Saturday, May 23, 2020

0437 - Fraga da Pena: a cerimonial place.

Fraga da Pena. A small enclosure built against a granitic tor, in order to condition the access to a passage (truly megalithic) to the other side of the fraga, where one reaches an authentic altar over the deep valley and with a wide view over the landscape. And it constitutes a stage for those who are higher up the slope. A scenario that inspires sacredness and is conducive to ceremonial practices, which the archeological contexts involved also suggest.


Saturday, May 16, 2020

0436 - The "idol" of Salvada

This is the small marble "idol" that was collected at the surface of the 3rd millennium BC large ditched enclosure of Salvada (Beja), that is over 18 ha. An exogenous material at the site. It was published here.


Tuesday, May 12, 2020

0435 - Dogs at Perdigões enclosure


Like other Chalcolithic enclosures, Perdigões has several contexts where dogs or parts of dogs were deposited. From burials, to the depositions of skulls, mandibles or parts of limbs, dogs represent a specific type of deposition of animal remains at the site. Recent isotopic studies carried on in a project funded by Portuguese Science Foundation (developed by Era Arqueologia, ICArEHB-UAlg and Hércules-UÉvora) show that humans and dogs had similar diets (with dogs in the same trophic level of humans), showing an already well-established proximity between them in social terms.


Biliographic references:

Valera, A. ; Žalaitė, I. ; Maurer, A.F.; Grimes, V.; Silva, A.M.; Ribeiro, S.; Santos, J.F.; Barrocas Dias, C. (2020) -  Addressing human mobility in Iberian large prehistoric ditched enclosures: the case of Perdigões (South Portugal). Journal of Archaeological Sciences Reports. 30: 102264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102264

Zalaite, I.; Maurer, A.F. ; Grimes, V. ; Silva, A.M. ; Ribeiro, S.; Santos J.F.; Dias, C.B.; Valera, A.C. (2018) - Diet and mobility of fauna from Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic site of Perdigões, Portugal. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 19, p.674–685, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.03.033

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

0434 - The ditched enclosure of Borralhos published


Magnetogram of Borralhos ditched enclosures. Published in Valera, Pererio 2020. You may download the publication here.