Marco António Andrade

The prehistoric settlement of Parede, identified and excavated in the 1950’s, revealed occupations (not necessarily continuous) dating between the last quarter of the 4th millennium and the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE. In addition to the Late Neolithic occupations (which material culture was used as the basis for Konrad Spindler’s definition of the «Parede Gruppe»), it revealed also Early Chalcolithic and Late Chalcolithic occupations, being apparently abandoned during the Middle Chalcolithic. The Late Chalcolithic occupations are mainly characterized by the presence of bell beaker pottery (about 150 sherds), already corresponding to a destructurization stage of the Chalcolithic population networks during the last third of the 3rd millennium BCE – with a clear dominance of the geometric styles (stippled and incised), being relatively scarce the elements of the «maritime» style (in the banded and linear variants). The aim of this contribution is to present a preliminary approach to the last occupation phase of the settlement of Parede, framing it, in chronological and cultural terms, in the coeval occupations of the lower Lisbon peninsula and in the general context of the Bell Beaker Group of the Lower Tagus.

The archaeological site of Barranco do Farinheiro corresponds to a set of different Chalcolithic occupation areas located on the edge of the Mio-Pliocenic escarpment overhanging the alluvial plain of the Sorraia River. The excavation works were focused exclusively on Area 2 (BFR-2) and allowed to identify a negative feature filled with an interesting sedimentation sequence. Two moments of occupation/use are discernible: a first one, represented on the lower levels of the colmatation sequence; a second one, represented on the upper levels, already dated from the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE. This second occupation/use episode is characterized by the presence of decorated pottery of the «acacia-leaf» group, stratigraphically associated with beaker pottery (plain and decorated). Based on the data collected in Barranco do Farinheiro, the authors rehearse a preliminary attempt to characterize the beaker occupations on the left bank of the lower Tagus River, showing that the scarcity of sites therein identified (in opposition to the intense occupation known on the right bank) could be probably explained by archaeographic contingencies, not exactly by a lack of effective use of the territory.

A Horta do Cabral 6 localiza-se próximo da vila do Torrão, numa faixa aplanada com substrato de calcreto (caliço), no qual foram abertas e, posteriormente, colmatadas, estruturas negativas de tipo fossa. Nas 17 estruturas intervencionadas recuperaram-se elementos cerâmicos, pedra lascada e afeiçoada e fauna mamalógica, entre a qual se conta um veado juvenil completo e articulado, depositado intencionalmente numa das fossas e atribuível ao Bronze Final do Sudoeste, através da datação pelo radiocarbono de uma amostra do seu material ósseo. Foram ainda recolhidos e identificados elementos vegetais carbonizados. O carácter doméstico da ocupação do sítio parece evidente. Insere-se num conjunto de sítios caracterizados pelo agrupamento de estruturas negativas e, normalmente, sem estruturas positivas, que têm vindo a ser identificados em diversos locais do Sudoeste peninsular. Este tipo de jazida da Pré-História recente permaneceu desconhecido até muito recentemente.

The identification of archaeological amber has been used in Iberian prehistory to evidence long-distance exchanges and engage Iberia in networks that connect western Europe with central and northern Europe, the emergence of social complexity, and the consolidation of trade networks. However, until now, no comprehensive analytical study of the Iberian amber has been produced to support any of the interpretive models currently in use. This paper approaches the analysis of Iberian Peninsula amber artefacts by considering their provenance (based on FTIR characterization), chronology, and spatial relationship with other exotica. Our work increases the number of analyzed artefacts to 156 (24%), out of the c. 647 currently known for the Iberian Peninsula. Based on these new data and a review of Murillo-Barroso and Martinón-Torres (2012), this overview outlines amber consumption patterns from the 6th to 2nd millennia BCE and demonstrates long-distance amber exchange connecting Iberia with the Mediterranean region from the Neolithic period onwards.

The passage grave of Estremoz 7 or Nossa Senhora da Conceição dos
Olivais (NSCO) was excavated in 1934 under the supervision of Manuel Heleno.
Erected on a small hill included on an open landscape, it would correspond to a monument of some substantial proportions, in which a relatively significant set of archaeological finds was collected. In geographical terms, its singular location separates this monument from the large clusters known in this regional area; however, the collected data allow to disclose some relevant observations, particularly about the cultural or technological «evolution» between geometric armatures and arrow‑heads, the long‑distance circulation of silicious raw‑materials and the reuse of megalithic monuments during the late 3rd millennium BCE. This monument is therefore assumed as a valid component for the comprehension of the megalithic communities in the region of Central and North Alentejo, during the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic.

The study of the megalithic phenomenon practically follows the development of Archeology as a Science, since the mid-19 th century. During this time, one can recognize several stages of analysis, from the first normative readings, that consider this phenomenon as an univocal episode (explaining its different nuances by essentially contemporary cultural factors) to the formulation of the first evolutionary sequences, mainly by Manuel Heleno based on his field works of almost a decade in megalithic monuments in Alentejo. These evolutionary diagrams, conditioned by the historical-culturalist thinking of their Time, result in linear, overly simplistic explanations for a theme as intricate as the origin and development of Megalithism. Basically they advocate, in general lines, a sequential evolution from simple to complex, with the universal, reductionist " shelving " of architectures and votive sets. The basic lines of this approach have remained in use until quite recently. New analyzes, mainly drawn since the 1980s, have presented alternative readings. Some plead for the total reversal of the simple – complex evolutionary sequence, almost like an " involution " ; others consent the contemporaneity of several architectural solutions, admitting the cultural and chronological coexistence of simple and complex monuments. The works conducted by Rui Boaventura, mainly dedicated to the Megalithism of Alentejo and the Portuguese Estremadura, sought to order, filter and compile all the available information, as means to provide solid bases of analysis, grounded on critical readings and on the non-biased evaluation of data. In this regard, and as strictly as it was permitted, Rui Boaventura sought to characterize and define the key issue in the study of Megalithism: its actual origins and its various evolutionary levels. In this task, he recognizes the fallibility of linear readings and substantiates his analyses unconditionally on what data demonstrate, in terms of architectures, votive sets and absolute chronologies (preferentially on human samples). In this paper, the authors intend to present a series of small simple megalithic monuments, excavated in collaboration with Rui Boaventura in the areas of Redondo and Monforte, under the projects he directed (COMONPH and MEGAGEO). These are small megalithic monuments, with simple artefactual sets and simple architectural features, of the type that is traditionally assumed to be the representative of a first moment of Megalithism. With an exclusive focus in the Southwestern Iberia, the authors seek to insert these monuments, with all the questions they raise, into the chrono-cultural levels of the megalithic phenomenon in this region, trying as well to define their evolutionary sequences, with regard to the architectural features of monuments, their funerary contents and available absolute dates. It is acknowledged that, taking into account the currently available data, a simple evolution scheme could not be so applicable to the reality under consideration: even if one can accept that a substitution of architectural models had occurred, it would not have been as linear nor as chronologically detailed as normally assumed. In fact, rather than this instantaneous substitution, it seems that a gradual replacement, considerably expanded in Time, of simple monuments by complex monuments takes place, with the coexistence of tombs with various

Juntamente com o espólio neo-calcolítico recolhido no sítio pré-histórico de Sobral do Martim Afonso, encontra-se nas reservas do Museu Nacional de Arqueologia um conjunto de artefactos líticos que, pelas suas características morfológicas, se enquadrará no Paleolítico Inferior, des-tacando-se a presença de bifaces e machados de mão, usando exclusivamente quartzito como suporte. Deste sítio, geologicamente incluído nos níveis de terraços inferiores do Plistocénico, são conhecidos outros conjuntos contemporâneos, recolhidos na década de 40 do século passado durante os trabalhos do Instituto de Antropologia da Universidade do Porto e da Comissão dos Serviços Geológicos de Portugal na área de Muge. Os autores pretendem, neste âmbito, apre-sentar o conjunto inédito do Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, integrando genericamente a sua leitura nos vestígios do Paleolítico Inferior da margem esquerda do baixo Tejo.
Together with the Neolithic/Chalcolithic artefacts collected in the prehistoric site of Sobral do Martim Afonso, one can find in the reserves of the National Archaeological Museum (Lisbon) a set of lithic artefacts which, by their morphological features, can be attributable to the Lower Paleolithic, highlighting the presence of handaxes and cleavers, produced exclusively in quartzite. From this site, geologically included in the lower levels of the Pleistocene terraces, other contemporary sets are known, collected in the 1940s during the works of the Anthropological Institute of the University of Porto and the Commission of the Geological Surveys of Portugal, in the area of Muge. The authors intend, in this context, to present the unpublished set of the National Archaeological Museum, and generally integrate its reading in the Lower Paleolithic remains of the left bank of the lower Tagus valley.

The passage grave of Estremoz 7 or Nossa Senhora da Conceição dos Olivais (NSCO) was excavated in 1934 under the supervision of Manuel Heleno. Erected on a small hill included in​ an open landscape, it would correspond to a monument of some substantial proportions, in which a relatively significant set of archaeological finds was collected. In geographical terms, its singular location separates this monument from the large clusters known in this regional area; however, the collected data allow to disclose some relevant observations, particularly about the cultural or technological «evolution» between geometric armatures and arrow -heads, the long-distance circulation of siliceous raw -materials and the reuse of megalithic monuments during the late 3rd millennium BCE. This monument is therefore assumed as a valid component for the comprehension of the megalithic communities in the region of Central and North Alentejo, during the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic.

The Megalithism of small dolmens: new data to an old problem

The study of the megalithic phenomenon practically follows the development of Archeology as a Science, since the mid-19th century. During this time, one can recognize several stages of analysis, from the first normative readings, that consider this phenomenon as an univocal episode (explaining its different nuances by essentially contemporary cultural factors) to the formulation of the first evolutionary sequences, mainly by Manuel Heleno based on his field works of almost a decade in megalithic monuments in Alentejo. These evolutionary diagrams, conditioned by the historical-culturalist thinking of their Time, result in linear, overly simplistic explanations for a theme as intricate as the origin and development of Megalithism. Basically they advocate, in general lines, a sequential evolution from simple to complex, with the universal, reductionist “shelving” of architectures and votive sets.
The basic lines of this approach have remained in use until quite recently. New analyzes, mainly drawn since the 1980s, have presented alternative readings. Some plead for the total reversal of the simple – complex evolutionary sequence, almost like an “involution”; others consent the contemporaneity of several architectural solutions, admitting the cultural and chronological coexistence of simple and complex monuments.
The works conducted by Rui Boaventura, mainly dedicated to the Megalithism of Alentejo and the Portuguese Estremadura, sought to order, filter and compile all the available information, as means to provide solid bases of analysis, grounded on critical readings and on the non-biased evaluation of data. In this regard, and as strictly as it was permitted, Rui Boaventura sought to characterize and define the key issue in the study of Megalithism: its actual origins and its various evolutionary levels. In this task, he recognizes the fallibility of linear readings and substantiates his analyses unconditionally on what data demonstrate, in terms of architectures, votive sets and absolute chronologies (preferentially on human samples).
In this paper, the authors intend to present a series of small simple megalithic monuments, excavated in collaboration with Rui Boaventura in the areas of Redondo and Monforte, under the projects he directed (COMONPH and MEGAGEO). These are small megalithic monuments, with simple artefactual sets and simple architectural features, of the type that is traditionally assumed to be the representative of a first moment of Megalithism. With an exclusive focus in the Southwestern Iberia, the authors seek to insert these monuments, with all the questions they raise, into the chrono-cultural levels of the megalithic phenomenon in this region, trying as well to define their evolutionary sequences, with regard to the architectural features of monuments, their funerary contents and available absolute dates.
It is acknowledged that, taking into account the currently available data, a simple evolution scheme could not be so applicable to the reality under consideration: even if one can accept that a substitution of architectural models had occurred, it would not have been as linear nor as chronologically detailed as normally assumed. In fact, rather than this instantaneous substitution, it seems that a gradual replacement, considerably expanded in Time, of simple monuments by complex monuments takes place, with the coexistence of tombs with various architectural features still during a full moment of the 4th millennium BCE. In this scope, one must also consider the funerary uses of natural caves and artificial caves, apparently contemporary and culturally comparable, according to the generic characteristics of the votive sets. Megalithism is thus a multi-faceted phenomenon, balanced by its own dynamics.
Most of the ideas presented herein were widely discussed with Rui Boaventura, and the authors sought to remain faithful to his line of reasoning, which, in general terms (with the elementary personal nuances, of course), they shared.

Esperando contribuir para uma melhor definição do «megalitismo de gruta» na área da Estremadura portuguesa, analisam-se duas placas de xisto gra-vadas, recolhidas na gruta da Buraca da Moura, da Rexaldia, cujas caracte-rísticas morfo-tipológicas se enquadram nas práticas funerárias das antigas comunidades camponesas de finais do Neolítico/inícios do Calcolítico, do Maciço Calcário Estremenho.

Presentation of a set of engraved schist plaques
found at the Castelo de Pavia (Mora), a typical Chalcolithic
settlement of the Alentejo, probably fortified and
occupied in the third millennium B.C.
The authors revisit the theme of their paper
presented at the international congress of Rock Art
(IFRAO 2015), based on later identification of other
materials from the same site found in the reserves of
the National Museum of Archaeology in Lisbon.

Symbols for the dead in spaces of the living? Some remarks about the presence of engraved schist plaques in settlements in North Alentejo, in the context of Southwest Iberia.

As a typical votive artefact of the megalithic communities of the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic in Southwest Iberia, the engraved schist plaques can be found mainly in funerary contexts during the last centuries of the 4th millennium and the firsts of the 3rd millennium BCE. However, these artefacts are also present in residential spaces, being found in open settlements, fortified settlements and ditched enclosures, with radiocarbon dates that fall between the last quarter of the 4th millennium and the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE. Using several sites of the region of North Alentejo as case studies, the authors intend to put forward some interpretive lines about the presence of these artefacts in residential contexts – debating questions such as the existence of actual production areas within the settlement space (workshops) or the recovery and reintroduction of these artefacts in residential areas (as relics, understood in the context of new symbolic concepts), possibly recovered during the reuse of megalithic monuments, a practice widely known in the Southwest Iberia throughout the whole 3rd millennium and even in the 2nd millennium BCE.

Lapa da Galinha (literally «The chicken’s cave»…) is a typical small cave of the portuguese Estremadura. Located near Alcanena, it was excavated more than a century ago and, at the time, the numerous human remains therein identified have already been removed to the local cemetery and are not available for study and dating. A first note about this cave, very insufficient for the importance of the site, have been presented to the 1st National Congress of Archaeology (Moreira de Sá, 1959). Lapa da Galinha revealed, for the cultural milieu in which it is included, a considerable amount of engraved schist plaques and a rather peculiar «crosier», morphologically resembling an axe. If the «crosier» is so peculiar and unique, also the plaques form a very bizarre ensemble. Most of them are double faced, the motifs and decorative patterns are also peculiar and some present unusual shapes for the area of Estremadura – disclosing possible cultural influences of other regional areas. The «PLACA NOSTRA» Project shows, for the first time, drawings of all the available plaques and presents some new perspectives on the meaning of the «Lapa da Galinha connection»...

Muge is mostly known for the presence of numerous late Mesolithic shell-middens. Perhaps for this reason, archaeological researches have been oriented towards this particular matter – remaining information blanks regarding immediately subsequent periods. Recent field survey works have allowed to recognize that, beyond the Mesolithic shell-middens, we can also find an important space occupancy by the ancient peasant communities, right from Early Neolithic. However, these occupations are related to late Early Neolithic. Occupations related to the first Neolithic communities are only known to peripheral areas of the Mesolithic exploitation territories. It seems that there is a time gap between the last Mesolithic communities – that have persisted here, even after the beginning of the Neolithisation Process in other areas (Estremadura Limestone Massif), – and the first Neolithic communities to occupy this area. This contribution aims to present a chrono-cartographic overview of this area, defining the possible
space occupation diagrams since the last centuries of the 6th millennium BCE, without temporal (apparently only spatial) continuity with the Mesolithic shell-middens.

This paper presents the relationship between a flint procurement source (Casal dos Matos) and a Neolithic-Chalcolithic site (Cabeça Gorda 1) located in its immediate surroundings. The macroscopical comparison between the raw material used for flaked stone artifacts in Cabeça Gorda 1 and the raw material that occurs in Casal dos Matos suggests at least a spatial relationship between a local procurement area and a specific consumption context – thus reinforcing the evident continuity between local procurement, production and consumption sites in the Prehistory of the ancient peasant communities in the Portuguese Estremadura, between the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic (3100-2600 cal BCE). This paper is not intended to present the exhaustive study of the flaked stone industry of Cabeça Gorda 1, but to set a conceptual framework, based on the currently available data, for a specific model of raw material exploitation by comparing with other instances of flint procurement in the same region. This conceptual framework can then be used not only for the area where these sites are included but also for other regions where similar contexts can be identified.

The Chalcolithic site of Cabeço dos Mouros: identification of a new arrowhead workshop in the area of ​​Arruda dos Pisões (Rio Maior, Portugal)

The archaeological site of Cabeço dos Mouros was identified during an occasional visit to the area of Arruda dos Pisões. It was observed abundant knapped lithic material on the surface, mostly using flint, in which we highlight a set of arrowhead preforms, bifacial thinning chips, rough blanks, preparation flakes and thermo-fractured elements. It was, in this context, interpreted as an arrowhead workshop, of chalcolithic age, inlcuded in an area where various similar contexts are known, with emphasis on the several loci of the sites of Arneiro and Passal. Given the high level of disturbance registered on the site, preventing any alleged further analysis, this paper has the intent to present this new archeological site, including it in its chronological and functional context, in the framework of the Chalcolithic communities of the portuguese Estremadura.

The project "Minimization of Impacts on Cultural Heritage by the Implementing the Irrigation Block of Alfundão" developed by Edia SA and executed by CRIVARQUE Ltd., allowed the identification of a significant number of human occupations chronologically framed between the last quarter of the 4th millennium and the mid-3rd millennium BCE. Along the valley of the Alfundão River (Ferreira do Alentejo, Portugal), were conducted preventive archaeological excavations that allowed the identification of human occupations characterized by areas composed of clusters of negative circular structures of variable diameter (pits). This type of structure is still lacking a precise functional definition, since they occur both in clearly residential spaces as, in contrast, in areas of obvious funerary character. The ambiguity and difficulty in characterizing these structures occur, similarly, at the level of the collected artifacts, in which we can observe, in some instances, artifacts of domestic use in conjunction with artifacts of votive features. Despite the artifactual homogeneity and, apparently, of the occupation strategies recognized  in the various archaeological sites, its analysis is of significant importance for the characterization of the space utilization layouts by the ancient peasant societies of Southwestern Iberian Peninsula, mainly on a geographical and socio-cultural landscape marked by the presence of the settlements of Porto Torrão and Monte do Olival 1, both being about 6km distant from the study area. To characterize the functional typology of the sites identified in Alfundão will be one of its goals of this presentation. In this regard, we will seek to question and evaluate their specificity (small occupations) and, on the other hand, a possible monumentality in which the "different" sites represent, after all, an occupation of large geographic and social proportions, to the image of Port Torrão. The difficulty in measuring with scientific rigor this latter reading finds a clear obstacle in the limitations inherent to the type of archaeological intervention, where the excavated areas are of conditioned dimensions and were pre-set, regardless of the type of archaeological data that comes produced.

The works conducted in the prehistoric site of Freixo, located on the northern slopes of Candeeiros mountain range, allowed to identify occupations related to Early Neolithic and Late Chalcolithic, the first period statistically more significant. The materials for the latter period, characterized by bell beaker pottery (plain and with incised geometric decoration) and a few lithic artifacts clearly assignable to the Chalcolithic communities (such as arrowheads, tools on thick blade and axes of rectangular cross-section), show a sporadic space occupation (a small seasonal campsite) - being the scarcity of archaeological assets only the reflection of this specific functionality. However, the lack of  bell beaker contexts in the Upper Estremadura legitimizes its disclosure.

This paper describes the Neolithic sites of Pedreira do Aires and Monte das Pedras, both located in the Lisbon Peninsula, Portugal. The archaeological assemblages recovered from these sites - mostly lithic materials such as debitage debris, both ‘tested’ and shaped fl int blocks, preparation fl akes and core rejuvenation elements - and the geological context (Upper Cenomanian limestone rich in fl int nodules), suggest that both should be interpreted as flint extraction localities (although not necessarily mines, the flint being recovered in a secondary position from detritic deposits) and occasional workshops oriented towards bladelet production. These sites can therefore be understood as small, seasonal campsites located within the sphere of influence of a larger settlement and part of a complex spatial use and resource exploitation network that lasted from the 5th to the 3rd millennia BC (the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the region). Models of flint procurement must take into account that different types of site existed: settlements, funerary sites and resource procurement sites. The relationship with contextually similar sites highlights the strategies used in the exploitation of fl int at this time in the Lisbon Peninsula.

Under Pressure. Flaked stone refittings in the context of emergency interventions: the example of the Tardiglaciar sites of Leiria area

Facing always an emergency archaeological intervention as a scientific intervention, the application of the method of flaked stone refittings (understood as a key element in the comprehension of palaeo-human communities) reveals itself as a valid component in the definition of the excavated contexts. The works undertaken in the Tardiglacial sites of the area of Leiria have demonstrated the possibility of this relationship, with the articulation between emergency interventions and scientific analysis of the collected data. Thus, in view of an Archaeology that we still see as a Science, the method of flaked stone refittings appears as a frankly viable practice that can be included in the designated Preventive Archaeology.

Contribution to the definition of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic burial practices in the  Estremadura Limestone Massif. 1: morpho-typological study of two engraved schist plaques from the cave of Buraca da Moura da Rexaldia (Chancelaria, Torres Novas)

Hoping to contribute to a better definition of 'cave megalithism'
in the area of Portuguese Estremadura, we analyze two engraved schist plaques collected in the cave of Buraca Moura da Rexaldia, whose morpho-typological characteristics fit into the funerary practices of ancient peasant communities from the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic of the
Estremadura Limestone Massif.

The engraved schist plaques and the "crosier" collected in the two Dolmens of Loba (Nossa Senhora de Machede, Évora)

The passage graves 1 and 2 of Herdade da Loba are located in Évora county, parrish N.ª S.ª de Machede, 200 m one of each other. The engraved schist plaques are in number of two from Loba 1 and 14 and one cross from Loba 2. Some details on these plaques justified special attention: the equilibrium between the main motifs, triangles, zigzags, chess patterns and hybrids. Also the definition Head-Body of the plaques and the pagination are object of analysis. This is the 8th paper of the «PLACA NOSTRA» series and the 5th on the plaques of the Évora region.

The remarkable votive plaques of the dolmen of Cabacinhitos (Évora).

From the passage grave named Anta de Cabacinhitos, near Évora, in Central Alentejo, Portugal, have been recovered 15 votive plaques, now studied by the «PLACA NOSTRA» team. The shapes are mostly of known types, with the exception of one, «ostrich egg» shaped. We must underline the presence of three cut shapes, which is very rare indeed in a single monument. The ensemble is truly exceptional, mostly by the presence of three plaques of cut contour, explicitly anthropomorphic, and by the presence of one plaque that has been engraved in both faces with the same motif, in which we can find the necklace of the Goddess.
It also has that to point out another extraordinary plaque, with Sun Eyes and a big nose, common symbols of the Goddess, and a hybrid composition of the Body (in the face). In the verso, two vertical braids, a motif known in a very little number of the «portuguese» plaques. One sandstone plaque belongs to an interesting complex present in the corridor Lisbon–Montemor–Portalegre, there associated with the schist plaques, and has also an anthropomorphic contour. Continuing the essays initiated with the STAM-3 passage grave monograph and the publication of the engraved schist plaques from Aljezur, paging readings are also done, looking forward to recover the sequence of gestures and the intentions of the plaques engravers. Nevertheless not having organic substance to date, first half of 3rd millennium BC is considered to be a very probable chronological scope for the votive plaques of Cabacinhitos.

The engraved schist plaques of the artificial cave of São Paulo 2 (Almada)

The artificial cave S. Paulo 2 is one of the monuments of a necropolis in the left bank of the Tagus river, in the actual city of Almada, just in front of Lisbon. A very important sum of items has been found there, namely an extraordinary series of votive artefacts made of limestone. The «PLACA NOSTRA» team presents, for the first time, the five engraved schist plaques discovered in the monument 2 and make some comments on its meaning.

The engraved schist plaques of the artificial caves of Tojal da Vila Chã (Carenque) and necropolis of Baútas (Mina, Amadora).

The artificial rock-cut caves necropolis of Tojal de Vila Chã, Carenque, includes four monuments excavated in 1932 by Manuel Heleno. Also situated in the vicinity is the largely unknown necropolis of Baútas, possibly a small-sized hipogeum of undetermined type that, on chronological and cultural terms, is associated with the group of Tojal de Vila Chã.
Amongst the collection of artefacts, most of which has never been studied before, were found a small group of engraved schist plaques (six) from the artificial rock-cut caves, and another from the Baútas necropolis. Although quite damaged, they form an interesting group, particularly nº 42791, from Cave 1. This plaque presents a range of problematic readings concerning its engraving and iconographic scheme. The contours of the motifs, for example, are engraved with a deeper, neater line than the fill, the latter executed with a tool that must have been guided with little pressure. The representation of the Head is also unusual, corresponding to the concept of an isolated Head integrated in a unique field of triangles, naturally readapted to the areas laterally adjacent to it. These, and other situations, justified a prolonged analysis of the artefact and a deconstruction of its engraving process, in a proposed reconstruction of what the plaque may have been in its entirety.
The artificial rock-cut cave necropolis of Tojal de Vila Chã and the monument of Baútas were constructed in an area of abundant and diverse settlements like Baútas, Espargueira or Serra das Éguas, whose study is even less complete. However, their existence indicates the strong presence in the region of human communities, during the transition from the 4th to the 3rd millennium and throughout the first half of the latter.
It is important, once again, to stress that the engraved schist plaques are in a minority amongst the group of votive artefacts from the artificial rock-cut caves, where votive limestone artefacts predominate. In the case of Tojal de Vila Chã, the context of their discovery also seems significant. They were mostly found in the Corridor or in the connecting area between the latter and the Chamber, indicating that they were introduced into it in a moment that was posterior to the construction and initial use of these monuments.

Key-words: Copper Age; megalithism; magical-religious subsystem; engraved schist plaques; Lisbon peninsula.

Regarding the reuse of some engraved schist plaques of Évora region.

The «PLACA NOSTRA» team presents a study concerning engraved schist plaques, most of which were never studied before, from megalithic monuments in the region of Évora (Antas da Mitra, Anta Grande do Zambujeiro, Tholos do Escoural, Anta 1 do Paço).
These plaques illustrate an important situation: the re-utilisation of older plaques, engraved, cut and polished anew. There are several possible explanations for their existence:
1. From a pragmatic prespective, what determines their re-use is less effort involved in the re-utilisation of a broken plaque, eventually dissociated from its original context, rather then the manufacture of a new one;
2. Another interpretation may consider the fact that, the original symbolism of the older plaque may be transported into a new symbolic action, giving rise to a new magical-religious situation.

Contextos e Objectivos

Em termos estritos, o Campaniforme é a súmula de um estilo decorativo cerâmico com formas cerâmicas específicas. Surge em toda a Europa e Norte de África em finais do Calcolítico, na segunda metade do 3º milénio a.n.e. Contudo, em termos mais abrangentes, a presença desta cerâmica tem profundas implicações no estudo do modelo de sociedade, de eixos de troca e de mudanças tecnológicas das comunidades agro-pastoris.
A temática do Campaniforme tem um longo historial de investigações em toda a Europa. A quantidade e diversidade de campaniforme na Península Ibérica desde cedo levou a colocar esta área no centro de debate da origem e difusão de um estilo cerâmico.
Ciclicamente, têm sido efectuados balanços sobre esta temática, sobretudo a propósito de estudos monográficos de sítios com dados especialmente relevantes quanto à estratigrafia, cronologia absoluta, tipologia.
Apesar da extensão da bibliografia disponível, escasseiam as leituras transversais e actualizadas reflectindo as recentes descobertas das últimas décadas: os recintos de fossos, os hipogeus do interior da Península, as novas análises arqueométricas. Estes novos dados permitem colocar em perspectiva os contextos «clássicos», alguns dos quais com trabalhos arqueológicos do século 19.
O presente workshop constitui um encontro científico especificamente direcionado para a temática do campaniforme à escala peninsular, reunindo um conjunto selecionado de investigadores, com dados relevantes. Para além do conjunto de oradores convidados, será ainda aberta a inscrição para posters, alargando-se assim o leque de participações.
Procura-se fazer o levantamento do estado da arte e, simultaneamente, estimular a discussão das diferentes perspectivas teóricas.
12 a 13 de Maio.
http://www.uniarq.net/workshop-sinos-e-tacas.html

The prehistoric sites of Pedreira do Aires e Monte das Pedras, geographically located in the lower Lisbon peninsula, were identified and studied in an already advanced state of destruction – which, of course, seriously undermine the archaeological contexts here recognized and the respective data disposition.
By the analysis of the recovered assets (exploitation and debitage debris, briefly formed nodules, core preforms, few finished instruments and few fragments of ceramic vessels), as well as by the definition of the geological context in which they are inserted – namely, upper Cenomanian limestones (Cretacious), rich in siliceous nodules –, both sites were interpreted as spaces dedicated to a specific activity in the Prehistory of ancient peasant communities (Neolithic and Calcolithic).
Apparently, these are flint «mines» at open air, where there is registered the exploitation of raw materials in the exposed limestone benches and the occasional production of flaked stone instruments – using exclusively flint stone.
Pedreira do Aires is located in the bottom of a hill, at the confluence of two watercourses, close to limestone outcrop. The recovered artefacts can be related to a Neolithic period, without further specification. The immediate archaeological context includes several megalithic monuments (dolmen type) and a height settlement poorly characterized. Monte das Pedras is located in the extreme of a large platform, on a limestone bench, in which was identified possible areas of surface exploration and production of artefacts. The recovered artefacts are related to Early Neolithic, Late Neolithic and Calcolithic periods. The immediate archaeological context includes several megalithic monuments (dolmen, rock cut caves and tholos type) and several neolithic and calcolithic settlements.
Thus, they can be characterized as small seasonal campsites located in the sphere of influence of a larger settlement – fact that is more evident in Monte das Pedras – included in a complex population network, outlining specific models/patterns of space occupation and resources exploitation.
By so, it is established the relationship with other contextually similar sites, setting up the strategies for the flint exploitation during the fourth and third millennia before our Era in Lisbon peninsula.

Symbols for the dead in spaces of the living? Some remarks about the presence of engraved schist plaques in settlements in North Alentejo, in the context of Southwest Iberia.

As a typical votive artefact of the megalithic communities of the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic in Southwest Iberia, the engraved schist plaques can be found mainly in funerary contexts during the last centuries of the 4th millennium and the firsts of the 3rd millennium BCE. However, these artefacts are also present in residential spaces, being found in open settlements, fortified settlements and ditched enclosures, with radiocarbon dates that fall between the last quarter of the 4th millennium and the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE. Using several sites of the region of North Alentejo as case studies, the authors intend to put forward some interpretive lines about the presence of these artefacts in residential contexts – debating questions such as the existence of actual production areas within the settlement space (workshops) or the recovery and reintroduction of these artefacts in residential areas (as relics, understood in the context of new symbolic concepts), possibly recovered during the reuse of megalithic monuments, a practice widely known in the Southwest Iberia throughout the whole 3rd millennium and even in the 2nd millennium BCE.

During Prehistory, pottery represents above all a practical production, although with
a functional meaning that stretches beyond its utilitarian feature. It points out a series of
specific activities that could be exclusively economic, but could be symbolic, ideological,
aesthetic and ritual as well – being also assumed as an expression of prestige and social
distinction. It is an element that reflects for itself a set of daily actions and behaviours of a
community, inseparable from the modus vivendi of the First Agro‐Pastoral Societies (from the
Neolithic to the Bronze Age) – inclusively accompanying the agents of a human group in the
funerary contexts.
Right from its first productions in Early Neolithic, pottery corresponds to the archaeological
remain better represented in the artefactual record. Its practical inutility once broken, its
resistence and preservation capacity confers to pottery sherds an almost “ubiquitous” part of
the archaeological record. As archaeographical data, this artefacual category is traditionaly used
in research to establish chrono‐cultural sequences, although it can offer other perspetives
throughout a detailed process of analysis, classification, ordination and interpretation.
Even if we can attend to the construction of new and renovated questionnaires for Material
Cultural analysis over the last years, they were not yet enough to overlap some of the
methodological limitations inherent to the studies of pottery in prehistoric contexts in Iberia,
such as:
– In the archaeological speech, pottery elements are usually used as means for chronological
definition, conditioning their whole informative potential, particularly in what concerns the
purpose of artefact’s production, as well as the entire subsequent Technological Process;
– The criteria for the Sample Selection not always are illustrative, their suitability to the
different kinds of contexts and their representativity in the totality of the ceramic set in study
are not so evident;
– The need for Normalize methologies and criteria of analysis, enabling the procedure of the
indispensable comparative studies, even if one can recognize that each pottery set has an
identity related to the chrono‐cultural and geographic scope in which it was produced and with
the archaeological context in which it was identified;
– The predominance of macroscopical analysis, disclosing generic readings about pastes (temper
and firing) and rarely resorting to tools from another disciplinary fields such as Archaeometry,
mainly due to its costs, but also to the unawareness about the informative potential to which
we can accede;
JIA 2015
VIII YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ARCHAEOLOGY CONFERENCE
Between science and culture: from interdisciplinarity to the transversality of archaeology
– The frail expression of Experimental Archaeology, a tool that allows a more complete
approach to the production process of the pottery elements and their functionality, providing a
high coefficient of information;
– The studies that look for elements to understand and explain the processes of Archaeological
Site Formation in pottery sherds are still very inconsistent, as well as for the definition of the
possible functionality of a site (resorting to the analysis of preservation condition of artefacts
and in the dimension of sherds, together with their spatial distribution in the excavated areas.
With the organization of this session, we intend to promote an extended reflection about the
issues listed above and in the presentation of new data framed by the following subjects:
– Analysis of the Chaîne Opératoire models (areas of raw‐material procurement; technological
modalities of artefactual production; functionality; manipulation; contexts of use, deposition
and discard);
– Typological Classification;
– Decorative Processes and Systems (social, functional, artistic and/or cultural dimension);
– Pottery as an element of Chronological Definition and evaluation of the
importance/pertinence of eventual “chrono‐cultutal indicators” in the scientific speech in terms
of their precision;
‐ Identification of Continuities and Ruptures in the pottery production in Time and Space;
‐ Analysis of eventual Exchange and Circulation Networks;
‐ Interdisciplinarity, resorting to studies in the fields of Archaeometry, Anthropology and
Ethnography.
The choice for pottery as the principal focus of this session is justifiable by the fact that ceramic
studies are one of the main subjects of the archaeological research of the First Agro‐Pastoral
Societies. It is also substantiated because the category/type of archaeological data in which
pottery is included, in its material dimension, constitutes a privileged link between the fields of
the Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences, where the study of Material Culture has now
acquired special importance over the last years.
Therefore, beginning with an essentially, but not exclusively, archaeological overview, our
proposal, with the organization of this session, is to discuss the adoption of an in‐depth analysis
frame, crossing contributes from different disciplinary areas that, with specific perspectives,
work on the fields of Material Culture (namely, of prehistoric pottery). From the Natural
Sciences, in their most analytic aspect, to the Social Sciences, Anthropology in particular, we
assume this session as an opportunity for dialogue and establishment of broad connections and
collaborations in Material Culture studies.

The development of extensive exchange networks during the 3rd millennium BC, established and stengthened by the consolidation of stable archaeo-metallurgical societies, has boosted the long-distance circulation of raw materials and artefacts whose provenance areas are sometimes located more than 200 km away from the site where they were ultimately used – thus being viewed as hyper-regional procurement / aquisition goods. The presence, in Chalcolithic contexts of the Portuguese Estremadura, of exogenous elements such as amber, ivory, variscite, and certain lithic raw materials used in the production of flaked stone and polished stone tools, indicates precisely the extent of these interaction diagrams, with diffusion routes covering vast geographic areas. Within the large and diversified set of the lithic industry from the Chalcolithic fortified settlement of Outeiro Redondo, located in the Western area of Setúbal peninsula (municipality of Sesimbra, Estremadura, Portugal) and occupied for most of the 3rd millennium BC, artefacts (exclusively large blades) were recognized whose macro-petrographic features indicate that they are elements produced using oolitic flint (to which one can associate the presence of other exogenous raw materials, such as rhyolite), mostly integrated in stratigraphic or strucutral contexts dated from the Middle Chalcolithic local chrono-zone (second half of the 3rd millennium BC). Such presence, coupled with the apparent absence of usable oolitic silicifications on the Jurassic formations of Western Iberia (but widely documented in Southern Spain, between the areas of Malaga and Granada), allows to integrate this site into those schemes of long-distance trade encompassing the whole Southwestern Iberia during the 3rd millennium BCE, as a recipient of items with an “exotic” character – although being debatable their “sumptuous consumption” as “prestige goods”, precisely on the basis of the evidence from Outeiro Redondo, where the elements show intense use-wear marks.