.jpg/1920px-N18_between_Nisa_and_Vila_Velha_de_R%C3%B3d%C3%A3o_(48853082713).jpg 1920w)
MegalithFringe site
Nisa
Also known asNisa Municipality
DatedEst. 4000 BCE–600 CE
Photo Jelger · CC BY 2.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Nisa, officially the Notable Town of Nisa, is a municipality in Portalegre District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 7,450, in an area of 575.68 km2. The catalogue places it at the coordinates 39.5167, -7.6500 and files it under 'Other / unclassified'.
The municipal holiday is Easter Monday, and the town lends its name to Queijo de Nisa, a Portuguese sheep cheese with a protected designation of origin (PDO).
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
Nisa
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nisa, PortugalCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nisa, PortugalCC BY-SA 4.0
Administratively the municipality is divided into 7 civil parishes (freguesias): Alpalhão; Arez e Amieira do Tejo; Espírito Santo, Nossa Senhora da Graça e São Simão; Montalvão; Santana; São Matias; and Tolosa. Among the notable people of the municipality is Álvaro Semedo (ca.1585 - 1658), a Portuguese Jesuit priest and missionary in China.
This is a typological estimate, based on the general character of the kind of monument rather than on a measured date for a particular structure in Nisa.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nisa, PortugalCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nisa, PortugalCC BY-SA 4.0
The catalogue gives a date range from 4000 BCE to 600 CE for the record. This is a typological estimate, based on the general character of the kind of monument rather than on a measured date for a particular structure in Nisa. No description of any stone monument in the municipality is available in the material consulted for the Atlas.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nisa, PortugalCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nisa, PortugalCC BY-SA 4.0
The Atlas uses the heading 'other' for stone monuments that fit none of its other types, and the same heading serves for underground chambers that have no regional entry. The records are a scatter of single sites in many countries whose descriptions do not allow a closer classification. Some of these are underground: a hypogeum is literally an 'underground' temple or tomb, often with niches for cremated remains or loculi for buried remains. The Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni in Paola, Malta, is the oldest example of a prehistoric hypogeum, with its earliest phase dated to 3600 to 3300 BCE.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Other prehistoric stone monuments
The Atlas uses the heading "other" for stone monuments that fit none of its other types, and the same article serves for underground chambers that have no regional article. The records are varied. Many are ziggurats, Egyptian temples and pyramids, and Maya and Andean sites, which are treated in their own articles. What remains is a scatter of single sites in many countries whose descriptions do not allow a closer classification.
Several of these are underground. A hypogeum is literally an "underground" temple or tomb, often with niches for cremated remains or loculi for buried remains. An early example is found at the Minoan Bronze Age site of Knossos on Crete, a beehive-shaped vault cut into soft rock. The Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni in Paola, Malta, is the oldest example of a prehistoric hypogeum, with its earliest phase dated to 3600 to 3300 BCE. It is a complex of underground chambers, halls and passages covering about 500 square metres on three levels, partly carved to imitate temple architecture and containing extensive prehistoric art.
A rock-cut tomb is cut into an existing rock formation, usually a cliff or sloping rock face, and was a common burial form for the wealthy in several parts of the world. Famous clusters are in Egypt, Iran, Lycia in Turkey, Petra in Jordan and Sicily. Phrygian rock-cut tombs such as the Midas monument date to about 700 BCE, and Etruscan ones to about 500 BCE.
The general rule for these records is that the type tells you how a monument was made, not who made it or when. Dating is taken from the source for each site where a source gives one, and otherwise left as a broad range.
When visiting, read the site's own description first, since the Atlas can offer only a general frame.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megalith, Wikipedia: Hypogeum, Wikipedia: Rock-cut tomb, Wikipedia: Stele · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs
8 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000 BCE–600 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a other in the Iberian Peninsula is normally dated between 4000 BCE and 600 CE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- District
- PortalegreSource: District
- Population in 2011
- 7,450Source: Population in 2011
- Area
- 575.68 km²Source: Area
- Municipal holiday
- Easter MondaySource: Municipal holiday
- Protected product
- Queijo de Nisa sheep cheeseSource: Protected product
Where it stands
Portugal
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 39°31′00″ N, 7°39′00″ WFor a GPS or map app: 39.51667, -7.65000
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
4 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1013628wikidata.org
- 02Fringe claim sourceen.wikipedia.org
- 03Wikipedia (en)en.wikipedia.org
- 04Wikipedia: Nisaen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- N18 between Nisa and Vila Velha de Ródão (48853082713).jpgJelgerCC BY 2.0
- Monumento ao Emigrante - Nisa - Portugal (46105563991).jpgVitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGALCC BY-SA 2.0
- Nisa - Portugal (45045140204).jpgVitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGALCC BY-SA 2.0
- Monumento ao Doutor Francisco da Graça Miguéns - Nisa - Portugal (8439262040).jpgVitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGALCC BY-SA 2.0
- Monumento ao Dr. Francisco da Graça Miguéns - Nisa - Portugal (45533666441).jpgVitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGALCC BY-SA 2.0
- Vila de Nisa, Município de Nisa, Portugal 02.jpgGualdimGCC BY-SA 4.0
- Nisa la maison bleue (529638563).jpgGuy MOLL from Faro, PortugalCC BY 2.0
- Queijo de nisa.jpgAdriaoCC BY-SA 3.0
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
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Nisa, Portugal" (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): Nisa, PortugalCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1013628CC0
- Fringe claim sourceCC BY-SA 4.0