María José Armenteros-Lojo

The great megalithic sites reveal an extended use of their monuments. In Late Prehistory, in Protohistory, and even in historical times, dolmens remained visible references on the landscape and were central for navigating it. The megaliths of Menga, Viera, and Romeral provide quality data to confirm their continued relevance. Our aim here is to understand whether menhirs also played that role, using the area of Tierras de Antequera, which is connected to the sea, as a case study. With that goal in mind, a research project has been initiated through intensive archaeological field surveying, combined with the collection of testimonies from oral tradition and other archaeological tools such as GIS, geophysical prospection, photogrammetry and RTI, for the detection of engravings and paintings on some of the located landmarks. We present in this paper the first geological analyses in the megalithic territory of Antequera to determine the raw material of the menhirs that are studied and the geological outcrops from which they come.

Summary: Archaeological sites characterized by significant concentrations of pits (‘pit sites’) were widespread in prehistoric Europe. In southern Iberia, many pit sites date back to the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (fourth‐third millennia BCE), and often display massive numbers of pits. Deciphering the social, economic, and symbolic significance of such sites, composed of hundreds or even thousands of pits, holds deep historical implications. What do these pits mean, and how were they used? If they functioned as grain storage pits, as many believe, did they represent a substantial economic surplus? Unfortunately, many of these sites have been inadequately published and remain poorly known north of the Pyrenees. This paper aims to contribute to the broader understanding of prehistoric pit sites in Europe by providing an overview of southern Iberian pit sites, and of the debates that have developed around their interpretation.