85 – Day 15

Today was the beginning of the third week (second of the larger team). The moment of the morning was the finding of human bones mixed with faunal remains, pottery shards and small stones in ditch 7. After ditches 3 and 4 (see published paper), now is ditch 7 to present human remains in a same similar context: a context where they are one more element to build the context meaning.

The bones correspond to two skull fragments, separated by a meter or so. One was already removed and it is a frontal skull bone, possibly of a female (opinion of our anthropologist in the team). The other is still in place and is burned.

Location of the first fragment (the one of the previous picture)

The second one, burned.

If you are interested in this topic (scattered human bones in ditches) I suggest the paper on ditch 3 and 4 of Perdigões (in Portuguese) here: http://www.academia.edu/498082/OSSOS_HUMANOS_PROVENIENTES_DOS_FOSSOS_3_E_4_E_GEST%C3%83O_DA_MORTE_NOS_PERDIG%C3%95ES

84 – Day 14

Today was a resting day. But some work is always done. Reviewing the record and adding some more lines to a paper in preparation.

In this case, a paper about the exogenous materials in Perdigões and about what they can tell us about the social role of the site through its living time. There are abundant materials and raw materials at Perdigões that have exogenous provenance. This crystal of quartz from Tomb 1, and displayed at Perdigões museum at Esporão, is one of them.

83 – Day 13

The excavation of sector Q is going well. The circular structure is almost totally defined and a central large post hole was detected cutting the sediments of a previous Neolithic pit. Here is the general image of the structure as it stands at the moment. The white arrows mark the limits of the overture to East and the red arrow indicates the post hole (at the geometric centre of the structure).

Near, there is another previous Neolithic pit, with quartz lithic material and faunal remains in the middle of small stones.

082 – Day 12

Last night was the first “street talk” in Telheiro. Nelson talked about some main issues of zooarchaeology for the team.

This morning, the excavation of ditch 11 continued and it seems Perdigões was big since the beginning.

 

Ditch 7 is deeper and deeper, always with depositions of pottery  shards and faunal remains.

 

And here it is this week team.

081 - Day 11

Sorry for the absence of notices yesterday. It was a particularly busy day. Here are some pictures from today’s morning.

We always start the days by cleaning a bit more of the large area open insector Q. Lots of features are being defined.

 

When the Sun gets higher we then go to the different sectors where the excavation is being developed. Here is the circular structure being excavated.

And here Ditch 7 in sector P

After lunch, a visit to the Perdigões museum.

 

And finally, a decorated shard: note the decoration with the two eyes and the facial tattoos under the rows of dots.

080 – Day 9

The cleaning and excavation continued in Sector Q, P and H. Here are some images of Sector Q.

 Excavation of pits and the circular ditched structure in the late afternoon.

 A section of the circular structure (note the wedges for holding the posts).

 A nice small pit inside another large pit (note the adz in the left top).

And a nice decorated shard (symbolic decoration)

079 – Day 8

First day of the large team. Day of adaptations. The excavations started in Sectors Q and H. This nice bell beaker shard was found in sector Q.

078 – Day 7b

The beaker from sector Q recovered during last week cleaning.

077 – Day 7

It is a resting day from field work. Time to organize the record and to “play” a bit with the information. Here is the plan “in construction” of the circular structure. Note the large overture to East.

In fact, the back of the structure almost reproduces the visibility of Perdigões itself over the landscape: visibility restricted to North, West and South and open to East, roughly delimitated by both solstices.

076 - Day six.

Dedicated to define some structures. Here are two or three pits inside the circular feature in sector Q (the north limit of the circular structure is visible in the picture).

And here is the team of three that prepared the ground for the larger team that will start Monday. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”

075 – Day five

The excavation of ditch 7 continued. We defined a row of large stones next to the east side of the ditch. When the stones were removed a deposition of small stones, pottery shards and faunal remains (especially horns) were identified.  The rest of the ditch surface had nothing. Again intentionality.  

At sector Q we identified the other extremity of the circular structure that started to be recorded last year. It is an infra structure of a wood wall with 7.5 meters diameter and a circular plan, but that is open  to east in 7 meters (not really a gate, rather a opening of a stage).

 

 

We will get back to this extraordinary structure later, with the complete plan, to explore its implications.

074 - Day four

 

Today we continued the excavation of ditch 7 and start cleaning one of the new open areas. There, some large circular structures (visible in the geophysics) were detected. They reveal the presence of a large quantity of stones to be defined. Near to one of these structures, part of a bell beaker pot (the one of the rim presented before) was detected broken in situ. This is showing that, even with the intensive plough of 1996, there are some contexts preserved between the ploughing outside negative structures. This is a promising area to understand the late Perdigões, namely the bell beaker contexts.

 

073 – Day three

Today there was a progress in several areas. Here is an example: ditch 11 is defined and prepared to be surveyed. It might bring quite significant news to Perdigões perception, depending on its chronology.

072 – Day two

Today we finished the opening of new areas, using mechanical means to remove the ploughed layer. Naturally, a great quantity of materials appears during the process, things like this bell beaker shard. Tomorrow, the cleaning of some of these new areas will continue, as will the excavation of ditch 7 (that today provided a marble (?) bead.

 

071 – Day one.

The first day was dedicated to mark new surveys and to clean the ones already open last year and that will be continued this year.

In ditch 7 we have already star the excavation, continuing from where we stopped last year.

In sector Q, one of the areas to be enlarged was finished and we start cleaning the preserved surface. A great number of pits is already visible, showing a quite complex area, as usually at Perdigões.

 

070 - 18th campaign

Areas already surveyed in Perdigões with indication of the sectors that will be worked during 2015

 Next Monday the 2015 campaign of archaeological excavations will start at Perdigões. We will be working in several areas.

The Era-Nia team will continue the work in sector Q, P and O and will initiate a new survey in Sector H. At Sector Q, the excavation of a possible circular hut and some pits will continue. At Sector P we will finish the section in Ditch 7. At Sector O the section in Ditch 10 will continue as well as some pits. In the Western part of the enclosure, a section in Ditch 11 will be initiated. There is great curiosity about the chronology of this ditch. It is a ditch that defines a large enclosure, that is previous to the two large outside ditches (ditches 1 and 2) and that is partially overlapped by Ditch 1.

Finally, in Sector L, the Málaga University team, that collaborates in the Global Program of Archaeological Research of Perdigões, will be removing and studying the large stelae that was discovered in front of Gate 1. For this they will have the collaboration of Primitiva Bueno and Rodrigo Balbin from the university of Alcalá de Henares. They will also initiate a section in Ditch 2.

As usually, you may follow here the results of the campaigns work on a daily bases, starting Monday 13 with a shorter team during a week to prepare the several areas.  

  

069 – Post scriptum

At the office, comparing material from this year excavation with materials from previous campaigns, a head of an ivory figurine collected this year found its body collected two years ago.

But more than that. Carefully analyzed, it revealed something I have suggested before: that the eyes had inlays of small stones (looks likes a quartz stone) fixed with a “white clay”.

 

 

In fact, the large and deep eye holes from other figurines of the type suggested that they may have inlayed material to give a more dramatic expression to the faces. That idea seems now to be true, at least in some of those figurines. More detailed analyses will now be done.

068 - Team 2

,,, and see you next year.

067 – New feature type

 

In sector Q a new type of feature, previously unknown in Perdigões, was recorded this year.

At the NW of survey 1 we have an overlapping of several structures. After some Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic pits, a large and apparently circular structure, with a depth of 30/40 cm, was excavated in the bedrock, cutting the previous features. Inside, at one meter from that cutting interface and running parallel to it, there was a narrow ditch. With a circular shape, it was defined in a quarter of a circle (also cutting previous structures), suggesting a structure with 8 m of diameter. Inside the ditch there were stones that might been used to sustained post.

It is soon to interpret this structure, but, being partially excavated in the bedrock, it seems to be a positive feature. Maybe a hut or maybe a small enclosed space of a different nature. Next year we will enlarge the survey in this area, for this is an important structure to understand in Perdigões.

066 – Ditch 7

 

To get to the bottom was an objective. But layers like these make it impossible. Layers of stones, pottery and faunal remains like this one take a lot of time to define and record.  To understand the filling processes of ditches is not cheap.

But when they are present and well recorded, we can appreciate the complexity and intentionality of filling processes. And that is food for thought.

065 – A Button?

 

It is a cylinder made of polished ivory and it has a V shape perforation in the middle. It looks like one of those buttons of some winter coats, but much longer. Is it really a button or something else?

One thing is certain. Is the first ivory object contextualized recovered at Perdigões not associated with funerary contexts. It comes from Chalcolithic ditch 7.

064 – After about 4500 years…

… it was lifted  from the bed of stones where it was put, probably with a similar care, but certainly with a different meaning.

 

And next to it there was a half plate. Especially for those who realize the importance of fragmentation and of half parts for these communities.

063 – Daily tasks

Recording at the field…

 

… and cleaning and classifying materials at home.

 

Daily tasks of an archaeological excavation that is made of something else besides interesting or spectacular findings.

062 – Excavating pit 50…

… on a quiet Saturday afternoon. The pot deposited over a layer of small stones and, in the next layer, fragments of plate, possibly corresponding to an half part.

061 – Here comes the Sun… or a comet

 

Some jump into the interpretation of a Sun representation. Others argue that some may represent comets.

I just listen to the arguments and start to be convinced that these depictions may represent a variety of astronomic events.

And this shard, from Perdigões Chalcolithic ditch 7 and collected yesterday, may very well sugest a tail and the shining (dots inside the circle) of a comet.

Found especially for you, Paulo.