Rapído dolmen
Also known asRapido 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 Rapído dolmen is a megalithic tomb in the parish of Vila Chã, municipality of Esposende, district of Braga, Portugal. It belongs to a group of three monuments, two mamoas (tumuli) and one dolmen, and is one of about twenty megalithic monuments concentrated on the plateau of the parish.
The catalogue gives an estimated date of 4000 to 3000 BCE, based on typology. The monuments are pending classification.
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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
Rapído dolmen
Some of the orthostats carry engravings, which are being studied by the team responsible for the most recent work.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Rápido III, the dolmen, is in a good state of conservation. Inside it are engravings and paintings of megalithic funerary art. Some of the orthostats carry engravings, which are being studied by the team responsible for the most recent work.
ExcavationsSources for this section
Sources for this section
Of the three monuments only dolmen Rápido III has been excavated; the other two have not. They show signs of having been violated, since there are holes in the top of the earthen cap, where a funerary chamber appears to lie.
A team from the Universidade Portucalense, directed by Eduardo Jorge Lopes da Silva, carried out a new intervention, recovering arrowheads and pottery fragments.
FindsSources for this section
Sources for this section
The material recovered is deposited in the Museu Municipal de Esposende. Besides arrowheads and pottery fragments it includes knives and necklace beads, together with grinding stones and other objects in granite and schist.
ConservationSources for this section
Sources for this section
The monuments are in the process of classification by IGESPAR.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
Another monument of the same plateau, the Anta da Portelagem, dates from about 3000 BCE. It has a relatively well-preserved tumulus and a stone covering against the slabs of the chamber. The chamber is sub-rectangular and was originally formed of 14 or 15 granite orthostats, of which 12 remain; one large cover slab survives.
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
- 3000 BCE
A Anta da Portelagem é um monumento megalítico que data de cerca de 3000 a.C., e que foi objeto de prospecção arqueológica em fins do século XIX por Francisco Martins Sarmento.
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°34′43″ N, 8°45′44″ WFor a GPS or map app: 41.57860, -8.76230
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 da Portelagem e Mamoas do Rápido4000–3000 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Menir de São Bartolomeu do Mar2800–1800 BCE
Menir de São Paio de Antas2800–1800 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Mamoa do Chão da Pica
Mamoa de Eireira
Mamoa de Aspra
Dólmen de Vile4000–3000 BCE
Anta da Barrosa4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q25418942wikidata.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
- Anta da Portelagem e Mamoas do Rápido<0.1 km S
- Menir de São Bartolomeu do Mar2.5 km W
- Menir de São Paio de Antas2.5 km N
- Mamoa do Chão da Pica23 km N
- Mamoa de Eireira25 km N
- Mamoa de Aspra26 km N
- Dólmen de Vile26 km N
- Anta da Barrosa27 km N
- Via romana de Braga a Tui - 14 marcos miliários (série capela)28 km NE
- Nécropole mégalithique de Bustelo28 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anta da Portelagem e Mamoas do Rápido" (Portuguese), 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