0019 – Presenting an archaeometric approach to stone idols

Next Monday, in the context of a meeting in Abrantes, Portugal, dedicated to interaction of objects and raw materials in the 3^rd millennium BC, a first approach to the study of the provenance of stone idols and vessels from Perdigões will be presented. A collaboration of Nia-Era and the ITN-IST in the context of Charisma program. The analyses were done at the Nuclear Analysis and Radiography Department, MTA Centre for Energy Research, H-1121 Budapest, Hungary.

 

A general approach to the interaction in Perdigões, regarding raw materials, objects and people, was presented in Madrid in the beginning of this month, in the context of a meeting dedicated to debate the use of resources in this same period.

0016 – Phalange Idols

 

A paper is being prepared about the phalange idols from funerary contexts of Perdigões enclosure. Some are decorated, others just polished and with change in their morphology to make it more anthropomorphic. While cleaning the peaces one of them presented a decoration characteristic of the anthropomorphic figurines of the 3^rd millennium BC: the two solar eyes, the facial tattoos and, in this case, a horizontal belt. In the back the usual zigzag hair. Very similar to some decorated phalanges of La Pijotilla.

The paper will address the idols but also their specific support that reveals particular choices and has implications for an important issue of the period: the questions about social role of the horse.