The Rebolledo mound (Sedano, Burgos): An indirect testimony of the complexity of the megalithic burial rites.
Abstract
El Rebolledo is an atypical late Neolithic funerary monument in the context of Las Loras area. It was excavated in 1992 and it was found that, instead of a canonical megalithic grave, this site was a mound of limestone blocks covering an ossuary that was disposed over a previous domestic level. The stratigraphic, anthropologic and archaeometric analysis allows to reconstruct the following chain of events: i) a set of selected human bones (mainly crania and long bones fragments already discarnated) were exposed to a 700 ºC fire in El Rebolledo; ii) some grave goods such as microliths, blades, axeheads and ornaments were added; and iii) all the materials were covered with a tumulus of limestone blocks. Radiocarbon dates of El Rebolledo fits with an early phase of the megalithic phenomenon, contemporary with other monuments from this area. This data leads to the hypothesis that El Rebolledo shows an event of traffic, manipulation and monumentalization of ancestors’ relics.
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