Andrea Martins

• PhD in Archaeology
• Researcher at Uniarq - Centro de Arqueologia

Vila Nova de São Pedro (VNSP) has been classified as a production center of artefacts of diverse types, including prestigious and symbolic items. Among these, this work highlights a set of symbolic artifacts of a lithic nature – the so-called cylindrical idols – that belong to the collection of the Museu Arqueológico do Carmo. In this museum, in ad...

In this article, we present new data on the faunal remains recovered in the most recent excavations of the Chalcolithic settlement of Vila Nova de São Pedro. Building upon previous work, we analyze three additional contexts from area 1 and two from area 3, from test pits 1 and 2. The elements studied have allowed us to add more information to the c...

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the classification of Vila Nova de São Pedro as a national monument, it is presented here a balance of the work done at the site during the 20th and 21st century. Main topics are the 31 campaigns directed by Afonso do Paço and others and the latest contribution of the VNSP3000 project. It is here highlight...

Vila Nova de São Pedro was classified as a National Monument in 1971, but the history of this process begins two decades earlier, in 1951, fifteen years after the first archaeological excavation campaign at the site. This text, covers the historiographical background to this classification, from the beginning of archaeological activity in Vila Nova...

During the 3rd millennium B.C., the communities that occupied the archaeological site of Vila Nova de São Pedro (Azambuja) witnessed a period of remarkable alterations and changes, punctuated by the intensification and diversification of socioeconomic systems. One of the aspects of this economic diversification is centered on the exploitation and c...

Since 2017, new archaeological excavations have been carried out in Vila Nova de São Pedro as part of the VNSP3000 project, 30 years after the last work was conducted at this site. Seeking to empirically answer the questions underpinning the VNSP3000 project, a group of researchers from various scientific fields have been involved in different stag...

The digitization of Heritage is a task that has gained great importance in recent years, becoming a precise discipline with a wide variety of applications for the study and analysis, as well as for the dissemination of Heritage. To obtain accurate digital models of heritage objects, different techniques are used, including photogrammetry or laser s...

Durante cinco dias estiveram reunidos em Coimbra cerca de quatro centenas de ar - queólogos e estudantes de Arqueologia no IV Congresso da Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses (IV Caap). O congresso decorreu nos dias 22, 23, 24 e 25 de Novembro de 2023, na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, com um programa intenso e diversificado, en...

Since 2016, Vila Nova de São Pedro has been the central theme of the VNSP 3000 research project, which seeks to gather and analyze all the information related to this site. In addition to the Carmo Archaeological Museum, has been made contacts with institutions that have archaeological remains from this Chalcolithic settlement in their collections....

Em 2017, a Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses iniciou um projecto de investigação para o povoado calcolítico de Vila Nova de São Pedro (Azambuja, Portugal), com o objectivo de valorizar, através do conhecimento científico, um sítio arqueológico com grande destaque no percurso historiográfico da Arqueologia ibérica. Uma das vertentes do projecto...

In the Côa Valley, rock paintings appear in small numbers and exclusively in Prehistory, contrasting with the sheer predominance of engravings created across the valley throughout the long millennia its rock art endures. This quantitative limitation does not reflect its scientific relevance, as this paper attempts to demonstrate. In this overview o...

The “Festa da Arqueologia” is an event organised by the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists and held periodically at the Carmo Archaeological Museum. It is a project that began in 2010 and whose sixth edition took place in 2022, bringing together numerous national institutions related to archaeology, heritage and museums. The exercise develope...

In the centre of Portugal, in the municipality of Mação, at the top of a quartzite ridge, are the Pego da Rainha rock shelters. These two archaeological sites have a thematic repertoire based on schematic rock painting, with the majority of motifs being bars and dots. This thematic simplification corresponds to a specific conceptual programme of th...

Vibrational spectroscopy was applied to study cylindrical engraved bone boxes from the Chalcolithic settlement of Vila Nova de São Pedro (VNSP, Azambuja, Portugal) which has the largest and richest artefact assemblage of Copper Age Western Iberia. The objectives were to reconstitute manufacturing techniques, determine the role of pyrotechnology in...

In the Iberian Peninsula, Chalcolithic stone architectures have been known since the 19th century. In Portugal, the excavations at Vila Nova de São Pedro and Zambujal confirm what was observed at Leceia and Rotura, defining a canon for Chalcolithic architectures. Recently, the appearance of ditched sites breaks this scenario and demonstrates the ef...

O volume que agora sai a público reúne um conjunto de estudos e reflexões apresentado no Colóquio Internacional Romper Fronteiras, Atravessar Territórios. Identidades e Intercâmbios da Pré-história Recente no Interior Norte Peninsular, que se realizou nos dias 23 e 24 de setembro de 2021, e organizado pelo Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar «C...

Apresentação dos trabalhos desenvolvidos pelo projecto de investigação VNSP3000, em torno do sítio arqueológico de Vila Nova de São Pedro (Azambuja, Portugal), durante o ano de 2021.

A contribution to the discussion about Vila Nova de São Pedro (VNSP) as a production centre of symbolic lithic artefacts, the origin of raw materials, as well the comparison with similar artefacts from other Chalcolithic sites are the major goals. For the first time, non-destructive analytical methods were employed to obtain a detailed chemical cha...

In 2019, the research project “Vila Nova de São Pedro, again in the 3rd millennium – VNSP3000”, carried out another archaeological fieldwork campaign, following the 2017 and 2018 campaigns.This campaign consisted of four different actions: manual and mechanical clearing of new areas (in search for possible future areas for archaeological excavation...

Ice Age Europe Magazine

The defense of Heritage is intrinsically linked to the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists (AAP), the oldest association in Portugal and one of the oldest in the world, created in 1863 with the aim of preserving and defending the Architectural and Archaeological Heritage. Over these 158 years, countless battles have been fought and institution...

Vila Nova de São Pedro (VNSP) is a fortified settlement of Portuguese Estremadura and arguably one of the markers in the historiography of European pre-history. The chronological framing of constructive phases and artefact categories defined at VNSP in the second half of the 20th century was applied to other sites as well. The defensive system with...

Vila Nova de São Pedro (VNSP) is a fortified settlement of Portuguese Estremadura and arguably one of the markers in the historiography of European prehistory. The chronological framing of constructive phases and artefact categories defined at VNSP in the second half of the 20th century was applied to other sites as well. The defensive system with...

Schematic and zoomorphic representations on various supports In the current Portuguese territory, the iconographic representations of the 3rd millennium BC are characterized by their technical and typological diversity, occurring in the most varied backdrops and with formal characteristics that adapt to specific archaeological contexts. The schemat...

Notícia sobre o III Congresso da Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses. Disponível em: http://issuu.com/almadan

Schematic Rock Painting is a well-defined rock art cycle in today's Portuguese territory, with shelters from north to south, with a very diverse iconography, execution techniques and implantation patterns. These manifestations of agro-pastoral societies often include scenes or mythographies, related to everyday aspects, real or symbolic. In Lapa do...

Rock art dating has been one of the major challenges since its discovery and recognition. The methods have evolved through the last century, beginning with the study of superpositions and style until to the application of numeric methods since the 1990s. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and publish an up-to-date database of all of the numerical...

From the excavations carried out between 1936 and 1967 in the Chalcolithic settlement of Vila Nova de São Pedro (Azambuja, Portugal), there were recovered more than 500 ceramic elements usually known as “loom weights” with different shapes, dimensions and, in the majority, with decorated surfaces. The iconographic repertoire is quite diverse, with...

In 2017, a team from UNIARQ – School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon and the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists presented a research project to the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, entitled Vila Nova de São Pedro in the 3rd millennium (VNSP3000), with the intention to resume excavations in VNSP. Within the scope o...

The archaeological site of Vila Nova de São Pedro (Azambuja) was discovered in 1936 through the surveys carried out by Hipólito Cabaço. In 1937, the first excavation campaign was led by Eugénio Jalhay and Afonso do Paço. With the death of the first, in 1950, Paço assumed, with occasional collaborations, the direction of the archaeological works on...

Report of all the activities of research project VNSP 3000 carried out in 2018: - fieldwork campaign - scientific research (public presentations and papers) - public archaeology - social media impact

The limestone cylindrical artefacts, traditionally called “cylindrical idols”, appear in several funerary and settlement contexts in the Southwest of the Iberia, during the Calcolithic. Most of them are limestone artifacts and, according to their morphology, they are mostly cylindrical, totally polished, creating smooth surfaces. Some of these obje...

Technical report about the work of VNSP3000 project in 2019

Almadan on line, nº 23, Tomo 2, 2020

In 2016, the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists (AAP) and UNIARQ – FLUL started a research project “Vila Nova de São Pedro, again in the 3rd millennium – VNSP3000”, for the Chalcolithic settlement of Vila Nova de São Pedro (Azambuja, Portugal), with the aim of valorizing, through scientific knowledge, an archaeological site with a great promi...

Report of all the activities of research project VNSP 3000 carried out in 2017: - fieldwork campaign - scientific research (public presentations and papers) - public archaeology - social media impact

The reflection that is presented here seeks to discuss the roles and social functions that the archaeological heritage plays or does not play in Portugal within the framework of the complex relationships that are established between archaeological sites and contemporary societies, using as a case study the Chalcolithic settlement of Vila Nova de S....

The SW of Portuguese territory has been marked, in the last 20 years, by the great public enterprise of the Alqueva dam and its irrigation channels construction. This enterprise allowed the identification of numerous sites with rock art of several chronologies, from the Paleolithic to modern age, significantly increasing the number of occurrences o...

In 2009, the archaeological surveys developed in the Praça do Comércio (Lisbon) (SIMTEJO) uncovered a number of different archaeological realities that allow us to better understand this urban space evolution. One of the most significant archaeological remains identified was a post-earthquake (1755) landfill, exclusively filled with Chinese porcela...

This paper presents the first results of the research project “Vila Nova de São Pedro, again in the 3rd millennium», which seeks, in different ways, the construction of a new narrative for the Vila Nova de São Pedro archaeological site, and putting it in the scientific discussion about the Chalcolithic’s social landscapes, from the review of the fi...

In 2016, the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists submitted a research project for the Chalcolithic settle-ment of Vila Nova de São Pedro (Azambuja, Portugal), with the aim of value, through scientific knowledge, an archaeological site with a great prominence in the historiographic development of the Portuguese archaeology.The purpose of this pa...

The current volume of issue 3 of Techné results from the contributions to the 4th ASP Conference of advanced research students in Prehistoric Art, held in Mação in 2016, with the organisation of the Museum of Prehistoric Art of Mação and the support of ITM (Land and Memory Institute) and CGEO (Geosciences Centre of Coimbra University). The volume i...

In 2009, the archaeological work developed in the Praça do Comércio (Lisbon, Portugal) (SIMTEJO/ CRIVARQUE) allowed to observe a number of archaeological realities that will help to characterize the coast line of this part of Lisbon city and understand the evolution of this urban space, political and social center of Portugal since the 16th century...

The current volume of issue 3 of Techné results from the contributions to the 4th ASP Conference of advanced research students in Prehistoric Art, held in Mação in 2016, with the organisation of the Museum of Prehistoric Art of Mação and the support of ITM (Land and Memory Institute) and CGEO (Geosciences Centre of Coimbra University). The volume i...

A new research project on Vila Nova de São Pedro (Azambuja, Portugal) developed by Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses, in 2014, started with a review of all the bibliography published related to the site, using new data to understand the results of old archaeological excavations. The descriptions and graphic information produced throughout the...

In the last decades, archaeological research around the Neolithic societies has, following a global trend of Western Science, used the analytical tools of the hard sciences as a major tool to analyze social phenomena. The increase of the Laboratory’s role in archaeological explanation, a predictable out coming of Processual Archaeology, however sho...

Lapa dos Louções is located in Serra de São Mamede, near the village of Esperança, in Arron-ches. Despite being known since the 60s, the iconographic repertoire remains practically unknown, without a systematic study of the existing schematic motifs. These integrate the painted schematic rock art cycle of the Iberian Peninsula, being part of the gr...

This paper explores the processes involved in the production of prehistoric paintings using inorganic pigmentation. The focus for discussion involves a number of rock-shelter sites that contain rock art within the western part of the Iberian Peninsula, with particular reference to the sites that contain Schematic rock art. A direct date cannot be o...

Abrigo do Ribeiro das Casas is a schematic painted rock art shelter located in the banks of a stream, tributary of the Coa River. It shows a small iconographic scene, expressed in two panels where the schematic motifs were painted: one zoomorph and two anthropomorphs. Through the analysis of the technical, morphological and stylistic parameters, an...

Entre Janeiro e Setembro de 2009, no âmbito da Empreitada de Construção do Sistema de Intercepção e Câmara de Válvulas de Maré do Terreiro do Paço, a cargo da SIMTEJO, foram identificados vestígios arqueológicos que permitem recuar a vivência, do espaço da actual Praça do Comércio, até meados do século XVII. Durante a escavação de uma das caixas, a...

The main objective of this dissertation is an attempt at understanding the conceptual mechanisms which drove human groups to mark certain places by means of schematic rock art during Neolithic and Chalcolithic times. Several clusters of painted rockshelters from the central region of the Portuguese territory were studied: Abrigo do Ribeiro das Casa...

A importância das matérias-primas para a produção de pigmentos na arte rupestre está testemunhada, por exemplo, pela presença de minas de ocre documentadas na Pré-História (p. ex. LAROCCA 2008). O estudo das matérias-primas na arqueologia é necessariamente interdisciplinar, envolvendo as componentes físicas dos materiais e as componentes culturais...

The book chapters corresponds to proceedings of the 1st Congress of the Association of the Portuguese Archaeologists. The 1222 pages reflects the main work that tooked place, in the last years, in the portuguese archaeological sites, covering several issues, diferent cronological phases (from Paleolithic to the Contemporany períod) and other temati...

O objectivo principal desta intervenção arqueológica foi realizar o levantamento exaustivo desta rocha com arte rupestre, conseguindo deste modo uma atribuição cronológica e um enquadramento tipológico e cultural das manifestações gráficas existentes. No âmbito do Relatório dos Trabalhos Arqueológicos (RTA) integrado no processo de Avaliação de Imp...

In the framework of the project of EDIA, S.A. in Alfundão, several archaeological emergency excavations were conducted along the valley of Ribeira de Alfundão (Ferreira do Alentejo, Portugal), enabling to identify occu-pations characterized by clusters of negative structures (pits and “ditches”), chronologically framed between the last quarter of t...

Um dos aspetos mais interessantes nos variados estudos dos pigmentos utilizados para a realização de pinturas rupestres é a selecção e manipulação das matérias-primas. Para estes estudos têm que ser considerados os aspetos geológicos, relacionados com a disponibilidade de matérias-primas; os aspetos culturais, resultantes das diferentes tradições a...

RESUMO: A arte rupestre é o estudo dos padrões de antropização da paisagem e pode ser um importante contributo para uma aproximação ao universo sócio-cultural das comuni-dades pré-históricas. A arte esquemática pintada é parte do ciclo artístico pós-Paleolítico e uma das suas características é o tipo de técnica de execução. Um conjunto de diferente...

The project "Minimization of Impacts on Cultural Heritage by the Implementing the Irrigation Block of Alfundão" developed by Edia SA and executed by CRIVARQUE Ltd., allowed the identification of a significant number of human occupations chronologically framed between the last quarter of the 4th millennium and the mid-3rd millennium BCE. Along the v...

Rock art studies in the Portuguese territory have followed the development of Archaeological science. Different approaches were used, from the late XIXth century and throughout the XXth, and the current situation could be seen as a stage-of-growth. Nevertheless, the lack of research centers still forces Archaeologists to work individually, on the s...

Results of archaeological excavations carried out in 2009 at Praça do Comércio (Lisbon, Portugal) during construction of the water and sanitation system by the river. The identified structure is related to an old wharf addorsed to a large wall probably built in the 17th century, remaining in activity until the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. Its characteri...

In 2004, an archaeological rescue excavation took place in Beja (Av. Miguel Fernandes) identifying a set of 137 silos. These were situated outside of the ancient city walls and its chronology is fit in the Christian Medieval period. Its primary function was of storage containers for cereal. After the end of this activity, were filled, during the 15...

Apresentam-se os resultados preliminares da intervenção arqueológica, realizada na Avenida Miguel Fernandes, em Beja, onde se identificou um conjunto de 137 silos. Após uma primeira abordagem à cultura material associada aos silos, podemos referir que o preenchimento destes ocorreu, maioritariamente, na transição do período Medieval para o Moderno.