0329 - Enclosing is organizing the world

Creating borders, opposing spaces with different meanings: the organization of space is an expression of human forms of cognition. Enclosing is a structural phenomenon, a way of thinking and organizing the world that cannot be reduced to a defence strategy.

0247 – An ex-new one

This is a new ditched enclosure recently found in Google (by Tiago do Pereiro) in North Alentejo. In my inventory is number 63 in Portugal. It is quite visible in the image of 2006.

In March 2009 the situation was as follow: a change in the agricultural use of the soil was threatening the enclosure.

And just a few months later, in August 2009, the site was affected by the new plantation. It looks like a vineyard and, if so, the impact was strong, for ploughing for vineyards is deep.

This happens because, in Portugal, impact assessment legislation is not applied to large agricultural programs with deep impact in the soil. Now, the site is inaccessible, even for geophysics, and probably suffered a strong destructive effect. And it seems relatively small (70m diameter), so if it was discovered in time through an archaeological preliminary prospection, it could became a protected area without a significant economic impact for the agricultural project, and could be used for other cultures with less effects in the ground.

Why are this things still happening? By many reasons. But the surprising expression of ditched enclosures contexts in South Portugal cannot be one of them. Not anymore.

0192 – Enclosures and cromlechs

Cromlech of Almendres, near Évora

There are several parallels that can be established between ditched enclosures and cromlechs in South Portugal Late Neolithic. Not just some cromlechs show a topographical implantation and relations with the landscape similar to several ditched enclosures, like being in a slope orientated to East and with relation to sun events (like Vale Maria do Meio or Almendres), but others seem to be in close spatial relation with ditched enclosures. That can be seen at Torrão and Perdigões.

Neolithic Perdigões: the strong black lines mark the known (at the moment) Neolithic structures.

In Torrão the cromlech is just outside the Late Neolithic ditch and in Perdigões is a couple of hundred meters to the East of the early ditches also dated from Late Neolithic. In both sites there aren´t yet empirical evidences that directly connect the enclosures to the cromlechs, but being totally contemporary or not, the general idea that we get from the location and orientation of several Neolithic cromlechs and ditched enclosures, and from the proximity that some of them present, is that there is an ideological connection between them and that they, being different, respond to same shared general principles.

There seems to be a strong link between some ditched enclosures and some megalithic structures in Alentejo, as complementary means of expressing and organizing Neolithic world views and landscapes.

We have several Neolithic cromlechs in the region. Besides Torrão and Perdigões, I wonder how many have an unrevealed ditched enclosure nearby.

0183 - Two years of Portuguese Prehistoric Enclosures (PPE)

Today this blog reaches the age of two years. And here is, to commemorate, a possible new ditch enclosure (seen in two different worked satellite images), just detected yesterday.

During 182 posts I tried to display information and ideas about the Portuguese walled and ditched enclosures to a large audience, national and international. Old and recent data, problems and perspectives, many issues were presented here. And the recent new developments were shared almost live.

The reached audience is not astonishing, but it is interesting: almost 44000 visits in two years, an average of 22000 a year, more than 1800 visits a month and about 60 per day. Not entirely bad for such a specific theme, unknown to the general public. 

One of the goals was to make available information about PPE to an international audience. The statistics say that half of the visits were from Portugal and the other half was from foreign countries. So, even that is not too bad. Here are the top ten countries where visitors came from:

Portugal 21543 United States   6140 Spain   4352 Russia   1503 United Kingdom   1452 Germany     925 France     827 Brazil     328 Ukraine     184 Holland     174

In face of this, I think Portuguese enclosures and their research is a little beet more known outside Portuguese borders. And, I believe, to the surprise of some.

So I feel stimulated to continue. The only absolute failure was my inability to bring more Portuguese archaeologists to collaborate in this initiative, as the “wish to enclose you” statement aimed. The comments are also few. However, these circumstances are not quite surprising, since the Portuguese archaeology always had a difficult relationship with the need of displaying knowledge to the general public (or even to a specialized one). So, I have to work a little beet more this area in the next few years.

Nevertheless, the blog goes into its third year “in shape”. And the months to come until the end of this year are quite promising, with expected new information and publications and so much to debate about these sites. I try to continue to make an echo of that in this page.

And thanks to the regular and irregular visitors. 

0164 – Destruction of ditched enclosures

This is a major problem for ditched enclosures in Alentejo region. In the last few years agricultural fields are being reconverted and olive trees and vineyards are being planted in extensive areas. This is done without any previous Archaeological survey and the result is that a lot of archaeological sites are affected, destroyed or become inaccessible to research (for instance, for geophysical survey).

This is happening with some ditched enclosures, and our “google prospection” is documenting it, for some sites identified in images from 2003 or 2006 are now invisible or almost.

It was this that happened to Perdigões enclosure 16 years ago. There, though, it was possible to interrupt the process after the plowing and assume the area as an archaeological reserve. But recently, several others do not have the same fortune.

 Examples of identifiable enclosures in recent aerial images (left) and their actual situation (right).

0139 – 2013... a happy year for ditched enclosures archaeology?

Well, I certainly hope so. And, as a way to wish everybody that follows this blog a good year full of achievements, I present an image of our expectations for the beginning of this new year: two pictures, the first with the number of Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosures known and confirmed in 2012 for Alentejo’s hinterland; the second with the number of sites identified by me and Tiago do Pereiro in google that wait to be confirmed in the field during 2013 in the same region.  The images speak for themselves.

And here are some images of some of those sites (some others were posted in earlier posts here).

Not everything is clouded in Portugal.

0138 - Ditches and pollen

The pollen record is one of the documents available for the knowledge of ancient landscapes and environments. The approach to these “documents” is always problematic, for post depositional events of taphonomic origin can be of significant interference.

Well ditches, as a receptor, can be an important kind of context to provide good results in this kind of approach to ancient landscapes and to human interaction with them. Naturally, as all contexts, ditches have their problems. Natural problems, like the fact that they are drains (intended or not) or recipients of erosion, but also cultural ones, such as the intentional nature of the fillings, interfere in the “construction” of the pollen record. But, nevertheless, these “negative contexts” are particular important for their particular conditions of sedimentation and preservation.          

So, in Perdigões, after a first test (Wheeler, 2010), we initiated a project, in the context of the program of IGESPAR for “Archaeosciences” (2012), to use these “documents” in the reconstruction of local and regional flora landscapes, to infer about the human strategies regarding the exploitation of that environment and start to have a notion of the human impact in it.

Sample in ditch 6

 

The Perdigões site is particular interesting for this kind of approach, since have ditch structures dating from a time span of almost 1500 years. That could provide an important record of the evolution of local and regional landscapes and of human strategies of use of those territories.

The systematic sample collection started this year: in ditches 6, 8 and 12.

Bibliographic References:

Wheeler, Jane (2010), "Paleoenvironmental assessment of two archaeological sediments from Perdigões, Alentejo region, Portugal", Apontamentos de Arqueologia e Património, 6, Lisboa, NIA-ERA Arqueologia, p.41-45. 

0130 - And another new big one

It is almost a Christmas present. Thanks Tiago.

This is another find of a relatively large ditched enclosure (about 350 meters diameter) in Beja District. By South Iberia standards, it is of medium size, a little bit smaller than Perdigões and Salvada. Of course, we do not know yet if it is prehistoric, but it looks so.

To confirm all these new possible ditched enclosures we just presented a project for field prospection and, after a selection (and fund raising), geophysical survey. This will enlarge, in a great number, the known prehistoric ditched enclosures in South Portugal and provide a base for further research. It will be a project of ERA, opened to all willing to participate.    

0129 – Some of the new ones

Here are some of the new possible prehistoric enclosures recently identified in Google Earth. These ones are from Beja district. (work of Tiago do Pereiro and mine).

 

 

0128 - Many new enclosures in South Portugal

South Portugal is, definitely, becoming full of ditched enclosures. Every week seems to be discovered a new one in Google Earth, as it recently happened with Salvada. Well, my search for enclosures seems to have affected my colleague Tiago do Pereiro that came to me with several possible enclosures. Together we have now about 30 new possible (quite possible) ditched enclosures to be confirmed in Alentejo region, adding to the 40 already known. 

This weekend, passing by one of them (one of Tiago’s Google finds), we were able to confirm it is a Prehistoric enclosure, for there is a lot of pottery and stone tools at the surface.

It is now time for a specific project that allows the adequate confirmation of those images that we already have and the ones will have in the near future, for we are getting a lot of experience in recognize this particular signs in areal and satellite images.

Here is the new one, that seems to be spectacular, in Évora district. 

 

(this is not the Google image, but a SNIG one)

0114 - What to do with them

This is a question that should be asked more often. There are too many enclosures excavated and neglected, with their structures exposed to the natural elements and anthropic ones. This is not a specificity of prehistoric enclosures, but it is a major problem in their communication. Difficult to interpret and to communicate to the general public, the conditions of the few that are available for public visiting in Portugal are depressing, and definitely not concurring for public awareness of the importance of this kind of heritage and public mobilization for its value, defence and preservation.

When we follow a sign and find this...

 

Walled enclosure of Monte da Tumba (Torrão), visited two weeks ago.

... what really should we think? If we cannot afford the preservation of an enclosure for public visiting in positive conditions, than we should be aware that presenting them in unacceptable conditions is just stupid, for we will be sending all the wrong messages I can imagine.  This situation is generalized. Sometimes we can see that local authorities take some care of this heritage, but generally with local resources, not using experts on the matter. But even that is rare. Abandonment is the norm.

If the country doesn’t have the means for keeping these sites presentable, because there is no money, because there is not enough cultural market for archaeological heritage, then maybe it is better to cover some of them: the ones that don’t have any kind of regular concern.
 

Maybe confronted with that, local, regional and national spirits would have a different attitude to find the means or assume that is just impossible.

0055 – Rome reunion on Chalcolithic (October, 2011)

The research of Portuguese enclosures was represented at the conference STRATEGIE INSEDIATIVE E METALLURGIA. I RAPPORTI TRA ITALIA E LA PENISOLA IBERICA NEL PRIMO CALCOLITICO ,promoted by the German Archaeological Institute, through a presentation made by me (representing NIA-ERA), comparing walled and ditched enclosures and proposing a general different social role for those architectures in the South of Portugal, by a presentation of Rui Parreira and Elena Morán of the ditched enclosure of Alcalar and its regional context from a materialistic point of view, and by a presentation of Michael Kunst about the research on Zambujal.

If the apparent antiquity of the emergency of metallurgy in North Italy was one of the main debated issues, the absent or reduced number of enclosures (walled or ditched) in that region was also a striking surprise when comparing to Iberian dynamics, where metallurgy occurred at least a millennium later.

One thing, though, seems to be shared by both regions: the emergency of metallurgy is not particularly linked to the development of enclosure architectures, for in Iberia enclosures appear before metallurgy, and in Italy metallurgy developed with no connection to enclosures.

Food for thought about the social role of both archaeological realities.

0048 – Portuguese Enclosures in International Congresses

In the following times and in the beginning of next year, Portuguese enclosures will be presented and discussed in international meetings.

At the next Annual Meeting of The European Association of Archaeologists, in a session dedicated to the problems of ditch filling, Cláudia Costa will present a paper based on the analysis of the faunal remains of the excavations of ditches 3 and 4 of Perdigões, in their contributions to the interpretation of the processes of the filling of those ditches. The title is: “Filling the ditches; faunal analysis based inferences on the stratigraphic sequence of Ditches 3 and 4 of Perdigões enclosure (Southern Portugal)”

Next month, in Rome, three communications will be presented that involve reflexion on Portuguese enclosures. Here is the programme:

STRATEGIE INSEDIATIVE E METALLURGIA
I RAPPORTI TRA ITALIA E LA PENISOLA IBERICA NEL PRIMO CALCOLITICO
Convegno Internazionale 6-7 ottobre 2011, Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo, Roma

Giovedì 6. 10. 2011
09:15 – H. von Hesberg, D. Marzoli, P. Petitti, M. Kunst, D. Steiniger: Discorso di saluto
I. Italia
10:00 – Daniela Cocchi Genick (Verona): L’Eneolitico in Italia: stato della ricerca, problematiche e prospettive
10:30 – Alberto Cazzella (Roma): Rapporti tra modelli di insediamento e metallurgia nella penisola italiana
11:30 – Patrizia Petitti (Roma): Necropoli e insediamenti nel Lazio settentrionale: la differenza delle fonti archeologiche
12:00 – Andrea Dolfini (Newcastle upon Tyne): La prima metallurgia in Italia centrale: nuove datazioni e interpretazioni
12:30 – Lucia Sarti – Fabio Martini (Siena/Firenze): Sesto Fiorentino: un “centro insediativo” nel Calcolitico
13:00 – PAUSA PRANZO
14:30 – Roberto Maggi – Marc Pearce (Genova/Nottingham): Transumanza, tecnica mineraria e metallurgia in Liguria
15:00 – Franco Nicolis (Trento): Strategie di insediamento e miniere in Italia settentrionale
II. Francia meridionale
16:00 – Marie Laroche – Paul Ambert (Sète): Découvertes du Programme Collectif International de Recherches (1996-2011) dans le district minier-métallurgique de Cabrières-Péret (Hérault, Sud de la France)
16:30 – Laurent Carozza (Toulouse): Tecnologia mineraria, metallurgia e strategie di insediamento nella Francia meridionale
17:00 – Luc Jallot (Montpellier): Insediamenti fortificati con metallurgia nella Languedoc
III. La penisola iberica
09:15 – Michael Kunst (Madrid): Stato della ricerca e cronologia nella penisola iberica
09:45 – Salvador Rovira (Valencia): La prima metallurgia nella penisola iberica
10:15 – Gert Goldenberg (Innsbruck): Copper ore deposits of southern Portugal and their relevance for the development of the region`s early metallurgy?
10:45 – José Enrique Martínez Romero (Málaga): Fossi circolari e insediamenti fortificati in Andalusia
11:30 – António Carlos Valera (Lissabon): Fossi circolari e insediamenti fortificati in Portogallo
12:00 – Rui Parreira – Elena Morán (Faro/Lagos): Alcalar e poblados fortificados no sul de Portugal
12:30 – Michael Kunst (Madrid): Zambujal e insediamenti fortificati in Portogallo centrale
IV. Il mediterraneo occidentale – uno spazio comunicativo
14:30 – Christian Strahm (Freiburg): The West-Mediterranean metallurgical drift
15:00 – Daniel Steiniger (Roma): L’interpretazione di modelli di distribuzione nel Calcolitico italiano
16:00 – Claudio Giardino (Roma): Relazioni nella metallurgia italiana e iberica
16:30 – Thomas Schuhmacher (Madrid): Scambio d’avorio nel Mediterraneo occidentale durante il Calcolitico
17:00 – Jean Guilaine (Carcassonne): Il Mediterraneo occidentale nel Calcolitico
17:30 – Discussione e sintesi

Next year, 23-25 March, at Oxford, a conference will be held having as issue:

HENGES – A LATE NEOLITHIC CONUNDRUM
Director of Studies: Dr Alex Gibson, University of Bradford and Jim Leary, English Heritage

Program:
Friday
8.00 pm An introduction to the study of henges: Time for a change, Alex Gibson
Saturday
9.00 am Josh Pollard - Avebury
10.00 am Jim Leary - Marden
11.30 am Kenny Brophy - Henging and mounding: the Forteviot henges
2.00 pm Keith Parfitt - Ringlemere
3.00 pm Wolfgang Neubauer - Kreisgrabenanlagen – Middle Neolithic ritual enclosures on the continent: 4800-4500BC
4.30 pm António Valera - Mind the gap: Neolithic and Chalcolithic enclosures of South Portugal
8.15 pm Jan Harding - Yorks henges
Sunday
9.15 am Muiris O’Sullivan - Irish Henges
10.15 am Nick Card - Orkney Enclosures
11.45 pm Richard Bradley - The later history of henges: the view from Northern Britain

0032 - Making them visible

Helmut Becker at Moreiros 2.

In the archaeoastronomy of enclosures project in course, we have been using geophysical prospection to obtain the complete (or almost complete) plans of enclosures. Helmut Becker is the responsible for that survey. He is using Caesium-magnetometry.

To do his ultra-high sensitive cs-magnetometry, he is using Geometrics cs-magnetometer G-858G in the so-called duo-sensor configuration for total field measurements. The sensitivity of the magnetometer is 20 Picotesla (0.02 nT). The spacing of the 2 sensors was set to 0.5 m – with the measuring cycle of 10 Hz (10 measurements per second) the resolution was 50 x 10 cm (50 cm distance of the profiles in the 40m-grids and 10 cm samples on the profile). This is the fastest and most sensitive method for archaeological prospecting on large areas. Almost one hectare per day could be measured with this high resolution. Measuring the geomagnetic total field rather than only the gradient of the vertical component with fluxgate-gradiometry allows a much deeper penetration into the ground (major archaeological structures can be made visible to a depth of 4 to 5 meter).

Preliminary data processing is done every night directly after the fieldwork – therefore any new ideas about the continuation of the prospecting could be immediately realized.

The results have been quite remarkable, as we can see by the examples of Xancra, Perdigões or Moreiros 2.

Next week we will be starting Monte do Olival 1 and expectations are high.

0026 - Going public on large enclosures

It is not from Portugal (is from Jaén, Spain), but reveals one of the views develop for the Iberian large enclosures (called “macro villages”). This kind of interpretation is also assumed for Alcalar, Porto Torrão or Perdigões by some theoretical backgrounds, namely based on functionalism and historical materialism. In the last years, strong criticism has been developed, but it has not been ease to promote debate. Maybe is because of that the different approaches and the different discourses are rarely presented to the public and monolithic interpretation prevails.

0013 - Enclosures: centers of convergence

As I was saying, our knowledge of the enclosure phenomenon in South Portugal is changing quickly. But this development is still basically unknown abroad, especially outside the Iberian Peninsula. In fact, we can say that Spain is in the same boat, if we consider the map presented above.

It is a map from the times when Perdigões was discovered. It shows that the enclosure phenomenon is of European scale, but the Iberian Peninsula is almost a desert. Well, at the time (1997), and in Portugal, lots of other walled enclosures were already known. So de map was quite outdated.

But as the numbers of enclosures (and archaeological work on the matter) were growing, especially regarding ditched enclosures, we kept seeing the same European map with a desert Iberia published again and again.

What does this signify? Basically, it represents the low level of internationalization of the Portuguese Archaeology of Recent Prehistory, despite its internal developments over the last 25 years.

In a way, we seem to be enclosed. Not in a way of some Neolithic enclosures, that were meant to aggregate, but in a very insular manner. Fortunately, things have been changing in the last years and Portugal is definitely on the path of joining the “prehistoric European community”. And enclosures are an issue that can contribute to this journey, renewing presently, not without irony, one of their main functions in the process of bringing people together.

The European maps will be progressively updated. In fact, maps like the one above don’t just represent distributions of archaeological sites. They represent much more. They talk about the past but also a lot about the present.

0012 - A new landscape

(South Portugal ditched enclosures from 1997 to 2011 - Valera & Becker, in print)

A truly revolution has been in course in the last few years in South Portugal regarding the ditched enclosures. The map on the left shows the situation in 1997, when Perdigões was first excavated after its discovery in the previous year. The map on the right shows the situation today: the number has been almost multiplied by five.

Most of the discoveries have occurred in the context of rescue archaeology, but some were the result of research projects. At the moment, and up to my knowledge, there are three long term research projects on ditched enclosures in the region: the one of Alcalar, developed by administration, and the ones of Perdigões and Archaeoastronomic Fundamentals of Ditched Enclosures Architectures developed by NIA-ERA (with other associated institutions).

There are, though, several academic works being prepared on ditched enclosures in the sequence of rescue archaeological excavation. That is the case, for example, of the large enclosure complex of Porto Torrão. Others, like Outeiro Alto 2 and Cortes, were integrated in wider research projects financed by Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation.

In fact, the last 14 years have seen a substantial change in the “archaeological landscapes” of South Portugal and, consequently, there is a whole new Prehistory to be written. There is a lot of work being done in this issue at the moment, with different theoretical approaches, so a significant development of knowledge is expected in the following years.