A03_05

Sampling ritual complexity: the case study of the megalithic Panoría site (Granada, Spain).

Milesi García L¹, Aranda Jiménez G¹, Díaz-Zorita Bonilla M², Sánchez Romero M¹, Vilchez Suárez M¹, Robles Carrasco S¹

¹Universidad De Granada, Granada, Spain, ²Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Late prehistoric south-eastern Iberia is considered a privileged setting for studying the development of important Megalithic sites as well as the emergence of complex societies during the Copper and Bronze Ages. Through several chronological projects and diverse sampling strategies, our research has increased the number of radiocarbon dates in more than 250, covering 12 sites from the coastline to the inland of the region.

We present here the analysis of one of them as it is an excellent case study to demonstrate how chronologically oriented fieldwork planning, remain recovery processes and anthropological study of potential radiocarbon dating samples have a critical effect on results and accurate chronologies, especially in contexts where depositions are highly commingled.

The megalithic cemetery of Panoría (Granada, Spain), with nine excavated tombs, counts on a well-known stratigraphy and seventy-three radiocarbon dates, also analysed within a Bayesian framework. Results allow us now to explore the tempo of ritual activities throughout time for each tomb. Also, they lead us to some refined chronological conclusions for the site where: 1) the second half of the 4th millennium BC was an intensive and brief period of funerary depositions in all tombs; 2) most of the dolmens were reused in the 25th and 21st centuries cal BC during even shorter periods; 3) the cemetery was still recognised as a ritual place and used in the Late Antiquity.