463 - Equideos e a segunda metade do 3ºM a.C. / Equines and the second half of the 3rdM BC

 

Deposição de crânio de equino do Outeiro Alto 2 enclosure

Depositon of equine skull of Ouetiro Alto 2 enclosure

Nos Perdigões, os restos de equídeos, nomeadamente dentes e ossos das patas, por vezes em conexão, tornam-se mais frequentes a partir de meados do 3º milénio A.C., seja em deposições em contextos campaniformes da área central ou na substituição das falanges de cervídeo pelas de equídeo na elaboração dos “ídolos falanges”. Já numa fossa exterior do pequeno recinto de Outeiro Alto 2, foi registada a deposição de um crânio de cavalo, datando este recinto igualmente da segunda metade desse milénio. No grande recinto do Porto Torrão, igualmente em fase campaniforme, uma pata de cavalo em conexão anatómica foi depositada no topo de uma fossa. E noutro grande recinto, como Valencia de la Concepción, um vaso zoomórfico apresenta a cabeça de um equídeo. São dados ainda escassos, mas começam a sugerir uma alteração do estatuto deste animal durante a segunda metade do 3º milénio a.C., com a sua integração em práticas ritualizadas deposicionais e na iconografia da época.

Referências:

Valera, António Carlos e Filipe, Iola (2004), "O povoado do Porto Torrão (Ferreira do Alentejo): novos dados e novas problemáticas no contexto da calcolitização do Sudoeste peninsular", Era Arqueologia, 6: 28-61.

Valera, A.C., Filipe, V. e Cabaço, N. (2013), “O recinto de fosso do Outeiro Alto 2 (Brinches, Serpa)”, Apontamentos de Arqueologia e Património, 9: 21-35.

Valera, A.C., Evangelista, L.S. and Castanheira, P. (2014), “Zoomorphic figurines and the problem of human-animal relationship in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Southwest Iberia.” Menga. 5:15-33.

Valera, A.C. (2015), “Ídolos falange, cervídeos e equídeos. Dados e problemas a partir dos Perdigões”, Apontamentos de Arqueologia e Património, 10:.

In Perdigões, equine remains, notably teeth and leg bones, sometimes connected, become more frequent from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, either in depositions in bell beaker contexts in the central area or in the replacement of deer phalanges by equine phalanges in the elaboration of “phalange idols”. In an external pit of the small enclosure of Outeiro Alto 2, the deposition of a horse skull was recorded, dating this enclosure also from the second half of this millennium. In the large enclosure of Porto Torrão, also in the bell beaker phase, a horse's paw in anatomical connection was deposited at the top of a pit. And in another large enclosure, such as Valencia de la Concepción, a zoomorphic vase features the head of an equine. Data is still scarce, but it begins to suggest a change in the status of this animal during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, with its integration into ritualized depositional practices and the iconography of the time.

0450 - Arquitectura e cosmologia /Architecture and cosmology

 

“Essa padronização também é vista nos tamanhos dos lóbulos, que correspondem a segmentos de círculos com diâmetros de 10 metros em média. (…) Esta regularidade sugere que o tamanho do lóbulo não é aleatório e obedece a um modelo ou norma de convenções de construção. Os casos de Santa Vitória e Outeiro Alto 2 podem dar uma ideia deste arquétipo.

No recinto interno de Santa Vitória o diâmetro do lóbulo à direita da entrada é compreendido pelo ângulo dos alinhamentos do centro do recinto com os solstícios de verão e inverno ao nascer do sol (Figura 5: 2), definindo um segmento de um círculo de 9 metros de diâmetro. Este tamanho é replicado pelos outros cinco lóbulos.

Em Outeiro Alto 2 observa-se a mesma situação geral (Figura 5: 3), com algumas diferenças interessantes em relação a Santa Vitória. Aqui a porta está alinhada com o solstício de inverno e, enquanto em Santa Vitória [orientada ao solstício de Verão] está na curva interior feita pela junção de dois lóbulos, no Outeiro Alto 2 está na curva do lóbulo. Porém, o tamanho dos lóbulos é também compreendido pelo ângulo formado pelo eixo dos solstícios, definindo segmentos de círculos com 11 metros de diâmetro e mantendo uma proporcionalidade em relação a Santa Vitória, vista na relação entre os tamanhos dos diâmetros dos recintos e dos lóbulos: Santa Vitória com diâmetro de vala de 25m tem lóbulos de 9m, o que dá um quociente de 2,78 (dividindo o diâmetro dos recintos pelo diâmetro dos lóbulos); O Outeiro Alto 2 com um diâmetro de vala de 30m tem lóbulos de 11m, proporcionando um quociente semelhante de 2,73.”

(Valera, A.C. 2020, Ephemeral and Cosmological Monumentality: the ‘strange’ ditched enclosures of Chalcolithic South Portugal).

“This patterning is also seen in the sizes of the lobules, which correspond to segments of circles with diameters of 10 meters average. (…) This regularity suggests that the lobule’s size is not random and observes a model or norm of building conventions. The cases of Santa Vitória and Outeiro Alto 2 may provide an insight to this archetypal.

In the inner enclosure of Santa Vitória the diameter of the lobule at the right of the entrance is comprised by the angle of the alignments from the centre of the enclosure with the summer and winter solstices at sunrise (Figure 5: 2), defining a segment of a circle of 9 meters diameter. This size is replicated by the other five lobules.

At Outeiro Alto 2 the same general situation can be observed (Figure 5: 3), with some interesting differences regarding Santa Vitória. Here the gate is aligned with the winter solstice and, while at Santa Vitória [orientated to the summer solstice] it is in the inner curve made by the junction of two lobules, at Outeiro Alto 2 is in the curve of the lobule. However, the size of the lobules is also comprised by the angle made by the axis of the solstices, defining segments of circles with 11 meters diameter and maintaining a proportionality regarding Santa Vitória, seen in the relation between the sizes of the diameters of the enclosures and of the lobules: Santa Vitória with a ditch diameter of 25m has lobules of 9m, which provides a quotient of 2,78 (dividing the enclosures diameter by the lobules diameter); Outeiro Alto 2 with a ditch dimeter of 30m has lobules of 11m, providing a similar quotient of 2,73.”

(Valera, A.C. 2020, Ephemeral and Cosmological Monumentality: the ‘strange’ ditched enclosures of Chalcolithic South Portugal).

0252 - Evaluating the effort 1

Outeiro Alto 2 is a small ditched enclosure. It has just one ditch with a perimeter of 101m. If the size of the ditch is regular (as the two opposite surveys suggest) it will have a volume of 254 m3, corresponding to 406 tons of extracted rock (1600kg per 1m3, as average for limestone rock). That rock is not in the site: not outside the ditch and not inside the ditch (as it would be expected if there was a bank built with the extracted material). This is a common situation in Portuguese Ditched Enclosures, big or small.

0212 – A wood henge at Outeiro Alto

A concentration of pits in a very small area was excavated at Outeiro Alto 2. The concentration was generically circular (Figure 1). 

Figure 1

The pits were all almost empty of archaeological material. In the periphery there were three Late Neolithic hypogea and a grave pit (Figure 2).

Figure 2

To try to understand the concentration of pits in this small area, with no overlaps and surrounded by tombs, a study of the morphology and volumes of the pits was done. It was possible to cluster the pits in three groups of sizes and deepness (Figure 3).

Figure 3

When those clusters were plotted in the plan, a pattern emerged (Figure 4): the deepest pits formed a circle with a square in the centre and two pits towards north; then surrounded by the smallest pits; and the intermediate pits scattered in the SW area. 

Figure 4

The distribution, the size of the central pits and the absence of archaeological material inside them (just two or three small shards of pottery) clearly suggest a circular wooden structure of henge type surrounded by the tombs.

This context is published here: Valera & Filipe,2012. 

0190 – Outeiro Alto 2

Here is a plan and a section of Outeiro Alto 2.
A paper about this site, just dated from the third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC,  is being finished and it will be published soon.

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.

0126 - Looking for enclosures on Google

It has been a quite successful practice. Xancra, Monte do Olival 1 and Salvada were detected in Google Earth. I believe others will be in the near future and others could have been, if areal images were carefully analysed as routine.

This is the example of Perdigões. In this image of the early nineties, the olive trees were not yet removed, the ploughing for the vineyards was not yet done and the spectacular areal image that revealed Perdigões set of enclosures was not yet taken. But the ploughing could have been avoided if this picture, available in the net, was carefully studied: part of the two outside ditches are perfectly visible in the south side of the site, near the road.

Of course, Google didn’t exist then and large projects of agriculture were not submitted to impact studies.  

Another example is Outeiro Alto. This site is now preserved in an island inside a water reservoir.

 

But it is interesting to see, in a Google Earth image of 2003 that vegetation defines the “flower” shape of the enclosure. A very thin suggestion of an enclosure (now easier to interpret, after the site has been discovered in the course of the construction of the tank), but a regular practice of analyse this kind of images, especially when the first evidences of prehistoric material are recorded, may be proved worthy.

And could this be a new one found this afternoon? Possibly. We shall see.
 

 

0019 - "Wavy ditches"

The number of known ditched enclosures in South Portugal has been increasing in the last years, being almost thirty now. Between them, several present a peculiar design that has been designated by “sinuous ditches”. This peculiar configuration didn’t raise the necessary attention to its interpretation, as a result of a functional attribution that doesn’t question the ideological foundations of architecture.

In a recent paper (Valera, in print 2010) I presented a first attempt to organize these particular designs in four basic categories according to integral or almost integral plans of ditches:

A. Sequences of regular and aggregated lobes (1. Santa Vitória; 2. Outeiro Alto 2; 3. Xancra); B. Sequences of separated regular lobes (4. Moreiros 2; 5. Águas Frias); C. Regular wavy (6. Juromenha 1; 7. Perdigões); D. Irregular wavy (8. Águas Frias; 9. Perdigões).

This morphological diversity is certainly meaningful and the traditional association to the design of walls with bastions, if arguable for some of these categories (such as the B. or even D.), is clearly unacceptable for the A. and C.. Explanations for the particular designs like the ones in Xancra, Santa Vitória or Outeiro Alto, that so far represent a specificity of the middle Portuguese Guadiana basin, need to be searched elsewhere. In the quoted paper I argued that some answers can be found in the ideological connotation of architecture, namely in its cosmological foundation. Locations, topography, astronomic orientation, landscape connections and design, all talk about architectures that are impregnated by cosmologic senses, without which these sites cannot be comprehended.

Reference:
Valera, António Carlos (in print 2010), “Fossos sinuosos na Pré-História Recente do Sul de Portugal: ensaio de análise crítica”, Actas do V Encontro de Arqueologia do SW Peninsular.

0011 - Outeiro Alto 2 ditched enclosure

Location: Serpa municipality, Beja district, Alentejo, South Portugal)
Chronology: Chalcolithic
Bibliographic references: Valera & Filipe,2010; Valera, in print.

It is an enclosure defined by a single ditch, presenting a design similar to those of Santa Vitória and Xancra: a wavy ditch, forming a sequence of well standardized semi-circular lobes, with an entrance orientated apparently to winter solstice.

It was identified in the context of the water distribution net of Alqueva dam. The ditch was surveyed in two areas by ERA Arqueologia S.A., and the archaeological material point to a Chalcolithic chronology.

The enclosure is at the East end of a small hill, while at the West extremity there is a possible wood henge surrounded by three Late Neolithic hypogea, and in the middle, to South West, a necropolis of pits and anthropomorphic hypogea from Bronze Age. Even in the area of the enclosure, some of the pits excavated revealed Late Neolithic contexts.

So, the enclosure is located in a hill that was developed through time as a space of social aggregation and of sacred and symbolic social practices, where the earlier was a condition for attraction and spatial organization of the later.

An example of a significant “place building” during 1,5 thousand years, showing how deeply rotted can be a sense of place and how meaning can be accumulated through time, generating the social memory of a place and landscape.