RT Journal Article
T1 Seafaring megaliths: A geoarchaeological approach to the Matarrubilla giant stone basin at Valencina (Spain)
A1 Cáceres Puro, Luis Miguel
A1 Donaire Romero, Teodosio
A1 Lozano Rodríguez, José Antonio
A1 Díaz Guardamino, Marta
A1 Martínez Sevilla, Francisco
A1 Medialdea, Alicia
A1 Del Val, Mirel
A1 Alcaína Mateos, Jonàs
A1 Rodríguez Vidal, Joaquín
A1 Muñiz Guinea, Fernando
A1 Vargas Jiménez, Juan Manuel
A1 Rogerio Candelera, Miguel Ángel
A1 García Sanjuan, Leonardo
AB A broad multidisciplinary approach is deployed to study an exceptional megalithic feature: the stone basin that presides over the chamber of the Matarrubilla tholos, part of the Valencina Copper Age mega-site (Sevilla, Spain). The study, including geoarchaeological characterisation and sourcing of the stone, traceological analysis of its surfaces based on photogrammetry and morphometrics, digital image analysis as well as OSL dating, leads to a number of substantial findings of great relevance to understand the significance of this stone basin, the only of its kind documented to this date in the Iberian Peninsula, with parallels only in Ireland and Malta. Among the most relevant conclusions, it is worth noting the fact that the gypsiferous cataclasite block the basin was made of was brought from the other side of the marine bay that five thousand years ago extended across the south-east ofValencina, this is the first evidence of waterborne transport of a megalithic stone in the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, the basin appears to have been put where it stands today sometime in the first half of the 4th millennium BC, long before any tholoi were built at Valencina, which suggest a prior history of still poorly documented monumentality at this mega-site.
PB Elsevier
YR 2025
FD 2025-05
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/25608
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/25608
LA eng
NO Cáceres Puro, L. M., Donaire Romero, T., Lozano Rodríguez, J. A., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Martínez-Sevilla, F., Medialdea, A., Val, M. del, Alcaina-Mateos, J., Rodríguez-Vidal, J., Muñiz Guinea, F., Vargas Jiménez, J. M., Rogerio-Candelera, M. Á., & García Sanjuán, L. (2025). Seafaring megaliths: A geoarchaeological approach to the Matarrubilla giant stone basin at Valencina (Spain). Journal of Archaeological Science, 180, 106263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2025.106263
NO This study was financed by the Andalusian Government and University of Huelva (Group RNM-293). We would like to thank the Atlas research group for their support and the Valencina de la Concepción Town Council for the facilities provided to the research. This work is a contribution to the Research Center in Historical, Cultural and Natural Heritage (CIPHCN) of the University of Huelva. Marta Díaz-Guardamino acknowledges funding for this research from the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (M21-0018)
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026