Wednesday, February 25, 2015

0281 – Iberian causewayed enclosures


Middle Douro valley enclosures (taken from Delibes et al. 2014).

A relatively recent publication presents a synthesis about ditched enclosures in the middle Douro valley, in central-north Iberia. Also there the phenomena of enclosures revealed itself with great intensity in the last years.

But one of the most interesting aspects of this new set of ditched enclosures is that they are almost all causewayed enclosures, quite similar to the ones known in the rest of Europe.

This type of enclosures was not yet discovered in Portugal. Maybe in the future some may be detected in Beira Alta or Trás-os-Montes, in the areas that mark the western limits of the north Meseta. But, so far, the Portuguese enclosures are quite different and in the Guadiana basin they tend to privilege the sinuous patterns, side by side with linear layouts.

This shows us how the same general phenomena may be expressed in different ways in regions that are not that far away.  

References

G. Delibes de Castro, M. Garcia Garcia, J.Olmo Martín, J. Santiago Pardo (2014), Recintos de fosos calcolíticos del vale médio del Duero. Universidad de Valladolid.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

0280 - Another one...


… found in the context of Alqueva water supply network. Here you can see how difficult it can be, sometimes, to detect a negative structure of this type: a darker spot, with some charcoals, a fragment of a Pecten maximus shell, corresponds to the filling of a ditch crossed by the trench open to receive the water tube.

It is, again, located in the Sado basin, in a peripheral zone to the concentration of ditched enclosures in Alentejo. They are slowly appearing in more western areas in the region. I have to update the enclosures map.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

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.