El santuario ibérico de La Luz (Santo Ángel, Murcia) como elemento de identidad territorial (s. IV/III a. C. - I d. C.)

Abstract

Keywords: sanctuary of La Luz, Iberian, identity, territory, Roman, ritual expressions, material culture Abstract: The goal of the present PhD thesis is to provide an overview of the sanctuary of La Luz from different perspectives. It is a multifaceted study that takes into consideration the historiographical, territorial and material variables to place the historical sanctuary in the corresponding coordinate and to integrate it in the scientific circuit of the Iberian worship spaces. Our methodological proposal includes a different look at the sanctuary of La Luz. Making use of the new technologies, we have obtained new information about the different archaeological campaigns carried out since 1923. In this regard, we should not forget that our analysis is conditioned by the information available. From the historiographical perspective, we have been able to document the role of this place of worship in the process of defining the Iberian culture, as well as in the development of different management initiatives of the Spanish archaeological heritage. The material culture has been systematically studied by designing a relational database containing all the available information about the materials recovered from the sanctuary of La Luz. Moreover, these materials have been analyzed from the perspective of cultural biography of objects, in order to determine the different symbolic meanings that the artifacts acquire in each context. From the point of view of the territory, we have followed different approaches to analyze the territory using geographic information systems. On one hand, we have determined the degree of accessibility to the sanctuary with a morphometric analysis of the landscape, on the understanding that this is a place of pilgrimage. On the other hand, we have performed a calculation of fuzzy visibility to assess the level of perception of the sanctuary depending on the distance as a function of the distance. Finally, we have evaluated the possibility that the traditional paths and cattle routes near the sanctuary may be a fossilization of the previous itineraries that were based on optimal routes to minimize the energy and time costs. Also regarding the territory, we have perform a photogrammetric flight to obtain a digital terrain model that allows us to organize the worship space in three different areas, according to the methodology followed by Pedro A. Lillo. In this respect, we have digitized and georeferenced all drawings and documented the archaeological structures to build a general planimetry of the site. As a result, we have characterized the sanctuary of La Luz as a territorial and identitary worship place. We think that our study provides new information about a little-known sanctuary and includes original archaeological objects unpublished until now. We have also found different ritual activities in the sanctuary and, finally, we have clarified the chronology by defining a broad stage ranging from 4th century B.C. to 1st century B.C. that includes an architectural monumentalization period based in italics patterns, as those observed in the sanctuary of La Encarnación (Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia).