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Overview
About this site
Overview
The Anta de São Gens, also known as the Anta da Vila de Nisa, is a dolmen in the freguesia of Alpalhão, in the municipality of Nisa, Portalegre District, Portugal. It dates to the Neolithic-Chalcolithic period (3500-2000 BCE) and has been classified as a National Monument since 1910.
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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
Q134546831
The monument belongs to a necropolis of four monuments of the same type, of which the Anta de São Gens I is the best preserved.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Anta de São GensCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Anta de São GensCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument belongs to a necropolis of four monuments of the same type, of which the Anta de São Gens I is the best preserved. It is a large polygonal funerary chamber made up of seven orthostates, including the capstone and the closing slab of the chamber.
The dolmen had a short access corridor oriented to the east, of which only two pillars survive. Little trace remains of the original tumulus.
NameSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Anta de São GensCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Anta de São GensCC BY-SA 4.0
The Portuguese word anta is the equivalent of ante, the terminal pillar of a Greek or Roman temple, but it is also used for the stones of a dolmen or for the dolmen itself.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Anta de São GensCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Anta de São GensCC BY-SA 4.0
About 5,000 megalithic structures of this type were built in the Neolithic in the west of the Iberian Peninsula by the successors of the Cardial pottery culture.
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
- 1910
Il est classé monument national depuis 1910 .
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
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
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
- 39°26′53″ N, 7°40′34″ WFor a GPS or map app: 39.44806, -7.67611
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.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q134546831wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anta de São Gens" (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): Anta de São GensCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q134546831CC0