Antas from Poço da Gateira
Coordinates: 38 ° 26 ′ 22.2 " N , 7 ° 27 ′ 4" W.
The two Antas of Poço da Gateira are megalithic complexes and are located south of the main road from Reguengos de Monsaraz to Monsaraz in the Évora des Alentejo district in Portugal . They played an important role in research history, in particular Poço da Gateira 1 is of particular importance. Anta or dolmen is the Portuguese name for around 5000 megalithic structures, which were built during the Neolithic in the west of the Iberian Peninsula by the successors of the cardial or imprint culture were erected.
The Antas are located about three kilometers east-southeast of the village of São Pedro do Corval ( Corval municipality ) on a small hill above the eponymous fountain (Poço). It is about two inconspicuous, close together, polygonal passage graves .
Anta 2 was half destroyed when it was found. However, the Anta 1 yielded important finds and findings during the excavation in the 1940s. In a row there were twelve shattered , but complete vessels (including kamps ), some of a bright red color, so-called Almagra pottery. With the help of thermoluminescence dating, two absolute dates were obtained from the shards in the 1970s , 4510 ± 360 (OxTL169b) and 4440 ± 360 BC. Determined. They are used to guide the construction of these small Alentejan dolmens in the second half of the 5th millennium BC. To date.
The find also includes 23 stone tools , most of which were located between the vessels and the chamber wall. In one case, a stone hatchet and a dexel (cross- handled ax ) were found in a vessel.
The excavators interpret the findings to mean that the dead sat leaning against the wall (an interpretation of the pile of bones also used in Scandinavia), holding the shanked tools (hatchet and hoe) in their hand, and that these in the course of decay, in the vessels half-filled with earth at the feet of the dead had slipped. The equipment of the dead also includes microliths and unretouched flint blades . This combination of finds is considered to be Neolithic .
literature
- EH Whittle, JM Arnaud: Archaeometrie 17 Fasz. 1 (1975) pp. 5-20
- M. Carrilero Millán and A. Suárez Marques: El territorio almeriense en la prehistoria. Almería 1997, ISBN 84-8108-134-5
- RW Chapman: The Megalitic tombs of Iberia . In: John D. Evans, Barry Cunliffe, Colin Renfrew, Antiquity and Man , Thames and Hudson, London 1981, ISBN 0-500-05040-6