The recently excavated site of Montenegro in Galicia is analysed to determine how the construction of circular enclosures reproduces the organizational model of space identified in monumental architectures elsewhere. This article presents a comparative analysis of archaeological sites in northwest Iberia focusing on Neolithic spatial concepts and their materialization in different architectures from this period. In synthesis, it is possible to define 4 artistic cycles in Beira Alta: one that corresponds to an engraved variant of schematic art dated from the end of the IV – beginning of the III millennium BC a second one integrated in the Atlantic tradition that should be dated from Early Bronze Age a third from Late Bronze Age characterized by footprints, horseshoes, phallic motifs and other figures a fourth dated from Iron Age characterized by the use of incision. We’ve been collecting, since 1997, in Beira Alta, evidence showing us that this kind of engravings can be even older than those of Atlantic tradition. In here we can distinguish two different traditions - an Atlantic one and second one corresponding to an engraved variant of the painted schematic art that we find in Portugal’s border and in all the Spanish country eastward. On the other hand, Viseu’s district has a very special “package” of rock art. In Viseu’s district we find a lot more of megalithic tombs and other burial mounds. This geographic and administrative dichotomy is also a reflection of what we find in the archaeological record. Accordingly, Guarda’s district can be better defined as Beira Interior, forming a unity with Castelo Branco’s. On the contrary, the geographic and cultural features of Guarda’s district are more of a continental type. Viseu’s district has some geographic and cultural traits of Atlantic kind. The ideology expressed by these ritual expressions multiplies the applicable approaches for the study of a social framework that supports the process of megaliths building around Europe.īoth the districts of Guarda and Viseu are part of Beira Alta’s region. By studying the painted decoration, it is feasible to read chronologies and to define maintenance phases including engravings. There is another yet unpublished argument that will add to the evaluation so these sequences.
Old stelae and menhirs could be linked to this first stage and could have been the very reason for the beginning of the construction this idea is supported in Galicia by the direct chronologies of the uprights. Firstly, the mentioned archaeological evidences, the pre-existing structures found beneath the tumulus, are an indication of events that happened before building the monuments. These sequences offer two very interesting options for interpretation in Galicia. Reused stelae and menhirs confirm previous roles and reinforce the interest of analysing the monument’s biography through each slab’s history.
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