2011 - May : AAA visit to Almodovar
Our guides for the Almodôvar visit were Samuel Melro, Pedro Barros and Susana Estrela.
The first stop on the day was near the Iron Age necropolis at Abódaba where Samuel and Pedro talked about the historic landscape and how the area has changed over the millennia mainly due to land clearance and farming. The necropolis nearby will undergo excavations this summer.
We then moved on to Antas de Baixo (Megalithic monument) and Mouriços (Iron Age necropolis). Both these monuments have been excavated and we heard how they were in some way linked within the landscape around the Mira river and the complex of prehistoric settlements and funerary monuments at Castro da Cola, where the AAA has visited recently.
The first stop on the day was near the Iron Age necropolis at Abódaba where Samuel and Pedro talked about the historic landscape and how the area has changed over the millennia mainly due to land clearance and farming. The necropolis nearby will undergo excavations this summer.
We then moved on to Antas de Baixo (Megalithic monument) and Mouriços (Iron Age necropolis). Both these monuments have been excavated and we heard how they were in some way linked within the landscape around the Mira river and the complex of prehistoric settlements and funerary monuments at Castro da Cola, where the AAA has visited recently.
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The Mesas de Castelinho site was particularly impressive. The first Mesa being a fortress which sadly was severely damaged in recent years by treasure hunters using a mechanical digger and so a lot of archaeology in the land surrounding the building has been destroyed and lost. The surrounds of Mesa 2 had suffered in much the same way but fortunately in the past few years the archaeological team have been able to uncover the remains of an Iron Age settlement some of which are still visible and these are overlaid by Roman houses.
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There is also visible evidence of a street where one of the most important finds form the site was found. This is a stone stelae with the incised outline of a human figure surrounded by as yet undesciphered script. This form of writing is unique to SW Iberia and is presently undergoing extensive research. There is an example to be found in the museum in Loulè. Mesa 2 is a very large site and there is still much to excavate. Both Mesa 1 and 2 are now National Monuments.
Later in the day we went to the Southwestern Museum of Writing in Almodõvar and its purpose is to promote the understanding of the area and the way in which the ancient people communicated.
