Status symbols or an insight into the earliest Middle Bronze Age in southwest Iberia: the funerary structures of Horta do Pinheiro 5 (Torrão do Alentejo, southern Portugal)*

• Autor(a) principal: Monge Soares, António M.
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Melo, Linda, Valério, Pedro, Silva, Ana Maria, Pais Martins, Pedro, Monge Soares, Rui M. G., Cerqueira Alves, Luis, Araújo, Maria Fátima, Baptista, Lídia, Casimiro, Maria Helena, Mota Ferreira, Luis, Silva, Rui J. C.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/105503; https://doi.org/10.3989/tp.2021.12277
• topic: Southwestern Bronze Age; Iberian peninsula; funerary ritual; archaeometric analyses; radiocarbon dating; Asian ivory; African ivory; cinnabar; high status dagger; hierarchy and social stratification; Edad del Bronce del suroeste; península ibérica; ritual funerario; análisis arqueométrico; datación por radiocarbono; marfil asiático; marfil africano; cinabrio; daga de alto estatus; jerarquía y estratificación social.

The recent discovery and archaeological excavation of two funerary structures located at Horta do Pinheiro 5 (south of Portugal) shed new light on the early times of the Southwestern Middle Bronze Age. These structures, a pit and a hypogeum, both associated with another pit, deepen our knowledge about the funerary rituals practiced at that time. Grave goods recorded in both structures stand out for their opulent and luxurious character. Archaeometric analyses made possible to identify the raw materials with which the grave goods were manufactured. Two bracelets, one in each structure, are made of ivory, one from Asian elephant and the other from African elephant. The dagger recovered in the hypogeum has an arsenical copper blade with silver rivets. Its handle and the pommel are covered with silver and gold also forms part of the pommel. In the hypogeum chamber reddish spots adhering to both grave goods and bones are identified as cinnabar. The integration and interpretation of these imported prestige elements, their dating by radiocarbon, as well as the search for parallels for them, are the object of analysis and discussion.