Pub Date : 2018-06-12DOI: 10.1007/s10963-018-9118-y
Paul Richard Preston, Thomas Kador
The Mesolithic communities of northwest Europe have generally been considered inherently mobile, and all the material evidence associated with them has been interpreted accordingly. This has resulted in entrenched, theoretically polemical and largely hypothetical mobility models, focusing on seasonal rounds and extraction activities. However, recent reanalyses of the ethnographic sources, and discoveries of both substantial and ephemeral Mesolithic structures, as well as new data from recent innovative lithic and scientific analyses (including DNA, isotope research on human remains, and geochemical analyses of lithic artefacts), have forced us to rethink the rather static models of Mesolithic mobility strategies. This paper, examining Mesolithic hunter-gatherer mobility and settlement models from Britain and Ireland, is part of that reassessment. In particular, it assesses the impact of the multiple lines of consilience on our understanding of Mesolithic habitation of landscapes. These include the archaeological evidence and the efficacy of recent theoretical and methodological approaches that have been employed to interpret it.
{"title":"Approaches to Interpreting Mesolithic Mobility and Settlement in Britain and Ireland","authors":"Paul Richard Preston, Thomas Kador","doi":"10.1007/s10963-018-9118-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-018-9118-y","url":null,"abstract":"The Mesolithic communities of northwest Europe have generally been considered inherently mobile, and all the material evidence associated with them has been interpreted accordingly. This has resulted in entrenched, theoretically polemical and largely hypothetical mobility models, focusing on seasonal rounds and extraction activities. However, recent reanalyses of the ethnographic sources, and discoveries of both substantial and ephemeral Mesolithic structures, as well as new data from recent innovative lithic and scientific analyses (including DNA, isotope research on human remains, and geochemical analyses of lithic artefacts), have forced us to rethink the rather static models of Mesolithic mobility strategies. This paper, examining Mesolithic hunter-gatherer mobility and settlement models from Britain and Ireland, is part of that reassessment. In particular, it assesses the impact of the multiple lines of consilience on our understanding of Mesolithic habitation of landscapes. These include the archaeological evidence and the efficacy of recent theoretical and methodological approaches that have been employed to interpret it.","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"54 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138513306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-05-29DOI: 10.1007/s10963-018-9115-1
Wei Chu
Early Upper Paleolithic sites in the Danube catchment have been put forward as evidence that the river was an important conduit for modern humans during their initial settlement of Europe. Central to this model is the Carpathian Basin, a region covering most of the Middle Danube. As the archaeological record of this region is still poorly understood, this paper aims to provide a contextual assessment of the Carpathian Basin’s geological and paleoenvironmental archives, starting with the late Upper Pleistocene. Subsequently, it compiles early Upper Paleolithic data from the region to provide a synchronic appraisal of the Aurignacian archaeological evidence. It then uses this data to test whether the relative absence of early Upper Paleolithic sites is obscured by a taphonomic bias. Finally, it reviews current knowledge of the Carpathian Basin’s archaeological record and concludes that, while it cannot reject the Danube corridor hypothesis, further (geo)archaeological work is required to understand the link between the Carpathian Basin and Central and Southeastern Europe.
{"title":"The Danube Corridor Hypothesis and the Carpathian Basin: Geological, Environmental and Archaeological Approaches to Characterizing Aurignacian Dynamics","authors":"Wei Chu","doi":"10.1007/s10963-018-9115-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-018-9115-1","url":null,"abstract":"Early Upper Paleolithic sites in the Danube catchment have been put forward as evidence that the river was an important conduit for modern humans during their initial settlement of Europe. Central to this model is the Carpathian Basin, a region covering most of the Middle Danube. As the archaeological record of this region is still poorly understood, this paper aims to provide a contextual assessment of the Carpathian Basin’s geological and paleoenvironmental archives, starting with the late Upper Pleistocene. Subsequently, it compiles early Upper Paleolithic data from the region to provide a synchronic appraisal of the Aurignacian archaeological evidence. It then uses this data to test whether the relative absence of early Upper Paleolithic sites is obscured by a taphonomic bias. Finally, it reviews current knowledge of the Carpathian Basin’s archaeological record and concludes that, while it cannot reject the Danube corridor hypothesis, further (geo)archaeological work is required to understand the link between the Carpathian Basin and Central and Southeastern Europe.","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"52 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138513296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-05-29DOI: 10.1007/s10963-018-9116-0
Nicholas Overton, B. Taylor
{"title":"Humans in the Environment: Plants, Animals and Landscapes in Mesolithic Britain and Ireland","authors":"Nicholas Overton, B. Taylor","doi":"10.1007/s10963-018-9116-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-018-9116-0","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"31 1","pages":"385 - 402"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10963-018-9116-0","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52463783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-01DOI: 10.1007/s10963-018-9113-3
A. Blanco-González, K. Lillios, J. López‐Sáez, B. Drake
{"title":"Cultural, Demographic and Environmental Dynamics of the Copper and Early Bronze Age in Iberia (3300–1500 BC): Towards an Interregional Multiproxy Comparison at the Time of the 4.2 ky BP Event","authors":"A. Blanco-González, K. Lillios, J. López‐Sáez, B. Drake","doi":"10.1007/s10963-018-9113-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-018-9113-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"31 1","pages":"1 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10963-018-9113-3","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52463730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-01-01Epub Date: 2018-05-19DOI: 10.1007/s10963-018-9114-2
Leonardo García Sanjuán, Juan Manuel Vargas Jiménez, Luis Miguel Cáceres Puro, Manuel Eleazar Costa Caramé, Marta Díaz-Guardamino Uribe, Marta Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, Álvaro Fernández Flores, Víctor Hurtado Pérez, Pedro M López Aldana, Elena Méndez Izquierdo, Ana Pajuelo Pando, Joaquín Rodríguez Vidal, David Wheatley, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Antonio Delgado-Huertas, Elaine Dunbar, Adrián Mora González, Alex Bayliss, Nancy Beavan, Derek Hamilton, Alasdair Whittle
The great site of Valencina de la Concepción, near Seville in the lower Guadalquivir valley of southwest Spain, is presented in the context of debate about the nature of Copper Age society in southern Iberia as a whole. Many aspects of the layout, use, character and development of Valencina remain unclear, just as there are major unresolved questions about the kind of society represented there and in southern Iberia, from the late fourth to the late third millennium cal BC. This paper discusses 178 radiocarbon dates, from 17 excavated sectors within the c. 450 ha site, making it the best dated in later Iberian prehistory as a whole. Dates are modelled in a Bayesian statistical framework. The resulting formal date estimates provide the basis for both a new epistemological approach to the site and a much more detailed narrative of its development than previously available. Beginning in the 32nd century cal BC, a long-lasting tradition of simple, mainly collective and often successive burial was established at the site. Mud-vaulted tholoi appear to belong to the 29th or 28th centuries cal BC; large stone-vaulted tholoi such as La Pastora appear to date later in the sequence. There is plenty of evidence for a wide range of other activity, but no clear sign of permanent, large-scale residence or public buildings or spaces. Results in general support a model of increasingly competitive but ultimately unstable social relations, through various phases of emergence, social competition, display and hierarchisation, and eventual decline, over a period of c. 900 years.
Valencina de la Concepción这个伟大的遗址位于西班牙西南部瓜达尔基维尔河谷下游的塞维利亚附近,它是在关于整个伊比利亚南部铜器时代社会性质的辩论背景下展出的。瓦伦西纳的布局、用途、特征和发展的许多方面仍然不清楚,就像在公元前4世纪末到公元前3世纪末之间,那里和伊比利亚南部所代表的社会类型仍然存在未解决的主要问题一样。这篇论文讨论了178个放射性碳测年,这些测年来自于这个约450公顷的遗址的17个出土部分,使其成为伊比利亚史前晚期最准确的测年。日期在贝叶斯统计框架中建模。由此产生的正式日期估计为该遗址的新认识论方法和比以前更详细的发展叙述提供了基础。从公元前32世纪开始,一种简单的、主要是集体的、通常是连续的埋葬传统在这里建立起来。泥拱顶的tholoi似乎属于公元前29或28世纪;像拉帕斯托拉这样的大型石拱丘出现在序列的后期。有大量证据表明,他们还从事过各种各样的其他活动,但没有明确的迹象表明他们有永久性的、大规模的住所或公共建筑或空间。研究结果总体上支持了一种模式,即在大约900年的时间里,社会关系经历了出现、社会竞争、展示和等级制度以及最终衰落的各个阶段,竞争日益激烈,但最终不稳定。
{"title":"Assembling the Dead, Gathering the Living: Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Modelling for Copper Age Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain).","authors":"Leonardo García Sanjuán, Juan Manuel Vargas Jiménez, Luis Miguel Cáceres Puro, Manuel Eleazar Costa Caramé, Marta Díaz-Guardamino Uribe, Marta Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, Álvaro Fernández Flores, Víctor Hurtado Pérez, Pedro M López Aldana, Elena Méndez Izquierdo, Ana Pajuelo Pando, Joaquín Rodríguez Vidal, David Wheatley, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Antonio Delgado-Huertas, Elaine Dunbar, Adrián Mora González, Alex Bayliss, Nancy Beavan, Derek Hamilton, Alasdair Whittle","doi":"10.1007/s10963-018-9114-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-018-9114-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The great site of Valencina de la Concepción, near Seville in the lower Guadalquivir valley of southwest Spain, is presented in the context of debate about the nature of Copper Age society in southern Iberia as a whole. Many aspects of the layout, use, character and development of Valencina remain unclear, just as there are major unresolved questions about the kind of society represented there and in southern Iberia, from the late fourth to the late third millennium cal BC. This paper discusses 178 radiocarbon dates, from 17 excavated sectors within the c. 450 ha site, making it the best dated in later Iberian prehistory as a whole. Dates are modelled in a Bayesian statistical framework. The resulting formal date estimates provide the basis for both a new epistemological approach to the site and a much more detailed narrative of its development than previously available. Beginning in the 32nd century cal BC, a long-lasting tradition of simple, mainly collective and often successive burial was established at the site. Mud-vaulted tholoi appear to belong to the 29th or 28th centuries cal BC; large stone-vaulted tholoi such as La Pastora appear to date later in the sequence. There is plenty of evidence for a wide range of other activity, but no clear sign of permanent, large-scale residence or public buildings or spaces. Results in general support a model of increasingly competitive but ultimately unstable social relations, through various phases of emergence, social competition, display and hierarchisation, and eventual decline, over a period of c. 900 years.</p>","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"31 2","pages":"179-313"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10963-018-9114-2","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36275444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-12-14DOI: 10.1007/s10963-017-9112-9
Michael Brass
{"title":"Early North African Cattle Domestication and Its Ecological Setting: A Reassessment","authors":"Michael Brass","doi":"10.1007/s10963-017-9112-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-017-9112-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"31 1","pages":"81 - 115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10963-017-9112-9","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52463705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-07DOI: 10.1007/s10963-017-9110-y
Richard Walter, Hallie Buckley, Chris Jacomb, Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith
This paper reintroduces the concept of mass migration into debates concerning the timing and nature of New Zealand’s settlement by Polynesians. Upward revisions of New Zealand’s chronology show that the appearance of humans on the landscape occurred extremely rapidly, and that within decades settlements had been established across the full range of climatic zones. We show that the rapid appearance of a strong archaeological signature in the early 14th century AD is the result of a mass migration event, not the consequence of gradual demographic growth out of a currently unidentified earlier phase of settlement. Mass migration is not only consistent with the archaeological record but is supported by recent findings in molecular biology and genetics. It also opens the door to a new phase of engagement between archaeological method and indigenous Maori and Polynesian oral history and tradition.
{"title":"Mass Migration and the Polynesian Settlement of New Zealand","authors":"Richard Walter, Hallie Buckley, Chris Jacomb, Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith","doi":"10.1007/s10963-017-9110-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-017-9110-y","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reintroduces the concept of mass migration into debates concerning the timing and nature of New Zealand’s settlement by Polynesians. Upward revisions of New Zealand’s chronology show that the appearance of humans on the landscape occurred extremely rapidly, and that within decades settlements had been established across the full range of climatic zones. We show that the rapid appearance of a strong archaeological signature in the early 14th century AD is the result of a mass migration event, not the consequence of gradual demographic growth out of a currently unidentified earlier phase of settlement. Mass migration is not only consistent with the archaeological record but is supported by recent findings in molecular biology and genetics. It also opens the door to a new phase of engagement between archaeological method and indigenous Maori and Polynesian oral history and tradition.","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"54 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138513307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-05DOI: 10.1007/s10963-017-9108-5
Manuel Fernández-Götz, Ian Ralston
The development of large agglomerations is one of the most important phenomena in later Eurasian prehistory. In west-central temperate Europe, the origins of urbanism have long been associated with the oppida of the second to first centuries BC. However, large-scale excavations and surveys carried out over the last two decades have fundamentally modified the traditional picture of early centralization processes. New results indicate that the first urban centres north of the Alps developed over time between the end of the seventh and the fifth century BC in an area stretching from Bohemia to southern Germany and Central France. Sites such as the Heuneburg, Závist, Mont Lassois and Bourges produce evidence of a process of differentiation and hierarchization in the pattern of settlement that was concurrently an expression of, and a catalyst for, increasing social inequality. Although contacts with the Mediterranean world would certainly have played a role in such processes, endogenous factors were primarily responsible for the development of these early Central European agglomerations. This paper summarizes recent fieldwork results, showing the heterogeneity and diversity of Early Iron Age central places and outlining their diachronic development. The fragility and ephemeral character of these centres of power and their territories is highlighted. Their demise was followed by a period of decentralization that constitutes a prime example of the non-linear character of history.
{"title":"The Complexity and Fragility of Early Iron Age Urbanism in West-Central Temperate Europe","authors":"Manuel Fernández-Götz, Ian Ralston","doi":"10.1007/s10963-017-9108-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-017-9108-5","url":null,"abstract":"The development of large agglomerations is one of the most important phenomena in later Eurasian prehistory. In west-central temperate Europe, the origins of urbanism have long been associated with the <i>oppida</i> of the second to first centuries BC. However, large-scale excavations and surveys carried out over the last two decades have fundamentally modified the traditional picture of early centralization processes. New results indicate that the first urban centres north of the Alps developed over time between the end of the seventh and the fifth century BC in an area stretching from Bohemia to southern Germany and Central France. Sites such as the Heuneburg, Závist, Mont Lassois and Bourges produce evidence of a process of differentiation and hierarchization in the pattern of settlement that was concurrently an expression of, and a catalyst for, increasing social inequality. Although contacts with the Mediterranean world would certainly have played a role in such processes, endogenous factors were primarily responsible for the development of these early Central European agglomerations. This paper summarizes recent fieldwork results, showing the heterogeneity and diversity of Early Iron Age central places and outlining their diachronic development. The fragility and ephemeral character of these centres of power and their territories is highlighted. Their demise was followed by a period of decentralization that constitutes a prime example of the non-linear character of history.","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"12 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138525235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.1007/s10963-017-9109-4
T. Moore
{"title":"Alternatives to Urbanism? Reconsidering Oppida and the Urban Question in Late Iron Age Europe","authors":"T. Moore","doi":"10.1007/s10963-017-9109-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-017-9109-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"30 1","pages":"281 - 300"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10963-017-9109-4","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52463677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-08-29DOI: 10.1007/s10963-017-9107-6
Leonardo García Sanjuán, Chris Scarre, David W. Wheatley
Study of the Iberian Copper Age has experienced a remarkable upheaval in the last two decades. The discovery in central and southwestern 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 450 ha and featuring several outstanding megalithic monuments, thousands of pits and material assemblages revealing middle and long distance contacts. 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.
在过去的二十年里,对伊比利亚铜器时代的研究经历了一次显著的剧变。在伊比利亚中部和西南部发现了大量的沟状围栏,直到20世纪90年代中期,这种遗址类型在该地区几乎是未知的,开辟了新的研究方向。特别有趣的是一些特别大的遗址的存在。其中最大的是Valencina de la Concepción(西班牙塞维利亚),占地450公顷,拥有几个杰出的巨石纪念碑,数千个坑和材料组合,揭示了中远距离的联系。在本文中,我们讨论了瓦伦西纳大型遗址对研究定居变异性、纪念性和人口聚集的影响,这些现象是铜器时代伊比利亚社会复杂性上升的关键现象。
{"title":"The Mega-Site of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain): Debating Settlement Form, Monumentality and Aggregation in Southern Iberian Copper Age Societies","authors":"Leonardo García Sanjuán, Chris Scarre, David W. Wheatley","doi":"10.1007/s10963-017-9107-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-017-9107-6","url":null,"abstract":"Study of the Iberian Copper Age has experienced a remarkable upheaval in the last two decades. The discovery in central and southwestern 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 450 ha and featuring several outstanding megalithic monuments, thousands of pits and material assemblages revealing middle and long distance contacts. 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.","PeriodicalId":47061,"journal":{"name":"Journal of World Prehistory","volume":"141 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138525241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}