university of texas press heraldry for the dead memory identity and the engraved stone plaques of neolithic iberia sep 2008

[...]... between the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age of western Iberia themes Of all the objects that Late Neolithic Iberians created, the palm-sized engraved stone plaques are arguably the most distinctive and emblematic of the period Made of dark slate and schist and, less often, lighter-colored pink sandstone, they were engraved with geometric motifs and anthropomorphic or zoomorphic representations They... people of the past had their own pasts and their own stories about how they came to be, where they came from, and who they were related to Once I began to consider these dimensions of Neolithic lifeways, through the material qualities of the plaques, I could begin to ask new questions about the plaques and ultimately contemplate the possibility that they were memory aids, heraldry for the dead, and indeed... (nor are there any objects of east Mediterranean origin dating to this period in the Iberian Peninsula), the notion of a Mother Goddess has left a deep impression on the archaeological scholarship of the Iberian Peninsula In this chapter I begin by summarizing what we know about the Iberian Peninsula prior to the period of the engraved plaques as well as the social and political landscape of the peninsula... that such transformations occurredin the reuse of sacred objects, the circulation of the remains of the dead, the mimesis of ancestral landscapes, and the rituals that brought the living and dead together in liminal spaces that both ordered and transcended time, by mobilizing deep time (Boric 2003) Thus this book is also about memory and about how people construct their pasts While memory studies are... construction of OP2b, and stones were removed from the original passage grave, presumably to facilitate access Following this, another tholos (OP2d) was added to the other side of the passage of OP2, and a microtholos (OP2e) was annexed to OP2d The nal funerary deposit (OP2c) was annexed to the southern end of the complex The variability in tomb types; the size, location, and visibility of these tombs; the. .. Alentejofurther contributed to the emergence and materialization of social distinctions The social landscape of the Late Neolithic, such as it was, also would have instigated profound changes in mnemonic practices in order for groups to maintain and legitimate rights to these economic and symbolic resources far from their residential bases In fact, the material record of the Neolithic of the Iberian Peninsula... of plaques remain unpublished and uncatalogued Therefore the true number of plaques produced in prehistory is likely to have been in the thousands In order to consider the intensity of the production of engraved plaques, we also need to consider the duration of time during which they were made Unfortunately, however, archaeologists have had considerable diculty in determining their precise dating and. .. absolute dates for the plaques, we are also a long way from proposing a relative chronology We cannot say which plaques were the earliest and which were the latest Indeed, the large regional extent of the plaques distribution forces us to consider the possibility of multiple origins for the manufacture of the plaques, which may have been roughly contemporary Given the abundance of plaque types in the Alentejo... categories (Bucholtz and Hall 2005:585586) In other words, identity is not inherent in individuals or groups but is the product of engagement, interaction, and ultimately the social positioning of the self and other (ibid.:586) During the Late Neolithic of the Iberian Peninsula powerful economic and social forces structured the creation of new identities Human populations were increasingly tethered to a residential... intriguing spatial patterning of the plaques and a group of crania (Leisner et al 1969) The engraved plaques from this site (totaling 23) were found in the same chamber with a concentration of skulls (Figure 1.8) This sector of the cave (the western chamber or Westkammer) is also the oldest The central cluster of crania in the Westkammer, in the oldest and most inaccessible part of the tomb, strongly suggests . transformations occurred—in the reuse of sacred objects, the circulation of the remains of the dead, the mimesis of ancestral landscapes, and the rituals that brought the living and dead together. (Permanence of Paper). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lillios, Katina T., 1960– Heraldry for the dead : memory, identity, and the engraved stone plaques of neolithic Iberia /. heraldry for the dead T4718.indb iT4718.indb i 6/5/08 8:35:25 AM6/5/08 8:35:25 AM THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK heraldry for the dead Memory, Identity, and the Engraved Stone Plaques of