Recintos de Fosos. Genealogía y significado de una tradición en la Prehistoria del suroeste de la Península Ibérica (IV-III milenios AC)

In this work we expose the existence of a long lasting tradition of ditched enclosures in Southwestern Iberia during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Actually, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, countless ditched enclosures (recintos de fosos) were built. Despite their abundance and the huge size of some of them -over 100 ha in certain cases-, references to Iberian recintos de fosos have been scarce, partial or inaccurate in international meetings and collective works on the matter. This state of affairs can be explained in part by the traditional tendency of both Portuguese and Spanish archaeologists to isolate themselves from the surrounding European academia. Methods and techniques that had been proved to be successful in other parts of Europe were not applied until recently; e.g. aerial photographs, geophysical surveys, extensive excavations, etc. One of the ideas we defend is that Iberian recintos de fosos must be understood in an European context, especially Neolithic causewayed enclosures. It all contrasts with traditional approaches to the problem in Iberian Archaeology, but we think is very state-of-the-art when considered in a broader academic environment. We also found that formation processes of the archaeological record were a crucial aspect of the problem which had gone partly unnoticed