Nossa Senhora do Monte dolmen
Also known asanta da Nossa Senhora do Monte · Monte Penedono dolmen
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 Anta Nossa Senhora do Monte (also called Senhora do Monte, anta da Nossa Senhora do Monte or the Monte Penedono dolmen) is a megalithic passage tomb on a plateau near the road from Penedono to Paredes da Beira, in the north of the district of Viseu, Portugal. It stands on a plateau with six other megalithic monuments.
It is the largest anta on the plateau, and excavations in the 1990s produced indications of a date between 3200 and 2900 BCE. A chapel was later built over it.
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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
Nossa Senhora do Monte dolmen
Nossa Senhora do Monte is a polygonal structure with a long passage and evidently formed the core of the necropolis.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Anta Nossa Senhora do MonteCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Anta Nossa Senhora do MonteCC BY-SA 4.0
Anta, or dolmen, is the Portuguese term for about 5000 megalithic monuments built during the Neolithic in the west of the Iberian Peninsula by the successors of the Cardial or Impressa culture. Nossa Senhora do Monte is a polygonal structure with a long passage and evidently formed the core of the necropolis.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Anta Nossa Senhora do MonteCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Anta Nossa Senhora do MonteCC BY-SA 4.0
Excavations in the 1990s, carried out in connection with the restoration of the chapel, yielded indications of a date between 3200 and 2900 BCE. The catalogue record gives a wider range of 4000 to 3000 BCE, a typological estimate.
Later historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Anta Nossa Senhora do MonteCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Anta Nossa Senhora do MonteCC BY-SA 4.0
The ruins of the chapel of Nossa Senhora do Monte lie about 2.1 km south of the road. The chapel is a Christianised megalithic monument, built over the tomb in such a way that the chamber of the anta lies beneath the chancel. The passage lies east of the chapel.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Anta Nossa Senhora do MonteCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Anta Nossa Senhora do MonteCC BY-SA 4.0
About 30 m north of the chapel lies the Dolmen de Carvalhal, a smaller passage tomb, of which the passage, three chamber orthostats and one capstone of the passage survive. Its interior paving shows the former plan of the chamber, which had seven orthostats. About 800 m south of the chapel, to the right of the track, lies the Dolmen de Sangrino. It has a passage not set off from the chamber, inside a flat stone mound, and only one orthostat of its chamber survives, so the chamber shape is again reconstructed from the paving. Shortly before it, on the left, lie the two monuments of Lapinha. South of the sports ground of Penela lie the remains of the Dolmen da Penela, and the Dolmen de Turgal lies in a nearby field.
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
- 2900 BCE
Grabungen in den 1990er Jahren, die im Zusammenhang mit der Restaurierung der Kapelle erfolgten, haben Anhaltspunkte für eine Datierung in die Zeit zwischen 3200 und 2900 v. Chr. erbracht.
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
- 41°01′24″ N, 7°26′30″ WFor a GPS or map app: 41.02334, -7.44175
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.
Dólmen da Capela de Nossa Senhora do Monte4000–3000 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
Anta do Carvalhal4000–3000 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
menir de Penedono2800–1800 BCEPhoto: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
Nekropole von Lameira da Cima- Menhir (standing stone)Menir da Chã2800–1800 BCE
- DolmenDólmen de Carapito4000–3000 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Menir do Vale de Nascerães2800–1800 BCE
Antas de Vilarinho4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q570508wikidata.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
- Dólmen da Capela de Nossa Senhora do Monte<0.1 km SE
- Anta do Carvalhal<0.1 km N
- menir de Penedono6.9 km SE
- Nekropole von Lameira da Cima12 km SE
- Menir da Chã14 km NW
- Dólmen de Carapito27 km S
- Menir do Vale de Nascerães27 km W
- Antas de Vilarinho27 km NE
- Orca de Forles27 km SW
- Anta de Vilarinho da Castanheira29 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anta Nossa Senhora do Monte" (German), 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