A
CUP-MARKED STONE FROM CHIVELSTONE, SOUTH DEVON, ENGLAND |
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The
farmer took the unusually-shaped stone objects brought to the surface
home and kept them safe as they were obviously of some antiquity. Subsequent
to the discovery, a friend of the farmer flew his microlight aircraft
over the field and took a photograph of a strange circular mark which
had appeared in the corn. This appears as a dark ring about 50 feet
in diameter, and may represent the site of a round barrow. The site
lies on a level coastal plateau, in a location where a distant view
of the sea can be glimpsed down a shallow valley. There is no further
evidence of barrows in the vicinity. The site's exact location is being
withheld due to concerns about treasure hunters. |
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Thirty-eight
of us congregated at Gatwick airport on the morning of Sunday 1st October.
Having arrived in Lisbon in late afternoon, we set off for the National
Museum of Archaeology to attend a special reception laid on by our Portuguese
hosts. We were shown around the various galleries in the museum, such
as the "Gold room" (unsurprisingly containing artefacts made
only from gold), and were also given the chance to annoy the cashiers
at the museum shop with our complete lack of any change. By the time of
our departure, we had emptied the tills of coins and the food table of
custard tarts (a local speciality). The next morning saw us all up bright and early, expertly shepherded into the coach by Anne Chowne and Isabella Sjöström, our two tour managers. The drizzle which had made its presence felt on the previous evening had disappeared, and we had hot sunny weather for the remainder of our trip. We made our way eastwards from Lisbon for a couple of hours' journey to our first site: Escoural cave. It is set in a gently undulating landscape, where cork oaks and eucalyputs are grown in plantations. Cork seems to be a major crop in southern Portugal, and many trees have been harvested for their bark several times, giving them an appearance akin to inexpertly lagged heating pipes. Escoural itself is the only known cave in the region, being located inside the only limestone outcrop in an otherwise igneous landscape. It contained remains from the Middle Palaeolithic (50 ka) to the Chalcolithic (there is a small settlement on the top of the hill above the cave). Upper Palaeolithic engravings of animals and abstract designs were discovered on the cave walls in the 1960s, making it the westernmost such site in Europe. The main chamber was used as a cemetery during the Neolithic. |
After
having had our lunch at Anta Capela de São Brissos, a tiny chapel
incorporating the stones of a dolmen, we felt suitably inspired to tackle
Neolithic megaliths. The first stop was Anta Grande do Zambujeiro, a
huge "skeleton" of a chambered tomb (6m-high stone uprights)
connected to a long passage. The monument was on privately-owned land,
as was the next one on our schedule, the Almendres cromlech, although
here the narrow approach road was slightly easier for our bus to negotiate.
The cromlech comprised a double-ringed stone circle joined to a double-ringed
ellipse of standing stones further upslope (constructed later). Many
of the stones, especially in the ellipse, carried Chalcolithic engraved
designs on their surfaces, including some compared to croziers. Our
arrival did not seem to disturb a group of German New-Agers, who were
pre-occupied in communing with the stones.
We spent the early evening before supper wandering around the Medieval walled town of Évora, which also contained substantial Roman remains. Within 12 hours we had left town, having left the hotel at 6 am to ensure that we reached Vila Nova de Foz Côa by 3 pm (that, at least, was the official line). About two hours into this northward journey, we stopped in a village to obtain breakfast, creating a spectacle which will probably be discussed amongst the locals for many years to come. As we moved northwards, the topography of the landscape changed imperceptibly, becoming more mountainous and craggy. The cork oak plantations had disappeared, to be replaced by vineyards. |
We
arrived in Foz Côa on time, and were promptly split into groups
of seven or eight people for transport by four-wheel drive vehicle to
see the Palaeolithic engravings at Canada do Inferno. It was the first
Côa valley art locality to be discovered, lying very close to
where the big dam was to have been built. The pecked and deeply-incised
animal outlines were clearest, as the sunlight was too intense to see
much of the fine-lined ones.
For the first and only time in the trip, we were able to spend more than one night in the same place, choosing the nearby town of Moncorvo for this privilege. There were too many of us to eat (or stay) at the main hotel, so we took over most of the first floor of a local restaurant and worked our way through a wide selection of the local produce, including cheese, wine/port and almond liqueur. The ubiquitous roast pork was something of a mystery, considering we never saw a single pig during our trip. |
We
visited the Côa valley sites of Ribeira de Piscos and Penascosa
on the following day: pecked and deeply-incised Palaeolithic images
were more common (or perhaps just more apparent) at both these sites
than fine-lined engravings. Two of the Palaeolithic occupation sites
in the Côa valley were also pointed out: Fariseu (Gravettian)
and Quinta da Cascalheira (Magdalenian). Lunch was spent at the Ervamoira
vineyard, where more attention was paid to the wine-tasting than to
the on-site museum, with its mostly Roman exhibits. |
Before
we left the Côa region on Thursday afternoon, we ventured out
of the valley itself and onto the interfluvial plateau, where we visited
a few of the 20 (and still counting) Olga Grande sites (mostly Gravettian).
Dr. Thierry Aubry showed us around his current excavations, which served
to set the contemporary Côa valley sites into a wider landscape
context. On our southward journey to Coimbra we spent an hour or so
inside the Medieval fortified town of Marialva, built to provide a defence
against Spanish attack (the region adjoins the Portuguese-Spanish border).
After supper in Coimbra, a few of us travelled in to the old quarter of the city, where the oldest university in Portugal is to be found. Encouraged by Cristina Gameiro, our indispensable guide to everything Portuguese, we set off in search of evidence of beaten-up freshers and fado singing (both local traditions, apparently). Opinions were divided as to how much of either we actually encountered, but we did find a torn undergraduate coat lying on the ground in the main university precinct... |
The
following day saw us ascending the sides of a steep and picturesque
valley near the village of Poios, to visit the Palaeolithic site of
Buraca Grande. Most of the material recovered was Middle Palaeolithic,
although some remnants from later periods (Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic
and Neolithic) had also been found. Local people used to collect organic
material from the cave for use as a fertiliser, which probably explains
the high levels of disturbance seen in many levels. On the way back
to the visitor centre in the village, we encountered two oxen drawing
a cart laden with cut maize. Draught animals were common in this village,
providing, it must be said, good insurance against any fuel crisis.
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We
spent the night in Tomar, staying in an exceptionally imposing hotel.
The following morning, some members of our group stayed in Tomar to
look at the Medieval convent and Knights Templar fortifications at the
top of the hill, while the majority of us set off for the Almonda cave
system. This trip involved a scramble down a limestone escarpment some
75m high, stopping at three cave entrances along the way. The first
(and topmost) stop was the Galerias Pesadas site, attributed
to the Acheulean, which is still being excavated by a team under the
direction of Prof. Anthony Marks (Southern Methodist University, USA).
Further downslope, we stopped briefly at the entrance of the Galerias
de Maio (mostly re-deposited Acheulean material), before descending
to the Gruta da Oliveira, which contained Middle and Upper Palaeolithic
material and was still under excavation. At the bottom of the escarpment,
just above where the Almonda stream now comes out of the cliff, were
more recent cave openings in the cave system, containing Upper Palaeolithic
and Neolithic material. According to João Zilhão, the
whole cave system will need another 5-10 years of excavation and research
before its succession from Lower Palaeolithic to Neolithic can be properly
comprehended.
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Later
that afternoon, having regrouped and taken in the exhibits in the local
museum at Torres Vedras, we set off for the nearby Chalcolithic fortification
of Zambujal. In the literature this was a very impressive site, but much
of it now appears to be overgrown by scrub. The views are still spectacular
from the top of the ridge where the site is situated, but the latter will
make more sense to non-specialists when it has been cleaned up. We travelled on to Lisbon as the sun set. The following morning was spent wandering around the vicinity of the National Museum of Archaeology and Belém, before everyone (including our Portuguese hosts) congregated in a local restaurant for the farewell lunch. We were afterwards rushed to the airport by our ever-reliable coach driver, Horacio, only to discover that our flight would be delayed for two hours. I finally arrived home in Cambridge at midnight, realising that the holiday was over and that work started again in nine hours' time. I had had a memorable week travelling around a largely unspoilt and archaeologically fascinating country in very pleasant company, and had thoroughly enjoyed myself. William Davies |
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The
Mesolithic in Europe conference is held more or less every five
years, with the first meeting in Warsaw in 1973. More than anything,
it presents an opportunity for Mesolithic specialists from across Europe
to get together and find out what everyone else is doing. This is precisely
what happened at the 6th meeting, held in Stockholm this September. |
The
session titles alone (exchange and communication, social relations and
group formation, territoriality and regionalisation, the colonization
process, enculturating the landscape, spatial organisation of sites,
ritual and symbolic behaviour, hunter-gatherers in transition) give
some indication of the range of subjects broached, with increasing attention
being paid to issues other than typology and relations with the environment.
Sköl! Sliante! Rick
J Schulting References
|
PAST is happy to publicise conferences on this page. Please send details to the editor following the format below. If you want to use a PAST mailing to send out flyers please contact the editor for a quote. TAG
2000 (Theoretical Archaeology Group): 18.12.00-20.12.00 Isabelle
Barber,
Warfare,
Violence and Slavery in Prehistory and Proto-history (Prehistoric Society
Conference): 2.2.01- 3.2.01
Neolithic
Settlement in Ireland and Western Britain (Prehistoric Society Conference):
20.4.01-22.4.01 Neolithic
conference,
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