Large megalithic complex catalogued in the region of Alcántara, Spain

TANN

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A recent work of cataloging, turns this municipality next to the River Tagus, very close to the Spanish border with Portugal, as the place with the largest quantity of dolmens in all of Extremadura.The research results were presented during the "VI Meeting of Alcántara Roman Bridge, World Heritage", held in Alcántara on Saturday, March 18.Under the title "Past, present and future of the Alcántara Megalithic Complex", the presentation by the engineer Antonio Carmona Agúndez, served to demostrate the large set of megalithic monuments with which the municipality of Alcántara counts and whose inventory has increased with a high number of new dolmens, discovered after the cataloging project that it has been able to carry out during the last years.The conference also reviewed the different archaeological works that have been carried out in the area, as well as the main conservation problems that usually present this type of archaeological heritage.After this research, Alcántara, passes from the 33 dolmens that were known today to 73 dolmens, which officially make it the largest set of dolmens in Extremadura.The project has had a careful analysis of the territory in combination with the use of some technologies such as airborne LiDAR, which have been applied in recent years in analyzing the territory, both in studies applied to the megalithic phenomenon and others Historical periods.Paradoxically, it was an area that had been considered historically marginal in prehistory, but the archaeological work of the Primitiva Bueno and Rodrigo de Balbín (University of Alcalá de Henares) at the end of the 90s proved the opposite: Alcántara and the whole area that we know today to be encompassed by the Tajo International Natural Park (where other significant sets of these monumental prehistoric burials already exist), was one of the most important areas during the recent prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula and also of Europe."The large number of dolmens now incorporated, in addition to the well-known "Menhir del Cabezo", 4'65 meters high, one of the largest menhirs in Spain, serves to reinforce this proposal even more" says Antonio Carmona, author of this research project."All this great set of dolmens will allow in the future that teams of archaeologists can continue to work to obtain more information about the people who built these monuments 5000 years ago," he added.The study has also served to inventory new dolmens in other municipalities near the study area.