0044 - Excavation Campaign 2019

0043 - Archaeoacoustics at Perdigões

Next Tuesday we will be visiting Perdigões to discuss the possibility of developing a new sub-project (integrated in the Global Program of Archaeological Research of Perdigões run by Era) dedicated to archaeoacoustics. If visibility was already established as an important variable for the location of the site and to what was happening there, so possibly was acoustics. Remember that the site is in a natural theater that has specific sound conditions.

With us will be Portuguese people with long experience in sound design and acoustics (Carlos A. Augusto) and with experience in acoustics applied to heritage in UK (Tiago Queiróz), and two researchers from the University of Barcelona responsible for a European Research Council project on archaeoacoustics: Margarita Díaz-Andreu and Tommaso Mattioli, leaders of the project Artsoundscapes.

There is few or no work at all regarding the variable sound in Portuguese archaeology. At Perdigões, we will try to contribute to change that, with the possibility to extend the project to other sites with similar heuristic potential to this approach to Prehistory, like Fraga da Pena in Beira Alta.

0042 - Neolithic Perdigões publication

A publication regarding the Neolithic Perdigões enclosure has just been edited. It concerns the Neolithic contexts that were excavated at the site between 2007 and 2018.

0041 - Amber at Perdigões

Amber bead recovered inside a skull from Tomb 2 of Perdigões. Amber beads were also present at Tomb 1, and were made of Sicilian amber. The one from Tomb 2 will be analyzed soon, to determine the provenance of the amber.

One more evidence, among so many others, of the interaction networks of  exotic materials where Perdigões was involved in.

More information here.

0040 - Presentation of Tomb 4 of Perdigões

Excavated during 2018, Tomb 4 of Perdigões is tholos collective tomb dating from the 3rd millennium BC. Is located in the eastern side of the site, just outside the ditched enclosures. The results of the excavation will be presented at the meeting of Archaeology of Southwest Iberia to be held in Zafra (Spain) next November 9th.

The excavations of done in the context of the project PTDC/EPH-ARQ/0798/2014, financed by FCT.

0039 - New paper in the Perdigões research

0038 - New PhD thesis about Perdigões

Lucy Evangelista presented her PhD thesis to the University of Coimbra.

Abstract:

For this study, the human bone sample recovered from Tomb I was analysed from a bioarchaeological perspective with the aim of contributing towards a better understanding of the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic individuals that used the Perdigões prehistoric enclosures (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) as a burial site, and their attitudes towards death.

To achieve this, four main research objectives were defined:

(I) the analysis of the human remains exhumed from Tomb I, in order to characterize demographic, morphologic and pathological aspects of the population(II) based on physical anthropological analysis and the archaeological register, identification of funerary rules and attitudes, relating them to mental constructions towards death through a study of: the conception and form of deposition of human remains; the organization of the internal space of the tomb; evidence of ritualization; signs of management of the funerary space (III) to understand how the specific mortuary practices identified in Tomb I fit into the global funerary practices already known for the rest of the important archaeological site of Perdigões (IV) Tomb I was also understood within the context the history of the use of other tholoi type structures in the territory that is now referred to as South Portugal.

Tomb I is a tholos type structure from Perdigões Archaeological Complex, dated from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC and excavated between 1997 and 2001.The sample was in poor state of conservation and highly fragmented, and skeletonized elements were found completely disarticulated. Anthropic and natural taphonomic alterations were limiting factors of the study.

A two-fold approach was applied to the study of the skeletal sample from this funerary structure. First, it was studied according to the archaeological phases defined after field work, which sought to understand possible differentiated uses of the tomb through time. The skeletal sample was then studied as a whole, regardless of phases of use. The data obtained through this latter anthropological study were utilized for the paleodemographic reconstruction and for the identification of potential patterns in mortuary practices and for further comparison of this monument with other funerary structures inside and outside Perdigões Archaeological Complex. Both approaches mirror the same reality: the collective, commingled use of this tomb for deposition of human remains from both sexes and individuals of all ages.

A total of 61926 bone fragments and 1579 teeth were studied. The paleodemographic approach estimated an MNI of 103 individuals for this structure: 55 adults and 48 non-adults (below 15 years of age at death). Results showed both sexes were represented, while non-metric trait data, highly limited by the conditions of the sample, delivered few results.

Calculus was identified on 20,6% of the analysed teeth (289/1399) and linear enamel hypoplasia on 10,4% (143/1369) of the tooth sample, making them the most frequently represented dental pathologies for permanent teeth. Average tooth wear in this sample was low: 1,9 (n=1428) very close to the level of wear obtained for deciduous dentition: 1,8 (n=84). Cariogenic lesions were found on only 0,5% of the 1406 permanent teeth analysed and antemortem tooth loss was identified in 5,3% (n=29/539) of the observable alveoli. Skeletal pathological changes related mostly to joint disease, found mainly on upper and lower limb bones and the spine. The presence of enthesopathies were most commonly found on the lower limb and foot bones. Some evidence other diseases, such as infectious, congenital, metabolic and traumatic conditions, was found, but in low frequencies. However, the rarity of some of these pathologies for prehistoric contexts must be highlighted, as the probable case of Hyperostosis Frontalis Interna identified on an individual from Phase 2C.

The analysis of the use of the chamber for funerary depositions throughout the different phases revealed that different physical areas were used for the depositions of human remains and artefacts. In terms of Funerary Anthropology, Tomb I constitutes a burial site where an obvious and intense manipulation of the skeletal remains took place. No anatomical connections were identified and evidence suggests the secondary use of this funerary structure, although the possible presence of primary depositions at some point of its life cannot be overruled.

Comparison with other tholos/tholoi type structures made it possible to record differences in demographic, morphological and pathological features between coeval populations.

0037 - New Master Thesis about Perdigões

A thesis about the social role of Bell Beakers at Perdigões: an adding to a social trajectory, rather than any kind of rupture.

0036 - New paper on the social role of molluscs and shells at Perdigões

New paper on Perdigões enclosure. This one about the social role of molluscs and mollusc shells in the site. The main conclusion is that the consumption of molluscs and shells is mainly an issue of ideology, rather than subsistence, in the context of transregional interaction and use of exogenous materials. The majority are sea or estuarine species and, of those, it was the shell (not the mollusc) that circulated the most. Pecten maximus is one of the main presences, but in different contexts according to chronology: in depositions in ditches and pits in the Neolithic Perdigões, and a lot in funerary contexts during the chalcolithic. These and some other interesting aspects of molluscs use at a local and regional scales are discussed in the paper (in Portuguese), where large ditched enclosures show differences regarding smaller open or walled sites.

0034 - Collaboration with project of archaeogenetics

Auroch horn from Neolithic pit 48 of Perdigões

The project Perdigões PTDC/EPH-ARQ/0798/2014 – MOBINTER - "Mobility and interaction in South Portugal Recent Prehistory: the role of aggregation centers” is collaborating with the project ARCHAIC. The archaeogenetics Of Iberian Cattle: investigating their origins, evolution and improvement” (see information here: http://archaic.campus.ciencias.ulisboa.pt/Archaic/home.html).

In this context sixty samples (30 of Bos taurus – domestic cattle -and 30 of Bos primigenius – auroch) will be selected for DNA analysis from Neolithic and Chalcolithic contexts of Perdigões. 

0033 - New master thesis on Perdigões

In October 18th, a new master thesis on Perdigões enclosures was presented: 

“Exploring Chalcolithic diet and mobility of humans and animals from Perdigões site”, by Indre Zalaite.

It was presented at University of Évora, in ARCHMAT program (ERASMUS MUNDUS MASTER IN ARCHaeological MATerials Science) and was also part of the project on mobility at Perdigões enclosures (see here) approved and financed by the Portuguese Science Foundation.

It is a first output of that project, which results will soon be published, product of the collaboration of the three institutions involved in the project integrated in the Global Program of Archaeological Research of Perdigões: ERA Arqueologia, Hércules Laboratory – Uévora and ICArEHB-UAlg. Center.

0032 - Perdigões and mobility research

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.

031 - Two new papers about Perdigões

0030 - Perdigões at Wood Conference

In a very profitable collaboration with Hercules Laboratory of Évora University, several archaeometric projects are being developed in order to provide answers to the main problems that are being researched at Perdigões by the Nia team. In the present case we are dealing with the funerary contexts of cremated human remains and trying to know what kind of wood was used for the cremations and what temperature was achieved by analysing the charcoal remains. A poster with the first results will be presented at the meeting “Wood and Charcoal” to be held at Minho University this month.

Here is the title of our collaboration:

Random gathering or intentional wood selection? Charcoal analysis of pit 16 deposit from Perdigões archaeological site

Ginevra Coradeschi, Cristina Dias, Fernando Branco, Laura Sadori and Antonio Valera

0029 - New collaborations

Perdigões is still enlarging its range of scientific collaborations. We are now starting a partnership with the project “Beaker origins: Testing the hypothesis of late Neolithic dispersals from Iberia using both ancient and contemporary mitochondrial genomes”,  a Portuguese Science Foudation financed project from Minho University (Environmental and Molecular Biology Center), and with a PhD thesis being made in the context of the Leverhulme Trust doctoral scholarship programme at Huddersfield University entitled Genetic Journeys into History: The Next Generation (running 2015–2020).

Meanwhile, a synthesis about the Bell Beaker phenomena at Perdigões will be presented at a meeting to be held in the University of Lisbon next May.  

0028 - New publication

0027 Ehxibition about Perdigões: the posters

For those who cannot visit the exhibition fo Perdigões in Évora here are the poster that go along with the archaeological materials.

0026 - Perdigões: Conference, Workshop, Exhibition

 

A conference about de global research program of Perdigões, followed by a workshop about that research and public display strategies and the inauguration of an archaeological exhibition will be occur in February 11^th in Évora, in the Direcção Regional de Cultura.

Here is the detailed program (starting at 15.00):

 

Conference:

“Perdigões: a síntese de 18 anos de investigação de um sítio de excepção.”  António Carlos Valera

 

Workshop (16.30 – 17.30):

A divulgação dos Perdigões: limitações e potencialidades.

Miguel Lago

 

O arquivo antropológico dos Perdigões: avaliação a partir do caso de estudo do sepulcro 1.

Lucy Shaw Evangelista

 

O registo faunístico nos Perdigões: os dados que resultam de 15 000 ossos já estudados.

Claúdia Costa

 

A investigação dos recintos de fossos em Portugal: razões da excepcionalidade dos Perdigões.

António Carlos Valera

 

 

Exhibition inauguration.



0025 – Manipulations of human bones at Perdigões

There is new information about the manipulation of human remains at Perdigões enclosures that will be published in a paper during 2016.

Here is a glimpse into the new data: a skull from a child that presents marks that probably resulted from scalping.

 

 

0024 - Paper about ideotechnic items at Perdigões

It was recently published a paper about the ideotechnic items present at Perdigões enclosure.

Abstract:

This paper presents a preliminary approach to the global assemblage of the Late Neolithic and Chal-colithic ideotechnic items recorded in Perdigões enclosures (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal). An inventory of the available data is provided. These items are organized in nineteen typological categories and are ana-lyzed in terms of raw material, context and chronology. Based on the available information, some questions regarding interaction and the social role of these objects at Perdigões are discussed.

Reference:

António Carlos Valera, The diversity of ideotechnic objects at Perdigões enclosure: a first enventory of items and problems. ARPI, Homenaje a Rodrigo Balbín Berhmann, 3 Extra. Universidad de Alcalá, 2015: 238-256.