The Neolithic-Early Bronze Age Mortuary Rockshelter of Bolores, Torres Vedras, Portugal

Abstract

The Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age mortuary rockshelter of Bolores (Torres Vedras, Lisbon) is a collective burial located in the archaeologically rich landscape of the Portuguese Estremadura. Excavations were conducted in 2007 and 2008 as part of the Sizandro-Alcabrichel Research Project (SARP), a collaboration between the German Archaeological Institute-Madrid and The University of Iowa which seeks to investigate the dynamics of social evolution and paleoecology of human populations between the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Sizandro and Alcabrichel River valleys. To generate a high-resolution history of Bolores and document the variability of human biographies throughout the site’s use, we applied interdisciplinary methods, including GIS, AMS dating of multiple individuals, micromorphology, bioarchaeology, bone refitting, biodistance studies, and stable isotope analyses. Four AMS dates bracket activity at the site between 2800 and 1800 cal B.C., which is coeval with the settlement of Zambujal, located 2km to the SE, and other burials in caves, rockshelters, and tholoi in the region. Bolores is somewhat unusual for this time period and region because it housed a relatively high percentage of subadults (over 50%) and associated artifacts are rare. This report contextualizes Bolores within the variability of Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age burial practices in the Portuguese Estremadura.