Cátia Mendes

Uma das linhas de investigação que tem assumido um interesse cada vez maior por parte dos arqueólogos e pré­historiadores nos últimos anos é o da identificação, caracterização e interpretação dos recintos circunscritos, qualquer que seja a forma e estrutura do tipo de confinamento utilizado, com maior ou menor materialidade e visibilidade para nós, investigadores, ou para quem os viu e utilizou na época em que funcionavam. Apresentamos, neste trabalho, os primeiros resultados das escavações realizadas no recinto muralhado de Chão de Galego (Proença­a­Nova), enquadradas no âmbito do Projeto Mesopotamos e do Campo Arqueológico de Proença­a­Nova (CAPN). Este é um entre tantos outros sítios conhecidos no distrito de Castelo Branco com cronologias compreendidas entre o final da Idade do Bronze e os inícios da Romanização, mas, ao mesmo tempo, tão singular devido aos problemas de caracterização e interpretação que nos são colocados

A small worked monolith, made of sandstone, is in Castelo Branco at least since the seventies of the twentieth century as is now described.Given its morphological characteristics and the text it contains is believed to have been a funerary stele intended to be placed at the head of an individual grave. The text suggests an African origin, probably from northern Angola or the Lower Congo. So far it has not been possible to identify its collector nor its exact provenance.
Neither is known how it came to mainland Portugal.

Vila Velha de Ródão (central inland Portugal) is best known for well preserved open Mousterian campsites such as the Foz do Enxarrique (33.6 ka) or Vilas Ruivas (54 ka) that yielded evidence of highly preserved occupational layers with abundant faunal remains (the first) and features interpreted as hearts and windshields (the second). The region is also rich in other periods, namely Acheulean and, during the Holocene, Pre- and historical sites, rock art, dolmens and mines.
Here we report another site, Cobrinhos, located 2,3km upstream from Foz do Enxarrique and 2,5km from the Pleistocene course of the Tagus River. Cobrinhos is an open-air site found in the fall of 2014 during the construction of a new building for a paper factory. The occupation seems to result from a Neanderthal quarry that exploited a dense debris flow from the nearby 400m high quartzite crests. The original archaeological layer seems to have moved downslope and presently occupies an area of 2500m2.
By opposite to what is usual in open-air sites, there are no remains that can be associated to other time-periods, which suggests a good integrity of the deposit.
The assemblage is composed by more than four thousand artifacts, from cores to chips, ~99% in quartzite and ~1% in milky quartz. The cortex present in the artifacts is congruent only with the debris, suggesting an exclusive local exploitation. The industry is typically Mousterian, with predominance of Levallois and Discoidal debitage, and abundant retouched tools, suggesting that retouch was a desirable and not only a result of edge reshaping.
Several sediment samples were taken for geological analysis and absolute dating. Also, the assemblage is presently under study for technological, typological refitting and special analysis.
In short, Cobrinhos represents a novel type-site in Portugal with crucial information to understand Neanderthal ecological and technological behavior.

Until the end of the twentieth century, the archaeological work carried out at the municipality of Proença-a-Nova was characterized by episodic, discontinuous or inconclusive interventions. As examples of this in the first decade of the century, the records made by Francisco Tavares de Proença Jr., the inventory of megalithic monuments produced by Georg and Vera Leisner probably during the 1940’s, but only published by the end of the century, and occasional news or studies under the responsibility of other researchers. Most recently, from the late 1970’s until the present day, one should mention the surveys undertaken by the Associação de Estudos do Alto Tejo, and, this century already, the contribution provided by environmental impact assessment studies of several projects.

In recent years, archaeological research in the territory of Proença-a-Nova took on new dimensions as a result of the commitment of the municipality of Proença-a-Nova with the Associação de Estudos do Alto Tejo, by establishing a longer term course of action. In this context, it was possible to extend the knowledge of the archaeological heritage of Proença-a-Nova in three different areas: (1) the development of an inventory of archaeological sites at the municipal level; (2) the study and promotion of megalithic graves, priority given to those integrated into the pedestrian path created by the municipality at Moitas, called “The History in the Landscape”; and, (3) the study and promotion of military structures (eighteenth-nineteenth centuries) belonging to the Defensive Line of Talhadas-Moradal.

This program culminated in 2012 with the creation of Proença-a-Nova International Archaeological Field Camp, whose fourth edition, covering the year 2015, included a diversified program, with excavation works performed at the megalithic monuments of Cabeço da Anta and Vale de Alvito (fourth to third millennium BC), at the eighteenth century fort overlooking the Alvito bridge, and at the walled enclosure of Chão de Galego (second to first millennium BC). The latter illustrates the intention to expand the investigation to the knowledge of this territory ancient settlement patterns.

Vila Velha de Rodão é particularmente conhecida pela presença de sítios moustierenses de ar livre, alguns deles com muito boa preservação. Dentro destes, destacam-se Foz do Enxarrique (33.4 ka), com a maior colecção de restos faunísticos em contexto de ar livre moustierenses em Portugal e Vilas Ruivas (68 ka +35 ka/−26 ka e 51 ka +13 ka/−12 ka), uma das muito poucas, também de ar livre, com lareiras, buracos de poste, e a única com para-ventos.
No presente artigo apresentamos Cobrinhos, um novo sítio moustierense identiicado no Outono de 2014, a 2,3 km para montante da Foz do Enxarrique, durante a ampliação da fábrica de papel da AMS, S.A.. Dada a urgência da intervenção, sem possibilidade de alteração do projecto ou do calendário de obra, foi necessário proceder de forma muito mais expedita do que é usual. Os resultados preliminares mostram que o nível ocupacional, constituído por várias dezenas de milhares de peças, se encontra disperso por cerca de 2500 m2, concentrado numa área de 1600m2, mas bem delimitado verticalmente numa facha de 40cm, sem se verificarem quaisquer misturas com artefactos de outras épocas.
Apesar de ainda não se encontrar datado, as características de Cobrinhos, principalmente no que diz respeito à sua implantação, mostraram que o conhecimento do Paleolítico na região está longe de se encontrar esgotado e que o seu progresso poderá depender do redireccionamento da investigação para sectores ainda não explorados.