Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A duna de Magoito revisitada

2003; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

0874-2782

António M. Monge Soares,

Marine and environmental studies

EnglishSixty years ago Zbyszewski (1943) identified two archaeological sites closely associated with the consolidated sand dune of Magoito (Sintra). One of them, consisting of a black layer with a large concentration of marine and estuarine shells, is placed below the dune and, consequently, it was formed before the dune. This human occupation was thought to be from the Upper Paleolithic, while the dune would be dated to the Final Wurm. The other archaeological site is located on the southern side of the dune and it was also made up of a shell midden where, in contrast with the first one, large shells of Mytilus galloprovincialis and pottery were present. Chronologically it would belong to the Neolithic or to a more recent period. Afterwards through the radiocarbon dating of a charcoal sample picked up from the black layer of the older midden, the chronology of this site was changed to the Pre-Boreal period. So, the build-up of the sand dune of Magoito would have already occurred during the Holocene (Daveau et al., 1982). The research that we set up since the second half of the eighties allowed us to establish accurate chronologies, to get new data for the known archaeological sites and to identify new archaeological deposits also connected with the sand dune of Magoito. In this manner, the Epipaleolithic shell midden was, for the first time, known in its total dimension and a set of radiocarbon dates was obtained from several samples collected at different locations in the archaeological layer. This set of dates led to an accurate dating of the shell midden that confirms the chronology imputed to it after the obtention of the first radiocarbon date. On the other hand, several archaeological deposits were identified on the southern side of the dune which, although nowadays merely residuals, revealed a complexity not foreseen from Zbyszewski's descriptions (Zbyszewski, 1943, 1958). In the second archaeological site discovered by Zbyszewski two human occupations were identified and radiocarbon dated. The older one is from the V Millennium B.C. while the more recent occupation is from the Late Neolithic to which belong the sherds found in this midden. Finally, at two locations near the rio da Mata and in the vicinity of the base of the dune, a human occupation from the Late Bronze Age was recognized. Some interesting pottery of this chronology was collected at both locations. portuguesNos anos quarenta do seculo passado, Zbyszewski (1943) identificou, em relacao a duna consolidada de Magoito, dois sitios arqueologicos: um, subjacente a duna e, por conseguinte, anterior a formacao desta, consistia num nivel escuro com numerosas conchas de moluscos marinhos e seria datavel do Paleolitico Superior, sendo a duna atribuivel ao final do Wurm; outro, localizado no flanco da duna, constituido por um concheiro com fragmentos de cerâmica e onde se destacavam conchas de Mytilus galloprovincialis de grande tamanho, seria atribuivel ao Neolitico ou a um periodo mais recente. Posteriormente, atraves da obtencao de uma data de radiocarbono, a cronologia do primeiro sitio arqueologico foi modificada, integrando-o agora no periodo Pre-Boreal. A formacao da duna de Magoito teria, por conseguinte, ocorrido ja durante o Holocenico (Daveau et al., 1982). A investigacao levada a cabo em Magoito, nestes ultimos anos, e que agora se publica, permitiu precisar cronologias, obter novos dados sobre os sitios arqueologicos ja conhecidos e identificar novos depositos arqueologicos em conexao com a duna consolidada de Magoito. Assim, o nivel arqueologico epipaleolitico foi, pela primeira vez, definido em toda a sua extensao e obtida uma serie de datas de radiocarbono, a partir de amostras colhidas em diversas localizacoes no nivel arqueologico. Obteve-se, assim, uma datacao precisa e fiavel que confirmou a cronologia do Pre-Boreal que ja tinha sido atribuida a esta ocupacao humana da base da duna. Foram, por outro lado, identificados diversos depositos arqueologicos no seu flanco, ao longo do rio da Mata, que, embora hoje meramente residuais, se revelaram de uma complexidade que nao se antevia pelas descricoes de Zbyszewski (1943, 1958). No segundo sitio arqueologico identificado por este autor estao representadas ocupacoes dataveis de meados do V milenio a.C. e do Neolitico Final, sendo a cerâmica ai encontrada atribuivel a esta ultima ocupacao. Por fim, foi identificada, em dois locais junto ao rio da Mata e na vizinhanca imediata da base da duna consolidada, uma ocupacao humana mais recente, do Bronze Final, tendo sido recolhida alguma interessante cerâmica com esta cronologia.