The rock engravings of Penedo do Matrimónio in Campo de Caparinho, Vilar de Perdizes, Montalegre (Northern Portugal)

• Autor(a) principal: Bettencourt, Ana M. S.
• Data de Publicação: 2004
• Outros Autores: Sanches, M. Jesus, Dinis, António, Cruz, Carlos S.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/19297
• topic: Northern Portugal; Late prehistory; rock engravings; Culto da fertilidade; Norte de Portugal; Pré-história recente; gravuras rupestres

This article discusses the rock engravings popularly known as Penedo do Matrimónio. They lie within the archaeological group at Campo de Caparinho in the parish of Vilar de Perdizes. municipality of Montalegre, and were surveyed at the end of 2002 and in September 2003. Penedo do Matrimónio may be seen as a ceremonial site in which two anthropomorphic representations, one male and the ether female, in association with possible weapons and a particular depression in the rock base, suggest rituals associated with human fertility. The sanctuary is located in an area containing important archaeological remains, in which there are also other rock engravings, a monument under a tumulus and several places where ceramic and lithic artefacts have been found, all of which can generally be dated between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.