"When we worked in the fields, sometimes when it rained,
we would take refuge inside the dolmens."
"I think the dolmens were made before the birth of Christ.
Maybe it was the primitive man who already felt like taking shelter.
Maybe they predate to the beginning of the world.
"Menhirs are a natural phenomenon!
Water lowers the ground level and stone starts to emerge.
No one placed them there, the stones are born!"
"Who would build those things?
People who ceased to exist..."
First, we must determine where these monuments exist and where to find them.
And unlike common sense...
Probably a lot of people think everything is already known,
that archaeologists have already found everything there was to be found.
Big mistake, it's the exact opposite...
The truth is most of our landscapes have never been prospected
by anyone with experience, who actually knows how to identify these things.
It's clear this type of work requires some specialization
and the learning of some of the phenomena which took place in these monuments.
It is possible, desirable even, to do archaeology, obtain data
and interpret it, publish it, without necessarily resorting to an excavation.
In truth, what an excavation grants above all is a temporal dimension
when we don't have one.
So, let's say that after prospecting, the work that follows,
with or without an excavation, is to make comparisons.
This means, to compare these monuments with others from the same region,
compare them with the landscape, or relate them to it.
Identify the trends and patterns
while at the same time establishing a comparison with other regions.
Because, in truth, these phenomena, especially on an European scale,
can hardly be considered isolated.
Contrary to a rather simple and, perhaps generalized idea,
prehistoric communities did not live isolated.
In my opinion, and considering the data we have collected, in recent years
which appears to confirm it, menhirs and cromelechs
are the most ancient megalithic monuments in the region.
We can say the landscapes have changed, since the final moments
of the last glaciation, due to climatic reasons.
In such a way, in fact, that these communities took refuge on the coast,
by the estuaries of the great rivers, thus leaving Alentejo uninhabited.
About eight thousand years ago, the first communities of farmers and shepherds
the first Neolithics, settled in the region.
There are two contradictory theories.
One claims the first farmers came from the Eastern Mediterranean.
Therefore, they would have been navigators who successively colonized
the entire mediterranean basin, starting from the East,
and that's how they made it to Portugal.
Other authors claim this process altough connected to the near East
the natives in each territory of Europe were responsible for it.
Before the neolithization, before the construction of these monuments,
human communities were mostly gathered in the estuary of the rivers Tagus and Sado.
But in my opinion, it would have been these last communities
of hunter-gatherers, which we designated as Mesolithics.
They would have been responsible for the construction
of these megalithic monuments in Alentejo.
The megalithic set of Tojal, where we are now,
is, in my opinion, one of the most fantastic examples
We know these monuments, mostly those in Alentejo,
In fact, in an area of about 700 meters, along an elevated plain,
we find six dolmens, one cromlech and a menhir of different typologies.
The dolmens have different sizes, each corresponding to a different time.
We know these monuments, mostly those in Alentejo,
were, with very few exceptions,
oriented in a certain astronomical direction.
For example, regarding the dolmens, they aren't all precisely oriented
in the same direction, rather, we can observe a range of orientations
which very accurately pinpoints the full moon of Spring.
The first moon to rise opposite the sun after the equinox.
The same moon which, even today, we still resort to appoint Easter.
In fact, the calendar we still use for our annual festivities or rituals
is the same as the one "printed"
by the prehistoric communities in these monuments.
They are five, six thousand year old monuments.
We know these dates, with quite a degree of certainty.
There are several methods, archaeology has now come
to grips with, which give little room for doubt when it comes to
the chronology of the construction of the monuments within a margin of error, though.
In most cases, originally these monuments were much different
than how they are today.
Outside, we couldn't see the stones.
The megaliths were not visible, since the whole monument
was covered by a mound of earth or stones, or both,
which we in Portugal call Mamoa and granted the exterior a much more discreet look.
Actually, what we could see was a small artificial hill
which had an entrance, but it would be very easy to miss.
What happened, however, was that due to the erosion, together with the
thousands of years passed, especially in a climate like ours, here
in Alentejo, that mound of earth and stone has either been destroyed or disappeared.
What we see today, does not portray that image or what they wanted to convey.
We know these monuments, the dolmens, or antas like we call them,
were used primarily as burial grounds.
This reveals to us that the first great significance of these monuments
concerns the belief in the afterlife.
This entire structure, all this investment wouldn't make sense, otherwise,
if at the centre of these people's beliefs
was not the idea that the dead should be treated with respect
and the idea, we now presume,
that there would be something, there would be life after death.
On the other hand, these monuments also imply an idea that
Man can and should transform the landscape.
With the construction of these monuments, the natural world was no longer the same.
After the first contact with the populations it's very interesting
to find that most, at least those living with monuments in the vicinities,
know exactly where they are located.
They can describe them, and tell us their physical traits.
Why does this happen?
Because these monuments are an integral part of the story of their lives.
Ever since they were little, playing in the field, people have come across
these monuments, or even played inside them
until coming of age, when they started working the fields.
So, these monuments are a constant in these people's lives.
Also, amongst the people of S. Geraldo it's well remembered
that dolmens were used as the temporary settlement for vagrants known as Malteses.
In Alentejo they are still remembered as very special people.
Unlike beggars, they were lonely men who wandered the fields.
The Antas do Paço are a perfect example
as people still remember seeing them settled there.
They remember them sleeping there, and waking up early in the morning,
when they would make a fire outside the dolmen, and shortly after
they would resume their wandering across the fields.
Several dolmens were also used as cattle pens.
Especially for young cattle.
This is what happened in the dolmen of Curral da Antinha, close to S. Geraldo,
as suggested by the name itself (Curral = Cattle Pen).
Another interesting case concerns Anta dos Torais,
a dolmen which was used as the working place of the local shoemaker.
Those who had their land nearby would go there
to have their footwear fixed, and it was known
for a very long time, as Anta do Sapateiro (Shoemaker's Dolmen).
But one of the most peculiar utilitarian appropriations
of the dolmens, is undoubtedly the one of Anta do Estanque.
This is a dolmen attached to a house more than a hundred years old.
It can be found in the urban centre of S. Geraldo's village
and was used for domestic purposes, throughout these hundred years.
Herdade do Tojal is another peculiar case.
Between Herdade do Tojal and Herdade do Gato,
we will find a fence line delimiting both properties
which is exactly coincident with two important
monuments of this megalithic set.
The Recinto do Tojal and Anta do Gato.
What's interesting is that the fence accurately intersects the cromlech
and is exactly coincident with the dolmen, and as if that was not enough
we will also find the coat of arms belonging to one of these families,
either Tojal or Gato, engraved precisely in the central menhir
of the cromlech, and once again in the megalith of Anta do Gato.
A very particular case indeed, on this use of dolmens
as terms of property division.
When it comes to the reuse of megalithic monuments, one of the most interesting
phenomena, is undoubtedly, their sacralization, by integrating them
or turning them into Christian temples.
This was one of the ways Christianity resorted to
in order to assimilate ancient traditions and cults which had been kept alive
not only in dolmens, but also in fountains, cliffs and other sacred sites.
In Portugal, we know several dolmen chapels scattered throughout the country.
But here in Montemor-o-Novo we have one of their most beautiful exemplars.
The dolmen chapel of Nossa Senhora do Livramento
in Santiago do Escoural,
a few kilometers from the village of S. Brissos.
It's a small dolmen chapel, of which the ancient dolmen was used as the chapel's
galilee entrance porch, which according to Túlio Espanca is from the 17th century.
Today, the entrance to the chapel is located on the northern side
but it's interesting that we can still identify a western entrance
which would have coincided with the original one of the megalithic monument
but is now completely sealed in masonry.
The truth is that, for a long time, there was this proximity
with megalithic monuments, until, more or less the 60s, or 70s of the 20th century.
As a result of the desertification of the fields,
the aging of the population, and this breakdown of the traditional means
for imparting knowledge, there is an increasing gap between
the population and the megaliths, not only metaphorically, but physically as well
as a result of the large fences, now rising around properties
which keep not only the population away, but also researchers
and visitors of these important patrimonial elements of our municipality.
Except of course for a few smaller sets, already selected,
and properly featured in tour itineraries, also duly signposted,
which still continue to reap the few rewards that come from their
touristic, leisurely and also educational enjoyment.
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