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The Bom Santo Cave (Lisbon, Portugal): catchment, diet, and patterns of mobility of a Middle Neolithic population

Publication . Carvalho, António Faustino; Alves-Cardoso, Francisca; Gonçalves, David; Granja, Raquel; Cardoso, João Luís; Dean, Rebecca M.; Francisco Gibaja, Juan; Masucci, Maria A.; Arroyo-Pardo, Eduardo; Fernández-Domínguez, Eva; Petchey, Fiona; Price, T. Douglas; Mateus, José Eduardo; Queiroz, Paula Fernanda; Callapez, Pedro; Pimenta, Carlos; Regala, Frederico T.

The study of the Bom Santo Cave (central Portugal), a Neolithic cemetery, indicates a complex social, palaeoeconomic, and population scenario. With isotope, aDNA, and provenance, analyses of raw materials coupled with stylistic variability of material culture items and palaeogeographical data, light is shed on the territory and social organization of a population dated to 3800-3400 cal BC, i.e. the Middle Neolithic. Results indicate an itinerant farming, segmentary society, where exogamic practices were the norm. Its lifeway may be that of the earliest megalithic builders of the region, but further research is needed to correctly evaluate the degree of this community's participation in such a phenomenon.

2016Journal article

Open Access

All different, all equal: Evidence of a heterogeneous Neolithic population at the Bom Santo Cave necropolis (Portugal)

Publication . Gonçalves, D.; Granja, Raquel; Alves-Cardoso, F.; Carvalho, A. F.

The objective of this paper was to contribute to the discussion regarding the socio-political organization of south-western Iberian Middle Neolithic populations. To that end, the preservation and distribution of human remains and the dispersion of grave goods within two rooms of the Born Santo Cave (Rooms A and B) were investigated and combined with, genetic and isotopic data previously published. Grave goods distribution and skeletal analyses highlighted an important diversity in terms of funerary practices thus corroborating data from ancient DNA and Sr/O isotopic analyses that suggested a great genetic and geographic diversity. Grave goods presented an uneven spatial distribution and were made of raw materials from different sources and using different pottery manufacturing styles albeit typologically homogeneous. The preservation and distribution of human remains suggested that Room A was mainly used for secondary depositions while Room B was used for both primary and secondary depositions. No link between the two rooms was found since remains from the same individuals were apparently exclusive of one room or another. The results suggest that this society presented substantial inner genetic, social and geographical heterogeneity. Most probably, this was due to the presence of distinct but coeval groups in the cave that shared a larger-scale social identity (as in "segmentary societies") or, less likely, to the presence of one single, but internally heterogeneous society (as in fully sedentary, societies) that assimilated foreigners. (C) 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

2016Journal article

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Insights on the changing dynamics of cemetery use in the neolithic and chalcolithic of southern Portugal. Radiocarbon dating of Lugar do Canto Cave (Santarém)

Publication . Carvalho, António; Luis Cardoso, Joao

Lugar do Canto Cave is one of the most relevant Neolithic burial caves in Portugal given not only its extraordinary preservation conditions at the time of discovery but also the quality of the field record obtained during excavation. Its material culture immediately pointed to a Middle Neolithic cemetery but recent radiocarbon determinations also allowed the recognition of an apparent two step phasing of its use within the period (ca. 4000-3400 cal BC): an older one characterized by a single burial and a later reoccupation as a collective necropolis. Comparisons with other well-dated cave cemeteries in Southern Portugal permitted the recognition of changing funerary practices and strategies of cemetery use during the later stages of the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic: 1) ca. 3800 cal BC as the possible turning point from the practice of individual to collective burials; 2) alternating periods of intensive use and deliberate abandonment of cemeteries (evidenced by their intentional closure). Research avenues to investigate the social organization and ideological context underlying these aspects of the Neolithic communities in greater depth are tentatively pointed out in this paper.

2015Journal article

Open Access