Leonel Trindade

Leonel de Freitas Sampaio Trindade (born July 16, 1903 in Torres Vedras ; † January 4, 1992 ibid) was a Portuguese archaeologist and museum director. The Museu Municipal Leonel Trindade de Torres Vedras , which he helped build and later directed, bears his name today.

Life

Leonel Trindade was born in Torres Vedras, a small town thirty kilometers north of Lisbon, to the fashion store owner Joaquim Marques Trindade and his wife Adelaide Freitas Sampaio Trindade . Leonel spent his youth in Torres Vedras, in 1921 he finished school with a diploma at the Liceu Passos Manuel high school in Lisbon. He was unable to fulfill his wish to study engineering at the university; instead, at the urging of his family, he continued to run the thriving fashion business - one of the most successful businesses in town.

Scout movement and political engagement

In the 1920s he joined the scout movement and had the opportunity to meet Baden Powell , the movement's founder , at an international meeting ( jamboree ) in Birkenhead (Great Britain) in 1929 . He was also enthusiastic about the language Esperanto , which he then taught scouts in Torres Vedras. The Boy Scout Movement also stimulated his sense of nature and an interest in exploring his environment, which later led to his archaeological activities. In addition, the principles of brotherhood, international understanding and the striving for peace between peoples were entirely in keeping with his attitude, which was also expressed in his joining various opposition movements during the dictatorship of the Estado Novo in Portugal: the League Republicana (1930) , the Aliança Republicana Socialista (1931) and the Mocidade Republicana (1932).

Collaboration at the museum

From 1929 he helped build the newly founded city museum. Anti-fascist pamphlets were also secretly printed there with a duplicating machine and then distributed. When the dictatorship in Portugal was over on April 25, 1974 ( Carnation Revolution ), after long and dangerous years , he became a member of the country's communist party on August 20, 1978. However, its archaeological activities began as early as the 1920s. His contribution to the collections finally led to his appointment as vice director of the museum in 1934. Together with the doctor, Dr. Aurélio Ricardo Belo, the museum director at the time, carried out excavations in the Cova da Moura (Torres Vedras) cave in 1935 . During this time he discovered the Copper Age site of Zambujal , which he has visited more often since 1938. At that time it was a hill behind a farmhouse, in the vicinity of which numerous copper-age ceramic fragments appeared. In 1944 he carried out an exploratory excavation in the middle of the hill, during which he discovered the remains of a tower. Shortly before, in 1943, he married Maria de Lurdes Fernandes. His marriage had three children: Maria Adelaide (1944), António João (1948) and Leonel Joaquim (1957).

Archaeological work

In 1950 he found the palaeolithic station Rossio do Cabo in the dunes near Santa Cruz on what is now a campsite , where he also carried out excavations. In 1957 he began, together with AR Belo, excavations in Zambujal, which came to a standstill after Belo's death in 1961. In 1963 he was appointed a corresponding member of the Portuguese Archaeological Society ( Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses ). In the same year, through the mediation of Vera Leisner , he entrusted Hermanfrid Schubart from the German Archaeological Institute , Madrid Department, with the management of further excavations in Zambujal, which he accompanied until 1973. In 1965 he became a member of the second department of the Junta Nacional da Educação for the districts of Torres Vedras and Lourinhã. In 1967 he was appointed a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, in 1969 he became director of the Municipal Museum of Torres Vedras ( Museu Municipal de Torres Vedras , which today bears his name). In 1979 he was awarded a medal of honor by the city ("Medalha Comemorativa da Elevação de Torres Vedras"), and in 1983 he was visited on his 80th birthday by the then President of the German Archaeological Institute, Edmund Buchner , who gave him the silver medal for 150 years Passing the institute. In 1987 an international colloquium on the Copper Age of the Iberian Peninsula was held in his honor in Torres Vedras with an exhibition on the excavations in Zambujal, at which he was awarded the gold medal of the city of Torres Vedras for his cultural merits.

At a time when there was still no organized archaeological monument preservation in Portugal , Leonel Trindade made sure that the rich archaeological cultural heritage of the region, which was increasingly endangered by increasing building work, was ensured as much as possible through numerous prospecting and the use of private funds was preserved. He assembled and restored ceramics himself and played a key role in the construction of a municipal museum, the collection of which he later presented as director. He sought contact with well-known specialists for certain cultural epochs and made sure that the sites and finds were published in an appropriate manner. It is thanks to his personal commitment that the district of Torres Vedras is one of the most important archaeological regions in Portugal, and that since 1969 the museum has opened up more and more to international science and thus provided the basis for numerous publications.

Publications

• Jean Roche , Leonel Trindade: La station préhistorique de Rossio do Cabo (Santa Cruz - Estremadura) . In: Boletim da Sociedade Geológica de Portugal . 9, 1951, pp. 219-228.
• Aurélio Ricardo Belo, Leonel Trindade, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira: A gruta da Cova da Moura (Torres Vedras) . In: Comunicações dos Serviços Geológicos de Portugal 45, 1961, pp. 391-418 (+ Est. I-VI).
• Aurélio Ricardo Belo, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira, Leonel Trindade: Lucerna plimyxos do Museu de Torres Vedras . In: Revista de Guimarães 73, 1963, pp. 315-316.
• Leonel Trindade, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira: Sepultura pré-histórica da Serra da Vila (Torres Vedras). In: Revista de Guimarães 73, 1963, pp. 83-89 (+ Est. IV).
• Afonso do Paço , Leonel Trindade: Subsídios para uma carta arqueológica do concelho de Torres Vedras. In: "Arquivo de Beja" 20-21, 1964, pp. 61-68.
• Leonel Trindade, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira: Tesouro pré-histórico de Bonabal (Torres Vedras). In: Revista de Guimarães 74, 1964, pp. 271-280.
• Leonel Trindade, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira: Objectos inéditos lusitano-romanos do museu de Torres Vedras. In: Boletim da junta distrital de Lisboa (II Série) 61–62, 1964, pp. 265–278.
• Leonel Trindade, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira: Acerca do Vaso "Piriforme" Tartéssico de Bronze do Museu de Torres Vedras. In: Boletim da junta distrital de Lisboa (II Série) 63/64, 1965, pp. 175-183.
• Leonel Trindade, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira: Vaso campaniform «tipo garrafa bojuda» do the Museu de Torres Vedras. In: Revista de Guimarães 81, 1971, pp. 3-6 (+ Figs. 1-3).
• Gretel Gallay, Konrad Spindler , Leonel Trindade, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira: O Monumento pré-histórico de Pai Mogo (Lourinhã) . Associação dos Arqueólogos Portuguêses, Lisboa 1973.
• Leonel Trindade, Octávio da Veiga Ferreira: Vaso campaniform «tipo garrafa bojuda» do the Museu de Torres Vedras. In: Torres Cultural 2, 1979, pp. 24-25.
• Various articles on the megalithic tomb necropolis of the Cabeço da Arruda (Torres Vedras).
• Various essays on Zambujal .

literature

• Cecília Travanca: Reconhecer Leonel Trindade. Cooperativa de Comunicação e Cultura, Torres Vedras 1999.
• Cecília Travanca: Leonel Trindade, photographer. Exhibition catalog. Museu Municipal Leonel Trindade, Torres Vedras 1997.
• Leonel Joaquim Trindade, Isabel Luna: Museu Municipal de Torres Vedras, Cem Mil Anos de História, Sessenta Anos de Vida. In: Torres Cultural 3, Câmara Municipal de Torres Vedras 1990. ISSN  0871-4339 . Pp. 38-43.
• Leonel Joaquim Trindade: Leonel de Freitas Sampaio Trindade. In: Michael Kunst (Coord.): Origens, Estruturas e Relações das Culturas Calcolíticas da Península Ibérica. Actas das I Jornadas Arqueológicas de Torres Vedras, 3 a 5 de Abril de 1987 , Trabalhos de Arqueologia 7, Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico Lisboa 1995. ISBN 972-8087-15-2 . Pp. 4-5.

Web links

Commons : Leonel Trindade  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Leonel Trindade on arqueo.org (Portuguese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cecília Travanca: Reconhecer Leonel Trindade. Torres Vedras 1999, p. 21.
2. ↑ Cecília Travanca: Reconhecer Leonel Trindade. Torres Vedras 1999, pp. 24-25.
3. ↑ Cecília Travanca: Reconhecer Leonel Trindade. Torres Vedras 1999, pp. 32-33.