The Mega-Site of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain):: Debating settlement form, monumentality and aggregation in Southern Iberian Copper Age societies

Abstract

Study of the Iberian Copper Age has experienced a remarkable upheaval in the last two decades. The discovery in central and south-western Iberia of a significant number of ditched enclosures, a site type almost unknown in this region until the mid-1990s, has opened up new lines of research. Particularly interesting is the existence of some exceptionally large sites. Largest of all is Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain), covering an area of 450ha and featuring several outstanding megalithic monuments, thousands of pits and material assemblages revealing middle and long distance contacts. It has become a major reference point for the study of the Iberian Copper Age. In this paper we discuss the implications of the Valencina mega-site for the study of settlement variability, monumentality and population aggregation as key phenomena in the rise in social complexity in Copper Age Iberia.

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ORCID for David W. Wheatley: orcid.org/0000-0002-7265-704X

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