Del enterramiento colectivo a la tumba individualel sepulcro de La Sima en Miño de Medinaceli, Soria, España

  1. Manuel Á. Rojo Guerra
  2. Rafael Garrido Pena
  3. Guillermo Morán Dauchez
  4. Iñigo García-Martínez de Lagrán
  5. Michael Kunst
Journal:
BSAA Arqueología

ISSN: 1888-976X

Year of publication: 2005

Issue: 71

Pages: 11-42

Type: Article

More publications in: BSAA Arqueología

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of the transition from the collective burial rituals to the individual ones, in the Late Neolithic - Copper Age of the Iberian Meseta, in its Spanish and European theoretical debate framework, but especially studying the La Sima Burial Mound, Miño de Medina (Soria, Spain) excavation data, which presents an interesting funerary sequence, where this transition can be analyzed in detail. A social interpretation is proposed about the whole process, in which the economic development along the Neolithic produced increasing surpluses, that caused the emergence of social differences, that were initially integrated within the megalithic collective burial rituals, but finally ending in the emergence of political leaders during the Copper Age, which looked for legitimation reusing the previous communal Neolithic monuments, but with a clear intention of spatially segregating its presence.