Before Alentejo Megalithism (7000-5500 BC)
About 8000 years ago, in a context of marked climate improvement, which resulted in forest development and the consequent closure of landscapes, the last hunter-gatherer societies (Mesolithic) concentrated on the margins of the upper limits of the Tagus estuaries and do Sado, in particularly rich natural environments.
In fact, the main evidence of that time - the shell beds - are located at the interfaces between very different and economically complementary ecosystems: in the interior, densely forested, deer, wild boar or aurochs were hunted; in the rich, in the estuary and in the sea, the different aquatic species available were hunted, fished and collected, namely birds, fish or shellfish.
Central Alentejo was, at that time, relatively deserted, covered by forests and thickets, although it must have been frequented sporadically by Mesolithic groups from the estuaries.
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First Model
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This model shows the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers, where we can identify a strong presence of hunting for food and for the use of skins as covering for huts. In this same model we can also see the strong presence of fishing in these societies as an important form of food.
On the other hand, we still have the representation of the conviviality between the members of society through the circle around the fire.
Figure 1 : First Model. retrieved from: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3x3Qi4QC-e0/WdA3haVPcCI/AAAAAAAAAHU/dqEx1IroUJg3GqPliYnEQLGCtThdu04jgCLcBGAs/s640/_6306850.jpg?hl=pt_PT
The Neolithic Revolution (5500-3500 BC)
The first megalithic monuments in Alentejo – menhirs and megalithic enclosures – were built by Neolithic settlers, installed, from 5500 BC, in Central Alentejo. In this process, there is, on the one hand, an important cultural component originating in the Near East – where the Neolithic germinated and developed between 9500 and 7000 BC – and, on the other hand, a fundamental participation of indigenous populations, the last hunters. - Mesolithic collectors from the Tagus and Sado estuaries. The Neolithic implied a profound revolution in the daily life of populations: a new relationship was established between Man and Nature.
Man domesticated plants (agriculture) and animals (pastoralism), created new artefacts (ceramics, polished stone), and altered, for the first time, on a large scale, the very physiognomy of landscapes (clearing the natural forest to create fields of cultivation and grazing), symbolically marking them in the granite landscapes, in places where large rocky outcrops stand out and where water courses are incipient.
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Second Model
In the model on the left we can identify the growing importance of culture and sociability in the period corresponding to the Neolithic period. We can see this through the creation of cultural monuments and the teamwork that the members of these societies had to undertake to raise such a monument. On the other hand, we were also able to identify a great deal of attention to conviviality and sociability, in the lower left corner, with dancing and playing instruments.
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Third Model
In the model on the right we have represented the development of the construction of the houses, now made with more complex materials. However, the most important change during this period would be the introduction of agriculture and livestock in societies. In the upper right corner we have an example of soil preparation and cleaning for food crops. With pastoralism, we have the domestication of animals for food use or as a bargaining chip with other settlements.
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The Late Neolithic: Consolidation of Peasant Societies (3500-3000 BC)
The regional success of the Neolithic way of life was translated, in landscape terms, into the expansion of settlement beyond the granitic areas.
In the final phase of the Neolithic (3500-3000 BC), new settlements emerged, some of them of considerable size, generally related to good patches of agricultural soil and watercourses of some importance. These are open areas, with smooth relief and currently sparsely wooded. At that time, most of the dolmens (megalithic funerary monuments) in Central Alentejo were built. In recent archaeological excavations, moat systems, more or less complex, were identified, delimiting and segmenting the areas of the settlements. In one of these villages, Águas Frias (Alandroal), traces of the manufacture, on a large scale, of decorated shale slabs were found.
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Figure 3: Development of a settlement
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The image
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In this image we have the development of a village that will be located in a region suitable for agriculture and pastoralism, with open regions and clean waters. With this it is then possible to develop settlements, like the one we can see in the image, where we have a greater structural complexity both in the houses and in the divisions between individual areas with the use of small walls.
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Figure 2: Second and Third Model. retrived from: https://www.evoraticket.pt/
