0025 - Deers in Perdigões (2)

The deer was a special animal in Recent Prehistory. Its representation in rock art, in pottery decoration or the ceremonial use of its antlers and of its phalanges for carving anthropomorphic figurines leave few doubts about their important role in the imaginary of Prehistoric communities.

Here is a small figurine of a deer, carved in ivory, collected in Tomb 2 of Perdigões.

(Photo copyright A.C. Valera / Era Arqueologia)

For further information and interpretation of these figurines see here.

0012 - Deer antler

Deer were animals with particular symbolism in Prehistory. They were depicted in rock art, in pottery decoration, were carved in small figurines and their antlers were used for tools but also in ritual depositions in funerary contexts or in other ceremonial practices. Most of these "ceremonial antlers" were collected after being naturally lost by the animals, showing just the base and not the parts of the skull where they were attached, meaning that they do not result from hunting. That is the case of this antler from an adult deer that was deposited in Tomb 2 of Perdigões, in an assemblage of human bones. This assemblage is dated from the third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC.

(Photo copyright A.C. Valera / Era Arqueologia S.A.)

For more information see here.

0001 - Deers in Perdigões

Pottery fragment from a chalcolithic pit in Sector I. Two heads of male deer are depicted. Published in Valera e Godinho, 2009. (Photo copyright: A.C.Valera/Era Arqueologia).