Preservation Processes for Dolmenic Mountain Monuments in the Natural Environment of the Lower Nerbion and Arratia Regions

The object of this doctoral thesis is the establishment of a model of intervention which allows for the adaptation and preservation of cultural items situated in natural spaces, as with mountain dolmens in Bizkaia.

Dolmenic mountain monuments in the Basque Country comprise about 800 pieces of which approximately 100 are situated in Bizkaia. They are situated in crests, mountain passes and hillsides. Many of them are small (most of them would fit inside a cubic metre). Their current conditions are quite deficient as far as preservation is concerned.

Until now, such monuments had only been researched from an archaeological point of view, but the working thesis that we assume is that preservation should be extended to any cultural heritage which should be preserved in order to prevent, as far as possible, its complete disappearance.

With this purpose in mind, research starts in the development and theoretical application of the pattern of intervention, and once that has been completed, it enters a second stage that is about to start, with practical field research on the dolmens in their natural environment.

The sources used are based on new policies of preservation elaborated over the last 10 years in Europe. Experts like N.P. Stanley Price, J.M. Coles, Barclay G. Jones, John Ashurst or Francis G. Dines defend a model of preservation in which the element of prevention prevails through environmental intervention on the vegetal environment. The exhibition of the dolmens in their original environments is therefore conceived to turn them into cultural spaces (museums on site) which are well cared for and well preserved. If reconstruction is deemed necessary, it should be well thought out.

Research within this thesis is split in two parts:

The development of a structure of analysis which concludes in the pattern of intervention described above. For this purpose, some material about intervention in natural places has been collected, assessing all the tools and applications that could potentially be of use in our work. It is from this information that the pattern of intervention beginning with the assessment of every aspect of the dolmen (use, damage, connection with the environment, etc.), followed by the establishment of the kind of intervention needed, like rehabilitation or cleaning, the elimination of pieces which have been added on, the restitution of structural components, the reinstatement of other elements, demarcation and the preventive post-intervention processes aimed to stabilise and reduce risk.

A selection was made of 15 dolmens in Bizkaia, based on the differences in environment: rural, close to great urban concentrations and near industrial areas.

The pattern of intervention described previously was applied on them, and the result can be summarised in the following conclusions:

Verification of the regrettable conditions of dolmens in Bizkaia. The more serious damage observed was: morphological break-up, loss of lithic material, mimesis, infestation and uncontrolled growth of vegetation in their surroundings. Such damage has made them very difficult to identify, and has made them very vulnerable.

Prevention based on environmental intervention is offered as the only valid guarantee for their stability.

The best way to maintain a cultural heritage is to put it to some use. Thus, the intention is to establish ethnographic-cultural itineraries in which mountain dolmens would be included together with their natural environments as places of cultural interest