Anta do Pai Anes
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Anta do Pai Anes is a megalithic tomb in the municipality of Castelo de Vide, district of Portalegre, in the north-east of the Alentejo, Portugal. It lies about 1.7 km north-west of Póvoa e Meadas, in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Graça de Póvoa e Meadas.
Its chamber was formed by seven granite orthostats, of which six survive. The monument is dated by typological estimate to 4000 to 3000 BCE, and the only find recorded so far is a slate axe.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
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 do Pai Anes
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument stands on a small slope about 100 metres west of the Ribeira de Pai Anes.
Six of them are preserved, and five of these remain in situ, although slightly displaced from their original positions.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
The elongated, polygonal burial chamber was bounded by seven granite orthostats. Six of them are preserved, and five of these remain in situ, although slightly displaced from their original positions. The capstone of the chamber has been lost.
The first orthostat is decorated on its lower part with an oblong notch running across its full width, and has two concentric concavities near the top. There is no known indication of a passage or of an earthen covering (mamoa) over the tomb.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
The investigations carried out so far have produced only a slate axe. Monuments of this type are generally dated to the period from 4000 to 3000 BCE.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument was first described in 1959 by Georg and Vera Leisner. In 1982 the megalithic tomb was examined by the archaeological section of the municipality in an unofficial excavation.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
The site is privately owned and has been severely damaged. It was declared an Immovable Cultural Heritage of Public Interest (Imóvel de Interesse Público) in 1997. Restoration and conservation measures in 2003 were an attempt to prevent further deterioration.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
In Portugal the names anta, mamoa, dólmen, orca and lapa are used for some 5,000 megaliths built in the Neolithic in the west of the Iberian Peninsula. In the Alentejo, megalithic tombs are called antas.
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
- 1959
Em 1959, o monumento foi descrito pela primeira vez por Georg e Vera Leisner e em 1997 foi declarado como Imóvel de Interesse Público e protegido por essa via.
Source - 1982
Em 1982, a túmulo megalítico foi examinado pela secção arqueológica do município numa escavação não oficial.
Source - 2003
Com as medidas de restauro e conservação do ano de 2003, foi feita uma tentativa de impedir a posterior degradação do monumento.
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.
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
- 39°31′05″ N, 7°32′16″ WFor a GPS or map app: 39.51816, -7.53776
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.
- DolmenAnta da Tapada dos Matos4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAnta dos Currais do Galhordas4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAnta do Vale da Estrada4000–3000 BCE
Menhir of Patalou2800–1800 BCE- DolmenAnta do Cerejeiro4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAnta da Várzea dos Mourões4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAnta do Junçal4000–3000 BCE
Menir da Meada4000–1000 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q55692972wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anta do Pai Anes" (Portuguese), 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
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Anta do Pai AnesCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q55692972CC0