Ditched
enclosures, namely the large ones, are some of the best contexts to developed
research on mobility, for they congregate numerous evidences of interaction and
movement of people, animals and objects.
At an
Iberian scale, Perdigões is now one of the main sites where this research is
being developed.
There is a
Portuguese Science Foundation project dedicated to this specific topic: “Mobility and interaction in South Portugal Recent Prehistory: the role of aggregation centers”.
In this project participate the research unit of ERA Arqueologia, the research
centre ICArEHB of university of Algarve and the laboratory Hércules of Évora
University.
But this
research has a wider projection, for this project is in articulated
collaboration with several others related to the same topic.
We also
integrate the project “Beyond migration and diffusion: peoples and technologies
in prehistory”, financed by the Australian Research Council, and involve Era
Arqueologia, the Australian National University, Griffith University and the
Centro Nacional de Investigatión sobre l Evolución Humana. The goal will be research
and compare mobility patterns between Prehistoric Iberia and the Pacific
Islands.
Furthermore,
we are establishing a partnership in this topic with another FCT project: “Beaker
origins: Testing the hypothesis of late Neolithic dispersals from Iberia using
both ancient and contemporary mitochondrial genomes” developed by Minho
University with the collaboration of the doctoral scholarship programme at
Huddersfield University (UK) entitled Genetic Journeys into History: The Next
Generation (running 2015–2020).
Finally, we
are engaged in other projects in phase of application, namely two on diets and mobility
of animals in Iberia and another that will join the European Atlantic façade, “6,000
years of Farmers and Food: Reconnecting Atlantic Heritage” (working title),
that will join institution from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, France,
Portugal and Spain.
The
participation of Perdigões complex of enclosures in all these projects, some of
them already with preliminary results, puts it in a unique position (in Iberian
terms) in the context of the actual focus of research in mobility in Prehistory
at an international level.
But this is
the result of the way the Global Program of Research of Perdigões was conceived
and is being developed.
