Pata do Cavalo

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Anta 1 from Monte das Boiças
Pata do Cavalo - Plan Anta 1

Pata do Cavalo ( German  "horse hoof" ) is the name of an archaeological site on the Monte das Boiças mountain in the Grândola district in western Portugal . This Anta 1 is a Copper Age megalithic complex .

Location and history

The facilities are located between the prehistoric copper ore minesMina de Canal Caveira ” in the north and “Mina do Lousal ” in the south, where pyrite was mined until 30 years ago . Today both mines are closed. the Mina do Lousal has been rededicated as a mining museum. The Canal Caveira mine is an ecological blot as the previous owners did not dismantle the mine. The local population may have already lived in the 3rd millennium BC. Mined ore and some minerals . The deposits provided copiapite, chalcopyrite , goethite , pyrite, iron vitriol , quartz , rhomboclase , sulfur and sphalerite .

nature

The approximately round chamber of Anta 1 has a diameter of 5.0-5.3 m. Eight of the bearing stones are well preserved, each with an average width of 1.75 m, three meters high and 60 cm thick. In the chamber there are smaller stone slabs that come from the collapsed dome. The corridor is only 3.2 m long; it used to be nine meters long.

Other plants

In the area of ​​the mountain, which is seven kilometers from the village of Azinheira dos Barros , there are two more megalithic systems .

  • Anta 1 is 700 m west of the summit.
  • Anta 2 is located 500 m east of Anta 1. In this well-preserved burial mound there is a chamber supported by eleven bearing stones.
  • Anta 3 is located 300 m south of Anta 1 and is a stone box 1.70 m long and 90 cm wide.

The megalithic complexes have been looted. The scanty remains of grave goods found are kept in the Museu dos Serviços Geológicos in Lisbon .

literature

  • Georg Leisner , Vera Leisner : The megalithic tombs of the Iberian Peninsula . Delivery 1–2: The West . de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1956–1959, pp. 258ff. ( Madrid Researches 1, ISSN  0418-9736 ).

Web links

Coordinates: 38 ° 5 ′  N , 8 ° 29 ′  W