Today was
the winter solstice. And important day in many prehistoric enclosures, namely
in the ones that had their gates aligned with the sunrise in this day.
Not a
fortune day, though, to visit one of the larger and most complex of the
Portuguese Prehistoric Enclosures: Monte da Contenda.
Today I
discovered that this is another large and complex ditched enclosure (with the
higher number of ditches known in Portugal) that was affected by the ongoing
agricultural transformations in Alentejo region. It was known, the geophysics
published (Valera et al. 2014), but the institutions responsible for the
Portuguese heritage just can’t handle this problem.
The
important concentration of ditched enclosures in Alentejo region is of recent
discovery (last two decades). It is one of the most important in Iberia. But at
this rhythm, they soon will be all (or almost all) deeply affected, while the minister
of culture does nothing (if in fact there is one or, if so, if he knows
Archaeological heritage is of his political responsibility), and the minister
of agriculture says it is nothing with him.
Here is the site when geophysics was done in
2013.
Here the
site today. A deeply ploughed field of almond trees with a mechanical water system embedded in
the soil.
Bibliographic Reference
Valera, A.C., Becker, H., Costa, C. (2014), Os recintos de
fossos Pré-Históricos de Monte da Contenda (Arronches) e Montoito (Redondo),
Estudos Arqueologicos de Oeiras, 21: 195-216.
PS – The Montoito
enclosure, also published in this paper was also deeply ploughed recently, and
again no action.
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