The history that the stones and millenary structures of the Megalithic Monuments of Alcalar tell us is very old. But that doesn't stop the 2018 edition of the recreation “A Day in Prehistory” scheduled for this Saturday, April 21st, rain or shine, from having news.
Um “new” tomb about 5 years old, recently recoveredAs well as Alcalar brand beer, produced based on the scientific knowledge produced over the last 30 years by the team that studies this archaeological site, are two more reasons to go to the Megalithic Monuments, wear an animal skin toga and remember how the “Algarvians” who populated the site used to live. site for millennia.
Alcalar will be celebrating tomorrow, March 21st, as the stage for another edition of the only recreation of Prehistory that takes place in the whole country. And not even the forecast of a lot of rain, wind and thunder for tomorrow makes the team that is putting up this initiative to give up. Isabel Soares, director of the Portimão Museum, in a good mood, told the Sul Informação that “in prehistoric times it also rained, a lot, and life was very difficult”.
Besides, it seems that the weather will improve in the afternoon. «We already have a team of 70 people who are preparing this, including Museum employees, members of the Friends of the Museum, other volunteers, the theater group is on hand, and the percussion group from the Academy of Music of Lagos as well. The black pig that comes from Monchique, to be prepared with flint tools and then roasted over the fire, is already spoken. There is no reason to cancel, just because rain is expected!».
Alcalar had already been the place chosen to present the DiVaM program – Dynamization and Valorization of Monuments, a week ago. And this was an opportunity to get to know the renovated Monument 9 of Alcalar.
Similar to Monument 7, which is larger and was already the central element of this necropolis, Monument 9 was a tomb, built to serve as a last home for elements of the elite of the time.
O Sul Informação I had already been in Alcalar and made this project known in a recent report. At the time, the couple of archeologists Rui Parreira and Elena Móran explained to our newspaper that Tomb 9 is younger «200 to 300 years» than its neighbor next door.
"Tomb 7 is older, it dates from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, while it was still in use and opened when it was already sealed," he added. In other words, Tomb 9 has a date that points to its construction "in the passage of the 3rd millennium to the 2nd millennium BC". One young, therefore, «a little over 4 thousand years old», according to Rui Parreira, archaeologist of the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve.
On the day that the Megalithic Monuments welcomed the presentation of DiVaM, Rui Parreira explained that this new monument helps «to understand the organization of a necropolis 5 thousand years ago».
And what is the importance of the tombs found in this archaeological site?
Rui Parreira explains:
Tomorrow, Saturday, the hill that the leaders of this prehistoric community chose to be buried will return to the past.
One of the main attractions this year, will be the Alcalar beer, produced by the artisans of Marafada, at Quinta dos Avós, “which results from the transfer of the knowledge produced under the Alcalar project and the plants that were used in food five thousand years ago”, stressed Rui Parreira.
Throughout the day, there will also be activities for children and adults, many of them from experimental archeology, which include the preparation of food, over a fire, in a prehistoric way. And that means there are no matches or lighters to make a fire, not even metal utensils to prepare and handle.
Although, for any common citizen, this can be a serious problem, in this case a team specialized in this type of experimentation will be present, which will make the fire and prepare the food, using stone tools, as it has been done for millennia .
It will also demonstrate how tools and ornaments were produced, with an engraving workshop being planned, based on the graphic patterns of schist slabs discovered in prehistoric graves in the Alcalar area, as well as a new workshop exemplifying copper smelting processes.
At 18 pm, the Academy's Percussion Orchestra, directed by Vasco Ramalho and formed only by young people from third countries to the European Union (Africans and Brazilians), will perform.
“This is a very family-oriented activity, which brings together a series of workshops that bring together many children and families. Prehistory, as a colleague of mine often says, is a distant place. In this way, we get an approximation to life then. This has contributed to the dissemination of megalithic heritage», summarizes Rui Parreira.
And so, even if it rains, don't give up on going to Alcalar. Our ancestors from prehistory had much harsher weather conditions and still survived.
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