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O Casarão da Mesquita 3 (S. Manços, Évora): um sítio de fossas "silo" do Bronze Pleno/Final na Encosta do Albardão

2008; Volume: 11; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

0874-2782

Filipe J. C. Santos, Luís Arêz, António M. Monge Soares, Manuela de Deus, Paula F. Queiroz, Pedro Valério, Zélia Rodrigues, Ana Sofía Tamissa Antunes, M. Fátima Araújo,

Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History

EnglishDuring the Environmental I mpact Assessment for the new Monte Novo I rrigation Block, which is related with the implementation of the Alqueva Project, a large Roman villa was identified at a place named Monte da Mesquita (Sao Mancos, Evora). T he mitigation strategy concerning the eventually threatened archaeological heritage at Monte da Mesquita would be to undertake watching brief by archaeologists when a large infrastructure � a water pipeline � would be inserted crossing the area. I n this manner, when the arable ground was removed by machinery near fifty pits dug in the soft rocky substrate were discovered at Casarao da Mesquita 3 (CMESQ3), not far from the Roman villa. T he preservation by record of all those structures was approved by the authorities and the excavations were carried out by archaeologists from ArqueoHoje, an archaeological company. T he field works revealed that those pits were filled up with earth containing probable kitchen refuse, fragments of pottery, and, in two of them, human burials. T he artefacts recovered from those negative structures point out to a chronology from Middle to L ate Bronze Age, with the exception of three pits which chronology can be ascribed to a L ate Roman period. Radiocarbon dating of several samples (charcoal or bones) confirms the referred chronologies. Besides lots of ceramics, namely high carinated bowls and burnished pottery, some archaeometallurgical remains connected with the processing of bronze alloys � a stone mould for bronze flat axes, bits of slag and copper minerals � were also recovered indicating that bronze metallurgy was performed at the site. T he analysis of the charcoal remains reveals the human use of cork-oak, olive-tree, ash and strawberry-tree wood, reflecting the regional presence of Mediterranean sclerophyll cork-oak and olive-tree formations and their related scrubs, as well as the deciduous riparian forest. T he two human inhumations had not any associated funerary gifts and the individuals, one in each pit, were buried in a foetal position as is usual during Bronze Age. One of them was radiocarbon dated. T he date � Sac-2248 2990±60 BP � points out to a L ate Bronze Age (or to the end of the Middle Bronze Age) chronology for that inhumation. Several archaeological sites of the same chronology and with the same kind of negative structures are known near Casarao da Mesquita 3. At T rigaches (Beja) region and also at the Portuguese left bank of the river G uadiana, other archaeological sites very similar and with the same chronology of those ones were recently identified. portuguesNo âmbito da minimizacao de impactes sobre o patrimonio arqueologico decorrentes da construcao da Conduta Principal do Bloco 3 do Bloco de Rega do Monte Novo, inserido no Empreendimento de Fins Multiplos de Alqueva, foi identificado e intervencionado um sitio arqueologico na Encosta do Albardao (S. Mancos, Evora), que se revelou ser constituido por duas grandes concentracoes, muito proximas uma da outra, de fossas do tipo ?silo?. O conjunto artefactual recuperado dos enchimentos dessas estruturas negativas apontam para duas epocas de ocupacao: a mais recente, tardo-romana, possivelmente relacionada com a villa romana do Monte da Mesquita, que lhe fica muito proxima, e uma outra, a que corresponde a maior parte dos contextos intervencionados, atribuivel essencialmente ao Bronze Final, podendo recuar o seu inicio ao Bronze Pleno. Datacoes pelo radiocarbono confirmam e precisam esta atribuicao. Alem de um conjunto cerâmico numeroso, onde se destacam as cerâmicas carenadas e brunidas, mas sem ornatos brunidos, foram tambem recuperados vestigios arqueometalurgicos que apontam para a pratica da metalurgia do bronze no local. A analise antracologica dos restos lenhosos carbonizados permitiu a identificacao do uso de diferentes madeiras, bem como a presenca no coberto vegetal regional de formacoes esclerofilas de caracter mediterrânico. Duas das estruturas negativas serviram, quando ja estavam colmatadas, para nelas se proceder a inumacao de dois individuos, em posicao fetal, e sem dadivas funerarias. Um deles foi ja datado pelo radiocarbono, obtendo-se uma data que permite atribuir essa inumacao ao Bronze Final ou aos finais do Bronze Pleno. O conjunto de estruturas negativas pre-historicas do Casarao da Mesquita 3 tem paralelos muito proximos no Casarao da Mesquita 4, constituindo com ele, porventura, um unico sitio, e tambem no Monte da Cabida 3 e na Horta do Albardao 3, todos eles situados na Encosta do Albardao. T ambem na regiao de T rigaches (Beja) e na margem esquerda do G uadiana, no concelho de Serpa, outros sitios de planicie apresentam estruturas negativas do mesmo tipo, a que correspondem, igualmente, ocupacoes sincronicas com as do Casarao da Mesquita 3.