Acerca de um programa de estudos da Pré-História de Lisboa, 2024
Decorria o ano de 1968 quando, Augusto Vieira da Silva, publica no seu “Dispersos”, vol. III, um ... more Decorria o ano de 1968 quando, Augusto Vieira da Silva, publica no seu “Dispersos”, vol. III, um esquema de proposta de curso de estudos Olisiponenses. Na época seria um curso bastante completo e perspicaz, ou como se designa atualmente, interdisciplinar, integrando arqueologia, topografia e geologia, consagrando a primeira parte ao estudo da Pré-História de Lisboa. Tal proposta continua atual e parece-nos uma boa base de trabalho, para o prosseguimento das investigações arqueológicas acerca desse período da ocupação humana do território lisboeta. Propomos uma revisão desta proposta e como é que poderia ser aplicada presentemente, tendo em consideração os recentes dados, obtidos através de diversas intervenções arqueológicas, que têm permitido uma visão objetiva e concreta de acordo com esse passado distante da cidade.
In 1968, Augusto Vieira da Silva published in his "Dispersos", vol. III, an outline of a proposed course for the Olisipo studies. At the time, it was a comprehensive interdisciplinary course incorporating archaeology, topography, and geology, dedicated to studying the Prehistory of Lisbon. This proposal retains its relevance and provides a solid foundation for ongoing archaeological investigations into the period of human occupation in Lisbon.
Flint exploration during the Neolithic in the municipality of Lisbon, 2018
The Monsanto mound is an archaeological landscape par excellence and has been the subject of inte... more The Monsanto mound is an archaeological landscape par excellence and has been the subject of intermittent research. The Lisbon Archaeological Center, in collaboration with the Monsanto Forest Park, has developed research on Prehistory (more specifically from the Neo / Chalcolithic period). We understand Monsanto as a "geographic unit" and thus we analyze the correlation between existing flint veins and known human settlements. In this study the approach to the exploration of the flint deposits existing in Lisbon, in particular in the zone of Monsanto and Campolide and possible relation with the places of population. Cultural geography is a concept that can be developed and applied, particularly when articulated with that of Geoarcheology in order to create an explanation of how the human being interprets and adapts to the surrounding space ("spatiality"), allowing the construction of cultural landscapes (Mithen, 1996). The concept of human territoriality can be defined as the first expression of social power, generating more territoriality, different degrees of access to the territory, control processes of the same and a means of power (Sacks, 1986; Godelier, 1989). There is a certain geomorphological unit in the Lisbon region that makes the human settlements of Neolithic have a very similar uniformity and development - it can be said that the geographical area of Lisbon forms a "natural system", thus creating something that can be targeted of scientific observation (Bicho, 2006).
Gomes, Mário Varela; Vasques, Carlos Didelet (2020) - Manipulações cranianas da Gruta do Escoural... more Gomes, Mário Varela; Vasques, Carlos Didelet (2020) - Manipulações cranianas da Gruta do Escoural (Montemor-o-Novo). In: Arqueologia & História, 13a série, volume 70, pp. 257-276.
The revision of the anthropological remains found at the Escoural Cave and dated from the Middle ... more The revision of the anthropological remains found at the Escoural Cave and dated from the Middle and Late Neolithic allowed the identification of a cranial disc, a cranial mask, one trepanation and cranial incisions. Such bone manipulations were made as a response to socio-religious practices and are studied together with skulls found in niches. The practices which transform anthropological elements in artefacts were compared with occurrences in Central and Southern Portugal. They give importance to the human head, as a discursive element of the individual, as a place where the main senses reside and the centre of decision, of behaviours and knowledge, this is, the cognitive activity and thus becoming a social symbol of universal value.
Existência de cerâmica da Idade do Ferro, no espólio da ocupação Pré-Histórica de Montes Claros/4... more Existência de cerâmica da Idade do Ferro, no espólio da ocupação Pré-Histórica de Montes Claros/44, Monsanto, Lisboa
Identificação e análise dos sílex da área oeste do município de Lisboa, 2018
No âmbito dos trabalhos realizados pela equipa do CAL e do PFM na área do Parque Florestal de Mon... more No âmbito dos trabalhos realizados pela equipa do CAL e do PFM na área do Parque Florestal de Monsanto, foram efectuadas prospecções a antigas pedreiras de calcário. Localizaram-se afloramentos de sílex em várias zonas do parque e na sua envolvência, efectuando-se diversas recolhas de amostras geológicas que posteriormente foram sujeitas a análises laboratoriais no Departamento de Geologia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa. A partir dos dados obtidos, confrontou-se as recolhas de materiais geológicos com os arqueológicos, provenientes das intervenções de campo realizadas nos anos 40, 50 e 60 do século passado, nas manchas de ocupação humana, datadas do Neolítico e Calcolítico, da área ocidental do actual Parque, bem como outros recolhidos em trabalhos recentes (2014, Neto et al), realizados na Travessa das Dores. Das comparações físicas e diagenéticas que resultaram entre eles tentou-se aferir a origem do sílex usado nos locais arqueológicos. O resultado da análise das lâminas delgadas entre o material geológico e o arqueológico, apontam para o esperado, ou seja, características texturais semelhantes para os materiais de sílex provenientes de alguns povoados, com os das pedreiras das suas redondezas, no entanto verifica-se determinadas divergências entre si que ora damos a conhecer.
As Galerias de Mineração de sílex de Campolide e o seu contexto Europeu, comparação e análise, 2017
A mineração de sílex durante o Neolítico e o Calcolítico foi um aspecto recorrente da Pré-Históri... more A mineração de sílex durante o Neolítico e o Calcolítico foi um aspecto recorrente da Pré-História europeia, seja através de galerias subterrâneas ou da exploração de veios ao ar livre dessa rocha sedimentar.
Cranial Manipulations of the Neolithic - Pursue of a Research, 2018
Following the assignment of the DAI research grant to the “Neolithic Cranial Manipulations projec... more Following the assignment of the DAI research grant to the “Neolithic Cranial Manipulations project - Continue an investigation” (Didelet, 2016), developed from the master's thesis “The Trepanation and other Manipulations in Prehistoric Human Skulls of the Territory Today Portuguese” (Didelet, 2016), defended in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Nova University of Lisbon, obtaining the classification of 18 values, under the guidance of Phd. Mario Varela Gomes, was the author to develop research in two distinct dates in Berlin, concretely in the Library of the Department of Euro-Asian Studies. From the consequent stay in Berlin, a report was elaborated which shows the lines of research that guided the author during his stay in the library of the Departments of Euro-Asian Studies of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin.
For ages, local popular imagination has believed in the likely existence of grottoes or natural c... more For ages, local popular imagination has believed in the likely existence of grottoes or natural caves in the Alcântara valley in Lisbon. However, any presence of great Karstic formations on the valley rocks was erased by the limestone extraction quarries. The authors develop the theme under the light of a German publication from the end of the 18th century, which they came across accidentally during their research process. The information they obtained helped identify geological manifestations in the valley and enabled them to analyse their evolution until the present.
III Congresso Internacional de Arqueologia de Transição: Estratégias de Povoamento - Évora, 2016
... more III Congresso Internacional de Arqueologia de Transição: Estratégias de Povoamento - Évora, 2016 The archaeological studies of Prehistory in Lisbon have an old tradition counting on more than century and a half, dealing in particular with the artefactual side. We present a proposal for a study of human occupation of the present territory of Lisbon during the Late Periods of Prehistory (Late Neolithic, Early Chalcolithic), suggesting the reconstruction of a possible landscape that has long disappeared. The knowledge we have about the period we are now studying comes from scattered data, which globally observed allows us to construct an image of a certain pattern of occupation. Thus, through spatial analysis of the geographical area in question, we tried to define hypothetical exploration territories by means of calculations carried out in all directions, joining the points together to close the territory of each site, based on the determinative method of its area of and the time needed to travel the distance from the village to the fields of agriculture, pasture and lithic resources. Benefiting from a temperate Atlantic climate and a geology that provided ample lithic resources (geological nucleus such as the Bica Formation, dating from the Upper Cenomanian, it presents sequencing of crystalline limestone’s with abundant flint nodules of different dimensions and aspect), its exploitation took place over a long time span. Inherent in the human being, building "mind maps" in a way to rationalize and apprehend the surrounding landscape of our field of vision fundamental to the perception of the occupation of a space. The various charts of soil capacity, the observation of the orography and the implantation of the area of agricultural exploration, through the time necessary to cover a certain distance, allow us to present some data referring to the different types of territorial occupation, its implantation in the landscape and the demographic dispersion of the prehistoric populations of the region concerned.
Flint mining during the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic was a recurring aspect of European Prehist... more Flint mining during the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic was a recurring aspect of European Prehistory, either through underground galleries or through the exploitation of open shafts of this sedimentary rock. Several sites are known in Europe where flint extraction has been carried out. In the century XIX, works coordinated by Paul Choffat, during the widening of the Rossio railway tunnel in Campolide, two flint mining galleries were discovered. A survey carried out on the collections of the Geological Museum, and other archives, al‑ lowed a better understanding of what was discovered in 1888, comparing the Portuguese case with others of similar period and similarity at European level, as well as the petrographic analysis of the various lithic ele‑ ments in deposit in that museum. Keywords: Petrography, Lisbon, Mining, Neolithic, Flint.
Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones that showed surgical or cult practices, during t... more Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones that showed surgical or cult practices, during the Neolithic era, a survey of known Portuguese cases was carried out, proceeding to an anthropological study and its con‑ textual framework, and the respective insertion the European Prehistory context. The study intends to treat the different cases of cranial bone use in its various variants or evidences of symbolic practice during the Neolithic period in order to provide the construction of new interpretations. Different cases of trepanation, skull discs and plaques, as well as masks obtained from the bones of the face will be presented. Keywords: Cranial Analysis, Cranial Manipulations, Neolithic, Rituals.
SCAENA REVISTA DO MUSEU DE LISBOA – T E AT RO RO M A N O, Feb 2021
About the prehistoric period of Lisbon there are more questions than certainties. It is to the ar... more About the prehistoric period of Lisbon there are more questions than certainties. It is to the archaeologist Irisalva Moita that we owe the first archaeological excavation on the site of Vila Pouca, following indications of Virgílio Correia, who had located the site in 1912. Held in 1959, on the stony slope of the right bank of the Alcântara water stream, opposite to Vila Pouca, on the northern side of the quarry of the French that during its operation will have destroyed part of the Neolithic settlement. In addition to this excavation Irisalva Moita, developed a work of archaeological research in the area of Monsanto enabling a better knowledge of a whole space today forested.
Exploração de sílex durante o Neolítico no município de Lisboa - X EASP, Zafra , 2018
The Monsanto mound is an archaeological landscape par excellence and has been the subject of inte... more The Monsanto mound is an archaeological landscape par excellence and has been the subject of intermittent research. The Lisbon Archaeological Center, in collaboration with the Monsanto Forest Park, has developed research on Prehistory (more specifically from the Neo / Chalcolithic period). We understand Monsanto as a "geographic unit" and thus we analyze the correlation between existing flint veins and known human settlements. In this study the approach to the exploration of the flint deposits existing in Lisbon, in particular in the zone of Monsanto and Campolide and possible relation with the places of population. Cultural geography is a concept that can be developed and applied, particularly when articulated with that of Geoarcheology in order to create an explanation of how the human being interprets and adapts to the surrounding space ("spatiality"), allowing the construction of cultural landscapes (Mithen, 1996). The concept of human territoriality can be defined as the first expression of social power, generating more territoriality, different degrees of access to the territory, control processes of the same and a means of power (Sacks, 1986; Godelier, 1989). There is a certain geomorphological unit in the Lisbon region that makes the human settlements of Neolithic have a very similar uniformity and development - it can be said that the geographical area of Lisbon forms a "natural system", thus creating something that can be targeted of scientific observation (Bicho, 2006).
Cranial manipulation from Late Neolithic in the Lisbon Peninsula, 2015
A remarkable number of human skulls are known throughout Europe, showing changes of anthropic nat... more A remarkable number of human skulls are known throughout Europe, showing changes of anthropic nature (among them the practice of trepanation). There are also the use of other types of skull bones, as a certain type of artifacts. The causes that led to these behaviors are not clear. It is more than likely that in prehistoric times problems such as epilepsy, migraines, behavioral changes or seizures have been related to the human head (brain activity) and consequently to the skull. But were not such occurrences regarded as the manifestation of supernatural forces? Thus, it would be an almost natural step that the inherent human curiosity led him to want to perceive what was happening inside that "box". In the Lisbon peninsula there are four cases that are now reviewed and presented, proceeding with a trepanation of the Hypogeum 1 of Pedra do Sal (São Pedro do Estoril), a mask in cranial facial bone and a skull with multiple trepanations of the Caves of the Poço Velho, and a fragment of the right parietal with indications of intervention from the collective burial of Samarra Beach, in Sintra. It is only four cases, but they allow a good sampling and exemplification of what may have been common practice during the recent Prehistory in the present territory of the Lisbon Peninsula. Manipulations of human cranial bones should have been an integral part of the socio-religious system and symbolic thinking of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Initial. “[…] religion was embedded in many components of social and economic life and played important roles in establishing links between individuals and communities […]” Ian Hodder (2014).
Cranial manipulation from the neolithic necropolis of Feteira Cave - Portugal.
Neolithic necropol... more Cranial manipulation from the neolithic necropolis of Feteira Cave - Portugal. Neolithic necropolis in a karstic context, coming from the Portuguese Extremadura region, not far from the coast, from where it was possible to recover cranial facial mask and two evidences of trepanation. The facial mask was the first to be explicitly mentioned in the Portuguese archaeological bibliography.
Curgical evidences in archaeological contetxs.
Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones ... more Curgical evidences in archaeological contetxs. Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones that showed surgical or cult practices, during the Neolithic era, a survey of known Portuguese cases was carried out, proceeding to an anthropological study and its contextual framework, and the respective insertion the European Prehistory context. The study intends to treat the different cases of cranial bone use in its various variants or evidences of symbolic practice during the Neolithic period in order to provide the construction of new interpretations. Different cases of trepanation, skull discs and plaques, as well as masks obtained from the bones of the face will be presented. The practice of using the human skull as a ritual object and subject to interventions and the consequent use of cranial bones is something that underlies a "way of thinking" added to the "explosion of the symbolic" that Jacques Cauvin refers (1997), and, acquiring another breath from the time the neolithic process begun in the Near East and epistolized during the PPNB as express by Kathleen Kenyon (1957), Jacques Cauvin (1997), or Mehmet Özdogan (1998), during which time we can find a greater expressiveness of use and manipulation of human cranial bones, that is, when the neolithic process begins to spread (Zilhão, 1992, 1993, 2000). “For it is now recognized as important that many elements of life can be structured by religion, and can be archeologically recognizable as such […]” Archaeology, Ritual, ReligionTimothy Insoll (2004)
Presentation of the trepaned skulls from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum - ... more Presentation of the trepaned skulls from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum - Lisbon, Portugal The skulls with evidences of trepanation have aroused the interest of Archeology and Anthropology since the century. XIX, height in were identified as surgical practice. We have several evidences of trepanned skulls and other cranial manipulations deposited in diverse national institutions, in particular in the National Museum of Archeology (Lisbon - Portugal), which will be presented together with other examples. More than simple intervention of a medical-surgical nature, it seems to us that these interventions carried out in human skulls have played a social-religious role in rituals associated with neoltihic societies.
As part of the work carried out by the CAL and PFM team in the area of the Monsanto Forest Park, ... more As part of the work carried out by the CAL and PFM team in the area of the Monsanto Forest Park, visits were made to old limestone quarries. This work resulted in the identification of flint outcrops in several zones, from which several geological samples were taken, and later subjected to laboratory analysis in the Geology Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon to obtain thin blades, and subsequently were later object of study. As the geological materials now collected, as well as the archaeological artifacts, presented several similarities to those recollected in the previous decades in the settlements of the western area in the archaeological interventions carried out in the 40s, 50s and 60s of the last century, in the patches of human occupation, dating from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic, in the western area of the present Park, as well as others exhumed in recent works carried out at Travessa das Dores(Ajuda, Lisboa). Physical and petrographic comparisons were made between them, with the purpose to know the origin of the flint used in each archaeological site.The results of the analysis of thin slabs between the geological and archaeological material point to the expected, that is, similar textural characteristics for the flint materials coming from some settlements, with those of the quarries of its environs. However there are certain textural divergences among them that we disclose now.
Acerca de um programa de estudos da Pré-História de Lisboa, 2024
Decorria o ano de 1968 quando, Augusto Vieira da Silva, publica no seu “Dispersos”, vol. III, um ... more Decorria o ano de 1968 quando, Augusto Vieira da Silva, publica no seu “Dispersos”, vol. III, um esquema de proposta de curso de estudos Olisiponenses. Na época seria um curso bastante completo e perspicaz, ou como se designa atualmente, interdisciplinar, integrando arqueologia, topografia e geologia, consagrando a primeira parte ao estudo da Pré-História de Lisboa. Tal proposta continua atual e parece-nos uma boa base de trabalho, para o prosseguimento das investigações arqueológicas acerca desse período da ocupação humana do território lisboeta. Propomos uma revisão desta proposta e como é que poderia ser aplicada presentemente, tendo em consideração os recentes dados, obtidos através de diversas intervenções arqueológicas, que têm permitido uma visão objetiva e concreta de acordo com esse passado distante da cidade.
In 1968, Augusto Vieira da Silva published in his "Dispersos", vol. III, an outline of a proposed course for the Olisipo studies. At the time, it was a comprehensive interdisciplinary course incorporating archaeology, topography, and geology, dedicated to studying the Prehistory of Lisbon. This proposal retains its relevance and provides a solid foundation for ongoing archaeological investigations into the period of human occupation in Lisbon.
Flint exploration during the Neolithic in the municipality of Lisbon, 2018
The Monsanto mound is an archaeological landscape par excellence and has been the subject of inte... more The Monsanto mound is an archaeological landscape par excellence and has been the subject of intermittent research. The Lisbon Archaeological Center, in collaboration with the Monsanto Forest Park, has developed research on Prehistory (more specifically from the Neo / Chalcolithic period). We understand Monsanto as a "geographic unit" and thus we analyze the correlation between existing flint veins and known human settlements. In this study the approach to the exploration of the flint deposits existing in Lisbon, in particular in the zone of Monsanto and Campolide and possible relation with the places of population. Cultural geography is a concept that can be developed and applied, particularly when articulated with that of Geoarcheology in order to create an explanation of how the human being interprets and adapts to the surrounding space ("spatiality"), allowing the construction of cultural landscapes (Mithen, 1996). The concept of human territoriality can be defined as the first expression of social power, generating more territoriality, different degrees of access to the territory, control processes of the same and a means of power (Sacks, 1986; Godelier, 1989). There is a certain geomorphological unit in the Lisbon region that makes the human settlements of Neolithic have a very similar uniformity and development - it can be said that the geographical area of Lisbon forms a "natural system", thus creating something that can be targeted of scientific observation (Bicho, 2006).
Gomes, Mário Varela; Vasques, Carlos Didelet (2020) - Manipulações cranianas da Gruta do Escoural... more Gomes, Mário Varela; Vasques, Carlos Didelet (2020) - Manipulações cranianas da Gruta do Escoural (Montemor-o-Novo). In: Arqueologia & História, 13a série, volume 70, pp. 257-276.
The revision of the anthropological remains found at the Escoural Cave and dated from the Middle ... more The revision of the anthropological remains found at the Escoural Cave and dated from the Middle and Late Neolithic allowed the identification of a cranial disc, a cranial mask, one trepanation and cranial incisions. Such bone manipulations were made as a response to socio-religious practices and are studied together with skulls found in niches. The practices which transform anthropological elements in artefacts were compared with occurrences in Central and Southern Portugal. They give importance to the human head, as a discursive element of the individual, as a place where the main senses reside and the centre of decision, of behaviours and knowledge, this is, the cognitive activity and thus becoming a social symbol of universal value.
Existência de cerâmica da Idade do Ferro, no espólio da ocupação Pré-Histórica de Montes Claros/4... more Existência de cerâmica da Idade do Ferro, no espólio da ocupação Pré-Histórica de Montes Claros/44, Monsanto, Lisboa
Identificação e análise dos sílex da área oeste do município de Lisboa, 2018
No âmbito dos trabalhos realizados pela equipa do CAL e do PFM na área do Parque Florestal de Mon... more No âmbito dos trabalhos realizados pela equipa do CAL e do PFM na área do Parque Florestal de Monsanto, foram efectuadas prospecções a antigas pedreiras de calcário. Localizaram-se afloramentos de sílex em várias zonas do parque e na sua envolvência, efectuando-se diversas recolhas de amostras geológicas que posteriormente foram sujeitas a análises laboratoriais no Departamento de Geologia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa. A partir dos dados obtidos, confrontou-se as recolhas de materiais geológicos com os arqueológicos, provenientes das intervenções de campo realizadas nos anos 40, 50 e 60 do século passado, nas manchas de ocupação humana, datadas do Neolítico e Calcolítico, da área ocidental do actual Parque, bem como outros recolhidos em trabalhos recentes (2014, Neto et al), realizados na Travessa das Dores. Das comparações físicas e diagenéticas que resultaram entre eles tentou-se aferir a origem do sílex usado nos locais arqueológicos. O resultado da análise das lâminas delgadas entre o material geológico e o arqueológico, apontam para o esperado, ou seja, características texturais semelhantes para os materiais de sílex provenientes de alguns povoados, com os das pedreiras das suas redondezas, no entanto verifica-se determinadas divergências entre si que ora damos a conhecer.
As Galerias de Mineração de sílex de Campolide e o seu contexto Europeu, comparação e análise, 2017
A mineração de sílex durante o Neolítico e o Calcolítico foi um aspecto recorrente da Pré-Históri... more A mineração de sílex durante o Neolítico e o Calcolítico foi um aspecto recorrente da Pré-História europeia, seja através de galerias subterrâneas ou da exploração de veios ao ar livre dessa rocha sedimentar.
Cranial Manipulations of the Neolithic - Pursue of a Research, 2018
Following the assignment of the DAI research grant to the “Neolithic Cranial Manipulations projec... more Following the assignment of the DAI research grant to the “Neolithic Cranial Manipulations project - Continue an investigation” (Didelet, 2016), developed from the master's thesis “The Trepanation and other Manipulations in Prehistoric Human Skulls of the Territory Today Portuguese” (Didelet, 2016), defended in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Nova University of Lisbon, obtaining the classification of 18 values, under the guidance of Phd. Mario Varela Gomes, was the author to develop research in two distinct dates in Berlin, concretely in the Library of the Department of Euro-Asian Studies. From the consequent stay in Berlin, a report was elaborated which shows the lines of research that guided the author during his stay in the library of the Departments of Euro-Asian Studies of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin.
For ages, local popular imagination has believed in the likely existence of grottoes or natural c... more For ages, local popular imagination has believed in the likely existence of grottoes or natural caves in the Alcântara valley in Lisbon. However, any presence of great Karstic formations on the valley rocks was erased by the limestone extraction quarries. The authors develop the theme under the light of a German publication from the end of the 18th century, which they came across accidentally during their research process. The information they obtained helped identify geological manifestations in the valley and enabled them to analyse their evolution until the present.
III Congresso Internacional de Arqueologia de Transição: Estratégias de Povoamento - Évora, 2016
... more III Congresso Internacional de Arqueologia de Transição: Estratégias de Povoamento - Évora, 2016 The archaeological studies of Prehistory in Lisbon have an old tradition counting on more than century and a half, dealing in particular with the artefactual side. We present a proposal for a study of human occupation of the present territory of Lisbon during the Late Periods of Prehistory (Late Neolithic, Early Chalcolithic), suggesting the reconstruction of a possible landscape that has long disappeared. The knowledge we have about the period we are now studying comes from scattered data, which globally observed allows us to construct an image of a certain pattern of occupation. Thus, through spatial analysis of the geographical area in question, we tried to define hypothetical exploration territories by means of calculations carried out in all directions, joining the points together to close the territory of each site, based on the determinative method of its area of and the time needed to travel the distance from the village to the fields of agriculture, pasture and lithic resources. Benefiting from a temperate Atlantic climate and a geology that provided ample lithic resources (geological nucleus such as the Bica Formation, dating from the Upper Cenomanian, it presents sequencing of crystalline limestone’s with abundant flint nodules of different dimensions and aspect), its exploitation took place over a long time span. Inherent in the human being, building "mind maps" in a way to rationalize and apprehend the surrounding landscape of our field of vision fundamental to the perception of the occupation of a space. The various charts of soil capacity, the observation of the orography and the implantation of the area of agricultural exploration, through the time necessary to cover a certain distance, allow us to present some data referring to the different types of territorial occupation, its implantation in the landscape and the demographic dispersion of the prehistoric populations of the region concerned.
Flint mining during the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic was a recurring aspect of European Prehist... more Flint mining during the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic was a recurring aspect of European Prehistory, either through underground galleries or through the exploitation of open shafts of this sedimentary rock. Several sites are known in Europe where flint extraction has been carried out. In the century XIX, works coordinated by Paul Choffat, during the widening of the Rossio railway tunnel in Campolide, two flint mining galleries were discovered. A survey carried out on the collections of the Geological Museum, and other archives, al‑ lowed a better understanding of what was discovered in 1888, comparing the Portuguese case with others of similar period and similarity at European level, as well as the petrographic analysis of the various lithic ele‑ ments in deposit in that museum. Keywords: Petrography, Lisbon, Mining, Neolithic, Flint.
Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones that showed surgical or cult practices, during t... more Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones that showed surgical or cult practices, during the Neolithic era, a survey of known Portuguese cases was carried out, proceeding to an anthropological study and its con‑ textual framework, and the respective insertion the European Prehistory context. The study intends to treat the different cases of cranial bone use in its various variants or evidences of symbolic practice during the Neolithic period in order to provide the construction of new interpretations. Different cases of trepanation, skull discs and plaques, as well as masks obtained from the bones of the face will be presented. Keywords: Cranial Analysis, Cranial Manipulations, Neolithic, Rituals.
SCAENA REVISTA DO MUSEU DE LISBOA – T E AT RO RO M A N O, Feb 2021
About the prehistoric period of Lisbon there are more questions than certainties. It is to the ar... more About the prehistoric period of Lisbon there are more questions than certainties. It is to the archaeologist Irisalva Moita that we owe the first archaeological excavation on the site of Vila Pouca, following indications of Virgílio Correia, who had located the site in 1912. Held in 1959, on the stony slope of the right bank of the Alcântara water stream, opposite to Vila Pouca, on the northern side of the quarry of the French that during its operation will have destroyed part of the Neolithic settlement. In addition to this excavation Irisalva Moita, developed a work of archaeological research in the area of Monsanto enabling a better knowledge of a whole space today forested.
Exploração de sílex durante o Neolítico no município de Lisboa - X EASP, Zafra , 2018
The Monsanto mound is an archaeological landscape par excellence and has been the subject of inte... more The Monsanto mound is an archaeological landscape par excellence and has been the subject of intermittent research. The Lisbon Archaeological Center, in collaboration with the Monsanto Forest Park, has developed research on Prehistory (more specifically from the Neo / Chalcolithic period). We understand Monsanto as a "geographic unit" and thus we analyze the correlation between existing flint veins and known human settlements. In this study the approach to the exploration of the flint deposits existing in Lisbon, in particular in the zone of Monsanto and Campolide and possible relation with the places of population. Cultural geography is a concept that can be developed and applied, particularly when articulated with that of Geoarcheology in order to create an explanation of how the human being interprets and adapts to the surrounding space ("spatiality"), allowing the construction of cultural landscapes (Mithen, 1996). The concept of human territoriality can be defined as the first expression of social power, generating more territoriality, different degrees of access to the territory, control processes of the same and a means of power (Sacks, 1986; Godelier, 1989). There is a certain geomorphological unit in the Lisbon region that makes the human settlements of Neolithic have a very similar uniformity and development - it can be said that the geographical area of Lisbon forms a "natural system", thus creating something that can be targeted of scientific observation (Bicho, 2006).
Cranial manipulation from Late Neolithic in the Lisbon Peninsula, 2015
A remarkable number of human skulls are known throughout Europe, showing changes of anthropic nat... more A remarkable number of human skulls are known throughout Europe, showing changes of anthropic nature (among them the practice of trepanation). There are also the use of other types of skull bones, as a certain type of artifacts. The causes that led to these behaviors are not clear. It is more than likely that in prehistoric times problems such as epilepsy, migraines, behavioral changes or seizures have been related to the human head (brain activity) and consequently to the skull. But were not such occurrences regarded as the manifestation of supernatural forces? Thus, it would be an almost natural step that the inherent human curiosity led him to want to perceive what was happening inside that "box". In the Lisbon peninsula there are four cases that are now reviewed and presented, proceeding with a trepanation of the Hypogeum 1 of Pedra do Sal (São Pedro do Estoril), a mask in cranial facial bone and a skull with multiple trepanations of the Caves of the Poço Velho, and a fragment of the right parietal with indications of intervention from the collective burial of Samarra Beach, in Sintra. It is only four cases, but they allow a good sampling and exemplification of what may have been common practice during the recent Prehistory in the present territory of the Lisbon Peninsula. Manipulations of human cranial bones should have been an integral part of the socio-religious system and symbolic thinking of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Initial. “[…] religion was embedded in many components of social and economic life and played important roles in establishing links between individuals and communities […]” Ian Hodder (2014).
Cranial manipulation from the neolithic necropolis of Feteira Cave - Portugal.
Neolithic necropol... more Cranial manipulation from the neolithic necropolis of Feteira Cave - Portugal. Neolithic necropolis in a karstic context, coming from the Portuguese Extremadura region, not far from the coast, from where it was possible to recover cranial facial mask and two evidences of trepanation. The facial mask was the first to be explicitly mentioned in the Portuguese archaeological bibliography.
Curgical evidences in archaeological contetxs.
Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones ... more Curgical evidences in archaeological contetxs. Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones that showed surgical or cult practices, during the Neolithic era, a survey of known Portuguese cases was carried out, proceeding to an anthropological study and its contextual framework, and the respective insertion the European Prehistory context. The study intends to treat the different cases of cranial bone use in its various variants or evidences of symbolic practice during the Neolithic period in order to provide the construction of new interpretations. Different cases of trepanation, skull discs and plaques, as well as masks obtained from the bones of the face will be presented. The practice of using the human skull as a ritual object and subject to interventions and the consequent use of cranial bones is something that underlies a "way of thinking" added to the "explosion of the symbolic" that Jacques Cauvin refers (1997), and, acquiring another breath from the time the neolithic process begun in the Near East and epistolized during the PPNB as express by Kathleen Kenyon (1957), Jacques Cauvin (1997), or Mehmet Özdogan (1998), during which time we can find a greater expressiveness of use and manipulation of human cranial bones, that is, when the neolithic process begins to spread (Zilhão, 1992, 1993, 2000). “For it is now recognized as important that many elements of life can be structured by religion, and can be archeologically recognizable as such […]” Archaeology, Ritual, ReligionTimothy Insoll (2004)
Presentation of the trepaned skulls from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum - ... more Presentation of the trepaned skulls from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum - Lisbon, Portugal The skulls with evidences of trepanation have aroused the interest of Archeology and Anthropology since the century. XIX, height in were identified as surgical practice. We have several evidences of trepanned skulls and other cranial manipulations deposited in diverse national institutions, in particular in the National Museum of Archeology (Lisbon - Portugal), which will be presented together with other examples. More than simple intervention of a medical-surgical nature, it seems to us that these interventions carried out in human skulls have played a social-religious role in rituals associated with neoltihic societies.
As part of the work carried out by the CAL and PFM team in the area of the Monsanto Forest Park, ... more As part of the work carried out by the CAL and PFM team in the area of the Monsanto Forest Park, visits were made to old limestone quarries. This work resulted in the identification of flint outcrops in several zones, from which several geological samples were taken, and later subjected to laboratory analysis in the Geology Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon to obtain thin blades, and subsequently were later object of study. As the geological materials now collected, as well as the archaeological artifacts, presented several similarities to those recollected in the previous decades in the settlements of the western area in the archaeological interventions carried out in the 40s, 50s and 60s of the last century, in the patches of human occupation, dating from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic, in the western area of the present Park, as well as others exhumed in recent works carried out at Travessa das Dores(Ajuda, Lisboa). Physical and petrographic comparisons were made between them, with the purpose to know the origin of the flint used in each archaeological site.The results of the analysis of thin slabs between the geological and archaeological material point to the expected, that is, similar textural characteristics for the flint materials coming from some settlements, with those of the quarries of its environs. However there are certain textural divergences among them that we disclose now.
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In 1968, Augusto Vieira da Silva published in his "Dispersos", vol. III, an outline of a proposed course for the Olisipo studies. At the time, it was a comprehensive interdisciplinary course incorporating archaeology, topography, and geology, dedicated to studying the Prehistory of Lisbon. This proposal retains its relevance and provides a solid foundation for ongoing archaeological investigations into the period of human occupation in Lisbon.
Cultural geography is a concept that can be developed and applied, particularly when articulated with that of Geoarcheology in order to create an explanation of how the human being interprets and adapts to the surrounding space ("spatiality"), allowing the construction of cultural landscapes (Mithen, 1996). The concept of human territoriality can be defined as the first expression of social power, generating more territoriality, different degrees of access to the territory, control processes of the same and a means of power (Sacks, 1986; Godelier, 1989).
There is a certain geomorphological unit in the Lisbon region that makes the human settlements of Neolithic have a very similar uniformity and development - it can be said that the geographical area of Lisbon forms a "natural system", thus creating something that can be targeted of scientific observation (Bicho, 2006).
Neolithic allowed the identification of a cranial disc, a cranial mask, one trepanation and cranial incisions. Such
bone manipulations were made as a response to socio-religious practices and are studied together with skulls
found in niches.
The practices which transform anthropological elements in artefacts were compared with occurrences in
Central and Southern Portugal. They give importance to the human head, as a discursive element of the individual,
as a place where the main senses reside and the centre of decision, of behaviours and knowledge, this is, the
cognitive activity and thus becoming a social symbol of universal value.
O resultado da análise das lâminas delgadas entre o material geológico e o arqueológico, apontam para o esperado, ou seja, características texturais semelhantes para os materiais de sílex provenientes de alguns povoados, com os das pedreiras das suas redondezas, no entanto verifica-se determinadas divergências entre si que ora damos a conhecer.
From the consequent stay in Berlin, a report was elaborated which shows the lines of research that guided the author during his stay in the library of the Departments of Euro-Asian Studies of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin.
The authors develop the theme under the light of a German publication from the end of the 18th century, which they came across accidentally during their research process. The information they obtained helped identify geological manifestations in the valley and enabled them to analyse their evolution until the present.
The archaeological studies of Prehistory in Lisbon have an old tradition counting on more than century and a half, dealing in particular with the artefactual side.
We present a proposal for a study of human occupation of the present territory of Lisbon during the Late Periods of Prehistory (Late Neolithic, Early Chalcolithic), suggesting the reconstruction of a possible landscape that has long disappeared. The knowledge we have about the period we are now studying comes from scattered data, which globally observed allows us to construct an image of a certain pattern of occupation.
Thus, through spatial analysis of the geographical area in question, we tried to define hypothetical exploration territories by means of calculations carried out in all directions, joining the points together to close the territory of each site, based on the determinative method of its area of and the time needed to travel the distance from the village to the fields of agriculture, pasture and lithic resources.
Benefiting from a temperate Atlantic climate and a geology that provided ample lithic resources (geological nucleus such as the Bica Formation, dating from the Upper Cenomanian, it presents sequencing of crystalline limestone’s with abundant flint nodules of different dimensions and aspect), its exploitation took place over a long time span.
Inherent in the human being, building "mind maps" in a way to rationalize and apprehend the surrounding landscape of our field of vision fundamental to the perception of the occupation of a space. The various charts of soil capacity, the observation of the orography and the implantation of the area of agricultural exploration, through the time necessary to cover a certain distance, allow us to present some data referring to the different types of territorial occupation, its implantation in the landscape and the demographic dispersion of the prehistoric populations of the region concerned.
Keywords: Petrography, Lisbon, Mining, Neolithic, Flint.
Keywords: Cranial Analysis, Cranial Manipulations, Neolithic, Rituals.
Cultural geography is a concept that can be developed and applied, particularly when articulated with that of Geoarcheology in order to create an explanation of how the human being interprets and adapts to the surrounding space ("spatiality"), allowing the construction of cultural landscapes (Mithen, 1996). The concept of human territoriality can be defined as the first expression of social power, generating more territoriality, different degrees of access to the territory, control processes of the same and a means of power (Sacks, 1986; Godelier, 1989).
There is a certain geomorphological unit in the Lisbon region that makes the human settlements of Neolithic have a very similar uniformity and development - it can be said that the geographical area of Lisbon forms a "natural system", thus creating something that can be targeted of scientific observation (Bicho, 2006).
The causes that led to these behaviors are not clear. It is more than likely that in prehistoric times problems such as epilepsy, migraines, behavioral changes or seizures have been related to the human head (brain activity) and consequently to the skull. But were not such occurrences regarded as the manifestation of supernatural forces? Thus, it would be an almost natural step that the inherent human curiosity led him to want to perceive what was happening inside that "box".
In the Lisbon peninsula there are four cases that are now reviewed and presented, proceeding with a trepanation of the Hypogeum 1 of Pedra do Sal (São Pedro do Estoril), a mask in cranial facial bone and a skull with multiple trepanations of the Caves of the Poço Velho, and a fragment of the right parietal with indications of intervention from the collective burial of Samarra Beach, in Sintra.
It is only four cases, but they allow a good sampling and exemplification of what may have been common practice during the recent Prehistory in the present territory of the Lisbon Peninsula.
Manipulations of human cranial bones should have been an integral part of the socio-religious system and symbolic thinking of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Initial.
“[…] religion was embedded in many components of social and economic life and played important roles in establishing links between individuals and communities […]”
Ian Hodder (2014).
Neolithic necropolis in a karstic context, coming from the Portuguese Extremadura region, not far from the coast, from where it was possible to recover cranial facial mask and two evidences of trepanation. The facial mask was the first to be explicitly mentioned in the Portuguese archaeological bibliography.
Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones that showed surgical or cult practices, during the Neolithic era, a survey of known Portuguese cases was carried out, proceeding to an anthropological study and its contextual framework, and the respective insertion the European Prehistory context.
The study intends to treat the different cases of cranial bone use in its various variants or evidences of symbolic practice during the Neolithic period in order to provide the construction of new interpretations.
Different cases of trepanation, skull discs and plaques, as well as masks obtained from the bones of the face will be presented.
The practice of using the human skull as a ritual object and subject to interventions and the consequent use of cranial bones is something that underlies a "way of thinking" added to the "explosion of the symbolic" that Jacques Cauvin refers (1997), and, acquiring another breath from the time the neolithic process begun in the Near East and epistolized during the PPNB as express by Kathleen Kenyon (1957), Jacques Cauvin (1997), or Mehmet Özdogan (1998), during which time we can find a greater expressiveness of use and manipulation of human cranial bones, that is, when the neolithic process begins to spread (Zilhão, 1992, 1993, 2000).
“For it is now recognized as important that many elements of life can be structured by religion, and can be archeologically recognizable as such […]” Archaeology, Ritual, ReligionTimothy Insoll (2004)
The skulls with evidences of trepanation have aroused the interest of Archeology and Anthropology since the century. XIX, height in were identified as surgical practice.
We have several evidences of trepanned skulls and other cranial manipulations deposited in diverse national institutions, in particular in the National Museum of Archeology (Lisbon - Portugal), which will be presented together with other examples.
More than simple intervention of a medical-surgical nature, it seems to us that these interventions carried out in human skulls have played a social-religious role in rituals associated with neoltihic societies.
Physical and petrographic comparisons were made between them, with the purpose to know the origin of the flint used in each archaeological site.The results of the analysis of thin slabs between the geological and archaeological material point to the expected, that is, similar textural characteristics for the flint materials coming from some settlements, with those of the quarries of its environs. However there are certain textural divergences among them that we disclose now.
In 1968, Augusto Vieira da Silva published in his "Dispersos", vol. III, an outline of a proposed course for the Olisipo studies. At the time, it was a comprehensive interdisciplinary course incorporating archaeology, topography, and geology, dedicated to studying the Prehistory of Lisbon. This proposal retains its relevance and provides a solid foundation for ongoing archaeological investigations into the period of human occupation in Lisbon.
Cultural geography is a concept that can be developed and applied, particularly when articulated with that of Geoarcheology in order to create an explanation of how the human being interprets and adapts to the surrounding space ("spatiality"), allowing the construction of cultural landscapes (Mithen, 1996). The concept of human territoriality can be defined as the first expression of social power, generating more territoriality, different degrees of access to the territory, control processes of the same and a means of power (Sacks, 1986; Godelier, 1989).
There is a certain geomorphological unit in the Lisbon region that makes the human settlements of Neolithic have a very similar uniformity and development - it can be said that the geographical area of Lisbon forms a "natural system", thus creating something that can be targeted of scientific observation (Bicho, 2006).
Neolithic allowed the identification of a cranial disc, a cranial mask, one trepanation and cranial incisions. Such
bone manipulations were made as a response to socio-religious practices and are studied together with skulls
found in niches.
The practices which transform anthropological elements in artefacts were compared with occurrences in
Central and Southern Portugal. They give importance to the human head, as a discursive element of the individual,
as a place where the main senses reside and the centre of decision, of behaviours and knowledge, this is, the
cognitive activity and thus becoming a social symbol of universal value.
O resultado da análise das lâminas delgadas entre o material geológico e o arqueológico, apontam para o esperado, ou seja, características texturais semelhantes para os materiais de sílex provenientes de alguns povoados, com os das pedreiras das suas redondezas, no entanto verifica-se determinadas divergências entre si que ora damos a conhecer.
From the consequent stay in Berlin, a report was elaborated which shows the lines of research that guided the author during his stay in the library of the Departments of Euro-Asian Studies of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin.
The authors develop the theme under the light of a German publication from the end of the 18th century, which they came across accidentally during their research process. The information they obtained helped identify geological manifestations in the valley and enabled them to analyse their evolution until the present.
The archaeological studies of Prehistory in Lisbon have an old tradition counting on more than century and a half, dealing in particular with the artefactual side.
We present a proposal for a study of human occupation of the present territory of Lisbon during the Late Periods of Prehistory (Late Neolithic, Early Chalcolithic), suggesting the reconstruction of a possible landscape that has long disappeared. The knowledge we have about the period we are now studying comes from scattered data, which globally observed allows us to construct an image of a certain pattern of occupation.
Thus, through spatial analysis of the geographical area in question, we tried to define hypothetical exploration territories by means of calculations carried out in all directions, joining the points together to close the territory of each site, based on the determinative method of its area of and the time needed to travel the distance from the village to the fields of agriculture, pasture and lithic resources.
Benefiting from a temperate Atlantic climate and a geology that provided ample lithic resources (geological nucleus such as the Bica Formation, dating from the Upper Cenomanian, it presents sequencing of crystalline limestone’s with abundant flint nodules of different dimensions and aspect), its exploitation took place over a long time span.
Inherent in the human being, building "mind maps" in a way to rationalize and apprehend the surrounding landscape of our field of vision fundamental to the perception of the occupation of a space. The various charts of soil capacity, the observation of the orography and the implantation of the area of agricultural exploration, through the time necessary to cover a certain distance, allow us to present some data referring to the different types of territorial occupation, its implantation in the landscape and the demographic dispersion of the prehistoric populations of the region concerned.
Keywords: Petrography, Lisbon, Mining, Neolithic, Flint.
Keywords: Cranial Analysis, Cranial Manipulations, Neolithic, Rituals.
Cultural geography is a concept that can be developed and applied, particularly when articulated with that of Geoarcheology in order to create an explanation of how the human being interprets and adapts to the surrounding space ("spatiality"), allowing the construction of cultural landscapes (Mithen, 1996). The concept of human territoriality can be defined as the first expression of social power, generating more territoriality, different degrees of access to the territory, control processes of the same and a means of power (Sacks, 1986; Godelier, 1989).
There is a certain geomorphological unit in the Lisbon region that makes the human settlements of Neolithic have a very similar uniformity and development - it can be said that the geographical area of Lisbon forms a "natural system", thus creating something that can be targeted of scientific observation (Bicho, 2006).
The causes that led to these behaviors are not clear. It is more than likely that in prehistoric times problems such as epilepsy, migraines, behavioral changes or seizures have been related to the human head (brain activity) and consequently to the skull. But were not such occurrences regarded as the manifestation of supernatural forces? Thus, it would be an almost natural step that the inherent human curiosity led him to want to perceive what was happening inside that "box".
In the Lisbon peninsula there are four cases that are now reviewed and presented, proceeding with a trepanation of the Hypogeum 1 of Pedra do Sal (São Pedro do Estoril), a mask in cranial facial bone and a skull with multiple trepanations of the Caves of the Poço Velho, and a fragment of the right parietal with indications of intervention from the collective burial of Samarra Beach, in Sintra.
It is only four cases, but they allow a good sampling and exemplification of what may have been common practice during the recent Prehistory in the present territory of the Lisbon Peninsula.
Manipulations of human cranial bones should have been an integral part of the socio-religious system and symbolic thinking of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Initial.
“[…] religion was embedded in many components of social and economic life and played important roles in establishing links between individuals and communities […]”
Ian Hodder (2014).
Neolithic necropolis in a karstic context, coming from the Portuguese Extremadura region, not far from the coast, from where it was possible to recover cranial facial mask and two evidences of trepanation. The facial mask was the first to be explicitly mentioned in the Portuguese archaeological bibliography.
Aiming to study the human skulls and their bones that showed surgical or cult practices, during the Neolithic era, a survey of known Portuguese cases was carried out, proceeding to an anthropological study and its contextual framework, and the respective insertion the European Prehistory context.
The study intends to treat the different cases of cranial bone use in its various variants or evidences of symbolic practice during the Neolithic period in order to provide the construction of new interpretations.
Different cases of trepanation, skull discs and plaques, as well as masks obtained from the bones of the face will be presented.
The practice of using the human skull as a ritual object and subject to interventions and the consequent use of cranial bones is something that underlies a "way of thinking" added to the "explosion of the symbolic" that Jacques Cauvin refers (1997), and, acquiring another breath from the time the neolithic process begun in the Near East and epistolized during the PPNB as express by Kathleen Kenyon (1957), Jacques Cauvin (1997), or Mehmet Özdogan (1998), during which time we can find a greater expressiveness of use and manipulation of human cranial bones, that is, when the neolithic process begins to spread (Zilhão, 1992, 1993, 2000).
“For it is now recognized as important that many elements of life can be structured by religion, and can be archeologically recognizable as such […]” Archaeology, Ritual, ReligionTimothy Insoll (2004)
The skulls with evidences of trepanation have aroused the interest of Archeology and Anthropology since the century. XIX, height in were identified as surgical practice.
We have several evidences of trepanned skulls and other cranial manipulations deposited in diverse national institutions, in particular in the National Museum of Archeology (Lisbon - Portugal), which will be presented together with other examples.
More than simple intervention of a medical-surgical nature, it seems to us that these interventions carried out in human skulls have played a social-religious role in rituals associated with neoltihic societies.
Physical and petrographic comparisons were made between them, with the purpose to know the origin of the flint used in each archaeological site.The results of the analysis of thin slabs between the geological and archaeological material point to the expected, that is, similar textural characteristics for the flint materials coming from some settlements, with those of the quarries of its environs. However there are certain textural divergences among them that we disclose now.