The Islamic Lives of Iberian Megaliths

Authors

  • Katina T Lillios University of Iowa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.23647

Keywords:

Al-Andalus, megaliths, memory, nationalism

Abstract

Modernist archaeology involves the dating and ordering of events, construction phases, objects, people, or processes in well-bounded and discrete sequences. The notion that objects or monuments date to one time or one cultural phase, however, is problematic, particularly in the case of large stone monuments, such as megaliths, whose construction and use are generally dated to the Neolithic, between 6000 and 2500 BCE. This paper examines the methodological challenges of such work and surveys what the archaeological record reveals about the nature of Andalusi engagements with megaliths.

Author Biography

  • Katina T Lillios, University of Iowa

    Katina Lillios is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa. Her interests center on the ways that people use material culture, monuments, and the remains of the dead to shape their lives, identities, and memory, and her fieldwork has focused on the ancient peoples of the Iberian Peninsula. She is the author or editor of numerous books, including The Archaeology of the Iberian Peninsula: From the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Heraldry for the Dead: Memory, Identity, and the Engraved Stone Plaques of Neolithic Iberia (University of Texas Press, 2008).

References

Ahmed, S. 2015 What is Islam? The Importance of Being ‘Islamic’. Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvc77krt

Aranda Jiménez, G., A. Lozano Medina, M. Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, M. Sánchez Romero and J. Escudero Carrillo. 2018 “Cultural continuity and social resistance: the chronology of megalithic funerary practices in southern Iberia.” European Journal of Archaeology 21(2): 192–216. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2017.42

Boaventura, R., M. T. Ferreira and A. M. Silva. 2014 “Perscrutando espolios antigos - 2. Um caso de reutilizacao funeraria medieval na anta de Sao Gens 1 (Nisa, Norte alentejano).” Al-Madan online 19(1): 60–76.

Brazuna, S and R. Godinho. 2014 “Xancra II (Cuba, Beja): Resultados preliminares da necrópole islâmica.” In 4.º Colóquio de Arqueologia do Alqueva. O Plano de Rega (2002-2010). Memórias d’Odiana 2.ª Série, ed. A.C. Silva, F.T. Regala and M. Martinho, pp. 219-224. Evora: EDIA - Empresa de desenvolvimento e infra-estruturas do Alqueva, and DRCALEN - Direcção Regional de Cultura do Alentejo.

Calvo Capilla, S. 2014 “The reuse of Classical antiquity in the Palace of Madinat al-Zahra' and its role in the construction of caliphal legitimacy.” Muqarnas Online 31(1): 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1163/22118993-00311P02

Carvajal López, J. C. 2014 “The archaeology of al-Andalus. Past, present and future.” Medieval Archaeology 58(1): 318–339. https://doi.org/10.1179/0076609714Z.00000000041

Catalán, D. and M. S. De Andrés. 1975 Cronica del Moro Rasis: version del ajbar mulutz al-andalus de ahmad ibn muhammad ibn musa al-razi 889-955; romanzada para el rey don dionis de portugal hacia 1300 por mahomad, alrife, y gil perez, clerigo de don perianes porcel. Madrid: Seminario Menéndez Pidal and Gredos.

Chávet Lozoya, M., R. Sánchez Gallego and J. Padial Pérez. 2006 “Ensayo de rituales de enterramiento islámicos en al-Andalus.” Anales de prehistoria y arqueología 22: 153–164.

Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, M. and L. García Sanjuán. 2012 “Las inhumaciones medievales del atrio del dolmen de Menga (Antequera, Málaga): estudio antropológico y cronología absoluta.” Menga: Revista de Prehistoria de Andalucía 3: 237–249.

Eisenberg, D. 1992 “Cisneros y la quema de los manuscritos granadinos.” Journal of Hispanic Philology 16: 107–124.

Elices Ocón, J. 2021 “Discourses of antiquity in early medieval Iberia.” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 13(1): 28–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/17546559.2020.1849767

Ennahid, S. and E. Ross. 2017 “Adding a layer. Functioning Muslim shrines at archaeological sites in northwestern Morocco.” In: Perspektiven der Spolienforschung 2. Zentren und Konjunkturen der SpoliierungI, edited by S. Altekamp, C. Marcks-Jacobs and P. Seiler, 95–132. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World. Berlin: Topoi.

Estácio da Veiga, S.P.M. 1887 Antiguidades monumentaes do Algarve: tempos prehistoricos. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional.

Fernández Rodríguez, L. E., M. Romero Pérez and R. Ruiz de la Linde. 2006 “Resultados preliminares del control arqueológico de los trabajos de consolidación del sepulcro megalítico de Viera, Antequera.” Anuario Arqueológico de Andalucía 2003, Tomo III. Actividades de Urgencia, 89–99. Seville: Junta de Andalucía.

García Sanjuán, L. 2008 “Muerte, tiempo, memoria. Los megalitos como memoriales culturales.” PH Boletín del Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico 67: 34–45. https://doi.org/10.33349/2008.67.2603

García Sanjuán, L and M. Díaz-Guardamino Uribe. 2015 “The outstanding biographies of prehistoric monuments in Iron Age, Roman and Medieval Spain.” In The Lives of Prehistoric Monuments in Iron Age, Roman and Medieval Europe, edited by M. Díaz-Guardamino Uribe, L. García Sanjuán and D. Wheatley, 183–204. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198724605.001.0001

González-Ruibal, A. 2016 “Archaeology and the time of modernity.” Historical Archaeology 50(3): 144–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03377339

Gutierrez Lopez, J. M. 2001 “Intervencion arqueologica de apoyo a la restauracion y puesta en valor del Dolmen de Alberite.” Anuario Arqueologico de Andalucia 1997(3): 37–47.

Gutierrez Lopez, J. M., V. Martínez Enamorado and M. C. Reinoso del Río. 2015 “Alberite, un ejemplo del poblamiento rural andalusí en el Campo de Matrera.” In A los pies de Matrera (Villamartín, Cádiz): Un estudio arqueológico del oriente de Sidûna, edited by J.M. Gutierrez Lopez and V. Martínez Enamorado, 233–266. Alcalá del Valle: La Serranía.

Halverson, J. R., H. L. Goodall and S. R. Corman. 2011 Master Narratives of Islamist Extremism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-11723-5

Hamilakis, Y. 2007 The Nation and its Ruins: Antiquity, Archaeology, and National Imagination in Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Holtorf, C. 1998 “The life-histories of megaliths in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany).” World Archaeology 30(1): 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1998.9980395

“Excavations at Anta 1 da Herdade da Igreja (Torre de Coelheiros, Evora, Alentejo, Portugal). Preliminary report about the second season of excavations (2002).” Unpublished manuscript.

Huici Miranda, A. and Ibn 'Idhari al-Marrakushi. 1953 Colección de crónicas árabes de la Reconquista, vol. II: Al-bayan al-mughrib fi ijtisar ajbar muluk al-Andalus wa al-maghrib. Tetuán: Editora Marroquí.

Colección de crónicas árabes de la Reconquista, vol. III: Al-bayan al-mughrib fi ijtisar ajbar muluk al-Andalus wa al-maghrib. Tetuán: Editora Marroquí.

al-Idrisi. 1999 [Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq. French] La premiere geographie de l’occident. Trans. P Jaubert. Paris: Flammarion.

Insoll, T. 1999 The Archaeology of Islam. London: Blackwell.

James, D. 2012 A History of Early al-Andalus: The Akhbar majmu'a. A Study of the Unique Arabic Manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, with a Translation, Notes and Comments. London: Routledge.

Kennedy, H. 2014 Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315836287

Ibn Khaldun. 2015 The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History-Abridged Edition (Vol. 13) [abridged and edited by N.J. Dawood]. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400866090

Leisner, G. and V. Leisner. 1951 Antas do Concelho de Reguengos de Monsaraz. Lisbon: Uniarch.

Lillios, K. T. 1999 “Objects of memory: The ethnography and archaeology of heirlooms.” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 6(3): 235–262. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021999319447

“Mobility and alterity in Iberian late prehistoric archaeology: Current research on the Neolithic–Early Bronze Age (6000–1500 BCE).” Annual Review of Anthropology 49: 49–65. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-010220-042345

Lorenzo Jiménez, J. 2020 “The conquerers and the formation of al-Andalus.” In The Routledge Handbook of Muslim Iberia, edited by M. Fierro, 18–36. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315625959-2

Lorrio, A. J. and I. Montero Ruiz. 2004 “Reutilización de sepulcros colectivos en el Sureste de la Península Ibérica: la colección Siret.” Trabajos de Prehistoria 61(1): 99–116.

Martinez-Gros, G. 1992 L’ideologie omeyyade. La construction de la legitimite du Califat de Cordoue (Xe–XIe siecles). Madrid: Casa de Velazquez.

Milwright, M. 2010 An Introduction to Islamic Archaeology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748629954

Misión Rescate. 1979 “Grupo de Rescate 680, de Montefrío, Granada.” Misión Rescate: Campaña XII, 1977–1978, 25–26. Madrid: Promoción de Programas de RNE.

Mulder, S. 2017 “Imagining localities of antiquity in Islamic societies.” International Journal of Islamic Architecture 6(2): 229–254. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijia.6.2.229_2

“Expanding the ‘Islamic’ in Islamic heritage.” Archaeological Dialogues 28(2): 125–127. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1380203821000179

Nagel, A. and C. Wood. 2010 Anachronic Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1453n0p

Olsen, B. 2010 In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.

Pérez-Juez, A., A. J. Smith and M. Planas. 2021 “La ocupación andalusí del yacimiento talayótico Torre d’en Galmés (Alaior, Menorca).” Pyrenae 52(1): 227–252.

Petersen, A. 2013 “The archaeology of death and burial in the Islamic world.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial, edited by S. Tarlow and L. Nilsson-Stutz, 241–258. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199569069.013.0014

Rico, T. n.d. “Islamic coin found in Évora, Portugal.” Unpublished manuscript.

Safran, J. M. 2014 “The politics of book burning in al-Andalus.” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 6(2): 148–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/17546559.2014.925134

Shalem, A. 2019 “Aesthetics of resistance: the “unbelievable” idol, its life, and its dual death.” In Transcultural Imaginations of the Sacred, edited by M. Kern and K. Krüger, 181–196. Leiden: Wilhelm Fink. https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846756300_012

Shaw, W. 2019 What is “Islamic” Art? Between Religion and Perception. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108622967

Sousa, A. C., F. Bragança, F. Torquato F and M. Kunst, eds. 2020 Georg e Vera Leisner e o estudo do Megalitismo no Ocidente da Península Ibérica. Contributos para a história da investigação arqueológica luso-alemã através do Arquivo Leisner (1909-1972). Lisboa: UNIARQ/IAA/DGPC.

Webb, P. 2020 “Cry me a Jahiliyya: Muslim reconstructions of pre-Islamic Arabian culture—a case study.” In Islam at 250: Studies in Memory of GHA Juynboll, edited by P. Sijpesteijn and C. Adang, 235–280. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004427952_013

Wilk, M. 2020 “Power, law, and ideology in Umayyad al-Andalus.” In The Umayyad World, edited by E. Marsham, 571–588. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315691411-32

Published

2022-09-12

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Lillios, K. T. (2022). The Islamic Lives of Iberian Megaliths. Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 9(1), 105-120. https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.23647