The clay pot has been buried there for at least 2400 years, but before its fragments are removed, archaeologists Pedro Barros, Samuel Melro and Susana Estrela do an unlikely gymnastics to photograph the piece. in situ.
«Move to the side, because of the shadow», asks Pedro Barros, on his haunches, almost on his knees, and with the digital camera scanning the ceramic fragments.
This gymnastics scene at the end of the day takes place on an elevation of land in Portela da Arca, in the municipality of Almodôvar, very close to the valley of the River Mira, where those responsible for the Estela Project spent more than two weeks in July, making the first campaign of archaeological excavations in this Iron Age settlement, dating back to the XNUMXth or XNUMXth century BC, which they assume was inhabited by the same men who produced the stelae epigraphed with the never deciphered writing from the Southwest.
The Portela da Arca site was identified by Pedro Barros and Samuel Melro in 2008/2009 when, within the scope of Estela Project, carried out a systematic field trip from the ridge lines to the Rio Mira. «This was the place where we found more shards on the surface», scattered ceramic fragments, and therefore it was associated «with a village, which came to be confirmed», tells Pedro Barros to Sul Informação.
Portela da Arca is part of the set of sites on the Montes das Antas plateau, along the line of festum between the river Mira and the Ribeira de Ferranhas, it is located between the Iron Age necropolises of Mouriços/Antas de Cima (excavated in the early 70s of the XNUMXth century) and the necropolis of the Vault (intervened between 2010 and 2011 within the scope of that project).
The excavations now carried out – by the structures and pottery fragments uncovered – allow us to conclude that it was a «Iron Age rural settlement», with a structure and even a type of construction very similar to the Alentejo hills. “The concept to apply here is that of the hill”, emphasizes Pedro Barros.
The house on the hill, facing east, as Samuel Melro explains, had its foundations built in stone (local schist) and walls in mud. It is the land of that rammed earth that now covers the structures of the stone walls and which archaeologists have been patiently removing to reach the older levels.
Pedro Barros adds that archaeological investigations carried out in recent years have already found other parallels for this Iron Age settlement and for the ceramics found there, in Fernão Vaz (Ourique), Neves/Corvo and in Central Alentejo.
Among the remains of the walls of the two or three rooms that this house would have, little more has been found than pottery fragments, some quite complete. “Here there are no osteological remains [bones], neither faunal nor human, because it is an area of shale”, a very acidic environment that destroys all the bones and other organic traces. But Samuel Melro reveals that a “puncture that appears to be made of copper” was discovered, that is, a small metallic trace that could be made of copper, probably mined in the area.
The ridge of Portela da Arca where this rural village was built around 2400 to 2500 years ago is located in a poor agricultural area with schist soils. In those times, however, what is now dry land covered with stubble and a few scattered cork oaks would have been dense woodland, certainly with abundant game and other resources.
Even so, archaeologists ask themselves: "What did these people live on?" In the area, a few dozen kilometers away, there have always been important mining resources, but here, in Portela da Arca, it does not seem that this was the reason that attracted these Iron Age inhabitants to this mountain. Although very close by, at the foot of the mount, there is even a cut made by human hand, which archaeologists do not know yet if it has been opened to mine ore or for some other reason (however, they have already delivered a project to better investigate this cut, well as a small dam associated with it).
“Has there been a surge of urban pressure that forced people to come here? And what did they live on? Certainly subsistence agriculture, associated with grazing, gathering, forestry… And mining? Did they also live off that?».
For now, archaeologists have not yet found answers to these questions, but this is only the first excavation campaign at this site.
Pedro Barros emphasizes that a vast area of Alentejo and neighboring Andalusia was, since remote times, a great ore supplier to the Mediterranean world. At one of the poles, samples taken from the ice show that in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries BC there was a lot of “environmental pollution” which later analysis identified as being caused by the fumes and dust of ore from the Iberian Peninsula. “There was such an intensity of mineral exploration that there are records of it in the polar ices”, emphasizes Pedro Barros.
But the Portela da Arca, although close to the Mira valley, is already outside the rich pyrite strip… What then would have attracted Iron Age men to this mountain?
Castelinho tables will have an interpretation center
The excavation campaign at Portela da Arca lasted from 9 to 28 July, and an area of 94 square meters has already been opened. These investigations, integrated in the Estela Project, count on logistical support from the Municipality of Almodôvar and with the collaboration of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon. «There are more excavations next year!», guarantees Pedro Barros.
The campaign also has the support of the Archeosciences Laboratory of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (formerly Igespar). Geologist Ana Costa will analyze, for example, the quartz veins in the surroundings or the adobes on the walls of the village.
At the same time, work was carried out in the village of Castelinho tables (Almodôvar), under the coordination of Carlos Fabião and Amílcar Guerra (UNIVERSITY).
In Mesas do Castelinho, a fortified village, the 25 years of the research project and the 23 excavation campaigns already carried out are commemorated.
Soon, the Mesas do Castelinho will have an information center that will allow visitors to see the wealth of archaeological remains from various periods that are found there. "We hope that in a year's time there will already be information, at least in terms of signage, and enhancement of this archaeological site," said Samuel Melro.
This year, there was a vast campaign to clear the bush and consolidate the structures at the site, the first phase of this valorisation project.
The Mesas do Castelinho have testimonies of settlement in two phases: from the Iron Age (XNUMXth century BC) and the Roman era (until the end of the XNUMXst century AD or beginning of the XNUMXnd) and then into the Islamic era, when there an Islamic fort was built, which guarded the paths between the Algarve and Alentejo, between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries of our era.
Learn more about Sudoeste Writing at the exhibition «Life and Death in the Iron Age», on display at the Southwest Writing Museum, in Almodôvar.
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