Manifestaciones simbólicas en el acceso Noreste del Recinto 4 del Foso en Camino de las Yeseras (San Fernando de Henares, Madrid)

This paper presents the characteristics of one of the entrances documented in the ditched enclosure 4 from Camino de las Yeseras: the best known and studied of all ditched enclosures of this site to date. As in other Iberian or European ditched enclosures, this study is focus on understanding that the access or transit areas are the most likely to contain structured deposits or deposits with a special character. The location and study of these strategicall areas represents an increasingly common approach on Iberian enclosures investigations, after several processualists and materialist approaches focused on the capacity of aggregation and the degree of social complexity developed to perform this type of construction. Thus, in the first part of the paper the location of the enclosure 4 is revised, and the orientation of access within the set of known enclosures as well as the relationship to the natural topography is analyzed. This increases our knowledge to what is already known in previous publications with some cosmological and astronomical considerations on the spatial organization and the architectural structure of the ditches. In the second part, enclosure fillings in the access area, as well as the main characteristics of the artefacts are described. Temporal sequence of the filling is also proposed. The final interpretation suggests that this access would be an outstanding place in the enclosure 4, around which certain symbolic practices were held. In these actions of structured depositions animals have special consideration, particularly dogs, given the amount of their remains and uniqueness of some of the deposits related to this species.Este trabajo presenta las características de una de las entradas documentadas en el foso 4 de Camino de las Yeseras, la mejor conocida y estudiada hasta el momento de todos los recintos de foso del yacimiento. Como ocurre con otros recintos de foso peninsulares y europeos, las zonas de acceso o tránsito son propensas a contener depósitos estructurados o presentar un carácter más singular en la naturaleza de sus contenidos. El objetivo de este trabajo es el de contextualizar si también en este caso la secuencia de colmatación del foso permite confirmar reiteradas actividades antrópicas que implican una manifiesta intencionalidad en los depósitos o si los rellenos son el resultado de una colmatación por abandono. La localización y estudio de estas zonas singulares supone un acercamiento cada vez más habitual en los trabajos sobre recintos peninsulares como vía de análisis de estas estructuras, tras unos primeros años de aproximaciones más procesualistas y materialistas sobre el tema centradas en la capacidad de estos asentamientos para agregar población, así como el grado de complejidad social desarrollado para llevar a cabo este tipo de construcciones. De este modo, en una primera parte del texto se revisa la ubicación del recinto 4 así como la orientación del acceso dentro del conjunto de recintos hasta hoy conocido y en relación a la topografía natural añadiendo, a lo ya conocido en publicaciones anteriores, algunas consideraciones astronómicas a la organización del espacio y a la estructuración arquitectónica de los fosos. En una segunda parte se describen los rellenos del foso en el acceso además de las principales características de los materiales que contienen y se hace una propuesta de secuencia temporal. La interpretación final que se propone sugiere la consideración del acceso como un lugar destacado en los recintos, en torno al cual se realizaban determinadas prácticas de carácter simbólico en las que los animales tienen especial significado, particularmente los perros dada la cantidad de restos y la singularidad de algunos de los depósitos relacionados con esta especie

The symbolic meaning of cattle and sheep/goat in the Bronze Age: Faunal inclusions in funerary contexts of South-Western Iberia

The inclusion of faunal remains in funerary practices is widely documented in Iberian prehistory. For the late prehistory (Neolithic to Bronze Age), there is relatively more data than in earlier periods, with limb segments being very common, and complete animals are rarer. In Bronze Age contexts from South-Western Iberia, a high percentage of human burials in subterranean chambers (hypogea) are associated with limb bones of cattle (Bos taurus) and sheep/goats (Ovis/Capra), along with other grave goods. Traditionally, this practice is interpreted as the result of rituals of commensality. In this paper, we present a different perspective. Besides commensality, we show that the inclusion of the same species and the same anatomical parts is a highly standardised behaviour. Beyond the tight connection between humans and animals, this pattern also points to a strong symbolism of these domestic species and to symbolic meaning of the anatomical parts themselves.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The maternal genetic make-up of the Iberian Peninsula between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age

Agriculture first reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in different geographic areas of Iberia. In our study, we focus on the maternal genetic makeup of the Neolithic (~ 5500–3000 BCE), Chalcolithic (~ 3000–2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (~ 2200–1500 BCE). We report ancient mitochondrial DNA results of 213 individuals (151 HVS-I sequences) from the northeast, central, southeast and southwest regions and thus on the largest archaeogenetic dataset from the Peninsula to date. Similar to other parts of Europe, we observe a discontinuity between hunter-gatherers and the first farmers of the Neolithic. During the subsequent periods, we detect regional continuity of Early Neolithic lineages across Iberia, however the genetic contribution of hunter-gatherers is generally higher than in other parts of Europe and varies regionally. In contrast to ancient DNA findings from Central Europe, we do not observe a major turnover in the mtDNA record of the Iberian Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, suggesting that the population history of the Iberian Peninsula is distinct in character.Concerning research in the Alto Ribatejo, authors wish to thank Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia the support of research on the dawn of farming in the Tagus valley (project “Moving Tasks Accross Shapes” – PTDC/EPH-ARQ/4356/2014), as well as the Geosciences Centre of Coimbra University (strategic project UID/Multi/00073/2013). This study was funded by the German Research Foundation (Grant no. Al 287/14–1)