O Penedo do Lexim (Mafra) e o Neolítico Final e Calcolítico da Península de Lisboa

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to analyse the dynamics of permanence, rupture, identity and exogenous influence amongst the farming communities that inhabited the Estremadura region of Portugal, during the second half of the 4th Millennium and the 3rd Millennium B.C.E., interpreted through the evidence provided by the Prehistoric occupation at the site of Penedo do Lexim (Mafra). My excavation work at Penedo do Lexim (1998-2004) supplied a range of data that supports a re-assessment of previous interpretation models. A polysemic model is suggested for these sites, with a marked residential function, exhibiting defensive strategies, although not necessarily military, that were also the stage of ritualised experiences, especially during the later phases of human occupation. Interpretation of settlement patterns in the area of Ribeira de Cheleiros complements that perspective, supplying a field of study toward the interpretation of settlement dynamics within the chronological period here under consideration. The social and economic dynamics of settlement seem to register distinct phases that may, in their turn, reflect distinct social groups. During the Late Neolithic, settlement is dispersed, with a variety of types of settlement and areas occupied; in the beginning of the 3rd Millennium, there seems to be a concentration of settlements in prominent places and the emergence of the first settlement walls take place; and, finally, during the second half of the 3rd Millennium, with the widespread use of Bell Beaker ceramics, there is a real rupture of settlement into smaller-sized units of settlement. Data recently identified in the south of the Iberian Peninsula indicate that the Estremadura region of Portugal didn’t play a central role in the social and economic dynamics of the period, maintaining a relatively scattered settlement, without the large scale hierarchisation characteristic of the south of the Peninsula. In the south of the Iberian Peninsula, the 3rd Millennium B.C.E. seems to congregate a mosaic where such components as, defensive architecture, metallurgy, the consolidation of an agro-pastoral economy and the emergence of social complexity appear inserted into the internal regional dynamics, revealing contacts, but not a clear definition of centre and periphery.