.jpg/1920px-Anta_do_Penedo_do_Com_-_Esmolfe_-_Portugal_(5086931195).jpg 1920w)
Anta do Penedo Com
Also known asOrca do Penedo Com
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
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Overview
About this site
Overview
The Anta do Penedo do Com (also recorded as Anta do Penedo Com and Orca do Penedo Com) is a dolmen in a granite area known as the Penedo do Com, at Pontão in the parish of Esmolfe, municipality of Penalva do Castelo, Viseu District, Portugal. It dates to the end of the fourth millennium or the beginning of the third millennium, in the Late Neolithic period.
It has been listed as a Property of Public Interest since 1992. The monument has been well restored, although only a few of the original stones are now in place.
Read on Wikipedia3 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 Penedo Com
It has four monoliths on each side, two of them on the north side being original, and is covered by four other monoliths, none of which is original.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen has a polygonal chamber measuring 3.30m × 3.10m, with a height of 2.55 metres, formed by nine orthostats and covered by the original capstone, which weighs 7.8 tons. The covered entrance passage is four metres long, one metre wide and 1.40 metres high. It has four monoliths on each side, two of them on the north side being original, and is covered by four other monoliths, none of which is original.
The tumulus that would have covered the dolmen is no longer visible, although vestiges of the stones that marked its exterior can be seen. It had a diameter of between 13 and 15 metres.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
The site lies in a valley at an altitude of 502 metres, on the banks of the Sezures and Oronho streams. Granite outcrops were once abundant in the area but have now been largely destroyed by mining. The dolmen is surrounded by a forest of maritime pine.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument was first mentioned in 1911 in the newspaper O Século and was later documented by the ethnographer and archaeologist José Leite de Vasconcelos. The first excavation, in 1911, was carried out by José António Domingos dos Santos, who found 12 mushroom-shaped flint and quartz points, 10 flint points, 2 rock crystal points, a polished stone axe, fragments of clay vessels, bones and charcoal.
Further excavations from 1998 uncovered a total of 1,075 additional objects. These included 84 mushroom-shaped points of flint and milky quartz, 19 microliths, 12 blades, 15 bladelets, two scrapers, four hand mills, a polished axe, a triangular pendant, various types of bead, spherical ceramic vessels, eight truncated conical carinated vessels and five bell-shaped beakers. The work was commissioned by the Penalva do Castelo municipality to excavate, restore and enhance the dolmen.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument is dated to the end of the fourth millennium or the beginning of the third millennium, in the Late Neolithic. It is believed to have been reused in the Late Chalcolithic or early Bronze Age.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
In 1956 Georg and Vera Leisner visited the dolmen and began its classification, but it was classified as a Property of Public Interest only in June 1992. By 1997 its condition was very poor: only three granite slabs remained in their original position, and the capstone lay flat over the orthostats.
Almost the entire monument was reconstructed in the works that began in 1998, since all the monoliths on the south side had been knocked down and only two of those on the north side remained, also lying on their sides. Rocks found nearby were used to replace the missing ones. The dolmen is included in the Megalithic Route of the Viseu Dão Lafões and Sever do Vouga region and can be reached by road.
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
- 1911
This monument was first mentioned in 1911 in the newspaper O Século and later documented by the noted ethnographer and archaeologist, José Leite de Vasconcelos.
Source - 1911
The first excavation was in 1911 by José António Domingos dos Santos, who found 12 mushroom-shaped flint and quartz points, 10 flint points, and 2 rock crystal points, a polished stone axe, fragments of clay vessels, bones, and charcoal.
Source - 1956
In 1956, Georg and Vera Leisner visited the dolmen and initiated its classification, but only in June 1992 was it classified as a Property of Public Interest.
Source - 1992
It has been listed as a Property of Public Interest since 1992. This dolmen has been well restored, providing a clear illustration of how such burial tombs were originally constructed, although only a few of the original stones are now in place.
Source - 1997
By 1997, its condition was very poor, with only three granite slabs remaining in their original position, and the capstone lying flat over the orthostats.
Source - 1998
From 1998, further archaeological excavations uncovered a total of 1,075 additional objects, including 84 mushroom-shaped points of flint and milky quartz, 19 microliths, 12 blades, 15 bladelets, two scrapers, four hand mills, a polished axe, a triangular pendant, various types of bead, spherical ceramic vessels,...
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
4 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
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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
- 40°41′39″ N, 7°40′11″ WFor a GPS or map app: 40.69409, -7.66982
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.
- DolmenAntas de Penalva (2)4000–3000 BCE
Dólmen da Matança4000–3000 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
- DolmenAnta ou orca de Cortiçô4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenAnta de Cas-Freires4000–3000 BCE
Orca dos Juncais4000–3000 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
Conjunto de Monumentos Megalíticos do Grupo de Viseu Dão LafõesPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
- DolmenAnta de Mamaltar do Vale de Fachas4000–3000 BCE
Dolmen of Cunha Baixa4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
3 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q66815537wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
- 03Wikipedia: Anta do Penedo Comen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Anta do Penedo do Com - Esmolfe - Portugal (5086931195).jpgVitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGALCC BY-SA 2.0
- Anta do Penedo do Com - Esmolfe - Portugal (8513399047).jpgVitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGALCC BY-SA 2.0
- Anta do Penedo do Com - Esmolfe - Portugal (7357239826).jpgVitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGALCC BY-SA 2.0
- Anta do Penedo do Com - Esmolfe - Portugal (3982803795).jpgVitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGALCC BY-SA 2.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Antas de Penalva (2)9.7 km SE
- Dólmen da Matança12 km E
- Anta ou orca de Cortiçô14 km E
- Anta de Cas-Freires14 km N
- Orca dos Juncais15 km N
- Conjunto de Monumentos Megalíticos do Grupo de Viseu Dão Lafões15 km N
- Anta de Mamaltar do Vale de Fachas15 km W
- Dolmen of Cunha Baixa16 km SW
- Pedralta 117 km NW
- Orca de Forles17 km N
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anta do Penedo do Com" (English), 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 (English): Anta do Penedo do ComCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q66815537CC0