Coureleiros Megalithic Park

Category: Archaeology > Megalithic Park

District: Portalegre > Castelo de Vide > Castelo de Vide > Santiago Maior

Location:

The Megalithic Park of Coureleiros is located on the outskirts of Castelo de Vide, in the rural area of Santiago Maior. A short distance from the village, it is set in a characteristic Alto Alentejo landscape, dominated by fields and vegetation, offering an environment of calm and contact with the surrounding nature. Access is via paths that lead to this historical site.

Vestiges of Antiquity:

The Megalithic Park of Coureleiros invites a journey through time, presenting monuments dating back to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, between the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. This complex is one of the testimonies of human presence in the region in very ancient times, representing some of the first major architectural interventions in the landscape and serving essentially as collective burial sites.

The Main Monuments:

Among the various structures that make up the park, two dolmens particularly capture attention. Dolmen II, classified as a National Monument, stands out for its imposing size and scale, still preserving a large part of its original chamber, built with large granite blocks. Dolmen IV, also of great interest, reveals a more complex history; at the end of the 16th century, a small house was built against it, and a cross was engraved on one of the stones, showing how these sites were reused and reinterpreted over the centuries. The park also houses other dolmens, additional testimonies of this ancient necropolis, although some are in a more fragmented state.

Discoveries and Cultural Context:

Archaeological investigations carried out in Coureleiros Park have allowed for the discovery of a varied set of artifacts, such as ceramic fragments, projectile points, and some adornments. These findings provide important clues about the customs, daily life, and funerary practices of the communities that built and used these dolmens thousands of years ago. The diversity and nature of the discovered vestiges, as well as the differences in size among the dolmens, suggest the possibility of some social organization or distinction among the groups who buried their dead here. The park is located in a territory in the Alto Alentejo with a significant concentration of megalithic monuments, being a fundamental point for understanding this period of prehistory in the region.

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.pt