Ana M. S. Bettencourt

Ana M. S. Bettencourt
University of Minho · Department of History, Departamento de História (DHISt)

Professor
Main interest: Neolithic to Bronze Age of Southwestern Europe.

About

249
Publications
55,374
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,171
Citations
Introduction
Graduate in History-Archaeology, University of Coimbra; MSc in Anthropology-Palaeoanthropology, University of Bordeaux I; PhD in Prehistory and History of Antiquity, University of Minho; Habilitation in Prehistory, University of Porto. Head of History Depatment of Univ. of Minho(2017-2019); Head Master Course in Archaeology (2018-2021; Head of PhD Archaeology, Univ. Minho. Areas of interest: Archaeology of Death and Burial; Rock art; Mettalurgy; Settlement and Economy; Archaeology and Tourism
Additional affiliations
June 2007 - February 2022
University of Minho
Position
  • Professor with habilitation
January 2000 - June 2007
University of Minho
Position
  • Professor (Assistant)
Education
September 1989 - September 1999
University of Minho, Braga
Field of study
  • Prehistory Archaeology
September 1985 - June 1986
Université Bordeaux-I
Field of study
  • Archaeology
September 1979 - July 1984
University of Coimbra
Field of study
  • History-Archaeology

Publications

Publications (249)
Chapter
Full-text available
Ce texte fournit les premières preuves de l'exploitation de sel marin dans le Nord-Ouest de la pénin-sule Ibérique à l'âge du Bronze. La production du sel s'opérait sur le site archéologique de la plage de Carreço, à Viana do Castelo entre la fi n du III e et le début du II e millénaire avant J.-C. et montre l'uti-lisation d'éviers amovibles creusé...
Book
Full-text available
Contents 1. Introduction: depiction of weapons and tools in rock art as ambivalent symbols in time and space Ana M.S. Bettencourt, Manuel Santos-Estévez, Hugo Aluai Sampaio Part 1. The Iconographic Approach 2. The picturing of weapons, tools and other objects at Australian stencilled and painted rock art sites 9 Patricia Dobrez 3. Weapons, tools,...
Chapter
This chapter aims to analyse the adoption of halberds by the populations of the Northwest Iberian Peninsula (which includes Galicia and the North of Portugal), and its materialisation in rock art, as well as its social and symbolic role in the context of societies in the early Bronze Age (EBA). The exercise of dating halberds and daggers from the e...
Chapter
Full-text available
ABSTRACT: Based on new premises and new data resulting from research projects developed for Late Prehistory in differ- ent areas of Northern Portugal, the authors review the different periodization’s elaborated for the period be- tween the second half of the fourth and the end of the third millennia BC (the so-called Middle/Late Neolithic, Chalcol...
Chapter
Full-text available
The Northwest Iberian Peninsula is not a uniform region. Geographers have divided it into two main biogeographic sub-regions: Atlantic and Mediterranean, each with its own characteristics, in terms of geomorphology and climate. The perception that these two sub-regions have distinct identities since, at least, the first half of the 3rd millennium B...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents and discusses the results of chromatographic analyses conducted on the contents of a ceramic pot recovered from Cova da Moura, a coastal funerary context located on the western slope of the Serra de Santa Luzia in Carreço, within the municipality and district of Viana do Castelo, Northwest Portugal. The site was excavated in 193...
Article
Full-text available
SfM (structure from motion) photogrammetry is a technique developed in the field of computer vision that enables the generation of three-dimensional (3D) models from a set of overlapping images captured from disparate angles. The application of this technique in the field of cultural heritage, particularly in the context of megalithic monuments, is...
Poster
Full-text available
The analysis of organic residues present in archaeological ceramic vessels plays a crucialrole in determining the functions of these containers, providing valuable informationabout agro-pastoral and gathering practices, as well as the processing methods used andthe selection of specific raw materials. However, its application to prehistoric vessels...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Over past decade, different remote sensing methodologies have been widely used in the detection, exploration and documentation of archaeological sites. Geophysical prospection, photogrammetric surveys and archaeological prospection and excavation are increasingly combined in several archaeological projects that serve both site investigation a...
Article
Full-text available
Cultural heritage in coastal or shallow aquatic environments is often located in areas where access is difficult or where accurate survey and documentation may not always be possible with terrestrial or aquatic equipment. The combination of photo-grammetry and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) generates a range of possibilities across multiple sector...
Article
Full-text available
The settlement of São João de Rei (Póvoa de Lanhoso, Braga, Portugal) has provided new archaeobotanical data to reconstruct diverse aspects related to wood resources management by Iron Age communities in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. This site has several phases of occupation from 6th-5th BCE to the Roman Period, with several chronologica...
Poster
Full-text available
The poster focuses on the location of the different manifestations linked to the exploitation of salt on the north coast of Portugal, between the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. . Attention is drawn to the fact that most of them are found in what is now the intertidal zone or very close to it, revealing that this, in the Bronze and Iron Ages, would have...
Article
Full-text available
Com este texto efetua-se o primeiro estado da arte sobre o Neolítico da bacia hidrográfica do rio Ave, no Noroeste de Portugal. Trata-se de um período cronológico para o qual se desconhecem contextos de povoado, motivo pelo qual a síntese se centra no estudo do que se conhece sobre os monumentos funerários, nomeadamente os monumentos megalíticos, a...
Article
Full-text available
El objetivo de este trabajo es publicar los grabados rupestres del Monte das Porreira 6, situado en Paredes de Coura, en el no de Portugal. El estudio se ha basado en un levantamiento fotogramétrico y el posterior contraste con la determinación de la distancia geométrica. Se trata de una roca profusamente decorada con una larga diacronía de grabad...
Thesis
Full-text available
The main goal of the present dissertation is to contribute to the increase of the knowledge of "palette" representations in the rock art of the northwestern Portugal, which is still incipient, through cataloguing, typological individualization and placement of functional and chronological hypotheses. In order to reach this goal, it was necessary to...
Poster
Full-text available
Archaeometry; Organic chimistry; Megalithic Art; XRD, SEM-EDS, GC-MS; painting techniques, pigments; organic binders.
Poster
Full-text available
Results The results showed that the majority of the studied materials are composed by clay mineral (kaolinite and illite), micas, Feldspars (k-feldspars and plagioclase), quartz and iron oxides (hematite and/or goethite) (Figure 6, 7, 8). The composition of the majority of the materials is similar to the mineralogy of local residual granitic soils....
Chapter
The depiction of weapons and tools in rock art is a universal phenomenon found throughout the ve continents, covering different chronological periods and cultural backgrounds. It reveals the different perceptions of human groups, from hunter-gatherer communities to state-run societies. It should be viewed as a complex phenomenon, where multiple int...
Article
Full-text available
Presentation of the Penedos da Portela menhir (Vila Verde, Braga), mentioned since the end of the 19th century and re-located in 1994 and 2007 by two of the authors, after archaeological survey work carried out for the archaeological inventory of the Vila Verde municipality. The menhir is probably in situ and marks one of the natural entrances to t...
Poster
Full-text available
A gravação de signos de gramáticas abstratas atribuíveis ao Neolítico, entre os finais do 5º e/ou inícios do 4º milénios a. Cardoso e Bettencourt, 2015) inseridos no chamado ciclo da Arte Atlântica, no seu sentido clássico, vão sendo substituídos por novas linguagens artísticas, especialmente a partir do fim do 3º milénio a.C. (Bettencourt, 2017a,...
Article
Full-text available
O Monte do Côto de Sabroso situa-se no topo de um esporão montanhoso sobranceiro ao vale do Ave. Os primeiros estudos arqueológicos neste monte reportam-se a Sarmento, que aí realiza escavações mencionando a existência de arte rupestre. No séc. XXI algumas desses afloramentos gravados foram relocalizados. São compostos principalmente por motivos in...
Article
Full-text available
Contents 1. Introduction: depiction of weapons and tools in rock art as ambivalent symbols in time and space Ana M.S. Bettencourt, Manuel Santos-Estévez, Hugo Aluai Sampaio Part 1. The Iconographic Approach 2. The picturing of weapons, tools and other objects at Australian stencilled and painted rock art sites Patricia Dobrez 3. Weapons, tools,...
Poster
Full-text available
A arte rupestre como prática das comunidades do passado pode ser dividida em arte paleolítica e arte pós-paleolítica. Este trabalho incide na arte pós-paleolítica de ar livre na qual se inserem, por sua vez, as Artes Atlântica e Esquemática, entre outras manifestações difíceis de definir (Bettencourt 2017a, 2017b). É dentro destas últimas que se en...
Article
Recommendation from family and friends is considered to be the most credible source in the travel decision-making process. Since studies on destination loyalty focus on this variable, this study investigated tourists’ motivations, perceived attributes of the city and satisfaction obtained from the visit by comparing the following two groups: those...
Chapter
Full-text available
There has been in recent years much interest in the Iron Age hillfort of Briteiros, near research has focused on the substantial rock art assemblage that is scattered over much of the this chapter we pose several questions including: was there an understanding, either as ancestral interested in discussing the implication of the ideology behind the...
Poster
Full-text available
This poster aims to present three main topics: (1) the finding of a new sword recovered at Venda das Raparigas, parish of Benedita, municipality of Alcobaça, district of Leiria, in the Centre-West of Portugal; (2) the results of chemical analysis, through the use of X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry; and (3) the results of observation under optical a...
Poster
Full-text available
The archaeological site of Vale Ferreiro is located in Godarilhas, in the parish of Serafão, in the municipality of Fafe and in the district of Braga. The discovery of this site at the end of 1999 was due to the opening of a road that cut through the flat top of a hill. These works uncovered an open pit in the rocky substrate and the Vale Ferreiro...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Resumo: Este trabalho contribui para o conhecimento do Neolítico do Centro-Oeste português. O caso de estudo foi o monumento megalítico do Cabeço dos Moinhos, edificado na serra da Boa Viajem, no que é hoje a freguesia da Brenha, concelho da Figueira da Foz. Para além de ser óbvio que esta região se encontrava, durante o Neolítico, no limiar de dif...
Chapter
Full-text available
This work aims to study the context of engraved weapons dating back to the Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age, located in the southwest of Galicia and northwest of Portugal. It is assumed that prehistoric and premodern societies experience the surrounding physical world and its forms as full of meanings, and not as simple sets of random entities. T...
Chapter
Full-text available
Os monumentos megalíticos com câmaras e corredores construídos com grandes esteios e, por vezes, com inúmeros blocos usados nos contrafortes e couraças pétreas de cobertura, correspondem às primeiras manifestações arquitectónicas que marcaram de forma definitiva o espaço de vivência das comunidades pré-históricas, dando origem à criação de cenários...
Chapter
Full-text available
The Coastal Geopark of Viana do Castelo occupies 320 km2 of the Portuguese NW. It includes coastal and mountainous areas and distinct sociocultural and territorial contexts, and a unique and diverse set of archaeological sites. The present work intends to show how some of these sites have leisure and educational potential on their own, or when arti...
Chapter
Full-text available
This paper focuses on the representation of horses graved on rocks in the Mouro River basin (NW Portugal), an afluent in the south margin of the Minho River. The objectives are the study of its distribution in space, in relation to physical characteristics; the specificity of types of graved horses; the characteristics of the rocks graved by group...
Chapter
Full-text available
The first signs of salt production on the northern coast of Portugal are usually attributed to the Iron Age. However, there is evidence that this activity took place in the region at least between the late 3rd millennium, early 2nd millennium BCE. Data from two archaeological sites are presented and the so-called removable sinks and the sinks excav...
Chapter
Full-text available
Rock art as a practice of past communities can be divided into Palaeolithic and post-Palaeolithic arts. Considering the later, which in turn can be divided into Atlantic and Schematic Arts, among other styles difficult to define (Bettencourt, 2017a, 2017b), this work will focus Atlantic rock art. Our selected object of study is the recorded segment...
Chapter
Full-text available
Palettes are rare in the rock art of Northwest Portugal. They are found both in Classical Atlantic Art and openair Schematic Art contexts, but also in other contexts of difficult classifications. Although known, there is no inventory of sites with this motif or a typological table of them, despite some subdivision made by Bettencourt (2017a). The c...
Chapter
Full-text available
The statue-menhir of Pedrão was studied and revaluated in 2018 and it was found that it had a head, a rounded base and engravings, some of them destroyed by the anthropic action. It was found that the arrangement of the eight cup-marks on the south face, if joined, would form the typical rectangular motif of the northwestern Iberian Peninsula statu...
Chapter
Full-text available
This work intends to update the knowledge related to the human occupation of “Castro do Muro” from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. This place has a significant tradition in archaeological literature due to the presence of an imposing walled circuit, whose width oscillates between 3.5 to 4 meters and a perimeter of 3.927 meters, within which was...
Poster
Full-text available
INTRODUÇÃO As gravuras de paletas são pouco frequentes na arte rupestre do Noroeste de Portugal. Encontram-se tanto em contextos de Arte Atlântica Clássica, como de Arte Esquemática de ar livre, mas também noutros contextos associadas a motivos de difícil classificação. Embora conhecidos, não existe um inventário de sítios com este motivo nem um qu...
Poster
Full-text available
This poster aims to present three main topics (1) the finding of a new sword recovered at Venda das Raparigas, parish of Benedita, municipality of Alcobaça, district of Leiria, in the Centre/West of Portugal (2) the results of chemical analysis, through the use of X/Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry; and (3) the results of observation under optical and...
Poster
Full-text available
1. Introduction This poster aims to present three main topics: (1) the finding of a new sword recovered at Venda das Raparigas, parish of Benedita, municipality of Alcobaça, district of Leiria, in the Centre-­-West of Portugal; (2) the results of chemical analysis, through the use of X-­-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry; (3) and the results of observa...
Article
Full-text available
Being at the western fringe of Europe, Iberia had a peculiar prehistory and a complex pattern of Neolithization. A few studies, all based on modern populations, reported the presence of DNA of likely African origin in this region, generally concluding it was the result of recent gene flow, probably during the Islamic period. Here, we provide eviden...
Article
Full-text available
From the end of the 3rd millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, new motifs appear in Northwest Portugal. This corresponds to what one of the authors has called Figurative Art. The engravings of human feet-barefoot or with shoes-fall within this new "style". This motif is not well known in Northern Portugal, although it has recently...
Article
Full-text available
Torre Velha 12 is located in Serpa (Beja) and was excavated and directed by two of the authors (LB and SG), during an emergency intervention within the Alqueva Project. This site is characterized by negative structures filled with pottery sherds and other materials dating to the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. The aim of this paper is to publish the stu...
Article
Full-text available
From the end of the 3rd millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, new motifs appear in Northwest Portugal. This corresponds to what one of the authors has called Figurative Art. The engravings of human feet—barefoot or with shoes—fall within this new “style”. This motif is not well known in Northern Portugal, although it has recently...
Article
Full-text available
The colourant composition of a northern Portugal megalithic barrow decorated with 'solar' motifs was studied using a multi-analytical approach, allowing the characterisa-tion of the painting techniques, pigments and binders. The red pigment was prepared with iron oxide minerals, using vegetal oils as organic additives, while the black pigment was c...
Chapter
Full-text available
ABSTRACT Recording outcrops in the Portuguese Northwest has been a reality since at least the end of the 5 th , beginning of the 4 th millennia BCE, and has persisted to historical epochs. The first motifs are part of the Atlantic Art and are characterized by an abstract grammar with numerous circular compositions linked by grooves, probably associ...
Poster
Full-text available
1. Introduction: This poster aims to present three main topics: (1) the finding of a new sword recovered at Venda das Raparigas, parish of Benedita, municipality of Alcobaça, district of Leiria, in the Centre-­-West of Portugal; (2) the results of chemical analysis, through the use of X-­-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry; (3) and the results of observ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Resumo: O acervo do monumento megalítico do Cabeço dos Moinhos, escavado por Santos Rocha nos anos 80 do séc. XIX, depositado no Museu Santos Rocha, foi por si publicado nos finais do séc. XIX (Santos Rocha, 1988). No âmbito do Projeto ENARDAS, desenvolvido entre 2011 e 2015, parte deste acervo, assim como a informação disponível sobre aspectos co...
Poster
Full-text available
The Northwest of Portugal (Figure 1) is a mountainous region with increasing inland heights from the coast to the interior, cut by several rivers that run from northeast to southwest. Hundreds of funerary megalithic mounds are known in this area, distributed from the valleys to the high altitude plateaus, dating back from the Middle/Later Neolithic...
Article
Full-text available
The Iron Age site of Crastoeiro (Mondim de Basto, Vila Real, North Portugal) revealed an interesting set of pits opened in the bedrock. Soil samples were collected from these and a carpological study was carried out in order to obtain information about crop diversity and characterize the storage structures. Nineteen samples from 4 pits yielded impo...
Article
Full-text available
El yacimiento de la Edad del Hierro de Crastoeiro (Mondim de Basto, Vila Real, Norte de Portugal) reveló un interesante conjunto de fosas excavadas en la roca. De su interior se recogieron muestras de sedimento y se realizó un estudio carpológico con el objetivo de obtener información sobre la diversidad de cultivos y prácticas agrícolas y de carac...
Article
Full-text available
The inclusion of faunal remains in funerary practices is widely documented in Iberian Prehistory. For Late Prehistory (from Neolithic to Bronze Age), there is relatively more data than earlier periods, and the presence of limbs segments is very common while complete animals are rarer. In Bronze Age contexts from South-Western Iberia, in particular...
Article
Full-text available
The archaeological campaigns in the Iron Age site of Crastoeiro (Mondim de Basto, Vila Real) exposed a set of pits opened in the bedrock. These revealed a wide amount of carpological remains, allowing a better understanding about crop diversity, as well as storage practices. Through the study of nineteen samples from four pits, the results showed t...
Article
Full-text available
Para as comunidades do passado o mundo “físico” seria entendido como cheio de propriedades significantes. No seguimento dos trabalhos de Ingold (2000), Bradley (2000, 2009), ou Scarre (2009), o que hoje vemos como material inerte seria considerada “viva”. Essa será a presente perspetiva de abordagem. Certos afloramentos naturais estão associados a...
Chapter
Full-text available
Although often recorded in the Northwest of Portugal, footprints and shoeprints are among the least studied engraved motifs of the Bronze and the Early Iron more than three dozen loci where more than two hundred podomorphs and verify that these motifs were often interlinked with natural paths of circulation between valleys and certain levels on the...
Poster
Full-text available
Experimental It has a sub-elliptical chamber with medium-sized corridor, undifferentiated in plan, but differentiated in elevation, orientated to east, enclosed by two slabs and granite blocks, well imbricated. In front, an atrium, where were found about 1000 ceramic sherds and 3 individualized hemispherical vessels. While the funeral chamber was s...
Article
Full-text available
Resumo: Para as comunidades do passado o mundo "físico" seria entendido como cheio de propriedades significantes. No seguimento dos trabalhos de Ingold (2000), Bradley (2000, 2009), ou Scarre (2009), o que hoje vemos como material inerte seria considerada "viva". Essa será a presente perspetiva de abordagem. Certos afloramentos naturais estão assoc...
Article
Full-text available
BSTRACT With regard to the publication of two outcrops recorded with swastikas with straight or practically straight arms, recently found in Northern Portugal, namely Alto do Castro, Vila Nova de Cerveira, and Monte de Novais, in the municipality of Caminha (both unpublished), the authors make a review on the places recorded with this imagery in th...
Article
Full-text available
ABSTRACT The cave of Lorga de Dine (Council of Vinhais) occupies a little limestone massif. The several excavation works occurred during the 60’s and the 80’s of the XX century allowed to recover a wide range of archaeological materialities dating back from the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. The recovered data prove the use of this place for funerar...
Book
Full-text available
Este livro resulta do trabalho de investigação realizado no conjunto de onze sítios gravados nas vertentes este e este-sudeste do Monte de São Silvestre, concelho de Viana do Castelo. A partir do inventário das gravuras rupestres tecem-se considerações sobre aos lugares gravados no espaço e no tempo e fazem-se interpretações sobre o valor social e...