0424 - The (new) twilight of enclosures

A couple of years ago I wrote a paper about the twilight of prehistoric enclosures (see here). It was about the end of enclosures in the late 3^rd millennium BC. We are again in the 3^rd millennium, now AC, and the enclosures (as heritage) are vanishing again, now at the hands of intensive agriculture. Three more were recently affected or destroyed: Nobre, Folha do Ouro and the large complex of enclosures of Herdade da Corte. 

Folha do Ouro (Serpa)

Herdade da Corte (Serpa)

Nobre 2 (Beja)

The administration continues to do almost nothing, and the silence is general. We are at un elections campaign, but nobody brings up the issue of the systematic destruction of archaeological heritage in Alentejo region. We are only concerned with the destruction of our dreams for the future and seems there is no room for a concern with historical memories. It would be an irony if it wasn’t simply stupidity. As if we could dream without a memory.

0148 – Herdade da Corte

This is a new large ditched enclosure located in Serpa municipality (Beja district), once again discovered in Google Earth. Well, maybe there is not one but two enclosures at the site.

One is well visible. A sequence of three parallel ditches, cut by the road, can be followed in the north part of the enclosure. They seem to define an ellipse and the topography is the same of the large ditched enclosures in Alentejo: a smooth valley cut by a stream with the ditches at the top of the slopes. It measures 340 meters wide.

This image is an assemblage of several images (google and areal photos), and embossed, so structures can be more visable. 

The south half of this enclosure is not clear. There, another ditched enclosure, inclusively with a wavy ditch seems to be present. The patterns of the curves are not concentric with the other ditches and that might suggest the presence of a different (earlier or later) enclosure.

At the surface, in the north part of the stream, there is a lot of historical construction material (some possible roman), perhaps related to what seems to be an orthogonal structure (indicated by a red arrow). But in the area of the ditches (of the possible two enclosures) prehistoric material is recognizable, like stone tools (knapped and polished) and Chalcolithic characteristic pottery.

 One of the google images used in the previous composition.

This is most probably another middle sized ditched enclosure (like  the ones we have recently identified near Beja – Salvada and Monte das Cabeceiras 2), adding the interesting possibility of being two, probably from different chronologies. A place for geophysics, no doubt. 

This site is already incorporated in the Map of Enclosures.