Anta da Portelagem e Mamoas do Rápido

The Anta da Portelagem is in the parish of Vila Chã, in the municipality of Esposende, in the district of Braga, Portugal. It is a megalithic monument belonging to a group of about twenty concentrated on the plateau of the parish, known as the Megalithic Necropolis of the Vilachanês Plateau. It dates from around 3000 BC.

The monument consists of a relatively well-preserved tumulus and a stone covering that rests against the slabs of the chamber. The chamber is sub-rectangular and was originally formed by 14 or 15 granite orthostats of varying volume and size. Today 12 remain, some partly fragmented, and of its roof only one large slab survives.

Francisco Martins Sarmento explored the monument in the late nineteenth century. His excavation recovered 5 arrowheads of quartz and flint and a carinated vessel with a handle, decorated with nipple-like bumps on the carination. More recently a team from the Universidade Portucalense, led by Dr. Eduardo Jorge Lopes da Silva, collected further arrowheads and some fragments of Bell Beaker pottery. Knives, necklace beads, grinding stones and other objects of granite and schist were also found. The material is kept in the Municipal Museum of Esposende, and the monuments are being classified by IGESPAR.

The Mamoas do Rápido, in the same parish and the same group, are made up of three monuments: two mounds and one dolmen. Only the Rápido III dolmen has been excavated. The other two are unexcavated but show signs of having been broken into, as there are holes in the top of the earth cap where a burial chamber seems to lie.

Rápido III is in good condition. Inside it has engravings and paintings representing megalithic funerary art, and some of its orthostats carry engravings that the most recent research team is studying.

Anta da Portelagem e Mamoas do Rápido is a dolmen in Vila Chã, Portugal. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Portuguese article "Anta da Portelagem e Mamoas do Rápido", shown in the original language.