The Islamic Lives of Iberian Megaliths

On the Iberian Peninsula, the construction and use of megaliths is generally dated to the Neolithic period, between 6000 and 2500 BCE. Thousands (upwards of 8,000) of megalithic monuments of varied forms and sizes dot the Spanish and Portuguese countryside. Owing to their size and enduring materiality, megaliths had complex lives and engaged peoples with diverse worldviews and religions long after their initial construction. This paper explores Islamic engagements with pre-Islamic landscapes and monuments in al-Andalus, examines the methodological challenges of such work, and surveys what the archaeological record reveals about the nature of Islamic engagements with the pre-Islamic material remains of the Iberian Peninsula. Did they avoid these monuments, given that they dated to the jāhilīyyah, the Age of Ignorance, the time before the prophet Muhammad received the 1st revelations from God (610 CE)? Or did some people interact with or even bury their dead in or near these monuments? How did these monuments’ materiality shape the lives of people living in al-Andalus?