Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Mamoa das Madorras
Photo Reis Quarteu · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Mamoa das Madorras is a dolmen in the parish (freguesia) of São Martinho de Anta e Paradela de Guiães, municipality of Sabrosa, Vila Real district, Portugal. It is a passage dolmen with a polygonal burial chamber and has been attributed to the late Neolithic and the early Bronze Age.
The monument was discovered in 1912 and excavated between 1983 and 1988. It has no protected status.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Article
Mamoa das Madorras
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
The Mamoa das Madorras is a passage dolmen. Its burial chamber is polygonal and is formed by three orthostats on each side.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument was discovered by Albino dos Santos Pereira in 1912, but it was the subject of archaeological research only between 1983 and 1988, under the direction of António Alberto Huet de Bacelar Gonçalves.
The research made it possible to attribute the monument, with a certain precision, to the late Neolithic and the early Bronze Age.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
The research made it possible to attribute the monument, with a certain precision, to the late Neolithic and the early Bronze Age.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
The excavations identified a considerable body of artefacts. It consists mainly of pottery fragments, stone blades and schist necklace beads, together with a few examples belonging to the category of so-called idols.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument has no protected status and is recorded as a heritage site without legal protection.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
The word mamoa is used in north-western Iberia for the funerary tumuli that are characteristic of the Neolithic.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Iberian tumuli
Most of the Atlas's Iberian mounds lie in the northern highlands, especially the Basque country, where prehistoric collective graves are found in great numbers. Archaeologists there separate dolmens, which have a stone chamber covered by a mound of stones and earth, from "tumuli" or mounds that have no chamber but were used in the same way, for collective burial. Roughly 800 dolmens and about 500 mounds are known in the Basque Country, though some of the mounds may be dolmens waiting to be excavated.
Both kinds are placed in spots of great visibility, often on mountain ridges, and are built of local materials; the larger ones tend to be in lowland areas and the smaller ones in mountain zones. The dead were placed in the chamber or under the mound over generations, and older remains were moved aside to make room for newer ones, which is why very few Basque monuments have a clear layered record. Megalithic burial arrived in the late Neolithic, was in constant use in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, and in some mounds continued as late as the Iron Age.
Across Iberia the picture changes with the Bell Beaker phenomenon of the late Chalcolithic, which brought individual graves, often under mounds, in contrast with the collective graves that came before.
Dating is difficult, because few mounds have been excavated and the collective burials were disturbed, so the Atlas gives broad typological ranges.
When visiting, look for low circular mounds of stone on high ground in pasture, often with a ring of larger stones or a dip in the centre where a chamber may have collapsed, and for neighbouring stone circles on the same ridge.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Basque prehistory, Wikipedia: Tumulus, Wikipedia: Bell Beaker culture, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1912
Bien que découverte par Albino dos Santos Pereira en 1912, la Mamoa das Madorras n'a fait l'objet de recherches archéologiques qu'entre 1983 et 1988, sous la direction d'António Alberto Huet de Bacelar Gonçalves.
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
Where it stands
Portugal
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 41°17′55″ N, 7°36′36″ WFor a GPS or map app: 41.29858, -7.60989
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.
Anta de Fonte Coberta4000–3000 BCE- DolmenMenir da Pedra d' Anta4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenSerra do Alvão dolmens4000–3000 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Menir do Vale de Nascerães2800–1800 BCE
Mamoa do Alto do Cotorino- Menhir (standing stone)Menir da Chã2800–1800 BCE
Anta de Zedes4000–3000 BCE
Anta do Carvalhal4000–3000 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q66815341wikidata.org
Image files
- Mamoa das Madorras - 17.jpgReis QuarteuCC BY-SA 4.0
- Mamoa das Madorras - 01.jpgReis QuarteuCC BY-SA 4.0
- Mamoa das Madorras - 02.jpgReis QuarteuCC BY-SA 4.0
- Mamoa das Madorras - 03.jpgReis QuarteuCC BY-SA 4.0
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
- Anta de Fonte Coberta12 km E
- Menir da Pedra d' Anta22 km NW
- Serra do Alvão dolmens23 km NW
- Menir do Vale de Nascerães24 km SW
- Mamoa do Alto do Cotorino24 km N
- Menir da Chã25 km S
- Anta de Zedes27 km E
- Anta do Carvalhal34 km SE
- Nossa Senhora do Monte dolmen34 km SE
- Dólmen da Capela de Nossa Senhora do Monte34 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Mamoa das Madorras" (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
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa das MadorrasCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q66815341CC0