Anta de Vilarinho da Castanheira
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Reis Quarteu · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Anta de Vilarinho da Castanheira, also called Pala da Moura, is a dolmen in the municipality of Carrazeda de Ansiães, Bragança District, Portugal. It has been classed as a national monument since 1910, and is estimated, on typological grounds, to date from 4000 to 3000 BCE.
The word anta is the Portuguese equivalent of 'ante' (the end pilaster of a Greek or Roman temple), but is also used for the stones of a dolmen or for the dolmen itself.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Anta de Vilarinho da Castanheira
The monument comprises a polygonal burial chamber made of eight orthostats and a single monolithic cover stone, together with a covered passage oriented to the east.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The monument comprises a polygonal burial chamber made of eight orthostats and a single monolithic cover stone, together with a covered passage oriented to the east. On the inside of one of the pillars traces of an early painted composition can be seen. Nearby are two restored wheel mills. The monument stands in a natural area equipped with leisure facilities where visitors can spend time in a rural setting.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
Some 5,000 megalithic structures of this type are said to have been built in the Neolithic in the west of the Iberian Peninsula by the successors of the Cardial pottery culture.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Portuguese antas of the Alentejo
Around Évora, in the Alentejo, megalithic tombs are called antas, and some of the largest in Iberia stand here. The Great Dolmen of Zambujeiro, near Valverde in the municipality of Évora, is considered one of the biggest such structures in Iberia. Research has dated it to between 4000 and 3000 BCE, concurrent with the megalithic building of the Évora region, and it is linked to the Great Dolmen of Comenda da Igreja at Montemor-o-Novo. Henrique Leonor Pina excavated it in 1965, and although his methods caused some controversy, the work recovered slate tablets, necklaces, crosiers, copper objects, ceramics and carinated bowls. The Portuguese government declared it a national monument in 1971.
The finds show that the tombs were used for generations: slate tablets, personal ornaments and copper objects in the chambers reach into the Chalcolithic, so one anta can carry evidence for several centuries of burial custom. Excavated anta chambers are the main source for dating, since the stones themselves cannot be dated.
Nearby, the Almendres Cromlech is a large group of standing stones, a reminder that the Alentejo's megalithic landscape also includes open-air stone enclosures and single menhirs, not only tombs.
The Atlas's records here include small antas, some reduced to a few standing slabs, and many lack a secure excavation date. They are labelled with a typological range.
When visiting, look for the chamber and the passage that leads to it, and for the way the monument sits in its field. Check access in advance.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Great Dolmen of Zambujeiro, Wikipedia: Great Dolmen of Comenda da Igreja, Wikipedia: Almendres Cromlech, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1910
Il a été classé monument national en 1910 .
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–3000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in Portugal; this site has not been dated itself. Most dolmens date from the Late Neolithic period (4000-3000 BCE); megalithic tombs at Algarve in Portugal date to c. 2500 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Portugal
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 41°11′54″ N, 7°11′23″ WFor a GPS or map app: 41.19833, -7.18972
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Antas de Vilarinho4000–3000 BCE
Anta de Zedes4000–3000 BCE
Anta de Fonte Coberta4000–3000 BCE
Anta do Carvalhal4000–3000 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
Dólmen da Capela de Nossa Senhora do Monte4000–3000 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
- DolmenNossa Senhora do Monte dolmen4000–3000 BCE
menir de Penedono2800–1800 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
Nekropole von Lameira da Cima
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q134390318wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anta de Vilarinho da Castanheira" (French), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors