From Topography to Temporality at the Valencina Copper Age Mega-site (Spain): Low-Density Settlement, Gathering Place, or Both?

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Theorizing Prehistoric Large Low-Density Settlements beyond Urbanism and Other Conventional Classificatory Conventions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the last two decades, mega-sites have become a defining feature in the research of Copper Age Iberia, opening up completely new avenues for the analysis of early social complexity in this region. One of the most fascinating cases is the Valencina de la Concepción-Castilleja de Guzmán site (Valencina, for short), located in the lower Guadalquivir River valley, Sevilla province (Spain). Recent research has shown this site, occupied between ca. 3200 and 2300 cal BC, to spread over ca. 450 ha and has revealed the scale and diversity of its monuments, which include, among others, gigantic ditched systems and well as tholos-type megaliths. Some newly discovered megalithic graves, like Montelirio and Structure 10.042-10.049, accommodated high-ranking individuals accompanied with material culture made on foreign raw materials and worked with accomplished technical skill. In this paper, we will use various cartographic sources to examine the topography of the site, coupled with the chronometric evidence currently available (which includes almost 300 radiocarbon dates). Our aim is to achieve a preliminary assessment of the reasons why Valencina spread over such a large area, and what its character was: low-density settlement, gathering place, or both?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Theorizing Prehistoric Large Low-Density Settlements beyond Urbanism and Other Conventional Classificatory Conventions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38302.0