0284 - Combining Google with field work

At Horta Nova 4 it was possible to excavate part of a ditch (by Era Company, for EDIA S.A.). Now, when we overlap the drawing and the (treated) Google image we can perceive the enclosure. And just 50 meters SE there is the small one also detected in the image of Bing Maps (and initially confused with the one in excavation, that is bigger).

0283 – Horta Nova 4

Recut section of the ditch.

The excavation of the ditched enclosure of Horta Nova 4 (Alvito) continues. The evidences of recuttings are several now, but not all present the same characteristics.

The site is located in a top of a smooth hill, just over the confluence of two streams. Through a satellite image we can see that it is a sub-circular enclosure, with more than one ditch. 

The smooth hill where the enclosure is located.

Two treated aerial images where another possible enclosure can be perceived just next to the fields division.

0282 – Excavating a small ditch enclosure

Today I was helping to define a recutting of the ditch sediments in a restricted area, filled with small stones, at Horta Nova 4 (excavations of Era Arqueologia SA for Edia SA.). A practice there is present in several ditched enclosures, that can only be recorded correctly when the approach is in area and not through small sections. The fact that a large trajectory of the ditch is affected helps this approach.

Some pottery sherds indicate that this recutting is from Late Neolithic.

0279 - A new one in excavation

The new ditched enclosure, with a gate in first plan.

A new ditched enclosure is being worked by Era in Alentejo. The water supply network of Alqueva is crossing another enclosure and a segment of a ditch will be excavated soon. It is a small ditch, defining an apparently circular enclosure located in a small elevation over a stream. It is located in the western limits of the distribution of enclosures in Alentejo, where some other ditched enclosures have been recently discovered by enterprises and by aerial photos, enlarging the number of ditched enclosure known in the Sado river basin.