Middle Bronze Age funerary hipogea from Torre Velha 3 (Serpa, Portugal). The Southeast inside the Southwest?!

Abstract

Recent archaeological excavations in the Portuguese region of Baixo Alentejo, carried out under the implementation of the irrigation project connected with the Alqueva Dam (EDIA), have brought to light important finds dated to the Southwestern Bronze Age. In this article, the first data of one of the largest funerary hipogea assemblages, found in Torre Velha 3 (Serpa), are presented. The funerary contexts show similarities with those from the Argaric Culture, namely as far as the rituals, architecture and offered items are concerned. Each funerary structure is composed of an atrium connect with a chamber (an artificial cave cut into the rock) closed by vertical slabs. Normally individuals were inhumated in a flexed position inside the chamber. Grave goods consist in pottery, metal artifacts and also meat offerings which point out to a ritual of commensality performed when the burial took place. Radiocarbon dating of bone samples taken from the meat offerings allowed ascribing to these hipogea a chronology on the second quarter/ beginning of the third quarter of the II Millennium BC.

Keywords

• bronce del sudoeste
• bronce argárico
• hipogeos
• comensalidad
• portugal