Little Tó, 4 years old, was holding a long stick at the end of which was a small piece of pork, being slowly roasted over the fire. Looking to the side, where the older brother, but less patient, was putting the meat directly over the flame, Tó said: «you can't do it like that, you have to be further away, so you don't get burned».
Both had their faces painted with ocher, a natural red dye, and wore a necklace of bright colored beads on their chests. Tó and his brother were just two of the hundreds of children who, this Saturday, passed through the megalithic monuments of Alcalar, in the interior of the municipality of Portimão, to live another Day in Prehistory with their families.
Despite the torrid heat, 1750 people, including many families of different nationalities with children, participated in this initiative, promoted by the Portimão Museum team, with the support of many volunteers, including those from the Group of Friends of that museum.
O Sul Informação knows that, in the engraving workshop alone, close to a thousand engravings were made, by around 900 children who passed by and had fun.
And there was a lot to be done: ceramics, weaving, drawing on small plates, engraving, grinding cereals, producing pigments or tools in wood, vegetable fibers, hides or stone, cut with precision. In between, there were those who kneaded bread and baked it on an open fire, those who served prehistoric beer.
More difficult was the task of someone who had to cut up a pig, to roast it on the fire, along with the rabbits. Instead of metal knives, in good prehistoric fashion, flint blades, an extremely sharp stone, were used.
The archeologist Rui Parreira was, once again, the guide of several guided tours of the monuments, having continued his explanations, unperturbed, even when the prehistoric sorcerer came in the middle of the group.
Isabel Soares, director of the Portimão Museum, expressed her satisfaction with the 1750 people who passed through Alcalar to participate in this recreation. “You can see that people were thirsty for these types of events. And not even the heat that made them kept them away”.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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