New article published by Patricia Monteiro, Artur Ribeiro and António Valera, in Project Prehistoric enclosures in Portugal.

The gathering of woodland resources and their use as fuel were important activities for the 3rd millennium B.C. and Early Bronze Age communities at Perdigões. This is testified by wood charcoal that has been recovered in fieldwork campaigns, in several archaeological structures. This paper presents the anthracological analyses carried out in several contexts from Perdigões, which aims to characterize the acquisition modalities of wood by these communities during the occupation of the site. Based on the analyses of 610 charcoal fragments, we identified that in the 1st half of the 3rd millennium BC these communities seem to be targeting pine and oak wood. This pattern changes in the “Bell beaker” phase until the Early Bronze Age, with the exploitation of wood of oak and other shrub species, but with absence of pine. Although the expansion of shrub species in the landscape in this later phase is confirmed by pollen analyses, it is possible to consider that the different functionality of the contexts during the occupation might have played a role on the selection of wood resources.

More info: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361053065_Woodland_resources_in_Perdigoes_anthracological_analysis_of_chalcolithic_and_Early_Bronze_Age


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