0225 - Monte da Contenda is done

Measuring Monte da Contenda 

The geophysics of Monte da Contenda had just been done. A project of NIA-ERA Arqueologia, directed by me and with Helmut Becker responsible for the geophysics, as usual. The results, I've just been told, are very interesting. Next week, if possible, we will be doing Montoito, just 8 klms north of Pedigões.

0224 - Updating map of enclosures

Has just been updated at the map page.

0223 – Ditched enclosures at the VII EASP

At the VII Meeting of Iberian Southwest Archaeology, that will take place next week in Aroche (Spain) and Serpa (Portugal), I (together with Tiago do Pereiro) will be presenting a paper on two ditched enclosures: Monte das Cabeceiras 2 and Salvada.

The paper will be focus on the fact that these two quite similar enclosures are relatively big (Salvada with 17,4 ha and Monte das Cabeceiras with 8,2 ha), probably contemporaneous for a large period of time and surprisingly near to each other (just 3,5 km apart).

We will be stressing the similarity of layouts and the proximity in time and space, in order to question some axiomatic ideas about size and social roles of large enclosures in South Iberia.

0222 - Geophysics at Monte da Contenda

Next week, a project of NIA-ERA coordinated by me will promote a geophysical survey at Monte da Contenda, one of the sites located in Google Earth and presented in the poster of the previous post. The geophysics will be done by Helmut Becker, as usual. Expectations are high.

Aerial image of Monte da Conteda ditched enclosures. Now we are going to try to get a better image of what is there.

0221 - Poster on ditched enclosures found in Google Earth

Presented to the I Congress of the Portuguese Association of Archaeologists...

See here

0220 – Juromenha 1 ditched enclosure

Location: Alandroal municipality, Évora district, Alentejo, South Portugal)
Chronology: Late Neolithic
Bibliographic references: (Calado e Roque, 2013)

The ditched enclosure of Juromenha 1 was detected and surveyed in the context of the Alqueva dam mitigation process, in the early XXI century. The survey revealed a plan that suggests a wavy sinuous ditch, with a linear one running parallel. 

Plan of Juromenha 1 (after Calado e Roque, 2013)

The sinuous ditch has a “v” profile, with 2 meters wide and 1,8 meters deep. Four radiocarbon dates put this ditch between 3400-2900 BC.

Ditch section (after Calado e Roque, 2013)

If wavy ditches became more frequent in the 3^rd millennium BC in Alentejo, Juromenha 1 clearly shows (as Águas Frias and Ponte da Azambuja also do) that this design emerged in a Neolithic context, where we must search for the reasons that will allow us to explain and interpret these layouts. And not in the chalcolithic walled bastions, as once was supposed.

0219 – Dating ditched enclosures

The number of ditched keeps increasing in Portugal (namely in the South). Having a good chronology of these sites is crucial for the understanding of their emergence, development and fall. I have registered know almost sixty in Portugal, but just 1/6 has been dated by radiocarbon.

Chronology of ditched enclosures of Recent Prehistory in Portuguese territory.

Next week, in the first Congress of the Portuguese Association of Archaeologists I will be presenting a paper that does the synthesis of the available radiocarbon dating information for these enclosures and, based on that, it will be underlined the main tendencies that can be perceived in these architectures during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic.

 Since the proceedings will be released during the congress, the paper will be available by the end of next week. 

0218 - Timber circles (?)

More timber circles at Alentejo? Or just circles made of pairs of pits? Or just coincidences?

0217 – Almadan #18

The journal Almadan has just been published. Public presentation was today.

Inside there is a paper of mine making a synthesis (a discourse for specialists but also for general public) of the “state of the art” regarding prehistoric ditched enclosures in Portugal: a historical review of the research and dynamics of discovery, an evaluation of interpretative discourses, a censure of some situations regarding preservation and some notes on the potential for public display.