In the recent international meeting (that took place
in Lisbon last week) dedicated to enclosures and funerary practices, I made an
inventory of the presence of human remains inside ditched enclosures. I noticed
that all large ditched enclosures revealed that presence (Perdigões, Alcalar,
Porto Torrão, Valencina, San Blás, Pijotilla, Marroquiés Bajos) and that, until
now, human remains are almost absent from smaller ditched enclosures (although
I underlined that many of those were not excavated or have just small areas
surveyed). In fact, only in Bela Vista 5 we have documented a burial in pit,
dated from the last quarter of the 3rd millennium.
Well, the surface prospection of Salvada confirmed
this situation, at least to large enclosures. Being a “big one” it provided a
human phalange (hand), collected just outside of the double inner ditch, between
the ditch and the stream that cuts the enclosure in two parts. As to be
expected, associated to this enclosure there will be certainly several funerary
contexts. Some will be inside, but probably other will be in the outside, surrounding
the enclosed area. This large enclosures start to be predictable in some of
their characteristics.
Ditched enclosures in South Portugal with human remains inside (yellow stars)
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