Sacred Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Addressing the voluminous and multifarious expressions of architecture and spirituality is a daunting task. Consequently, three focused perspectives inform our discussion. The first con­ siders the "objecthood" of architecture-the functional, typological, and material ways that buildings express and facilitate spiritualiry. Second, the phenomenological dimension of spiritual settings is addressed, including bodily experiences and feelings produced by. interactions with buildings. Third, are considerations of the cultural and social aspects of architecture, visa -vis spiritualiry, and its ethical, communicative, and symbolic fi.111ctions. These three positions align with the fundamental ways human reality unfolds: first person, individual, internal, or subjective reality (I, me); second person, collective, dialogical, or intersubjective reality (you, we, us); and third-person, empirical, external, or objective reality (it). A number of impulses define contemporary spirituaL...

Nella seconda metà degli anni cinquanta, Gio Ponti riceve incarico di costruire un nuovo convento di clausura per le monache di Saint-Elie, francesi ma insediate poco fuori Sanremo da inizio Novecento. Il risultato è una delle architetture sacre più sofisticate del Novecento italiano.

Protecting our Cultural and Landscape heritage is an indispensable act: Cultural landscape is the result of anthropic actions and reflects our history, but also it is still alive and active. To live fully the landscape means first of all to recognize it in the many landscapes described by the European Landscape Convention of 2000. But landscape is also emotion; this is the magically hidden face of it: not just something material but a consequence of feelings, too. It is the result of that exact moment in which we focus on looking at it in a careful, not distracted manner. Is nature imposing rules on art or is art dictating them to nature? Perhaps there is no answer but one thing is certain: every act of watching, contemplating , acting in the landscape is the result of both conditions, at least in our western culture. Valorizing the concept of the journey into the landscape, the acting in the landscape , becomes a cultural necessity: to be between the places, to live the landscape contrary to an idea of journey made of destinations, goals, points. By acknowledging the cultural and social aspects of our multi-faceted Landscape heritage, we must understand how it is essential to re-educate people to observe historical, anthropological and naturalistic signs and to pay more attention to the environment.
in (assistant ed. Visentin, ed. by Niglio), Conoscere, conservare, valorizzare il patrimonio culturale religioso
Volume 3: Archivi, biblioteche, musei, ISBN 978-88-255-0631-0

In the Indian context, megaliths are essentially funerary and memorial structures erected by different cultures over vast swathes of time, from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, and in later periods too. Megaliths represent some of the oldest monuments in the subcontinent, of which only traces survive today. Though early scholarship attributed the phenomenon of the erection of megalithic structures over the entire range of its occurrence to a single "megalithic culture", today it is seen as a means of interring the dead, or erecting memorials, which was adopted by different cultures during different periods. The early part of the first millennium (and indeed a few centuries prior to that) is an important period in the history of monumental architecture in the subcontinent. During this time, the diminishing practice of erecting megaliths co-existed alongside the construction of some of the earliest religious monuments in stone which would, over a millennium and a half, evolve into the richly diverse traditions of monumental architecture which characterize the subcontinent. In this chapter, the possibility that megalithic construction had some influence on the architecture of later monuments, is explored. Instances where megalithic architecture seems to have inspired later monuments both in techniques as well as purpose is presented with the aid of examples from the Malaprabha Valley and the megalithic site at Mallasandram. Megaliths are not confined to the Indian subcontinent. Megalithic construction is encountered in various parts of the world during different periods. Though very early attempts to explain this by resorting to the "diffusion theories"-which involved the origin of megalithism in one part of the world and its subsequent dispersion, have been discredited, there has been no clear understanding of why cultures widely separated in space and time have been erecting monuments with nearly identical form. Is it possible that the adoption of this cultural trait by cultures in different geographical regions could be the result of the movement of ideas, or even people? In the conclusion, I will present a case for studying megaliths on a wider geographical canvas to better understand this phenomenon, especially considering the impact it seems to have had on later monument-building traditions in India.

Labyrinths, in their true, non-maze forms, have existed for thousands of years in numerous places around the world and there are similarities in the designs and uses of these figures despite geographic and cultural differences and the passage of time. They have served as spaces and symbols of contemplation, protection, and liminality. Global interest in labyrinths has ebbed and flowed, but there is something about these ancient symbols that keeps revitalizing that interest.

Prehistoric labyrinth markings and constructions were among the models for modern land artists to find inspiration and for some to emulate. Labyrinths have also been exhibited in galleries and created as non-land art, artistic installations. The research outlined in this paper focuses on labyrinth design and facilitation as a creative practice and attention to details that can help to ensure the greatest potential for a beneficial labyrinth experience. Information was gathered through the design and creation of ephemeral, temporary, and permanent labyrinth installations, internet and library research, informal interviews with owners, builders, and fellow labyrinth visitors, and visits to and documentation of over 50 permanent labyrinth sites in New England.

This paper touches on the physiological and psychological effects of meditative walking and provides an overview of both practical and esoteric elements that inform the labyrinth design process. In addition to new installations, some other outcomes that have resulted from this research include an interactive online map of over 200 labyrinths in New England and two simple formulas for accurately calculating the path length of both 3- and 7-circuit Classical labyrinths.

By c. 3000 BCE, in the late Neolithic, there had been a significant change in the way people materialized their cosmology across Scotland with the introduction of free-standing stones that continued to be erected almost until the end of the Bronze Age (Burl, 1993, 2000). Significantly, a series of astronomical patternings have been empirically verified for many Bronze Age monuments that were erected in the latter Bronze Age (Higginbottom et al., 2000, 2001, 2015). Further, two series of complex landscape patternings associated with the monuments and their orientations have been identified (Higginbottom et al., 2015; Higginbottom and Clay, in press). However, when and where these patterns were first associated with standing-stone structures was unknown. Through innovative statistics and software we show that visible astronomical-landscape variables found at BronzeAge sites on the
inner isles and mainland of western Scotland were actually first established in stone nearly two millennia earlier, likely with the erection of two of the earliest dated British 'great circles': Callanish on the Isle of Lewis and Stenness on the Isle of Orkney. In particular,we introduce our new statistical test that enables the quantitative determination of astronomical connections of stone circles. It is seen that whilst different standing-stone monuments were created over time (Burl, 1993, 2000; Higginbottom et al., 2015) with a mixture of landscape variables (Higginbottom et al., 2015), we nevertheless see that highly relevant landscape markers and other aspects remained unchanged through these years. This suggests that there is some continuity of this cosmological system through time, despite the various radical material and social changes that occurred from the late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age (Lynch, 2000; Mullin, 2001; Owoc, 2001).
https://www.altmetric.com/details/10434023#score
Co-author: Roger Clay

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

For copy of early draft paper see pre-print server:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.1338v2.pdf
LINK to pre-print article under file drop down menu in full document view (click on heading of this article if still on my main academia.edu page).

This early draft has half the explanatory text of the methodology of our JAS Reports paper. It is a condensed piece in a form similar to a Nature paper with supplementary text containing some explanations; please feel free to contact for more information.

ABSTRACT: This article utilizes comparative theology and hermeneutics to commence a faith promoting dialogue between Mormon, Jewish, and Catholic sacred architecture. Specifically, similarities between early Mormon temples, the ancient Jewish temples at Jerusalem, and early Christian and Catholic churches are compared in terms of architecture, spatial sequence, ritual, scriptural texts and interpretations, symbolism, and mythicohistorical episodes. The organization of the article relies on the spatial sequence of the Mormon temple ritual drama known as the “endowment.” Consequently, the theme or episode of cosmic history found in each "endowment" room is compared across religions and includes: 1) the cosmogonic primordial era; 2) the paradisal world of Eden; 3) the fallen disordered world; 4) the Messianic paradisiacal era; and 5) the perfected Heavenly realm. It is concluded that comparative theology and hermeneutics are viable methodologies in bringing to light significant theological parallels – especially when a typology of sacred space, such as the Mormon temple, is compared cross-culturally, non-historically, and inter-religiously to other cases of sacred architecture. Ultimately, the comparisons in this article demonstrate how God's "plan of salvation" is revealed in each religion's sacred spaces.

This M.A. dissertation (Cosmology, Myth & The Sacred, Canterbury Christ Church University, completed with Distinction, 2016) considers the human experience of the longing which comes from the soul, and its potency.
It finds that soul-longing has a unique function, entirely apart from everyday emotional longings for this or that. This function is to have experience of ourselves in relation to divine intelligence.
The dissertation takes three steps in its argument, as follows:

a) Soul-longing is an active impulse for known unity with divine intelligence and love.

b) When the soul longs in conscious choice to know, this deliberate impulse is met in return by that divine intelligence and love.

c) This meeting directly transforms the one who longs, by indelibly transcending previous knowing. The work is to continue in this knowing and not occlude it.

Therefore I conclude that soul-longing exists as an evolutionary force because it is transformative, by which I mean the virtue of transforming by transcending previous consciousness for good, whether individually or culturally. Asking what it means that mankind considers the cosmos, Joseph Milne clarifies the task of  philosophy: ‘Its task is to bring to light that which being shows out of itself, so that it may be recognized’ (2008, p.21) and I believe the same is true of the work of soul-longing.

Archaeological evidence from urban contexts in central and southern Greece (the Peloponnese, Attica, and Boeotia) and the Aegean Islands (the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, and Crete) makes clear that “public expressions of Christian identity” became manifested no earlier than the late fifth century. The Athenians, proud of their “city so full of idols” (Acts 17:16–17), were reluctant to convert to Christianity when, according to Acts 17:19–21, Paul preached on the Areopagus. The conversion of pagan temples into Christian churches and the complete Christianization of the city’s monuments and inhabitants encountered even more resistance. Similarly, at Corinth no identifiably Christian remains predate the fifth. Natural disasters (e.g., the earthquake of 525) may finally have persuaded the Corinthian majority to accept Christianity in the sixth century. The limited textual and extant epigraphic sources seem, nevertheless, to attest an early Christian community at Corinth around 50–51...

ABSTRACT: Throughout the global history of architecture, many cultures and religions have built sacred buildings and symbolic monuments under the rubric of ‘temples.’ In many instances, temple spaces have influenced the world’s cultural identity in the spheres of politics, sociology, and religion. The power of architecture lies in its ability to shape human understanding. In other words, human perceptions are often transformed to some degree when people interact with architectural configurations. Yet understanding the impact of the phenomenology of architecture on perception in such encounters is rather difficult to quantify because of the subjectivity of human experience.

In the following study, however, survey research is proving to be a viable method for: 1) testing the relevance and public reaction to conceptual models and theories of sacred architecture, 2) providing empirical and quantitative data documenting sacred architecture’s effect on human understanding and perception, and 3) producing an idealized morphology or set of design strategies that can guide architects and religious specialists in the planning phases of new projects. Overall, the study reports data gathered from over a hundred survey respondents from a convenience sampling (n=112) and serves as a preliminary attempt at bringing research into ‘sharper focus’ by surveying the public perception of sacred architecture.

KEYWORDS: perception, survey research, sacred space, design process, phenomenology

Full abstract can be found at the PDF link on pages 740-741

As recognised by Ruggles and Burl in 1995, investigations of British lsles sites: "Must be done in the absence of independent evidence from historical documents, literature (and) myth ... indeed of any direct evidence apart from the archaeological record itself. ... One thing we can do is to look for repeated trends within the archaeological record, using them to suggest general principles that influenced people's actions within certain areas at certain times.'" In independent recognition of this technique, the orientation of the free-standing stones of western Scotland were investigated using cluster analyses previously developed for astronomy and astrophysics. Conclusive evidence
was published by Gail Higginbottom and Roger Clay supporting
the deliberate orientation of megaliths in this area. In particular,
it was shown that there is a greater geographical extent and
strength of orientation preferences in this area than previously
reported in the literature. Whilst within each of the 4 regions of
Uist, lslay (with Jura), Mull (which includes North Argyll, Coll and
Tiree) and Argyll (which includes Lorn) the majority of the sites
face similar directions, further investigation has demonstrated
that there is a difference in directions between these regions.
This may support the existence of sub-cultural indication preferences.

The divine status of Moula Abi Abdillah Al Imam al-Husain (as) is beyond imagination due to our limitations of Ma’arif and strength of understanding. The Imam of Ahl al-Bayt (as) is an embodiment of “Al Mawjud al-Awwal” (the First Existent). Likewise, the blessings attached with the Imam also have a divine nature. Turbah – Khak’i Shifa is the gift of Moula al-Husain (as) to his Shias hence they consume it for Shifa from all diseases and even use it for Hifazat from the Afaat (tribulations) and fears of the Duniya and A’akhirah. It is Wajib upon all Mumineen to learn the Ad’ab (manners) to use this sacred gift. The following study opens new vistas of Ma’arif (sacred wisdom) to the seekers of Sacred Literature.

EL TOCAPU QUE NARRA EL VIAJE DEL SOL EN EL MES DE
AGOSTO: LA ARQUITECTURA INCA COMO “REPRESENTACIÓN”
CALENDÁRICA DEL ORDEN. UNA VISIÓN DESDE HUÁNUCO PAMPA. En: Sistemas de notación Inca: Quipu y Tocapu. Actas del Simposio Internacional Lima 15-17 de Enero de 2009. Carmen Arellano Hoffman editora. Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú. Qhapaq Ñan Perú sede nacional. Ministerio de Cultura. Lima.

The clearest manifestations of religiosity in nuragic age occur under several cultual complexes and considerable monumental structures largely related to rituals involving the use of water. Sacred springs and wells, buildings with a rectangular
or a circular plan can rise isolated but, more frequently, appear associated to compose articulated spaces of considerable complexity. Around the temples are agglomerations of huts—more or less developed—, probably largely used only in
connection with festivals and religious ceremonies. Also, we can observe the presence of various kinds of buildings which contributed, as well with original solutions, to compose the topography of the sanctuary.
The monumentality of the structures, the richness of the stone decorations and the presence of exclusive furniture for the temples, provide clues for the reconstruction of some peculiar characteristics of the ceremonies orchestrated as part of sacred spaces.

Este trabajo está enfocado en el estudio de la veintena de Ochpaniztli
y, en particular, en el análisis e interpretación de un rito agrícola
que tenía lugar en los espacios del Templo Mayor de la capital mexica.
Su protagonista era la personificación del maíz maduro, la diosa
Chicomecóatl. Con base en la importancia de la geografía sagrada
de los centros ceremoniales prehispánicos como teatro de reactualización de los mitos y de los ciclos de la naturaleza, este estudio pone el acento en el papel central del maíz como cereal sagrado en la cosmovisión prehispánica, así como en la dimensión religiosa, a través de una nueva lectura de la liturgia pública mexica. Asimismo, con base
en la narrativa mítica, el análisis también propone otorgar un nuevo
uso funcional a algunos de los espacios sagrados que componían el
Templo Mayor de México-Tenochtitlan.

This research examines 44 images of Minoan tree cult as depicted in sphragistic jewellery, portable objects and wall paintings from Late Bronze Age Crete, mainland Greece and the Cyclades. The study also compares the Aegean images with evidence for sacred trees in the Middle and Late Bronze Age Levant, Egypt and Cyprus. The purpose of this investigation is the production of new interpretations of Minoan images of tree cult. Each of the chapters of the book looks at both archaeological and iconographic evidence for tree cult. The Aegean material is, in addition, examined more deeply through the lenses of modified Lacanian psychoanalytic modelling, “new” animism, ethnographic analogy, and a Neo-Marxist hermeneutics of suspicion. It is determined that Minoan images of tree cult depict elite figures performing their intimate association with the numinous landscape through the communicative method of envisioned and enacted epiphanic ritual. The tree in such images is a physiomorphic representation of a goddess type known in the wider eastern Mediterranean associated with effective rulership and with the additional qualities of fertility, nurturance, protection, regeneration, order and stability. The representation of this deity by elite human females in ritual performance functioned to enhance their selfrepresentation as divinities and thus legitimise and concretise the position of elites within the hegemonic structure of Neopalatial Crete. These ideological visual messages were circulated to a wider audience through the reproduction and dispersal characteristic of the sphragistic process, resulting in Minoan elites literally stamping their authority on to the Cretan landscape and hence society. See: http://www.peeters-leuven.be/boekoverz.asp?nr=10733

Present research focuses on the identifiable features of the Pauline monastic space (Holy Cross, Holy Spirit, and St. Ladislaus Monasteries) in the medieval Pilis royal forest, which was part of the medieval medium regni, the heart of the Hungarian kingdom. The research of the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit always paid a special attention to a historical approach, partly archaeological and architectural as well, but other features, which were existing around a monastery, e.g. remains of fishponds, dikes, mills, roads, were only marginally mentioned. In the past few years the Pauline monastic space of the Zemplén and partly the Bakony region were recorded, which proves that these features are still recognizable in the landscape. The paper argues that in the Pilis royal forest, as a wooded area until the modern ages, the features of the Pauline monastic space were preserved, thus they are describable and have a special value by a systematic analysis and a complex approach (historical, archaeological, spatial) on digital platform, by using GIS software. The spatial dimensions (location, role, circumstances of daily life) of Pauline monasteries’, are also correlating with the large-scale dynamical tendencies in the Pilis. The thesis reveals some aspects around the foundation of the Paulines, the symbolical, political, and economic characteristics of their location, the correlations with the dynamic changes of the Pilis (regarding the most important royal and ecclesiastic centers of the Kingdom), and their crucial role in royal policy and representation. A main task was also to record the spatial features around the monasteries and evaluate the local economy by written sources.

In this chapter, I consider the significance of hermeneutics for architecture. I begin by locating some key concerns that a hermeneutics of buildings and other architectural works entails. As a heuristic context for discussing these concerns, I draw on comparative-religion scholar Lindsay Jones’ The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture, a two-volume work that is perhaps the most exhaustive recent effort to identify the diverse, multi-dimensioned ways in which an “architectural hermeneutics” might proceed (Jones 2000).
        I identify two major research dilemmas toward which Jones’ work points: first, the contentious question of whether buildings-in-themselves, as opposed to the personal, social, and cultural experiences and meanings of those buildings, can be examined hermeneutically; and, second, the difficult matter of interpretive trustworthiness. If, in other words, one assumes that buildings evoke divergent meanings for different experiencers and interpreters, how is he or she to evaluate the relative accuracy and validity of competing interpretations?
        As evidence of a hermeneutic approach that might circumvent these two interpretive concerns, I discuss two significant efforts to generate what might be called a hermeneutics of the language of architecture: first, philosopher Karsten Harries’ language of natural symbols; and, second, architect Thomas Thiis-Evensen’s language of architectural archetypes. I consider the relative interpretive power of these two hermeneutic languages to describe accurately and non-arbitrarily the lived experience of “buildings-in-themselves.”

This Masters of Arts thesis studies change and meaning in the (then) extant Moravian mission architecture of Labrador. It studies the built environment constructed by the Moravian Church between 1752 and the 19905. It discusses the history of the church and traces the development of architectural styles from Europe to Labrador. It demonstrates how architecture is linked to issues of power, ideology and order, and how the buildings are used as political and social symbols. The thesis concludes by explaining a major shift in the way these architectural symbols were used and created in the twentieth century.

Download the nice published version at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-013-9182-7

Online 2013; in print 2015.  This paper reviews something of the state of research on standing stone monuments in Scotland. It also offers a précis of the methodology and results of the first stage of a research project on standing stones in western Scotland. This stage sought to establish, more empirically than the majority of studies done to date, the nature of standing stone sites’ connection to specific astronomical phenomena and to establish a firmer understanding of standing stones as a group phenomenon across the region. This is followed by a focused case-study of six standing stone monuments of the inner Hebridean islands of Coll and Tiree to uncover the relationships between themselves, the landscape and astronomical bodies.

Two significant accomplishments of this landscape project are: (i) the use of statistical applications to ensure plausible conclusions and (ii) the development and use of accurate three dimensional landscape and astronomical reconstructions as seen by the naked eye.  Using statistics, the study analyses 125 sites across western Scotland. The 3-D modelling focuses upon the application of visual engagement. This development considers the creation of the visual experience of made and non-made objects in the landscape by past people, and through this method we observe their constructional choices (Higginbottom, 2003: passism, especially Chapter 12; Higginbottom 2005; Barrett and Ko, 2009, p287).

Light is the central theme of sacred architecture of all religions and so of Christianity. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the inner sense of light and its constitutive role in Christian sacred architecture. The theme of light in Christian sacred architecture is fundamentally connected to its meaning and symbolism of light in Christian theology and liturgy. This fundamental connection is opening the space to the symbolic and theological comprehending of light which was present throughout the history of Christianity and which is lacking in contemporary sacred architecture.

EL USHNU DE HUÁNUCO PAMPA: UNA PLATAFORMA CEREMONIAL INCA COMO LUGAR DE LIBACIONES Y EJE DE PLANIFICACIÓN DE UN CENTRO ADMINISTRATIVO!RELIGIOSO EN LOS ANDES CENTRALES. 
"RESUMEN
Se propone, en este artículo, que los componentes arquitectónicos de la plataforma ushnu de Huánuco
Pampa, están vinculados espacialmente con el paisaje circundante y que los rituales de libación fueron la
actividad pública más importante, razón por la cual esta plataforma, además de construirse al centro de
todo el asentamiento, sirvió como principio de planificación del centro administrativo-religioso inca de
Huánuco Pampa."

Άρθρο του Μουχάμαντ Σαμσαντίν Μεγαλομμάτη στο περιοδικό Τρίτο Μάτι, 70 (Ιούνιος 1998), σελ. 28-34

Article by Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis in the monthly review Trito Mati (Third Eye), 70 (June 1998), p. 28-34

First published online as PDF on 20th June 2021 here:
https://profmegalommatistextsingreek.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/η-ιερή-γεωγραφία-της-ελλάδας/

Nota del curatore della versione italiana del libro di Schloeder.
STEVEN J. SCHLOEDER, L‟Architettura del Corpo Mistico, Progettare chiese secondo il Concilio Vaticano II, L’Epos, Palermo 2005.
Traduzione di Carlo Fiore. Edizione italiana a cura di Ciro Lomonte.

Present archaeological research acknowledges the possibility to view globalisation as a phenomenon that occurred in the Bronze Age as well, stretching from the eastern Atlantic to the western Pacific, an unravelling that is coined bronzization. In essence, it expresses the idea of peoples of the age are interconnected and the directional and non-directional flow of ideas and goods, all facilitated by a transculture, what is bronze. The tangible and intangible transported through these flows are adapted and entangled into the local, a phenomenon which is termed glocalisation, that gave birth to slightly varied, but nevertheless genetically related products.
The present paper explores glocalisations of human-nature relations in Bronze Age ritual social milieus of the Aegean and Eastern Carpathian Basin (ECB). Ritual is outlined as performative utterance and enacted social memory which if interpreted through a phenomenological prism elucidates the locally entangled agencies of nature. Moreover, landscape archaeology is employed to explore phenomenological extents of glocalised rituals. The impact of a cascading nature over human senses and perceptions is underscored through definitions of meadow- and sylvanscapes, both viewed as essential background against which rituals are performed and that trigger enactments of social memory.
Ritual meadowscapes of the Aegean are recognised in sacred ‘gardens’ of the elites, information about which is conveyed to us mostly through visual (frescoes, glyptic, pottery) and written (Linear B) media that is exemplified through well-known finds. Evidence in the archaeological record for these is sought in archaeobotany, especially for flowers and trees, while palaeobotany is employed to understand how and when the human-nature relation represented by ‘gardens’ is born, that is to say is glocalised in the Aegean. Furthermore, a glocalisation of the same relation in the ECB is recognised through funerary sylvanscapes. The materialisation of ritual in this latter region is seen in the funerary aspects of daily life, since these do not end with the interment of the deceased, but continue on with the periodical visit of the burial ground by a distinct group of individuals to enact social memory tied to the location and past individuals. The recognition of Bronze Age woodlands is owed to the landscape approach to funerary aspects of the ECB. Through the successful combination of palaeobotany, paleozoology, geomorphology, hydrology and lithology in a GIS system archeco-zones are defined, which in the case of a specific sub archeco-zone allowed for the clear association of woodlands with a distinct set of burials. Intimacy of woodlands opposed to the wild woods must have been an imperative for the Bronze Age people, since revisiting hostile environments for enactment of rituals or even disposal of the loved ones is unimaginable.
The paper argues for two Bronze Age glocalisations of human-nature relations, which are recognisable through landscape archaeology approaches and a phenomenological mind set. It proposes two distinct methodologies, one rooted in classical archaeology and only partially in natural sciences, while the other relies heavily on data and tools from the latter scientific fields. Ultimately, both illustrate how Bronze Age people relate through all of their senses and perceptions to their environment and nature, but also how these are major factors in the choice of place, time and people for performative utterances and enactments of social memory. Lastly, the study demonstrates that similar ideas are in circulation in the same time over larger areas and their local adaptations give birth to the nuanced facets of what we call the Bronze Age world.

First introduction of a group of architectural structures and artistic expressions that made singular the Monte do Facho Hillfort, where both elements are combined to create a cultual and ritual space. A feature that seems applicable to the Hillfort as a whole.