RT Book, Section
T1 The origins of social inequality in prehistoric Europe: rituals and monuments to control wealth in Bronze Age of La Mancha
A1 Mejías Moreno, Miguel
A1 López Saez, José Antonio
A1 Esteban, César
A1 Benítez de Lugo Enrich, Luis
A2 Díaz del Río, Pedro
A2 Lillios, Katina
A2 Sastre, Inés
AB The studies of Professor A. Gilman and his team, carried out since the eighties on the settlement of eastern La Mancha, have served  to interpret the landscape and society of this geographical area during recent prehistory. His work has allowed us to advance knowledge about the role that the control of territory, water and capital played throughout the process of the emergence of social inequality in prehistoric Europe.With this work as a foundation, recent contributions from the fields of paleohydrogeology, paleoecology and archaeoastronomy provide insights into the solutions that Chalcolithic communities adopted with the arrival of the environmental crisis caused by the 4.2 ka cal BP climate event. As a means of legitimizing, controlling, and protecting their access to these wells, they monumentalized the landscape and created a solar cult linked to ancestral rites. Complex ceremonial centers with burial mounds and sun-oriented corridors were built on strategic locations and were used for at least a millennium, as in the case of Castillejo del Bonete (Terrinches, Ciudad Real).This work presents the current state of knowledge about the Bronze Age of La Mancha, an exceptional culture that Professor A. Gilman helped to define.
PB Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
SN 978-84-00-09264-1
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/177.1
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/177.1
LA eng
DS Docta Complutense
RD 30 jun 2025