Zambujal 2013, Teil 1. Eine kupferzeitliche befestigte Groß-Siedlung? Vermessungsarbeiten und Prospektionen

Abstract

In the summer of 2013, at the Chalcolithic fortified settlement of Zambujal (Torres Vedras, Distr. Lisbon, Portugal), a survey took place around the road leading up to the ruins to determine an appropriate place for a future interpretation center. At the same time, a large clearing was detected for the construction of a vineyard at the top of the Cabeço da Calvina, the hill to which belongs the spur of Zambujal. The Antiquities and Monuments Office (DGPC) immediately authorized an extensive emergency geo magnetic survey. Due to the results of the geo-magnetic survey and also of archaeological surveys in the years 2006 and 2007, it is now obvious that the size of the Copper Age settlement was much greater than originally thought. Discovered in this newly surveyed area in the east of the Cabeço da Calvina were large and very magnetic ditches, which may hint at a previously unknown necropolis, similar to other contemporaneous ditch systems in the south of Portugal. Altogether, the area of the Copper Age settlement and possible necropolis would have added up to a space of approximately 46 hectares. In this case, Zambujal could be called a macro-village, but only by further geophysical surveys and especially archaeological excavations could this hypothesis be confirmed.