García Rivero Daniel, O'Brien Michael J
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Feb 18;9(2):e88296. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088296. eCollection 2014.
Prehistoric material culture proposed to be symbolic in nature has been the object of considerable archaeological work from diverse theoretical perspectives, yet rarely are methodological tools used to test the interpretations. The lack of testing is often justified by invoking the opinion that the slippery nature of past human symbolism cannot easily be tackled by the scientific method. One such case, from the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, involves engraved stone plaques from megalithic funerary monuments dating ca. 3,500-2,750 B.C. (calibrated age). One widely accepted proposal is that the plaques are ancient mnemonic devices that record genealogies. The analysis reported here demonstrates that this is not the case, even when the most supportive data and techniques are used. Rather, we suspect there was a common ideological background to the use of plaques that overlay the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, with little or no geographic patterning. This would entail a cultural system in which plaque design was based on a fundamental core idea, with a number of mutable and variable elements surrounding it.
从各种理论角度来看，史前物质文化被认为具有象征意义，一直是大量考古工作的研究对象，但很少有方法工具用于检验这些解读。缺乏检验往往以这样一种观点为理由，即过去人类象征意义的模糊性难以用科学方法解决。来自伊比利亚半岛西南部的一个案例涉及约公元前3500年至2750年（校正年代）巨石墓葬纪念碑上的刻纹石板。一个被广泛接受的观点是，这些石板是记录族谱的古代记忆工具。此处报告的分析表明并非如此，即使使用了最有利的数据和技术。相反，我们怀疑在伊比利亚半岛西南部使用这些石板存在一个共同的思想背景，几乎没有或没有地理模式。这将意味着一个文化系统，其中石板设计基于一个基本核心思想，周围有一些可变和易变的元素。
