Repositório RCAAP

The correspondence received by J. Leite de Vasconcelos from thirteen archaeologists of Swedish, English, French, Italian, Swiss and German nationality, evidence the internationalization achieved by the Director of the Portuguese Ethnological Museum. The missives, almost all of them of the twentieth century, when the scientific prestige of Leite de Vasconcelos had reached the peak, deal with very different, generally relevant themes, sometimes resulting from visits made by the author himself to his correspondents, or, on the contrary, of visits made by them to Lisbon, thus enabling a direct knowledge. In fact, the mobility of Leite de Vasconcelos is well-known, which is in keeping with its declared love of traveling. These missives sometimes address scientific questions of first importance, contributing to the knowledge of the state of archaeological research in the respective countries, with international repercussions.

O General de Divisão Januário Correia de Almeida, Conde de S. Januário (Paço de Arcos, 31 de Março de 1827; Paço de Arcos, 27 de Maio de 1901) foi ilustre militar, administrador, engenheiro e diplomata, pertencente a um escol de notáveis portugueses do seu tempo que tanto prestigiaram e engrandeceram o País, boa parte deles hoje quase completamente esquecidos: tal a razão deste preito de homenagem à sua memória que agora se publica. Sumário: Apresentação Prefácio 1 – Razões de uma homenagem 2 – Januário Correia de Almeida e Oeiras 3 – Um militar de excepção 4 – O despertar para a causa pública: A missão no arquipélago de Cabo Verde (1857-1861) 5 – Uma afirmação de autoridade Como Governador-Geral da Índia Portuguesa 6 – Prudência e firmeza como Governador-Geral de Macau e Timor 7 – Uma missão de alto risco Como Ministro Plenipotenciário no Reino de Sião 8 – No Império do Sol Nascente 9 – O 1.º Presidente da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa 10 – Viajante, diplomata, arqueólogo e naturalista: a missão como Ministro Plenipotenciário às repúblicas sul-americanas em 1878/1879 11 – Colaboração com a Academia das Ciências de Lisboa 12 – Actuação na Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses 13 – Intervenção política 14 – Servidor da cultura e defensor da cidadania 15 – O fim de uma vida dedicada ao serviço do País Agradecimentos Referências Bibliográficas

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What is commonly called «Bell Beaker culture» corresponds to two distinct phenomena: – a process of rapid diffusion of some sign-objects (including the international goblet) within the late Neolithic (or Chalcolithic) populations. These vestiges bear witness to an individualistic ideology, particularly manifest in the funerary realm; – at a second stage, the emergence of local cultures, of limited geographical extension, which definitively adopted the codes of the previous phenomenon. They are therefore classic archaeological entities, known particularly through specific habitats, diversified ornate ceramics, commonware pottery, etc. The author considers a probable western origin of the maritime goblet, the original and emblematic marker of the phenomenon. He also wonders about the meaning of the «package» elements: sign-objects of general value or structural markers of the Bell Beaker culture? The presence of some of these elements out of the Beaker sphere as well as their perdurance during the Early Bronze Age do not systematically support their strictly Belll Beaker status.

L. Salanova (2000 a), taking up the “Classical Theory”, defended the origin of the maritime Beakers in the Tagus estuary, considering that this vase corresponded to the only pure Beaker production, named by her as the standard style. In this context, the importance of the published radiocarbon dates more recently published becomes evident, as it points to the actual antiquity of this production. This is particularly significant in the region in question, concerning the Hut FM of Leceia (CARDOSO, 1997-1998; 2014 a), which results confirm the emergence of the Beaker ceramics in this region around 2750 cal BC, a time when maritime Beakers already coexisted with regional productions. These results, along with the information produced by the DNA analysis carried out at the European level on Beaker populations, have confirmed the direct relation of these populations from their local predecessors (OLALDE et al., 2018). These are decisive arguments for the origin of the maritime vessels in the region of the Tagus estuary, which is the most important nucleus, on a European scale. From here, it expanded along the Atlantic coast, becoming an important receiving pole in Brittany, until it assumed residual values in more eastern regions, the Rhine valley and the Netherlands.

In this article we present the results of the analysis of the anthracological remains collected during excavations in the prehistoric settlement of Leceia (Oeiras, Portugal). It was possible to identify, through the microscopic observation the fracture surfaces of 148 specimens several species that were part of the region‘s arboreal cover during the 3rd millennium BC, such as Arbutus unedo, Pinus pinaster, Olea europea, Pistacia lentiscus, Quercus ilex / Q. coccifera, Quercus subg. Quercus, in addition to other taxa that were not identified at the specific level.

In this study we present the results of the archaeological excavations at the fortified Chalcolithic settlement of Outeiro Redondo, Sesimbra between 2005 and 2016, directed by the author.

In this work we present the results of the excavations that took place in Serra do Socorro during 2007 and 2008, specifically in the area adjacent to the Ermida. Recent phases of occupation of this space caused serious affectations in the stratigraphy, especially with regard to the oldest chronological periods. Nevertheless, it was possible to identify a relatively well conserved subcircular domestic structure that can be associated to the Bronze Age final phase, as well as a significant set of archaeological materials of that same period. The artifacts exhumed in these two campaigns are easily integrated into the repertoires Portuguese Extremadura Late Bronze Age, emphasizing a fragment with burnished decoration, a small set of scythe elements and a dagger.

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The open-area archaeological excavations at the 18th century Ludovice Palace, in the Bairro Alto quarter (Lisbon, Portugal) revealed four phases of human occupation. The oldest phase belongs to the Early Neolithic and comprise several dwelling features and one burial, alongside numerous pottery and lithic objects. Field-based geoarchaeological observations suggests that these remains are spread over na occupation surface which, once abandoned, seems to have underwent puddling, slaking and pedogenesis. A thick deposit covered these layers with abundant reworked prehistoric objects. These data significantly increase the contextual knowledge regarding previous findings of the Neolithic settlement of Bairro Alto both culturally and chronologically and widens the debate on the neolithization process of the portuguese Estremadura.

This paper presents the results of a study carried on a collection of 144 metal artefacts from the Early (ca. 2800-2600/2500 a.C.) and the Middle/Final Chalcolithic (ca. 2600/2500-2000 a.C.), found at the site of Leceia (Oeiras, Central Portugal) during the excavations conducted between 1983 and 2000. A systematised analysis of the collection was provided in order to enumerate the different typologies found in the site and to determine their chemical composition. From a typological point of view, a great diversity of artifacts was found, namely, punches, fish-hooks, flat axes, chisels, saws, ingots and foundry remnants. Elemental analysis, by X-ray Fluorescence, shows that the artefacts were made of copper, with a variable occurence of arsenic, nickel, silver, antimony, bismuth, lead and iron. In this paper, data is exposed and discussed within the regional early metallurgy.

The republication of a Late Bronze Age socketed ax with probably two rings collected in Leceia (Oeiras), justified the discussion about the origin and geographical distribution of this type of productions, characteristic of the Western area of the Iberian Peninsula.

In this article the authors present a set of several Iron Age artifacts, mostly unpublished, from Pragança settlement. Since the late nineteenth century, this collection has been part of the National Archaeological Museum and the artefacts were recovered during archaeological excavations conducted by the founder of the National Archaeological Museum, José Leite de Vasconcelos in this archaeological site. This site is very often associated with the fortified Chalcolitic settlements of Estremadura, but there is evidence of later occupations, as J. Leite de Vasconcelos had already pointed out. The authors present an important set of materials from the Iron Age, framing them in a regional perspective and circulation of goods, integrating this archaeological site in a network of contacts with the orientalizing and sideric world, that this set of artefacts demonstrate.

For the first time, the Latin translation of the passage about prehistoric tools from Michele Mercati Metallotheca Vaticana’s famous work of the 16th century Natural History Vatican collections is published. Although it is the first work that reproduces polished stone axes, arrowheads and flint blades, discussing its meaning according to the conception of the time, the present study constitutes the first contribution about the knowledge of the epoch in this specific matter, with evidente interest to the History of ideas and concepts in Archaeology.

In the 1879/1880 campaign of excavations in the Casa da Moura cave (Óbidos, Portugal) Nery Delgado chose the main room of the cave, corresponding to the area closest to the entrance and bounded on the opposite side by a large block dropped from the roof for the application of a new methodology for archaelogical field works. Having an approximate sub-triangular contour, occupying the entry site one of the vertices, the excavated space was divided into orthogonal sectors, designated by letters, delimiting tendentially equal elemental excavation areas, since they had accommodated to the pre-existing cave geometry. The publication of exhaustive and systematic inventories of the materials collected in each of the excavated sectors previously defined, according to their collection depth defined by artificial levels, revealed the exceptional quality of Nery Delgado’s work as an archaelogist, and his original contribution to the methodology of modern archaeological excavations. It´s name should be considered among one of the most notable pioneers of European archeology.

In this paper we publish the report prepared in 1866 by Frederico de Vasconcelos Pereira Cabral (1820-1886) after his visit in 1865 to Monte Real, concerning the characterization of the geological conditions of a funerary deposit of Neolithic age occasionally found in the previous year and whose human remains were then buried in the local cemetery. Among the scarce spoils that the author obtained in 1865 from the inhabitants of Monte Real, there is a schist plaque that was, together with the exemplars recovered in the excavations of Nery Delgado held in the same year in the cave of the Casa da Moura the first to be duly recognized as prehistoric artifacts. The scientific quality of this report would suffice to place its author among the pioneer archaeologists of Portugal, confirming his priority in other contributions of a geological and archaeological nature, such as the publication in 1881 of the first Paleolithic artefacts collected in Portuguese territory. This study is also a contribution to draw attention to the pioneer activity of its author in the field of Archeology, as a member of the Geological Commission of Portugal.

Study of 15 idols preserved in various collections in Portugal, such as the National Library of Portugal and the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa. They constitute interesting falsifications of the 18th century, that are cataloged by tipes. Their iconography was probably inspired in antiquarian engravings by A. Kircher, B. de Montfaulcon, the Count of Caylus and J. B. Piranesi. These idols document the interest in pre-Roman divinities emerged in the Enlightenment environment promoted by the Bishop of Beja and Archbishop of Évora, Don Manuel de Cenaculo.

This article discusses the intellectual path of the Portuguese collector and researcher António Mesquita de Figueiredo. Being a practically unknown personality, we sought to understand the causes of this historiographical forgetting based on the occurrence of public disagreements in the early twentieth century with the director of the Portuguese Ethnological Museum, José Leite de Vasconcelos. The identification of more than a dozen letters sent to Salomon Reinach between 1897 and 1918, as well as the correspondence exchanged with other impotant Portuguese and foreign archaelogists and intellectuals, justifies the analysis of his internacional networks, the nature of his scientific production as well as its contribution to the enrichment of Portuguese museum collections and its consequente involvement in the processes of construction of historical knowledge.

In times of change, the nineteenth century in Portugal witnesses remarkable events from the Napoleonic Wars to the Ultimatum. In this context we seek to insert the life of Januário Correia de Almeida, based on the book of João Luís Cardoso edited in the special number 2018 of the Estudos Arqueológicos de Oeiras. This article was prepared based on the presentation of the work that took place on 13 April 2019 in Oeiras.

Este número 25 de una revista científica como ESTUDOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS DE OEIRAS es muy significativo, pues revela veteranía y gran madurez. No quiero, por prudencia, referirme a la clarividencia del Prof. Cardoso al instituir esta revista, desde su brillante idea inicial de crearla al esfuerzo continuado, año tras año a lo largo de un cuarto de siglo, para acrecentar su interés científico y su prestigio al servicio de todos.