Rendering death

Ana Rosa Cruz, Primitiva Bueno Ramírez, João Carlos Caninas, Carlos Batata

This book offers a perspective on death and memory in recent Prehistory on the western Iberian Peninsula (Portugal, Spanish Extremadura and Andalusia). Within this territory the contributors to this volume record the variability of architectonic forms indicative of lengthy period changes in funerary contexts and transformations in the ideological-symbolic substrate of pre-writing communities. The Portuguese karstic region explored in this study lacks megalithic monuments despite the abundant raw material. The contributors attempt to answer questions such as whether this signifies a break with our understanding of ‘Megalithism’ as a result of identity ideologies. Other regions exhibit an expansion of Megalithism, often with exuberant forms, reflecting territorial expansion, while in others we encounter cists, pits and tumuli – all indicators of a new funerary order. The examples...