SYMBOL AND STONE: HOW MEGALITHIC ART TRANSFORMED NEOLITHIC AND COPPER AGE SOCIETIES

Project Information

Symbol and Stone

Grant agreement ID: 706034

DOI 10.3030/706034

Project closed

EC signature date 22 February 2016

Start date 1 August 2016

End date 20 September 2018

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost € 185 857,20

EU contribution € 185 857,20

Coordinated by

GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET
Sweden

Objective

Our understanding of the rise of megalithic art is contentious and patchy. SYMBOL AND STONE is a comparative study of the megalithic art in Europe in order to analyze and explain how inter-cultural exchange between prehistoric societies (~4500-2500 cal BC) shaped megalithic art, and to theorize and interpret the significance and function of these images. Most of the ~35´000 still existing European megaliths, which include megalithic tombs, standing stones, stone circles, alignments, and megalithic buildings or temples, were constructed during the Neolithic and the Copper Ages and are located in coastal areas. From several hundreds of these megaliths, especially from Brittany, Andalusia, Portugal, Galicia, Catalonia, Sardinia, the Maltese archipelago, Ireland and Scotland are paintings and engravings known, such as as angular designs, curvilinear motifs, circular motifs, waves, zig-zag, spirals, triangles, trees, anthropomorphic figures, boats, animals, house sketches, weapons etc. Some are combined to form complex symbolic systems. Strikingly, identical motifs and symbol groups can be found separated by long distances. Did the megalithic art develop independently in separate regions? Or, are these images the results of an intercultural exchange? If so, how was such a transfer accomplished? What was the significance of these images and what role did they play for the memory and ritual culture of these non-literate societies? These are the main research questions.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• natural sciences › computer and information sciences › databases
• humanities › arts › visual arts
• humanities › arts › modern and contemporary art › cinematography
• natural sciences › physical sciences › optics › laser physics

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Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme
• H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s)

• MSCA-IF-2015-EF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF)

Call for proposal

H2020-MSCA-IF-2015

Funding Scheme

MSCA-IF-EF-CAR - CAR – Career Restart panel

Coordinator

GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET

• Net EU contribution: € 185 857,20
• Address: VASAPARKEN ; 405 30 Goeteborg ; Sweden
• Region: Södra Sverige › Västsverige › Västra Götalands län
• Activity type: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Total cost: € 185 857,20