This paper establishes the chronology of the El Pozuelo megalithic complex and discusses it in the context of other dolmens that have been dated in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The working methodology combines the study of the stratigraphy and architectural sequence with the Bayesian modeling of the 27 AMS 14C dates obtained for charcoal samples from the four monuments in the Los Llanetes cluster. The most significant chronological results (at 68% probability) are (a) the antiquity and long duration of the megalithic sites, in which several monumental structures succeeded one another ca. 3970–1980 cal BC; (b) the existences of different temporalities in the Late-Final Neolithic dolmens: simple chambers (3970–3760 cal BC), elongated chambers (3790–3620 cal BC) and multiple chambers (3660–3260 cal BC; (c) the continuity of activity during the Copper Age (2980–2580 and 2530–2180 cal BC); and (d) the permanence of megalithism in the Early Bronze Age, through the presence of terraced enclosures with circular platforms ca. 2230–1940 cal BC. This diachronic sequence and the contextualized analysis of the 152 available radiocarbon dates (27 new, 125 published) supports the establishment of the temporal dynamics of megalithism in the Iberian southwest, introducing key aspects on the emergence, span, and rebuilding of the different dolmens (passage graves, simple chambers, elongated chambers, and multiple chambers) and establishing the phases of activity and reuse of the different architectural types.

The study of landscape as social construction implies considering its economic and territorial dimensions, as much as its symbolic ones. A major topic in such kinds of studies is the reconstruction of the ways in which natural and social space was perceived by past societies. We ought to approach the project of building an archaeology of perception. One of the aims of such a research programme would be the evaluation of the effects of natural and artificial landscape features on past human observers. This paper will argue that a possible strategy for studying these dimensions of past landscapes could be based on the systematic analysis of the visual features of prehistoric monuments and in the characterization of the scenic effects and vistas related to them. A detailed analysis of the pattern of location of megalithic monuments and of their visibility and intervisibility allows us to recognize certain regularities which display an intention to take account of monuments by provoking dramatic artificial effects. In such a way, we could approach a phenomenology of prehistoric perception without falling into merely subjective solutions. This study is based on a systematic review of the megalithic monuments from Sierra de Barbanza (north-west Iberia). Its main aims are: (1) the proposal for a theoretical and methodological study of these phenomena, combined with; (2) a case-study to reconstruct those monumental strategies used to shape cultural landscapes in Neolithic Europe, and; (3) the explanation of continuities and changes of these traditions.