0041 – Late Neolithic ditch at Perdigões enclosure

In this year campaign we reach the base of Ditch 6 (the inner one) of the complex of ditched enclosures of Perdigões. It is 3 meters wide at the top, 2 meters deep and has a “u” section.
From bottom to top provide mainly faunal remains and pottery, addressed to Late Neolithic (second half of the 3rd millennium BC).
















The processes of ditch filling of this section is different from the ones observed in Sector I, in Ditches 3 and 4, dated from plane Chalcolithic. As in Ditch 3 a significant change has been observe in the first half of the ditch, regarding the second (upper) half, separated by a moment of local erosion of the western wall of the ditch (not extendable to the entire surveyed area). In the lower part we have basically horizontal layers, with a moment of organized depositions of stones. After the wall erosion period, we have diagonal sedimentation pending from west (from the outside of the enclosure), including moments of formation of stone layers with the same pending.




















The interpretation of this filling is still yet to be done (excavation just finished). But it is clear that the process had different phases (with different conditions) and doesn´t present clear structured depositions as can be observed in Ditches 3 and 4 (Mind that we are talking about small section of long ditches). Nevertheless, is a big ditch by Late Neolithic standards, only overcame in Portugal by one of the ditches excavated at Porto Torrão (Valera & Filipe, 2004).