Los monumentos megalíticos de Antequera (Málaga)una aproximación biográfica

Abstract

The main aim of this Doctoral Thesis is to approach the Antequera megalithic site from a biographical perspective, combining two elements of analysis: the material transformations of the monuments, visible in the archaeological record; and the modifications of the cultural and social practices that were created around them, considering that the former are material evidence of the latter. In addition, this study contemplates the research of these monuments in time and space, including their diachronic analysis from the Neolithic to the present day, and contextualising this development in the territory of Antequera Depression. The dolmens of Menga and Viera and the tholos of El Romeral form a cohesive complex, with intertwined biographies that can be analysed together. Our biographical approach is divided into 12 stages, beginning with Stage 0, prior to the construction of Menga, the oldest of the three, and ending with Stage 11, which corresponds to the 20th and 21st centuries AD. We have identified a Stage prior to the erection of any type of monumental architecture (Stage 0) within the Neolithic. This stage is characterised by a Neolithic occupation of unspecified character in the hill where Menga would later be built, an occupation also identified in the elevations surrounding the Antequera floodplain. After this, a first stage is identified in the first half of the 4th millennium BC, in which the construction of a first monumental structure composed of vertical elements (standing stones) was probably carried out on the site where Menga currently stands. Then, from the middle of the 4th millennium BC to the end of the 3rd millennium BC, the second, third and fourth stages unfolded, Menga and Viera were erected on the site of the first monument and later so was the tholos of El Romeral at a location distant 1,5 km from them. At this time, these monuments were used as prominent places for the celebration of social and ritual practices. The fifth stage, corresponding to the use of these monuments in the Bronze Age, has been better documented in the Viera dolmen; while the sixth stage, corresponding to the Iron Age, although scarcely represented, can be traced in Menga and Viera, especially on the northern slope of the hill on which they both stand. In Antiquity (Stage 7), two episodes of use of the Menga and Viera site are documented: one between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD and the other between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. During the first episode (2nd-4th centuries AD), the mounds of Menga and Viera and their surroundings (as, perhaps, their interior) were used for funerary purposes, and they were probably considered to be of a sacred nature. Possibly, the three megalithic monuments remained accessible and in a good state of preservation until the 5th-7th centuries AD, when the perception of the monuments seems to have changed. At this time, the architecture seems to have undertaken damage (especially in Viera) due to the quarrying of stone blocks. Subsequently, and perhaps as a consequence of these activities, the access to the interior of these monuments might have been blocked and only Menga remained accessible. In the Middle Age (Stage 8), the Menga must have held special significance, as suggested by three burials, two of them identified in the atrium, and one (in the form of commingled bone remains) documented on the northern slope of the hill. At that time, the entrance to the interior of Menga would have been open, being the only one of the three monuments whose inner space would be accessible. During the Late Middle Ages, the use of Menga is attested by the ceramic fragments documented in the excavations carried out of 2005 and 2005-2006. The first written references to Menga and Viera date from the 16th and 17th centuries (Stage 9) when these monuments are referred to as “caves” located on the outskirts of the city of Antequera These first accounts suggest that the interior of Menga continued to be accessible, while references to Viera were more ambiguous. The main event of Stage 10, which includes the 18th and 19th centuries, was the excavation carried out in Menga by the architect Rafael Mitjana y Ardison between 1842 and 1847. As a result of the brief publication derived from it, Memoria sobre el Templo Druida hallado en las cercanías de la Ciudad de Antequera [Report on the Druid Temple discovered in the vicinity of the town of Antequera], Menga began to gain great international fame, receiving visits from national and international scholars and being mentioned in a great deal of scholarly work throughout the second half of the 19th century. The last stage of the biography of the Antequera megalithic site (Stage 11), corresponding to the 20th and 21st centuries, begins with the first excavations carried out at Viera (1903) and El Romeral (1904) by the Viera Fuentes brothers. After them, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, there was a gradual increase in the number of investigations and archaeological, restoration and “urbanisation” work in the megaliths and their immediate surroundings. In the first third of the 20th century (1905-1934), they became outstanding constructions that attracted national and international interest. In the central years of the 20th century (1940-1984), substantial work aimed at making the monuments accessible by the general public was undertaken. Since 1985, when the Andalusian Government took over the management of the Historical Heritage of the region, further work was carried out in Menga and Viera, including excavations, restoration and “urbanisation” work aimed at making the site more easily accesible for tourism. This stage ends with what perhaps is the last major milestone in the biography of these monuments in modern times: their inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List on 15 July 2016.