Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Mamoa do Taio
Also known asAnta das Castanheiras
Photo Reis Quarteu · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Mamoa do Taio, also called the Anta das Castanheiras, is a former dolmen in the municipality of Paços de Ferreira, Porto district, Portugal. Despite its considerable size, the monument is now heavily damaged: it shows a very large crater, and its covering mound has disappeared.
A polished stone axe and one ceramic object are the only artefacts preserved from it.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Article
Mamoa do Taio
The word mamoa is used in north-western Iberia for the funerary tumuli that are characteristic of the Neolithic.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
The word mamoa is used in north-western Iberia for the funerary tumuli that are characteristic of the Neolithic. The remains of the Mamoa do Taio, although the monument is large, show an enormous crater, the result of an old violation of the site, which is thought to have caused the disappearance of the original burial structure.
The tumulus, which was originally intended to cover the monument completely, has disappeared entirely.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
A polished stone axe and one ceramic object are the only artefacts preserved from the monument.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument is recorded as a heritage site without legal protection.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Mamoa de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
The word anta is the Portuguese equivalent of the Greek or Roman architectural term for the terminal pillar of a temple, but it is also used for the stones of a dolmen or for the dolmen itself. About 5 000 megalithic structures of this type were built during the Neolithic in the west of the Iberian Peninsula by the successors of the Cardial culture.
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
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°15′22″ N, 8°25′14″ WFor a GPS or map app: 41.25606, -8.42057
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 do Padrão4000–3000 BCE- DolmenDólmen existente no terreno designado «Leira Longa», junto a uma veiga de terras lavradias chamadas «As Mourinhas»4000–3000 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Mamoa de Ramos
Anta de Santa Marta4000–3000 BCE
Via romana de Braga ao Porto (8 marcos miliários, Série Capela)- DolmenMamoa e gravuras rupestres conhecidas por «as Pegadinhas de São Gonçalo», a 16 m e 30 m, respectivamente, do «Menir de Luzim»4000–3000 BCE
Menir de Luzim2800–1800 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Mamoa de Luzim
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q66814724wikidata.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Anta do Padrão7.7 km S
- Dólmen existente no terreno designado «Leira Longa», junto a uma veiga de terras lavradias chamadas «As Mourinhas»8.9 km NE
- Mamoa de Ramos8.9 km S
- Anta de Santa Marta15 km E
- Via romana de Braga ao Porto (8 marcos miliários, Série Capela)16 km W
- Mamoa e gravuras rupestres conhecidas por «as Pegadinhas de São Gonçalo», a 16 m e 30 m, respectivamente, do «Menir de Luzim»18 km SE
- Menir de Luzim19 km SE
- Mamoa de Luzim19 km SE
- Necrópole de Vermoim20 km N
- Via de Braga a Guimarães, 2 marcos miliários (série capela)23 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Mamoa de Taio" (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 de TaioCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q66814724CC0