Jaciment arqueològic de Barrada
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 Barrada archaeological site (Sítio arqueológico da Barrada, also known as Barradas or Silos da Barrada) lies close to the town of Aljezur in southern Portugal. It preserves traces of three distinct phases of occupation: prehistoric funerary monuments, silos and pits of the Islamic period, and a circular structure of the modern era. The prehistoric phase belongs to the late Neolithic or the early Chalcolithic, and the catalogue records the monument under the type dolmen.
The most significant prehistoric structure, Hypogeum I, is cut entirely into the ground and was still relatively intact when excavated, which gives it particular scientific importance.
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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
Jaciment arqueològic de Barrada
The site occupies a small hill at an altitude of about 36 m, a position that allowed the surrounding landscape to be overseen.
SettingSources for this section
Sources for this section
The site occupies a small hill at an altitude of about 36 m, a position that allowed the surrounding landscape to be overseen. It is reached by a roundabout on Rua Estácio da Veiga, next to the centre of Aljezur and near a school.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Two rock-cut hypogea were found. Hypogeum I consisted of an antechamber and a burial chamber linked by a passage, with concave walls and a roof that was originally vaulted; its total length was about 5 m. The burial chamber was arranged in three apses or alcoves, two of which were separated by a limestone slab. The antechamber was kidney-shaped, with a flat base. The rock dome later collapsed, which sealed various remains inside. The mound was built of blocks of stone, using limestone, quartz, greywacke and pebbles. The structure was badly damaged by building work in the Islamic period, mainly on its eastern side.
Hypogeum II is almost entirely destroyed, but it closely resembled the first in both structure and finds. Hypogeum I shows several similarities to a comparable structure found by Estácio da Veiga near the Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Alva, and both may have belonged to cemetery contexts.
FindsSources for this section
Sources for this section
The prehistoric finds include polished stone tools, such as axes and adzes of amphibolite, and knapped stone pieces, such as geometric flint pieces and blades. Human skeletal remains were found inside the burial chamber, together with parts of pottery vessels, a bracelet made from a shell of Glycimeris sp., and remains of molluscs including mussels, purple dye shells, clams, limpets, cockles and razor clams. Traces of ochre were also identified, a material used in the funerary rituals of that period.
HistorySources for this section
Sources for this section
The second phase of occupation, in the Islamic period, probably corresponds to a small residential nucleus tied to agricultural or industrial functions. The negative traces of structures include more than forty circular pits or silos, some of them linked by channels. Pottery fragments from the ninth to the eleventh centuries were recovered, dating from the same period in which the urban nucleus of Aljezur Castle was founded, so the place may have been a rural installation connected with the Islamic settlement of Aljezur. It was probably abandoned in the middle of the eleventh century, a time of greater instability in the Algarve with the formation of the taifa kingdoms.
The Islamic finds are mainly fragments of pottery, such as cooking pots, jugs and pitchers with painted decoration, together with a few pieces of glass in honey tones, some with black and manganese lines, and a few elements of corda seca decoration. After restoration the pottery was displayed in the Municipal Museum of Aljezur. Other finds include parts of hand mills, a schist spindle whorl, iron tools, and many animal remains, among them rabbits, deer, and goats or sheep.
The third phase belongs to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is represented by a stone building of circular plan, which may have been a windmill or a watchtower.
ExcavationsSources for this section
Sources for this section
The first archaeological remains were found in 2004, during the installation of a roundabout at the end of Rua Estácio da Veiga, as part of the access to the EBI/JI school of Aljezur. Archaeological work in 2010 included clearing the land and excavating and studying the structures. Work continued in 2011, when structures not studied the year before were investigated and the excavation area was extended to the north-east and south-east. More circular pits or silos came to light, together with a circular wall of unknown function at the north-eastern limit of the site and the prehistoric hypogeum.
In 2014 the Núcleo de Arqueologia e Paleoecologia of the University of the Algarve held a lecture on the hypogea of Aljezur, given by the archaeologist Elisabete Barradas. The fourth campaign of excavation was completed in 2015, carried out by the Associação de Defesa do Património de Aljezur and directed by Elisabete Barradas, Silvina Silvério and Maria João Dias da Silva.
ConservationSources for this section
Sources for this section
The campaigns received the support of the municipality and of several private bodies in Aljezur. At a meeting of the municipal council, the regional directorate of culture of the Algarve, the heritage associations and the responsible archaeologists, it was decided that the site would undergo a process of preservation and musealisation, so that it could be opened to the public and serve to explain the past and to promote the historical and cultural heritage of the municipality.
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
- 2004
Os primeiros vestígios arqueológicos foram descobertos em 2004, durante a instalação de uma rotunda no final da Rua Estácio da Veiga, como parte dos acessos à Escola EBI/JI de Aljezur.
Source - 2010
Em 2010 foram feitos trabalhos arqueológicos no local, que incluíram a limpeza dos terrenos e a escavação e estudo daquelas estruturas.
Source - 2010
Esta intervenção fez parte de um conjunto de campanhas arqueológicas no local, iniciadas em 2010, que tiveram o apoio da autarquia e de várias entidades privadas de Aljezur.
Source - 2011
Os trabalhos prosseguiram em 2011, durante os quais foram investigadas as estruturas que não tinham sido estudadas no ano anterior, e foi expandida a área de escavação para Nordeste e Sudeste.
Source - 2014
Em 2014, o Núcleo de Arqueologia e Paleoecologia da Universidade do Algarve organizou a palestra Os hipogeus de Aljezur: velhos dados e novas descobertas, sobre os monumentos funerários da Barrada, que foi apresentada pela arqueóloga Elisabete Barradas.
Source - 2015
Em 2015 foi concluída a quarta campanha de escavações no sítio arqueológico, executada pela Associação de Defesa do Património de Aljezur, e dirigida pelas arqueólogas Elisabete Barradas, Silvina Silvério e Maria João Dias da Silva.
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
- 37°19′08″ N, 8°47′43″ WFor a GPS or map app: 37.31876, -8.79519
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.
Menir da Cabeça do Rochedo4000–1000 BCE
Menir de Odiáxere2800–1800 BCE
Megalithic Monuments of Alcalar4500 BCE–600 CE- Menhir (standing stone)Sítio arqueológico da Quinta da Queimada2800–1800 BCE
Menir de Aspradantes2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Menhires de Milrei2800–1800 BCE
Pedra Moirinha2800–1800 BCE
Menhire von Vila do Bispo e Raposeira2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q108115257wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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
- Menir da Cabeça do Rochedo21 km S
- Menir de Odiáxere23 km SE
- Megalithic Monuments of Alcalar23 km SE
- Sítio arqueológico da Quinta da Queimada24 km SE
- Menir de Aspradantes28 km S
- Menhires de Milrei29 km S
- Pedra Moirinha29 km SE
- Menhire von Vila do Bispo e Raposeira30 km S
- Conjunto de menires de Milrei e do Padrão30 km S
- Menhires de Casa do Francês30 km S
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Sítio arqueológico da Barrada" (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