archaeological Investigations of the Megalithic Landscape of Antequera”, funded under the National R&D Plan of the General Secretariat for Research of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and developed between 2014 and 2021.
The circulation of copper in the western Mediterranean between 1500 and 500 BC reflects a great complexity due to the different interactions that take place in this period in an area that acts as a point of contact between the Atlantic world and the eastern Mediterranean. The local populations of Sardinia and the Iberian Peninsula are influenced by the commercial interests of Phoenician colonial expansion, of which metal is a fundamental part. However, these local commercial interests have more of a social than an economic dimension, which explains why products such as copper, which they themselves produce, form part of the exchange. The presence in Sardinia of other types of metal that are neither local nor Cypriot, and whose origin must be sought in other areas, connects with the debate on the relations between Sardinia and the Iberian Peninsula.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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