Mariana Diniz

• University of Lisbon

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...

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...

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...

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...

In this paper we present the results of a multidisciplinary study performed in the Carrasqueira valley, a tributary of the River Sado (SW Portugal), aimed at characterising the Holocene environmental conditions during the late Mesolithic occupation of this valley. Our findings are based on a 13.5 m long sediment core (Arez3) collected on the alluvi...

Western Iberia Early Neolithic has been described as an ultimate and very altered form of the Mediterranean Neolithisation process. Despite its Atlantic position, this territory – corresponding mainly to Central/Southern Portugal – is, in its physical and cultural geography, a Mediterranean landscape deeply connected to a historical process arrivin...

The aims of this work are to characterize the palaeoenvironmental evolution and the sedimentary fluvial responses to climate and river flow changes of the upstream reaches of the Sado estuary since the Mid-Late Holocene. By combining the previous information, we also intent to define the limit of the fluvial-estuarine boundary and maximum limit of...

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...

The lower Sado Valley in southern Portugal is one of the most important concentrations of Mesolithic settlements in Europe. Moreover, many of the sites included cemeteries, which have provided valuable information on mortuary practices of the last hunter-gatherers in southern Iberia and a very important sample of human remains. Despite the developm...

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

The introduction of farming had far-reaching impacts on health, social structure and demography. Although the spread of domesticated plants and animals has been extensively tracked, it is unclear how these nascent economies developed within different environmental and cultural settings. Using molecular and isotopic analysis of lipids from pottery,...

Between ca.8400-7000 cal BP Late Mesolithic communities occupied the Sado valley embankments, upstream Alcácer do Sal, Portugal. The consumption of marine resources is attested by the shell waste abandoned in several sites (known as shell middens) and later confirmed by isotopic analyses on bone collagen from individuals buried in these locations....

The present article focuses on the presence of women in the field of Portuguese archaeology. Based on a bibliometric analysis of two archaeology magazines – O Arqueólogo Português and Trabalhos de Antropologia e Etnologia – as well as data gathering from Endovélico, regarding archaeological excavations directed by women. Both magazines reveal a min...

No quadro dos trabalhos arqueológicos preventivos, realizados no âmbito do projecto de rega executado pela EDIA, S.A, foi identificado, no sítio do Barranco Horta do Almada I (Santa Clara do Louredo, Beja), um conjunto substancial de estruturas negativas – tipo fossa e outras que consideramos tratar-se de pequenos fornos. De acordo com as ocupações...

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 aim of this paper is to analyze and discuss the PhDs degrees obtained in Archaeology at Portuguese universities between 2010 and 2018. The effects of the Bologna Process were felt during this period, as were those of the growing European investment in higher education, which led to a very significant growth in the number of PhDs in different fi...

Full text: http://rdcu.be/m1bD The analysis of plant macroremains from Poças de São Bento, a shell-midden in the Sado Valley (Portugal), has provided interesting insights into the shell-midden formation processes and the presence of resources which are often “invisible” in this kind of sites. Preservation and representation issues are discussed i...

Shell midden formation is largely controlled by an- thropogenic processes, resulting from human exploitation of aquatic resources. This makes shell middens archives of both human behaviour and palaeoenvironmental records. However, their often complex stratigraphy hampers the isola- tion of individual anthropogenic events. In the central/ southern c...

Estuaries are sensitive to changes in global to regional sea level, to climate-driven variation in rainfall and to fluvial discharge. In this study, we use source and environmentally sensitive proxies together with radiocarbon dating to examine a 7-m-thick sedimentary record from the Sado estuary accumulated throughout the last 3.6 kyr. The lithofa...

The arrival of farmers to the south-western Iberian Peninsula was followed by a period of complex human interaction after 5500 BCE. This marked the arrival of new technologies and subsistence practices such as pottery, husbandry and domestication of plants, but also the co-existence of diverse social structures and world-views in a territory popula...

In the scientific debate about the origins of funerary Megalithism in Westen Iberia, one of the main topics in discussion is related with the limited knowledge about the settlements places of the communities that had constructed and used these monuments. Starting from the available chronometric record, there is no evidence that in the Centre and So...

O livro que agora se apresenta De Gibraltar aos Pirenéus: Megalitismo, Vida e Morte na Fachada Atlântica Peninsular é o resultado de um Congresso que decorreu em Nelas e Carregal do Sal, realizado em parceria com a Fundação Lapa do Lobo, nos dias 2, 3 e 4 de Novembro de 2018. Era objectivo nuclear deste Congresso discutir no espaço da fachada atlân...

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 aim of this paper is to provide a summarized overview of the scientific research, developed in the past 20 years, about the early stages of the Neolithic in the Southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. These themes will be approached from 4 main topics: settlement patterns and their geomorphological location; absolute date and chronology; archaeogra...

The most recent fieldwork carried out by the SADO‑MESO project team at Poças de São Bento shell midden, in the Sado valley, included a systematic strategy of recovery and recording of a large amount of archaeological remains, especially lithic materials. The analysis of the lithic remains obtained in the excavations of the Area 1, between 2010 and...

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...

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...

This paper presents the results of an application of geophysical surveying methods to Mesolithic sites in Portugal. Magnetic gradiometry maps have been produced at the sites of Vale de Romeiras and Poças de São Bento. At the latter, three excavation seasons have provided information to test the results of the survey. It is concluded that these tech...

The development, since 2010, of a research project on the Mesolithic of the Sado valley has provided new insights into the study of the lithic technology of the last hunter-gatherer societies. The new excavations carried out at Poças de São Bento shell midden, one of the largest and richest sites identified in the Sado valley, include a protocol fo...

The pressures on honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations, resulting from threats by modern pesticides, parasites, predators and diseases, have raised awareness of the economic importance and critical role this insect plays in agricultural societies across the globe. However, the association of humans with A. mellifera predates post-industrial-revolut...

Within the framework of the Sado Meso project, two shell middens (Poças de S. Bento and Cabeço do Pez) in the Sado valley, Portugal, have been exhaustively sampled for plant macro-remains, in an effort to overcome two problems in prehistoric research: firstly, the scarcity of direct data about plant use by the Mesolithic peoples of Atlantic Iberia,...

Among the major European concentrations of Mesolithic settlements, the lower Sado valley is one of the least known. Despite the development of large systematic excavations in the mid twentieth century and recent attempts to reexamine some sites, only very partial information is available. Yet there are valuable unpublished archaeological collection...

The pressures on honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations, resulting from threats by modern pesticides, parasites, predators and diseases, have raised awareness of the economic importance and critical role this insect plays in agricultural societies across the globe. However, the association of humans with A. mellifera predates post-industrial-revolut...

This paper aims to present an archaeological site located in Muge (Salvaterra de Magos, Portugal). According the analysis of the recovered material culture and the archaeological record known for the left bank of the lower Tagus valley, we propose a crono-cultural and functional view for this site. According to the surface data, Casas Velhas do Coe...

No vale do Sado, Arapouco apresenta-se como um sítio-chave para discussão das modalidades de implantação e funcionamento do conjunto de concheiros do Mesolítico final, desta região. Perspectivas anteriores têm defendido o carácter especializado e temporário de Arapouco, no contexto deste complexo de concheiros, tratando-se do sítio mais a jusante a...

The final phases of the Early Neolithic and the transition towards the Middle Neolithic are still poorly understood and often lack a systematic definition. In terms of chronology, it seems certain that the Middle Neolithic transition starts during the second half of the 5th millennium, and ends by the time of the construction of the first megalithi...

Within the framework of the project that we are conducting in the drainage of Sado River, mainly focused on the study of the Mesolithic shell mounds, we are carrying out archaeological surface surveys in order to identify new sites and relocate the already known ones. The surveys conducted aim to obtain a sequence of prehistoric settlement in an ar...

This work presents a geological approach to the characterizattion of lithic materials collected at the mesolithic Sado River's shellmidens, recognized between Alcácer and São Romão, 80 km SE of Lisbon. They contain abundant lithic materials from different lithologies, including mainly Siliceous Slates, Chert, Jasper and Quartz. A first look at the...

Poster contribution

No âmbito de trabalhos de arqueologia de emergência, foi levada a cabo uma intervenção no sítio arqueológico da Moita do Ourives (Benavente, Portugal). Localizado na margem esquerda da Bacia Terciária do Baixo Tejo, este sítio de habitat, ao ar livre, revela uma cultura material que o enquadra, cronologicamente, no Neolítico médio. A sua singularid...

This article presents the main goals of a research project design to study the neolithisation process in lower Tagus valley left bank (NAM project-developed, since 2006, by the Research Department of CRIVARQUE, Lda). This area, occupied by late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers at least until 6300 BP, was traditionally seen as a "no-man's land" during Ne...

Pretende-se, neste texto, apresentar uma estatueta antropomórfica proveniente do povoado do Neolítico antigo da Valada do Mato (Évora,Portugal). Apesar de incompleta, e da ausência de atributos sexuais explícitos, esta peça integra-se no universo das «figurinhas femininas» que acompanham a neolitização das regiões mediterrâneas e que não tinham sid...

Apresenta-se o intervalo de tempo obtido para uma amostra de carvão recolhida no interior da ¿estrutura de combustão¿ detectada no sítio da Valada do Mato. Apesar de se dispor apenas de um só resultado, a raridade de datações absolutas para contextos do Neolítico Antigo em Portugal torna oportuna a sua imediata divulgação, sendo esta a primeira dat...

É objectivo deste trabalho apresentar, de forma sintética, os principais resultados obti-dos em quatro campanhas de escavação realizadas no sítio neolítico da Valada do Mato, Évora. Discutem-se ainda os principais problemas que as escavações foram colocando numa perspectiva estratigráfica, tafonómica e de interpretação das realidades arqueológicas...