Open AccessThe “Ferradeira” individual burial of Herdade do Álamo (Beja): facets of social change in the late 3rd millennium BC in South Portugal.
Author(s) -
António Carlos Valera,
Tiago do Pereiro,
Sofia Nogueira,
Lucy Shaw Evangelista,
AnneFrance Maurer,
Cristina Barrocas Dias,
Sara Ribeiro,
Carlo Bottaini
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
spal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2255-3924
pISSN - 1133-4525
DOI - 10.12795/spal.2022.i31.04
Subject(s) - radiocarbon dating , chalcolithic , period (music) , archaeology , dagger , beaker , geography , bronze age , art , philosophy , theology , aesthetics
The individual burial of the Herdade do Álamo, located in Beja municipality, South Portugal, is presented along with its bioanthropological study, radiocarbon dating and isotopic approaches on diet and mobility. The results show a male, with a terrestrial diet and youth mobility, dating from the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. The archaeometallurgical study of the metal votive assemblage (one tongue dagger and three Palmela points) indicates a copper metallurgy with high values of Arsenic (As), typical of this period of transition. The burial is contextualized in a process of individuation of the funerary practices and in the “Ferradeira Horizon”, considered as a facet of the diversified funerary practices and of the complex social changes of the late 3rd millennium BC in the South of Portugal.