Archaeologists (re)found the place where, in 1972, the so-called “Estela do Guerreiro” was discovered, one of the most emblematic stones epigraphed with the writing of the Southwest.
And they also found a beautiful iron spearhead, about 2500 years old, which has been on display since the weekend at the Museum of Writing in Sudoeste Almodôvar (MESA).
These are the main results of two years of archaeological excavations in the Necrópole da Abóbada, parish of Rosário, in the lower Alentejo county of Almodôvar, and which on Saturday were presented by archaeologists Samuel Melro and Pedro Barros in a session in the village, as part of the European Days of Heritage.
Samuel Melro, noting that this is the presentation of "very preliminary" results of the archaeological work carried out in that necropolis in 2010 and 2011, recalled that this intervention is part of the second phase of the Estela Project, which in 2008 and 2009, in a first phase, passed by an extensive campaign of prospecting on the ground, in vast areas of the Algarve mountains and Baixo Alentejo, in a vast interland formed by the interior of the municipalities of Loulé, Silves, and also Almodôvar, Ourique.
The archaeologist stressed that the objective of the Estela Project «is not to decipher in linguistic terms» the still enigmatic and always controversial writing of the Southwest, but «to investigate the historical and archaeological contexts of the society from which this writing comes.
One of the main objectives of this excavation campaign in the Necropolis of the Vault was precisely to try to identify the exact location where, in 1972, the now famous «Estela do Guerreiro», the main piece and symbol of the MESA, was found.
This stele, a slab in schist, has always been considered exceptional for containing a rare association of writing from the Southwest with the representation of a human figure. And the news about this finding, made by archaeologists sent to the site, already indicated the existence of two funerary monuments delimited in stone.
While an institutional "war" was taking place around the entity that should be guarding the stele (see text below), the place where it had been found was abandoned and suffered, shortly thereafter, a large and deep mechanical work, which destroyed many of the most superficial archaeological remains that could then still exist.
Thirty-eight years after this discovery, archaeologists have returned to the site. And they found that: that it had been seriously damaged by agricultural work. “What we observed was a pile of stones and no longer the two funerary monuments featured in the 1972 news item”, recalled Samuel Melro.
After clearing the small area along the Mira River, it was then possible to identify the remains of these tombs and even cremated human bones.
The researchers identified two tomb structures defined in stone, square, backed by a central wall. In one of the tombs, there were also cremated bones, quite well preserved and in the place where they would have been originally deposited.
They also identified two other forms of burial: a set of four graves in a simple pit, "pits where the cremated bones were placed", and a third type, consisting of pits also opened in the rock, but with a small ceramic urn inside. , where the bones were deposited, which were also cremated.
Analyzing these three types of burials, archaeologists and physical anthropologist David Gonçalves have already reached several preliminary conclusions: first, that the bodies were cremated in one place and their bones were cremated in another (that is, that this was a necropolis with burials of secondary deposition), that in each of the tombs the osteological remains of a single person were deposited, but not all of their bones, and even though the complete and undismembered corpses were cremated in the funeral pyre and that it reached very intense temperatures , to make a complete cremation.
According to Samuel Melro, the anthropological analysis that will be carried out of this osteological collection by anthropologist David Gonçalves will allow, according to Samuel Melro, to «reconstitute the funerary rituals» of these Alentejo people from 2500 years ago, in the Iron Age.
It was precisely one of these tombs consisting of a small pit (pit) with a small pottery urn inside that archaeologists have identified as the exact location where, in 1972, Estela do Guerreiro was discovered.
The stele, recalled Samuel Blackbird, according to oral information collected nearly 40 years ago was no longer in its original position, at the top and with the inscriptions clearly visible, but lying down, with the epigraphed face down, serving as a cover for the burial with the urn. Therefore, it was a reuse (read text below).
The researchers, with great care, removed the ceramic urn from the interior of the hole, but its poor state of conservation will hardly be possible, even with painstaking restoration work, to create the conditions to be exposed to the public.
In addition to the important (re)discovery of the place where Estela do Guerreiro was famous, in a hole right next to it, archaeologists had another good surprise: they found an iron spearhead, facing west.
The artifact, relatively common in archaeological contexts from this era of the Iron Age in the area, proved to be, however, of great beauty. The iron spearhead was treated by Matthias Tissot, at the National Museum of Archeology, and ended up highlighting the delicacy and perfection of the work, as can now be seen in the photograph above or, more directly, in the Southwest Writing Museum , in Almodôvar, where it is also one of the most recent pieces in the exhibition «Life and Death in the Iron Age».
«The immediate conservation work on this find allowed this small surprise, which, if this work had been left undone, would never have been revealed», commented Samuel Melro. A comment that is all the more pertinent when it is known that the restorative conservators of the National Museums were dismissed, due to budget cuts.
The spearhead was however dated between the mid-fifth century BC and the first half of the fourth century BC, that is, it would have been around 2500 years old.
Other preliminary conclusions of the researchers are that the Necropolis of the Vault fits perfectly into the so-called “world of Iron of Ourique”, a reality that launched Baixo Alentejo as one of the great centers of the Iron Age in Portugal.
In the Vault, however, there is no longer the presence of large funerary monuments with a circular outline, but later monuments with a rectangular plan. This, explained Samuel Blackbird, was corroborated by the funeral ritual of cremated bones and spearhead chronology.
However, due to the destruction of the site, it is not possible to know whether the tombs defined in stone were or were not contemporaries of the pits, or whether, for example, the different types of funerary structures reflected a social difference between the individuals buried there.
Within the scope of the Estela Project, the archaeologists consider it essential to continue the work, namely in «habitat contexts». Therefore, they intend to investigate the villages of Casal Ventoso, and especially of Portela da Arca, associated with the necropolis of Mouriços, all in the municipality of Almodôvar. All in order, according to Samuel Melro, «to seek to obtain the closest image of the experience and path of these peoples», in the «writing territory of the Southwest».
Almodôvar bets on heritage to promote development
"Heritage is a fundamental element of the development strategy of the municipality of Almodôvar," said António Sebastião, mayor of the local council, on Saturday, at the session to present the results of two years of archaeological excavations in the Iron Age necropolis of the Vault.
For, added the mayor, heritage can "attract visitors, create jobs." And this is already happening in this municipality in Baixo Alentejo. Hence the pioneering support of the Municipality of Almodôvar to the Estela Project since 2008 and to the archaeological excavations at Mesas do Castelinho that have been going on for more than 20 years.
The most visible aspect of the municipality's commitment to heritage is the Sudoeste Writing Museum (MESA), which, according to António Sebastião, is already having "a positive impact". «The City Council of Almodôvar has every interest in enhancing its heritage, in the investment that values our municipality and creates conditions for its future sustainability», he also said.
In addition to the MESA, where the exhibition «Life and Death in the Iron Age» is on display (since this weekend enriched with two new pieces – the spearhead of the necropolis of the Vault and the epigraphed stele of the Monte Gordo), in support of the Estela Project, the Chamber of Almodovarense launched on Friday the «Almodôvar Guide – Territory of the Ancient Writing of the Southwest».
Work is already underway to adapt the former Convent of S. Francisco to Centro Multiusos, also with cultural functions, while the museum is expected to be musealized and the Mesas do Castelinho interpretive center will be created.
A clear bet on the advantages that Heritage can bring to this municipality in Baixo Alentejo. In the current context of crisis and budgetary restraint, the mayor António Sebastião made a point of emphasizing, in statements to the Sul Informação, who wants to transform Almodôvar into an “oasis” in southern Portugal.
The Estela Project has as associated entities the Chambers of Almodôvar and Loulé, the MESA (Writing Museum of Southwest Almodôvar) and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon. The responsible archaeologists are Samuel Melro and Pedro Barros, with Amílcar Guerra and Carlos Fabião as scientific consultants. Susana Estrela and Artur Rocha are collaborating archaeologists, David Gonçalves is the physical anthropologist. Rui Cortes and Rui Santana (Almodôvar Chamber) and Isabel Luzia and Alexandra Pires (Loulé Chamber) are also consultants.
The troubled history of the discovery of the «Estela do Guerreiro»
The stele was found in 1972, by Joaquim Miguel, an agricultural worker who was working an area of Herdada de Abobada. It was first exhibited in a tavern, the Retiro dos Caçadores, in the neighboring village of Ourique.
But the news of this finding quickly reached the then director of the National Museum of Archeology (MNA), who officiated to the GNR of Almodôvar to fetch the stele from that tavern. The MNA also sent the archaeologist Caetano de Melo Beirão to transport the stele to the museum, but he was unable to fulfill this mission, because, in the meantime, the district authorities of Beja intervened and demanded that the «Estela do Guerreiro» not was taken to the capital.
The result is that the stele ended up being deposited in the District Museum of Beja, and now a replica can be seen in the Writing Museum of Sudoeste Almodôvar (MESA).
The controversies around Southwestern Writing
The epigraphed stelae are elongated blocks in stone, mostly in schist, with a regular surface and intended to be fixed vertically to the ground, which contained inscriptions marked on the stone. These stelae have so far been the main library discovered with the mysterious writing of the Southwest.
And mysterious why? Most researchers point to it as a form of writing with Phoenician origin, of which the symbols and even the sounds they would correspond to are already known, but which has never been deciphered, since the exact language in which these symbols matched. It is as if we could read the sounds of Chinese writing, because we know which sound each ideogram corresponds to, but we cannot read and understand what is written, because we do not know the language.
In total, close to a hundred stone inscriptions are known, dating back to the 400th and XNUMXth centuries BC. But recently, during excavations in the Castle of Moura, an inscription of these appeared on a ceramic fragment from strata dating back to the XNUMXth century BC, that is, XNUMX years before Christ.
In such a way that, Amílcar Guerra, researcher and university professor who has dedicated himself to studying the writing of the Southwest, pointed out that “in the past, it was said that this writing ended in the XNUMXth century [BC]. Now it's better not to talk about his death so soon", because this writing, more than dying and disappearing, "may have lost and changed some of its formal aspects", but it remained for a longer time.
Until today, a stele has never been found in its original location, stuck in the ground, which has also contributed to making it difficult to define its chronology and exact functionality. Steles have always been found torn down and often reused in later uses – on the pavement of a street, as in the Roman village of Mesas do Castelinho, to serve as a cover for a later tomb, as in the necropolis of the Vault, or even on the wall of contemporary houses and hills, serving as building material.
Starting from the case of the Vault, Amílcar Guerra points out that it is not yet known «why these stelae were reused in later necropolises, 100 to 150 years later», but put forward the hypothesis that the stelae originally belonged to an earlier phase of the cemetery, being later reused, namely as tomb covers.
The so-called “Estela do Guerreiro”, because it associates the epigraphed writing with the representation of a human figure, is one of the best known. But even in the interpretation of what this figure will represent there is controversy. Augusto Ferreira do Amaral, lawyer and student of these themes, author of the book on the theme «Neo-Hititas in Portugal», published this year by Aletheia, was one of the people who was in Almodôvar this Saturday and did not hesitate to say that the stela did not represents a "warrior, but a deity".
In this book, Ferreira do Amaral even disputes that the origin of the writing is Phoenician, as is commonly accepted by researchers, arguing that “it came from southwestern Anatolia. And the language will be anatomical Indo-European, very close to Luvite and Hittite». If so, he argues, "we will have to review the history of pre-classical Mediterranean Antiquity and the origins of the alphabet."
However, according to Amílcar Guerreiro, the writing of the Southwest or Tartéssica, from the Iron Age in southern Spain and Portugal, was developed by the Tartessos, the name by which the Greeks knew the first civilization of the West, which would have developed in the areas of current regions of Spanish Andalusia, Baixo Alentejo and Algarve.
The writing of the Tartessians, which had cultural influences from the Egyptians and Phoenicians, according to Amílcar Guerra, “is distinct from that of neighboring peoples, complex and remains undecipherable to this day”.
Learn more about the Estela Project at http://projectoestela.blogspot.com
All the photos are by the Estela Project, with the exception of the photos of Estela do Guerreiro and the presentation (Elisabete Rodrigues) and the restored Spearhead (Matthias Tissot)
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