The “Ferradeira” individual burial of Herdade do Álamo (Beja): facets of social change in the late 3rd millennium BC in South Portugal

• Main Author: Valera, António Carlos
• Publication Date: 2022
• Other Authors: do Pereiro, Tiago, Nogueira, Sofia, Evangelista, Lucy, Maurer, Anne-France, Barrocas Dias, Cristina, Ribeiro, Sara, Bottaini, Carlo
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/19100
• topic: Chronology; Isotopic approach; Bronze Age transition; Bell beakers; Copper metallurgy

The individual burial of the Herdade do Alamo, located in Beja municipality, South Portugal, is presented along with its bioanthropological study, radiocarbon dating and isotopic approaches on diet and mobility. The results show a male, with a terrestrial diet and youth mobility, dating from the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. The archaeometallurgical study of the metal votive assemblage (one tongue dagger and three Palmela points) indicates a copper metallurgy with high values of Arsenic (As), typical of this period of transition. The burial is contextualized in a process of individuation of the funerary practices and in the "Ferradeira Horizon", considered as a facet of the diversified funerary practices and of the complex social changes of the late 3rd millennium BC in the South of Portugal.