History

Las dictaduras latinoamericanas impusieron una censura que fue más allá de los hábitos y costumbres sociales: trataron de eliminar de raíz las propuestas alternativas del imaginario social persiguiendo todas las expresiones contrarias al régimen. En este artículo presentaremos la
expresión musical como una forma contracultural otorgando una concepción terminológica a los elementos principales, así como desarrollar la música uruguaya como un elemento combativo que
logró sortear la censura y anidar en cada hogar desarrollando un ideal reivindicativo.

Since the 1990s, the Research Group “Arqueoloxía e Ecoloxía do Fenómeno Megalítico Galego” at the University of Santiago de Compostela, has been developing intensive fieldwork prospection that has generated a large database, containing about 4000 monuments. Therefore, we now are in a position to establish the basis of a methodology  for studying the Galician Megalithic complex based on different statistical analysis, using computer tools like the Geographical Information Systems (with LiDAR extension), all from a holistic perspective.
The main purpose, hence, will be to provide us with a whole range of formal tools that will help us to explore the new realities of the Megalithic phenomenon. In this sense, on the database, that nowadays has more of four thousand monuments, we are to test mathematical and statistical analysis. The guideline established by our Research Group will be followed when the first assessments of the work developed in the Megalithic phenomenon of Lugo province (1997) we are studied, then, also, later in the Galician-Portuguese Miño region (Eguileta, 1994; Sousa, 2012; Carrero Pazos, 2012), as well as the more intensive works developed in other country areas. Accordingly, we are to try to characterize and contextualize both dolmenic monuments and burial mounds, all according to their relation with the environment. We will also go deeper into the patterns of location and settlement in order to indicate similarities and differences in the main groups of monuments, implementing the predictive model. Furthermore, we are to study the volumes of these monuments.
Nowadays, it can be highlighted that one of the main study tools for the Megalithic complex are the Geographical Information Systems, to such an extent that they have been constituted as a separate, specialized line of research. This technology is now widely used for the wide array of possibilities it gives, not only analytical but also those dealing with time saving.
In addition, through the use of LiDAR, which is now publicly available to all the regions of Galicia (although the data are not rated and they appear in ellipsoidal heights), we can implement our archaeological prospection, something that in fact is already being done by checking the database. The rugged Galician terrain, characterized by intense vegetation, often makes intensive exploration impossible. The development of this applied technology seems to fill the gap in the survey prospection, although at the moment it is at an early stage.

To sum up, we can establish the basis, together with using the traditional methodology based on archaeological prospection, as a general outline of the possibilities that the mathematical-statistical analysis and new technologies (SIG and LiDAR) could provide in the research of the Galician Megalithic phenomenon.

The Miño River, main defining element of the current political border between northern Portugal and Galicia, is here taken from an integrative perspective, as a communication element between landscapes and communities in what is here identified as the Galician-Portuguese region of Miño. This region shows a clear geographical unity. The Galaico-Duriense massif extends to Portugal the natural elevations of Galicia and the alignment of the large river valleys straightens that unity.
Archaeologically, a cultural identity in the North western region of Iberia has been suggested by authors such as López Cuevillas . However, several factors associated with different traditions and methodologies of archaeological work hampered, until recently, the development of comprehensive studies of this reality.
The field work carried out in this area, since 2011, resulted in a database with more than 400 monuments, providing a solid base on which to perform statistical analysis, trying to achieve global interpretations.
An integrated methodology, applied to one of the most interesting Megalithic areas of the Northwest, provides excellent conditions for undertaking a comprehensive project, based on the work started on the beginning of the XX century that was also the subject of the PhD thesis of Eguileta Franco (1994). Despite its small size this area presents more than two hundred dolmen, of monumental architecture. The relationship between Megalithic culture and topography is evident, with two concentrations, one on the Salas valley and other in the Serra do Leboreiro mountain.
Finally some conservation work (eg: displacement of Casiña da Moura) and pedagogic activities (creation of a megalithic circuit on the Salas Valley) have already been carried out.
The proposed research methodology will follow, both, the propositions of previous work in Galicia and northern Portugal (Eguileta Franco, 1994, 2003; Rodríguez Casal, et al., 1997; Sousa, 2012; Carrero Pazos, 2012) and the models carried out in other peninsular areas.
Different variables will be mathematically processed to study the regularities regarding types, resources, settlement patterns, etc... GIS technology will be applied to study patterns such as mobility and visibility/intervisibility between monuments and territory.
Thus enabling the study of functional significance of megalithic monuments, beyond the strictly funerary aspect. The results allow the establishment of general trends and eventually regional variants, also revealing the criteria behind the construction of each type of mound in a specific place or in association with a particular natural element.
Presented from a holistic perspective, this work will undoubtedly provide, in a comprehensive way, relevant theoretical and operational data for the study of the megalithic phenomenon in the North western region of Iberia. This research model can, then, be applied to other megalithic regions.

Se presenta una aproximación a la geografía del Megalitismo gallego, definiendo áreas de afinidad geomorfológica con presencia común de monumentos megalíticos, intentando delimitar las principales zonas de distribución de los yacimientos megalíticos. La metodología se centra en el análisis cartográfico, a partir de los Sistemas de Información Geográfica, que nos permiten acercarnos a esta realidad tanto desde una perspectiva geográfica general como particular. Finalmente, se propone el mapa más actualizado del fenó-meno megalítico de Galicia.

[ENG] In this paper we present a first approach to the geography of the megalithic Galician phenomena. It is based in the definition of areas with geomorphological affinity with common presence of megalithic mon-uments. Our aim is to delimit the distribution of the main areas of megalithic sites. The methodology focus in cartographic analysis, using the Geographic Information Systems, which allow us to study this archaeological reality from a local and general geographic approach. Finally, it is proposed the most updated map of the Megalithic phenomenon in Galicia.