0015 - Beaker dagger

This copper dagger, typical of Bell Beaker assemblages, was collected at the surface of Perdigões in 2010, during the geophysical surveys. It was found in the central area of the enclosures, where there is the major concentration of beakers at the site.

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

Published here (contextual analysis) and here (metallurgical analysis).

0014 - Mini pots

These two very small pots were collected in the Late Neolithic contexts of Perdigões. They are rely small, and inside only a fingers head can enter. It is difficult to propose a functionality for such pots. Something resembling a modern toy status could be an explanation. But if we think that miniaturization, as form of scaling down objects to be handled in symbolic contexts (as it happens with animals and human figures), is one of the practices of the period, then these miniatures may be seen from a different perspective. Handled as thoughts in the mind, to quote (by memory) Tim Ingold about the small figurines.

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

They were first published here.

0013 - Bell Beaker

Commemorating the winter solstice, certainly an important period at Perdigões enclosures, here is a Bell Beaker collected in the excavations of 2018. Geometric style, with the decoration impressed using a comb.

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

See more information about Perdigões Bell Beakers 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.

0011 - Phalanx and beads

This horse phalanx was carved and polished to be transformed in a anthropomorphic figure. It was deposited with cremated human remains in Pit 40. It might have been close to a necklace, because several beads made of shell remained attached by concretions. Is dated from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC.

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

0010 - Ivory

Ivory is usually abundant in Perdigões Chalcolithic tombs. Many and diversified objects were collected in the tholos type tomb 1 and tomb 2 and in the pits with secondary depositions of human cremated remains. But there, also fragments of tusks were recovered, showing that ivory raw material was also circulating and arriving to Perdigões and not just finished objects.
Some of this ivory was analyzed and the provenance is the African Bush Elephant  (Loxodonta africana).

This fragment of tusk is from Pit 40, a major feature with the deposition of human cremated remains, dated from the middle 3rd millennium BC.

For more information see publication here.

0009 - Local object exogenous raw material

That is the case of the staff collected in Tomb 1 of Perdigões. Staffs are an  ideotechnic object present in the inner Alentejo megalithic tradition. This exemplar of Perdigões, made of ivory and dated from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, combines a regional object with an exogenous raw material. This combination captures,in a way, the spirit of times of the 3rd millennium BC, when local and regional areas were integrated in wide networks of social interaction. And this is also seen in the decoration of this peace, that resembles the patterns that can be observed in other materials of the period. Mixtures. A concept that can very well characterize these times of prime of the Neolithic way in the Southwest Iberia.

0008 - Sun eyes

This is one of the most complete pots with the so called symbolic decoration from Perdigões. It was collected at the atrium of Tomb 2 and is dated from the third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. It presents two sun eyes and over them two nipples. In each side of the nipples there are the zigzag facial tattoos. The decoration is completed with vertical stripes of lunulae.

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

(Drawing copyright Carlos Lemos / Era Arqueologia)

These well decorated pots, presenting several of the attributes of Chalcolithic symbolic iconography, can be found spread all over south Iberia.

Picture and drawing first published here.

0007 - Carving marble

There are several betils from Pit 40 of Perdigões, the one with the deposition of cremated human remains. Most of them are made of marble, a raw material that archaeometric studies suggest to have its origin 30/40km north of Perdigões, in the area of Borba / Vila Viçosa.

This is one of them, decorated with the radial eyes, eyebrows, facial tattoos and, in the back, the zigzag hair. Dated from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC.

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

0006 - Birds of ivory (1)

In Perdigões there are several bird figurines collected in funerary contexts, namely in Tombs 1 and 2.
This is one of the best carved in ivory, from Tomb 2. It represents a bird with grate detail and in a very realistic or naturalistic way. Its length is about 3cm.

(Photo copyright J.P. Ruas)

For more informations about animal figurines at Perdigões see here.

0005 - Faces

Faces of anthropomorphic figurines made of ivory from Perdigões. Four of a minimum number of 16 figurines, associated to the human cremated remains in a pit located in the center of the enclosures. They are dated between 2600-2400 BC.

(Photo copyright A.C. Valera / M. Capela, Era Arqueologia)

For more information see here.

0004 - Ivory box

Decorated ivory box from Tomb 2. This is a typical decoration present in many boxes made of different (ivory, bone, limestone) materials that occur in the Southern half of Iberia. In Portugal, they are frequent in Estremadura. In Perdigões there are several exemplars from Tombs 1 and 2.

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

For more information about Perdigões ivories see here.

0003 - Amber at Perdigões

Amber bead recovered inside a skull from Tomb 2 of Perdigões. Amber beads were also present at Tomb 1, and were made of Sicilian amber. The one from Tomb 2 will be analyzed soon, to determine the provenance of the amber.

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

One more evidence, among so many others, of the interaction networks of  exotic materials where Perdigões was involved in.

More information here.

0002 - Ivory lunulae

Ivory "lunulae" from tomb 2. Published in Valera, 2010 (Photo copyright A.C.Valera/Era Arqueologia)

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).