Documents found
-
-
52.More information
ABSTRACT More than a mere mode of funerary architecture, megalithism translates a way of thinking which represents the specificity of the Middle Neolithic period for the Atlantic region, from Armo- rica to Portugal. It differs from the Balkano-Danubian Neolithic, as from that of the Mediterranean region, by its funerary rites, its architecture, its art and what we can perceive of its ideology. Religious life there seems to have been based on ancestor worship, whereas in the Balkan and Central European traditions the cult seems to have been addressed first and foremost to divinities (van Berg, 1991 ; van Berg and Cauwe, in press b ; van Berg and Cauwe, infraj. It cannot be stated that the former completely ignored gods and the latter ancestors, but merely that, in each group, one of these two sources of religious power seems to have prevailed. Moreover, by the end of the 4th millennium (all dates are given in calendar years, based on calibrated C14), a third party entered into play : the Eastern European cultures who had mastered metallurgy. What happened when these heterogeneous worlds met ? Several outcomes are possible and examination of them sheds light on some poorly explained features of the European Neolithic. When analysing the complexity of our own cultures, we recognise at the very least the combined influences of Athens Rome and Jerusalem ; during the Neolithic, the density of inter-regional relations suggests, mutatis mutandis, a multicultural approach of many phenomena which may be regional in their expression but not in their genesis.
-
53.More information
ABSTRACT Since the 1970s the traditional theses about megalithic phenomena in Catalonia, originally exposed by L. Péricot (1950), have been revised. This review included improved knowledge of the architectonic typologies, and the re-examination of grave goods and contexts, which finally confirmed the appearance of the first megalithic manifestations during the 4th millennium ВС. The first megalithic signs are evident in three geographical groups with special characteristic special features : — the complex barrows of the Ta- vertet area in inland Catalonia, at the beginning of the 4th millennium ВС, with artefacts connected with the Montbolo group —the "Solsonià", small chambers under barrow, towards the end of the 4th millennium ВС, with artefacts typical of the Catalan Middle Neolithic ; —the "Empordanès", near the coast, with the same chronology as the other group, represented by passage graves with some extraneous elements connected with the southern Chassey.
-
54.More information
Since the last decades of the 19th century, the megalithic monuments of the Gers département have undergone repeated destruction. The majority disappeared after they were dismantled to facilitate agricultural work or were used as stone quarries. The dolmens suffered greatly from this systematic deterioration; in fact, if the very dubious monument of Hourès at Lagraulet-du-Gers is excluded, not a single one remains. The same is true for the menhirs, isolated or grouped, listed in the documentary sources, except that of Busca which is still standing in the commune of Mansencôme. The conclusions are easy to draw: apart from these two monuments, at present there remain no megaliths on the current territory of this département. Thus, the inventory and distribution maps of megaliths in Gers which can be established remain largely dependent on the old articles of Ludovic Mazéret published from 1907 to 1918. A review of these architectural constructions in the bibliography reveals a less important corpus than in the neighbouring départements of south-western France. They include simple dolmens which can be assimilated with west Pyrenean dolmens, megalithic cists, menhirs and circles of standing stones. Moreover, the gathering of legends and folklore connected with these monuments provides valuable historiographic data on the megalithic phenomenon.
-
-
-
-
-
-