Anta de Carcavelos
Location | Loures, Lisbon District, Portugal |
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Coordinates | 38°53′09″N 9°12′59″W / 38.88583°N 9.21639°W |
Type | Dolmen |
History | |
Periods | Late neolithic |
Site notes | |
Discovered | unknown |
Excavation dates | 1986; 1991-4; 1998; 2005-6 |
Archaeologists | Gustavo Marques; Florbela Estêvão; Rui Boaventura |
Public access | Yes |
The Anta de Carcavelos, located close to the village of Carcavelos near the town of Lousa in the municipality of Loures in the Lisbon District of Portugal, is a stone age dolmen (burial chamber) or megalithic monument from the Chalcolithic period. It is one of many such tombs that have been identified in Portugal.[1][2]
The Anta was a communal grave consisting of a
Based on earlier identification by Mesquita Figueiredo and Carlos Ribeiro (1813-82), the German archaeologists Georg and Vera Leisner visited the Anta of Carcavelos in 1944 as part of preparing a systematic inventory of the Neolithic tombs of the Lisbon area. They produced drawings but did not carry out any excavations. Hastened as a result of looting at the site, the first excavations were carried out in 1986 and continued again from 1991-94, under the supervision of Gustavo Marques of the Loures municipality. Further intermittent excavation was carried out in 1998 and again in 2005-06 by Florbela Estêvão and Rui Boaventura.[3]
From the studies carried out in 1994, many bones were collected, with over 80 adult males and females believed to have been buried there. Various objects were also found such as flint arrowheads, smooth and decorated
Preliminary microscopic analysis of human bones indicates cut marks. This suggests that the bodies could have been disarticulated and/or defleshed prior to burial in the dolmen, which thus served as an ossuary rather than as a repository of bodies. However, archaeologists recognise that further work is required to confirm this.[1]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-989-96416-0-0.
- ^ a b "Anta de Carcavelos". Megalithic Portal. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
- ^ a b c Boaventura, Rui Jorge Narciso (2009). As antas e o Megalitismo da região de Lisboa (Vol. 1). Universidade de Lisboa. Retrieved 6 April 2019.