Recent investigations of the megalithic landscapes of Seville province, Andalusia: Dolmen de Palacio III

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Description/Abstract

This paper describes the results of the fieldwork stage (2000-2002) of a project dealing with the megalithic phenomenon in Almadén de la Plata (Sevilla, Andalusia, Spain), carried out jointly by the universities of Seville and Southampton. On the one hand, this project aims to understand the spatial and landscape dimensions of the megalithic monuments of this region, where the density and diversity of such monuments is very high. This has involved systematic surface survey of a number of designated areas in order to provide the empirical basis from which to understand spatial distributions relationships between the monuments themselves, between the monuments and settlement areas and between monuments and landscape features). On the other hand, this project is looking at aspects of the internal organisation of megalithic burials in the area. Thus excavations carried out at the site of Dolmen de Palacio III have permitted the retrieval and recording of an almost completely intact Copper Age tholos tomb, as well as providing extremely useful information about patterns of re-use of the monument between the Neolithic and the Iron Age.