From the Mountain and the Sea: Provenance of the Stones of the Prehistoric La Pastora Tholos (Valencina de la Concepción, Seville, Spain)

Abstract

La Pastora tholos is the most complete and characteristic megalithic monument of the Valencina de la Concepción-Castilleja de Guzmán mega-site. This monument was built using three types of rock, each with different functions and coming from three different places: Paleozoic quartzarenite, granite, and Tertiary calcareous sandstone. A detailed petrological study of the rocks of the tholos and outcrops of similar rocks in the surroundings has been carried out, locating the possible source areas in areas at least 30 km to the N of the monument for the quartzarenite, 15 km for the granite, and 15 km to the S for the sandstone. Therefore, the community that built the monument has a high knowledge of the nature by, which allows them to locate these resources, and a sufficient social organization to exploit them and move them to the mega-site. In this sense, the layout of the outcrops suggests the possible use of boats or rafts to facilitate their displacement, or at least part of their movement.