462 - Trigo e os recintos neolíticos / Trigo and the Neolithic enclosures

 

Foi recentemente publicado o magnetograma do extraordinário recinto de Trigo, datável do Neolítico Final (3200-2900 a.C.). A propósito deste magnetograma e da sua interpretação foi feita uma reanálise dos recintos alentejanos de cronologia neolítica. Sublinhou-se uma interessante tendência proporcionada pelas actuais datações de radiocarbono: a de uma anterioridade dos recintos neolíticos na bacia do Guadiana relativamente aos que já estão na bacia do Sado e Tejo, como que sugerindo uma expansão para Oeste/Noroeste a partir do médio Guadiana. Algo a confirmar no futuro.

Artigo: https://www.nia-era.org/publicacoes/doc_download/197-apontamentos-18-cap-2

The magnetogram of the extraordinary Trigo enclosure, dating from the Late Neolithic (3200-2900 BC), was recently published. Regarding this magnetogram and its interpretation, a reanalysis of the Alentejo enclosures of Neolithic chronology was carried out. An interesting trend provided by the current radiocarbon dates was highlighted: that of an earlier existence of the Neolithic enclosures in the Guadiana basin in relation to those already in the Sado and Tejo basins, as if suggesting an expansion to the West/Northwest from the middle Guadiana. Something to confirm in the future.

Paper: https://www.nia-era.org/publicacoes/doc_download/197-apontamentos-18-cap-2

0317 - The oldest chalcolithic ditch at Perdigões

We know now that Perdigões ditched enclosures started by the middle of the 4th Millennium BC. That it has developed during the Late Neolithic to became already a large enclosure. The new assemblage of radiocarbon dates shows this. But also shows something else. That the earliest chalcolithic ditch at Perdigões is the small ditch 10 and that it defines an enclosure smaller than the Late Neolithic large one. Interesting don't you think?

The temporalities of Perdigões are getting better characterized by the recent work developed by NIA-ERA (that is directing the global program of research) and ICArEHB at Perdigões. But this work also shows that many surprises may be ahead. This is a complex and chellenging site. It is a privilege to work there.

 

0315 - Perdigões ditch 7 is dated.

 

Perdigões ditch 7, another one with structured depositions and human remains, is now also dated by three radiocarbon dates that put its filling and re-cuttings between 2600 and 2200 BC. This ditch has one of the most interesting sequences of filling of Perdigões ditches, for it has a sequence of depositions that seem to have been deliberately closed by a stone “cairn”. After that the process of filling changed. That sequence is well dated by these three dates. But some more are needed.

0313 - Perdigões is getting older

New radiocarbon dates for recently excavated features at Perdigões show that the site was already quite big in Late Neolithic and that it begun earlier, in late Middle Neolithic.

0265 – The ephemeral history of walled enclosures

Plans of S. Pedro (Mataloto, 2010) and Porto das Carretas (Soares e Silva, 2010). References in the page of W.E. Bibliography.

I recently defended (Valera, 2014) that during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC walled enclosures are no longer built in Alentejo. Some may still be in use during the third quarter, others are abandoned, others present bell beaker reoccupations, but there is no record of the building of new wall enclosures.

According the actual available data, in the long duration of the building of enclosures and monumental architectures in South Portugal, the construction of walled enclosures are a late adding (first centuries of the 3rd millennium) and seem to have a relatively ephemeral life, with the activity of building walls ending by the middle of the millennium.

References:

Valera, A.C. (2014), “Continuidades e descontinuidades entre o 3º e a primeira metade do 2º milénio a.n.e. no Sul de Portugal: alguns apontamentos em tempos de acelerada mudança.”, Antrope, 1, Tomar, IPT, p. 298-316.

0256 - The origin of walled enclosures in Alentejo

Radiocarbon dates for walled enclosures in Alentejo

For some time the origin of walled enclosures in Alentejo was thought to have occurred in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. The radiocarbon dates from two sites seem to indicate so: the chronologies from Monte da Tumba (Silva e Sores, 1987) and São Brás (Parreira, 1983).

These old dates, thought, were obtained over charcoal and they have a large standard deviation and in face of another set of dates, some of them more recent and obtained over bone, the actual image on the issue has changed.

The dates from Escoural (Gomes, 1991) walled enclosure, from Monte Novo dos Albardeiros (Gonçalves, 1988/89) and more recently from São Pedro (Mataloto, 2010) and  Porto das Carretas (Soares e Silva, 2010) indicate that these architectures emerge in the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, namely after 2900 BC. This is coincident with the limit that radiocarbon establishes between Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic contexts in ditched enclosures (Valera, 2013a). Furthermore, the chronology available for the Late Neolithic hypogea of Sobreira de Cima (Valera, 2013b) and for the funerary context of Gruta do Escoural (Araújo e Lejeune, 1995), clearly in the second half of the 4th, corroborates this argument. In fact, it is not credible that these funerary contexts, with their unquestionable Neolithic assemblages, could be contemporaneous of early Chalcolithic walled enclosures, with a completely different material assemblage and just a few miles away.

The old dates should be abandoned in the debate of the origin of the walled enclosures in Alentejo. They clearly are a phenomena of the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. And an ephemeral one, since the majority of the dated ones seem to end around the middle of the millennium (the recent dates of Porto das Carretas correspond to a phase where the enclosure was already deactivated and the one from M.N. dos Albardeiros from a possible reutilization). Several are reoccupied in Beaker times, but not as enclosures, like Porto das Carretas or Mnte do Tosco (Valera, 2000).

In the long time span of ditched enclosures, walled enclosures could have been just a temporary adding to the architectures of the societies that lived in the region.

This is an argument that I am developing in a paper that is almost ready.

0251 – The chronology of ditched enclosures

According to available data, the building of ditched enclosures in Portugal ended in the last centuries of the 3rd millennium BC. Some show signs of occasional occupations during Bronze Age. But there is no evidence of ditches being built after 2000 BC until the Late Bronze Age, at least in the area of the great concentration of Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic enclosures: the Alentejo´s hinterland.

Radiocarbon dates for portuguese prehistoric ditched enclosures

The big question is why? Why such important architectures disappear abruptly? Especially after some of them reach sizes and complexities never reached before.

My answer, published in several papers, is that the reason for the disappearing of ditched enclosures has to do with the disappearance of the reasons for their construction. And that reason was an ideological, cosmological, one. They appeared to respond to a Neolithic world view and related social practices. When that cosmological perception was ending, they reach their biggest sizes and complexity, just like in the end of Middle Ages, feudal societies produced their most emblematic and exuberant architectures: the cathedrals. And then they abruptly disappeared. A significant change occurred by the end of the 3rd millennium beginning of the 2nd. Building ditched enclosures made no more sense. Not because communities stoped having defense problems or draining problems (functionalities that for some are the reasons for these architectures). But because the ideological frame that justified the development of these architectures was changed. The disappearance of ditched enclosures (and of megalithic traditions) in South Portugal marks the end of the Neolithic cosmologies. And a new world view would developed through the Bronze Age, naturally with some detectable continuities, but clearly revealing a new social organization and new perceptions of the world and of human ontologies. Ditched enclosures like the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ones had no place in this new world.

0244 – Dating Monte da Contenda

The first two dates are available for Monte da Contenda. The samples were collected in a ditch section where the road cut the enclosure. It is one of the outer ditches of the East sequence of ditches (there is a western one, for the site has at least two sets of ditches partially overlapped).

Due to the pottery recovered in the section we suspected it might be from a middle Neolithic, but the results show that the filling dates from the last three centuries of the 4^th millennium BC, showing that the ditch is from Late Neolithic. Nevertheless this ditch defines one of the largest enclosures known in Portugal for this period and confirms Monte da Contenda as a long term complex, since it has an important Chalcolithic occupation as well.

On the other hand, this ditch cuts others. So the probability of the origin of the site is earlier than Late Neolithic still remains.

0243 – Temporality of Perdigões enclosure

A paper was recently published on Perdigões temporality. It can be download at http://perdresearch.blogspot.pt/ 

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. 

0149 – Surprisingly late

Outeiro Alto 2 ditched enclosure (Brinches, Serpa, Beja). Photo by Paulo Marques; excavations by Era Arqueologia. S.A.

That is what we might say about Outeiro Alto 2 ditched enclosure recently dated in the context of a project financed by FCT (Portuguese Science and Technological Foundation).

This sinuous small enclosure, with patterned lobules, is extremely similar to Santa Vitória one and, in its general regularity, to Xancra, inclusively in the astronomic orientation of the gate. Xancra is not yet excavated, and we just have some surface materials indicating a general Chalcolithic chronology, but Santa Vitória was largely excavated, though never conveniently published. We still not have access to the contextual data of Santa Vitória (excavated in the eighties of last century). Though, a study of the pottery in a master theses suggests an early chronology in the third millennium BC (there is a lot of faunal remains that could be dated, but it seems we have to wait for the next millennium to have access to it – particularities of Portuguese archaeology).

When other sites started to appear showing the same general layout, the tendency was to consider them from the first half of the third millennium, like Santa Vitória. Well, a sample from the bottom of Outeiro Alto 2 ditch was dated from the third quarter of the third millennium, demonstrating that this particular layout of lobules was being done in later times in the Chalcolithic; bell beaker times (although no bell beaker were recorded at Outeiro Alto 2)

This is another dimension of the “empirical revolution“ that is going on in Alentejo. Things are much more complex, much more “mixed up”, than previously suspected. Clear “frontiers” are falling apart everywhere and diversity is emerging as the “main stream” image of the historic dynamics of South Portugal Recent Prehistory.

The context of Outeiro Alto 2 ditched enclosure and its absolute chronology will be published in the next volume of the “Apontamentos de Arqueologia e Património” journal, expected for next April.

0113 - Dating ditches and funerary practices

Tomorrow, at the VI Archaeological Meeting of Southwest Iberia, a paper will be presented about a radiocarbon sequence of dates for Perdigões set of enclosures.

“Valera, A.C, Silva, A.M. & Márquez Romero, J.E., “The temporality of Perdigões enclosures: absolute chronology of structures and practices”.

This sequence, of 34 dates, was obtained in the course of three projects integrated in the Global Programme of Research of Perdigões, coordinated by the NIA-ERA: a project of NIA-ERA aiming precisely to established the temporalities of the set of enclosures; a project of the Department of Anthropology of Coimbra University in collaboration with NIA-ERA dedicated to funerary practices in Perdigões; a project of the Malaga University developed in the NE gate of the outside enclosure.

The sequence reveals an occupation of more than a millennia, between 3360 and 2100 BC, corresponding to the Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic and transition to the Bronze Age. It also reveals a provisory image of progressive enlargement of the site during this time span and the progressive diversity of funerary practices, especially during the third millennium BC.

We will be coming back to this important chronological sequence during the meeting taking place in next November in Lisbon on enclosures and funerary practices.

And we hope to publish it next year.

0098 - Dating ditch fillings

Dates from ditches 3 and 4 from Perdigões. They are Chalcolithic ditches, dated from the 2^nd quarter and middle 3th millennium BC. But in a top layer of ditch 4 we got a Late Neolithic date (a ditch that has to middle 3^rd millennium dates for bottom deposits). A typical situation of incorporation of earlier material. In fact, just 3 meters away there was a Late Neolithic pit burial that was disturbed in Chalcolithic times. Taken from Valera & Silva, 2011.

Dating the fillings of ditches and interpret the results is a tricky issue.

First, we must be aware that we never date the opening of a ditch, only the beginning of its filling. And we do not know the time between the opening and the beginning of the last filling process of the ditch (I say last because we must considerer the possibilities of re-openings).

Second, what is integrated in the ditch filling may be older than the filling process or even older than the excavation of the ditch. In fact, especially in sites with long living periods (like Perdigões, for instance), where earlier materials can be about or the excavation activity is so intense that earlier deposits are constantly being remobilized, it is natural that some of the material that integrates a filling deposit inside a ditch is actually from earlier occupations. By dating this material we will not date what we intent to. We will be dating earlier material that has nothing to do with the time the ditch building or its filling moments. That is why sometimes we have earlier dates in top deposits and later ones in the bottom deposits.

So, how can we avoid these problems?

Dating ditch fillings implies dating series of samples, where outliers can be detected. It is not just the need of dating the sequence of deposits to determine the filling rhythm (which is, of course, important). Even if there are just one or two deposits, we must have more than just one date, precisely because of the problems raised by the typical dynamics and activities that take place in this kind of sites.

It is more expensive, I know. But one date in a ditch, except if you have a well defined and closed context (like a burial, for instance), is far from enough. And every date or series of dates need a serious critique, regarding the dating procedures, dated material, relation to context, nature of the context formation, post depositional events, and so on. Or we will just adding smoke to an already foggy area.

Bibliographic References:

Valera, A. C. & Silva, A. M. (2011), “Datações de radiocarbono para os Perdigões (1): contextos com restos humanos nos Sectores I e Q”, Apontamentos de Arqueologia e Património, 7, Lisboa, NIA-ERA, p.7-14.

0096 - The sunset of ditched enclosures?

Small inside enclosure with a burial pit.

When did the Neolithic and Chalcolithic type of ditched enclosures stop being built? Well, as the question suggests, it would have been at the end of the Chalcolithic, of course. In fact, at the present moment, no ditched enclosures like those are known to have been built in the second millennium BC. I recently have used this apparent situation to argue that the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosures were related to a specific ideology (or cosmogony) and that they stopped being built in the beginning of the second millennium precisely because that cosmogony was structurally changing at the end of the third millennia (Valera, in press).

Well, the enclosure in excavation by ERA at the moment seams to reveal a relative late chronology, although every elements of the architecture also seems to be rooted in the Neolithic tradition. It is soon to be conclusive. But the pottery from the ditches suggests a late chronology in the third millennium and there are pits with pottery that clearly indicate the first half of the second millennium (Bronze Age).

The image, at the moment, is that the enclosures were built in a late Chalcolithic and that pits were still being excavated in the early Bronze Age. But the relations are still to be established. In fact, the inside ditch, the one that slides deeper from the gate to de back, is very small (just 8 m diameter inside) and has only one pit inside. Well that pit has an individual burial with three complete undecorated vessels and a Palmela point, indicating a moment of transition to Bronze Age. Is it a latter pit? Or this small enclosure was built to enclose that pit?

Detail of the burial excavation in a earlier stage. We can see the leg and the skull (and a stone over the neck).

It is soon to decide. But what this data is suggesting is that some of this Neolithic rooted architecture and practices might have reached the beginning of Bronze Age. In a way not yet recorded.

That does not question yet the idea that those architectures are essentially related to a Neolithic cosmogony. Structural transitions are just like that, presenting punctual and exceptional late extensions. So let’s see what the absolute chronology says.

One thing is already certain: this site is important to the problematics regarding Portuguese ditched enclosures.     

Refrences:

Valera, A.C (in press) “Mind the gap: Neolithic and Chalcolithic enclosures of South Portugal” (A. Gibson & J. Leary, eds), ENCLOSING THE NEOLITHIC: RECENT STUDIES IN BRITAIN AND EUROPE, BAR.