Abstract
To better understand the sociopolitical landscape of the Portuguese Estremadura during the Late Neolithic/Copper Age, interdisciplinary excavations were conducted at Bolores (Torres Vedras), in the Sizandro River Valley. Following a test season in 1986, a University of Iowa team conducted four campaigns between 2007 and 2012. Bolores is a rock-cut tomb used primarily between 2800-2600 cal BC for the burial of adults, adolescents, and children (MNI=36). The architectural, material cultural, and bioarchaeological evidence suggests that Bolores housed the remains of a distinctive group of local individuals who marked their difference from other burial populations in the Sizandro and Estremadura through material culture and tomb architecture. Social differences were denoted spatially and through offerings of material goods. No social stratification is evident, however, that would suggest a state-level society: there are no wealthy child burials and no significant health or dietary disparities within this population or between it and others in the region.
Highlights
Decades of archaeological research in the Sizandro River Valley have generated a rich historical record of settlements and mortuary sites dated to the Holocene, the Late Neolithic/Copper Age (3500-2200 cal BC) (Kunst and Trindade 1990)
Is there any evidence for social stratification among the Sizandro population of the 3rd or 2nd millennia cal BC that would suggest state-level societies, as debated by some Spanish archaeologists for southern Spain (Lull 1983; Nocete 1989)? If not, how were human populations organized during this period of time, and how did they mark social differences? What role did demographic changes play during the emergence and transformation of complex societies in the Sizandro?
A soil boring on the Ribeira de Pedrulhos, about 2 km from Bolores, encountered a bone beneath 12 m of alluvium dated to 29102755 cal BC (Dambeck et al 2010)
Summary
Decades of archaeological research in the Sizandro River Valley have generated a rich historical record of settlements and mortuary sites dated to the Holocene, the Late Neolithic/Copper Age (3500-2200 cal BC) (Kunst and Trindade 1990). These sites include the settlements of Fórnea, Pragança, Penedo (Spindler and Trindade 1970), and Zambujal (Sangmeister et al 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974-1977), the rock-cut tomb of Cabeço da Arruda I (Ferreira and Trindade 1955), the mortuary cave of Cova da Moura (Belo et al 1961; Spindler 1981), and the tholoi of Paimogo (Gallay et al 1973) and Serra da Vila/Borracheira (Trindade and Ferreira 1963). We present a summary of our results to date
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