Algar do Bom Santo: a middle neolithic necropolis in portuguese Estremadura

2014

This paper reviews and updates the anthropological knowledge about Middle-Late Neolithic populations in Portugal. This territory is rich in prehistoric burial sites, particularly those of the designated Middle and Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic periods (4th–3rd millennia BCE). In the past 150 years, more than 3000 tombs, namely natural caves used as tombs, dolmens, rock cut tombs and tholoi (vaulted chamber tombs) were identified and hundreds of them explored. Within these funerary structures, generally used as collective burials, the bones were frequently found and registered as disturbed and in a very fragmentary condition with total or almost total absence of anatomic connections. The systematic study of these human remains started in the 1990's and are mainly based on data obtained from tombs located in Estremadura and Algarve, two regions with limestone bedrocks that contributed to a better bone preservation. Those studies led to the assessment of anthropological profiles of s...

BAR Publishing, 2019

Resting in Peace or in Pieces? studies Tomb I, a tholos type structure found in the Perdigões Archaeological Complex (Évora, Portugal) from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. The human bone sample (61926 bone fragments and 1579 teeth) found in Tomb I was highly fragmented and skeletonised elements were found completely disarticulated. This book takes a twofold approach to the study of the skeletal sample from Tomb I. The monument is studied according to the archaeological phases defined during field work, which explains the possible differentiated uses of the tomb through time. The skeletal sample is then studied as a whole, regardless of phases of use. Lucy Shaw Evangelista uses the data obtained to paleodemographically reconstruct the individuals buried in the tomb, comparing them with other funerary structures inside and outside the Perdigões ditched enclosures. This research broadens our understanding of mortuary practices and collective burials in Chalcolithic Portugal, situating it within the wider European Copper Age context.

2020

Vale de Barrancas 1. A necrópole neolítica. 7 Resumo Situado junto à vila de Beringel, mas pertencendo à freguesia de Mombeja, concelho de Beja, o sítio de Vale de Barrancas 1 foi intervencionado no âmbito da construção da Autoestrada do Baixo Alentejo -Lanço C. Entre contextos datáveis de várias épocas (Bronze Final, Períodos Romano, Tardoromano/Visigótico, Contemporâneo) foi escavada uma necrópole composta por nove hipogeus de cronologia neolítica (meados / terceiro quartel do 4º milénio a.C.). A presente monografia incide exclusivamente nos hipogeus datados do Neolítico, apresentando a descrição das suas arquitecturas e contextos funerários (Cap. 2), as suas cronologias absolutas abordadas no âmbito da análise cronométrica da emergência dos enterramentos colectivos na região (Cap. 3), o estudo bioantropológico dos restos humanos exumados (Cap. 4), o estudo de paleodietas das populações ali sepultadas através de assinaturas isotópicas (Cap. 5), a investigação da natureza dos pigmentos vermelhos utilizados nos rituais funerários (Cap. 6) e, por último, o enquadramento regional da necrópole neolítica de Vale de Barrancas 1 no contexto de uma revisão da síntese sobre as tumulações neolíticas em hipogeu no interior alentejano (Cap. 7).

Fragmentation and depositions in Pre and Protohistoric Portugal., 2019

Ongoing multidisciplinary studies of skeletonized human remains from the Middle Neolithic Bom Santo Cave (Lisbon, Portugal) is indicating a very heterogeneous population at various levels (diets, mobility and genetics). The current interpretation suggests that its socio-economic and funerary territories encompassed the lower Tagus, its tributaries and the granitic sectors of the Mora–Pavia area in the Alentejo. Archaeothanatological analyses indicated mutually exclusive funerary practices: secondary depositions at Room A and primary and secondary depositions at Room B. Polished stone tools are evenly distributed in both rooms, while ornaments, pottery, flint blades and sheep/goat phalanges are almost restricted to Room A. Such distribution patterns reflects the coexistence of distinct funerary practices in which Room A is part of a much complex behaviour that included primary depositions, exhumation, transportation and re-deposition of human bone remains between different sectors of the cave and/or cemeteries (caves, dolmens) of the above-described territory. Thus, a more dynamic (in its rituals) and wider (in its geography) set of funerary practices than usually perceived—in which the intentional segmentation of human skeletons is attested—seems to have taken place at the onset of megalithism in central-southern Portugal.

In: Rocha, L.; Bueno, P. & Branco, G. (eds.), Death as Archaeology of Transition: Thoughts and Materials, pp.327-341. Oxford: Archaeopress., 2015

The Olival do Senhor dos Mártires necropolis (Alcácer do Sal, Portugal) is one of the most relevant sites for the discussion of the Iron Age of Southern Portugal and, more specifically, of the funerary practices of that period in this territory. Unfortunately, and due to several circumstances, the available data is very incomplete and riddled with uncertainties. As an attempt to minimize these limitations, an integral study of the material from the necropolis is now underway; we present it here briefly, preceded by a global exposition of the research history and a cursive discussion of the available data.

Lugar do Canto Cave is one of the most relevant Neolithic burial caves in Portugal given not only its extraordinary preservation conditions at the time of discovery but also the quality of the field record obtained during excavation. Its material culture immediately pointed to a Middle Neolithic cemetery but recent radiocarbon determinations also allowed the recognition of an apparent two step phasing of its use within the period (ca. 4000-3400 cal BC): an older one characterized by a single burial and a later reoccupation as a collective necropolis. Comparisons with other well-dated cave cemeteries in Southern Portugal permitted the recognition of changing funerary practices and strategies of cemetery use during the later stages of the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic: 1) ca. 3800 cal BC as the possible turning point from the practice of individual to collective burials; 2) alternating periods of intensive use and deliberate abandonment of cemeteries (evidenced by their intentional c...

2019

Ongoing multidisciplinary studies of skeletonized h uman remains from the Middle Neolithic Bom Santo Cave (Lisbon, Portugal) is indi cat ng a very heterogeneous population at various levels (diets, mobility and genetics). The current interpretation suggests that its socioeconomic and funerary territories encompassed the l ow r Tagus, its tributaries and the granitic sectors of the Mora–Pavia area in the Alentejo. Archaeothanatological analyses indicated mutually e xclusive funerary practices: secondary depositions at Room A and primary and sec ondary depositions at Room B. Polished stone tools are evenly distributed in both rooms, w hile ornaments, pottery, flint blades and sheep/goat phalanges are almost restricted to Room A. Fragmentation and Depositions in Pre and Proto-Hist oric Portugal 72 Such distribution patterns reflects the coexistence of distinct funerary practices in which Room A is part of a much complex behaviour that inc luded primary depositions, exhumation, transpor...

Documenta Praehistorica, 2011

The present paper aims to give a general outline of new data that contributes to a better understanding of cults and rituals in Alto Ribatejo, central Portugal, during recent prehistory. The Megalithic Complex of Rego da Murta is the only megalithic set known so far in the Upper Nabão region, and is therefore of crucial significance to understanding the population dynamics of the people who inhabited this region. The excellent preservation of deposition contexts – especially those in Dolmen II of Rego da Murta, and its relative proximity with the cave contexts – makes it the perfect case study for understanding the burial rites performed in this period.

The Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age mortuary rockshelter of Bolores (Torres Vedras, Lisbon) is a collective burial located in the archaeologically rich landscape of the Portuguese Estremadura. Excavations were conducted in 2007 and 2008 as part of the Sizandro-Alcabrichel Research Project (SARP), a collaboration between the German Archaeological Institute-Madrid and The University of Iowa which seeks to investigate the dynamics of social evolution and paleoecology of human populations between the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Sizandro and Alcabrichel River valleys. To generate a high-resolution history of Bolores and document the variability of human biographies throughout the site’s use, we applied interdisciplinary methods, including GIS, AMS dating of multiple individuals, micromorphology, bioarchaeology, bone refitting, biodistance studies, and stable isotope analyses. Four AMS dates bracket activity at the site between 2800 and 1800 cal B.C., which is coeval with the settlement of Zambujal, located 2km to the SE, and other burials in caves, rockshelters, and tholoi in the region. Bolores is somewhat unusual for this time period and region because it housed a relatively high percentage of subadults (over 50%) and associated artifacts are rare. This report contextualizes Bolores within the variability of Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age burial practices in the Portuguese Estremadura.