O sítio do Neolítico Antigo de Cortiçóis - Almeirim, Santarém

• Autor(a) principal: Cardoso, João
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Carvalho, António F., Gibaja, Juan F.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/10618
• topic: Arqueologia; Neolítico antigo; Sítio de Cortiçóis

Abstract: Discovered in the context of a field survey project aiming the study of the Roman occupation in the area, the site of Cortiçóis was subjected to surface collections and excavation in September 2010. These tasks permitted to conclude this site was deeply affected by the plantation of a vineyard. However, the abundant artefactual assemblage that was recovered is testimony of a Neolithic occupation (or successive occupations) at the site, which is datable to the end of the 5th millennium BC according to its ceramic typology (the acidity of the sandy deposit prevented the preservation of organic materials). The particular importance of Cortiçóis can be summarized in three main aspects: 1) It furnishes the first evidence of Neolithic occupation on the left banks of the Tagus valley immediately north of the Mesolithic shell middens of Muge, revealing the type of location and settlement that may had been characteristic of period in the region. 2) Its material culture, with very diversified pottery styles, allows the establishment of parallels with coeval sites across the Estremadura region but shows particularisms that seem to point to a local entity. 3) Use-wear analysis of flint bladelets has permitted the recognition of “sickle implements” used in cereal harvesting. This is the first objective identification in Portuguese territory of an assemblage of such type of artefacts. Their typology is typical of the Early Neolithic in Andalusia and, as a consequence, it allows to conclude that Neolithic agriculture (at least in the centre of Portugal) may had been similar to the one already documented in the mentioned Spanish region.