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Neolithic Landscapes in the Alto Alentejo, Portugal Gregory A Montclair State University Montclair State University Digital Commons Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works 1999 A Geomorphology of Megaliths: Neolithic Landscapes in the Alto Alentejo, Portugal Gregory A. Pope Montclair State University, [email protected] Vera C. Miranda Montclair State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/earth-environ-studies- facpubs Part of the Geomorphology Commons MSU Digital Commons Citation Pope, Gregory A. and Miranda, Vera C., "A Geomorphology of Megaliths: Neolithic Landscapes in the Alto Alentejo, Portugal" (1999). Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 48. https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/earth-environ-studies-facpubs/48 Published Citation Pope, G. A., & Miranda, V. C. A geomorphology of megaliths: Neolithic landscapes in the Alto Alentejo, Portugal. Middle States Geographer, 32, 110-124. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Earth and Environmental Studies at Montclair State University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works by an authorized administrator of Montclair State University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Middle States Geographer, 1999, 32: 110- 124 A GEOMORPHOLOGY OF lVIEGALITHS: NEOLITHIC LANDSCAPES IN THE ALTO ALENTEJO, PORTUGAL Gregory A. Pope* and Vera C. Miranda Department of Earth & Environmental Studies Montclair State University Upper Montclair, NJ 07043 ABSTRACT: The Alentejo region of Portugal is known for a high concentration of Neolithic-aged megalithic monuments: tombs (dolmens or antas) and ceremonial features such as standing stones (menhirs) and stone circles (cromleques). Concelltrations of these monuments tend to be found on or near weathered granite terrains. Unloading slabs and remnant corestones appear to be the stones ofpreference for megalith makers in the Alentejo district of Portugal. Some of the stones may have been imported from distant sources, but most appear to be of local origin. In general, most stones do not appear to have been altered much from their original state as field stones. Weathering tests demonstrate that menhirs are essentially identical to native corestOlles. Manv menhirs still exhibit a soil line. The former subaerial side ofthe stone usually retains a thick growth oflichen, while the soil side remains oxidized. Newly exposed, antas and menhirs now suffer from enhanced weathering and erosion from atmospheric and biological agents. This deterioration is often difficult to discern from the inherited decomposition ofpre-megalithic time. INTRODUCTION derived from megalithic sites is often overlooked. Megaliths reflect an association between geomorphology and available resources. The monuments at Stonehenge, Avebury. Furthermore, as early examples of quarried stone, and Carnac are perhaps the best known examples of megaliths afford an opportunity to assess how rock "megaliths", great stone monuments constructed adjusts to the atmospheric and biotic environment. during the Neolithic ("New Stone Age") and Geomorphologists. archaeologists, and stone Calcolithic (transition to copper metallurgy) periods conservators are just now realizing the wealth of in western Europe. Though not necessarily as notable information that may be obtained by studying the as the famous English and French examples, deterioration of these ancient monuments (Delgado thousands of megaliths may be found across Atlantic Rodrigues, 1994; Silva et a!. 1994; Romao and and Mediterranean Europe. Portions of the western Rattazzi, 1995; Sellier, 1997) Iberian peninsula are dense with megalithic sites Using information on geomorphology and (Figure 1). The Alentejo region of southeast the weathering characteristics of the stones, one can Portugal, among the most notable for Iberian see that Alentejan megalith stones have not been megaliths, provides the focus for this paper. imported from long distances, and appear to be of Megaliths provide useful information for a local origin, taken from weathered granitic outcrops. period of human prehistory that otherwise contains Post-megalithic weathering impacts (over -6000 relatively limited archaeological evidence (Sherratt, years) appear to override millions of years of 1990). Along with artifacts and human remains inherited weathering accumulated on the rock prior to associated with the sites, megaliths provide insight into the culture's technological and scientific advancement, funerary practices, and resource use. The geoarchaeological information that can be 110 OJ ~ '0 I:::: ~ ,.Q .nOJ ;;., ~ E U .::.<. '';: CJ en ·c o... c CU .~ .-o '­0>0. a 0> 0 ~... Q) ~'- E OJ) ~ OJ '- Q).B I) ~. ~;!~;; ... OJ L: L:::J <:) ..c: .~ ~o <:) ~;l~ I;V ~ CU enen ,... Vl 0> CU":':: I:::: -::: Q) Q)u .2 .-::::'" ~ E '- e u Cj >, .eu o C() m~h ....l I m~SS' ~ m~SS' t-d ~ " '((' "5 ?-, ;:: C() - Cl I:::: ­ C) ... ~ Vl ­ oJ::: Vl ~ OJ OJ ~ Cl ~ ~ I:::: U ~ .~ £ (,)'" ....1::::­­ OJ ~ E ~ 2 E ~ .9 .~ 1l ..c: 0 :::~ ~ OJ 1:>0 l: ~ 8 '+-0o ...0 Vl'O I:::: I:::: o 0,) .~ .; i3 I:::: o ~ ....l ci . ~ - 0 OJ..c: 3 Vl ._OJJOVl \J.,(; Middle States Geographer, 1999, 32: 110- 124 quarrying or unearthing. This information provides burial chambers; cromleques are oriented in cardinal an insight inll1 the rates and equilibrium processes of directions and may have been used in astronomical weathering. calculations; single menhirs may have been used for surveys or landmarks (Daniel, 1958; Service and Bradbery, 1979; Joussaume, 1988). Menhirs and ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND cromleques are free-standing (or toppled over the GEOMORPHIC SETTING years). Many antas. however, were buried for some period. Exposed antas today were either excavated or their cover mounds eroded over time. Archaeological Setting Geomorphic Setting The European Megalithic tradition spans an era from -7000 to 2500 YBP. from the end of the The western Iberian Peninsula is dominated Neolithic into the Calcolithic periods (Daniel. 1958; by folded Paleozoic metamorphic rocks with regions Service and Bradbery, 1979; Joussaume, 1988). of plutonic rock emplaced during the Hercynian (also Megalithic monuments are therefore not diagnostic of known as Variscan, late Paleozoic) orogeny (Krebs, a specific culture (Sherratt, 1995), although they are 1976). Regional maps (Congres Geologique associated with the rise of organized agriculture in International, 1981) portray late-tectonic granitic Western Europe (Joussaume, 1988). Since Iberia was masses dispersed through Carboniferous a seat of initial agriculture development in Europe, it metasediments across Alto Alentejo. Some folding has been suggested (MacKie, 1977; Joussaume, and faulting occurred with the later Alpine orogeny, 1988) that the entire megalithic tradition emanated but the region remained relatively undeformed. As a from Iberia as well. Aside from some engraving and result, the bedrock was able to weather and erode a few examples of shaping, most of the Alentejo during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. megaliths are barely altered, unlike the roughly There are few geomorphic studies of the rectangular hewn stones known at Stonehenge and Alentejo region published outside of Portugal (cf. Malta or the graceful ellipsoids of Carnac. Carvings Feio, 1952; Martins and Barbosa, 1992; Pimentel and on some megaliths are similar across the region, Azevedo, 1992). In his regional geography irrespective of chronology (Bueno Ramirez, 1992). monograph, Houston (1967, p. 175-176) cites Fein Megalith development is said to have evolved along (1952) in explaining the Alentejo tableland as a several phases (Holtorf, 1998). Cromleque dos Tertiary erosion surface, dissected at the edges of the Almendres (near Evora) had three separate phases of plateau and near the major river valleys. Long-term construction from Early to Late Neolithic (M. Gomes, weathering of granites is recognized across Atlantic 1997a), and re-facing of some menhirs at Vale Maria Europe, including coastal and northern Portugal de Meio (also near Evora) occurred late in the (Sequeira Braga et aI., 1990) and western Spain Neolithic (M. Gomes, 1997b). Further details on the (Molina et aI., 1987) to produce deep saprolites megalithic archaeology of the Evora region may be ("arenes"). The granite weathering profiles identified found in Sarantopoulos (1997). in the Evora and Monsaraz regions currently fall As elsewhere, Portuguese megaliths may be under a more xeric climate. If we accept Sequeira classified by type into (I) single oblong or Braga's et al. (1990) hypothesis that mid-latitude rectangular standing stones (menhirs), (2) closed weathering profiles are controlled by temperature, circles, ellipses, or squares of smaller menhirs then the Alentejo saprolites probably most resemble (cromLeques in Portuguese, Figure 1), and (3) those of western Spain (Molina et aI., 1987). There, chambers constructed of large leaning rock slabs the weathering mantle is said to be up to 58 million (dolmens, known as antas in Portuguese, Figure 2). years old, with secondary weathering mantles Archaeologists agree that megaliths probably had produced during the middle and late Tertiary period. ceremonial significance. Antas are known to be More resistant granite produces spheroidally weathered corestones and, in larger masses, 112 Geomorphology
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