Tributos aos deuses: Os Ídolos em contextos funerários da Pré-História Recente no Sul de Portugal

Abstract

The known funerary monuments in the southern region of Portugal, present different degrees of regional asymmetries, in relation to architecture, spoils and numerical representativeness. In general terms, the existing data point to their use in a more or less continuous way between the IVth and the IInd millennium BC. In the work carried out during the 20th century, a significant set of monuments was identified and intervened, resulting in a very extensive collection of artefacts, namely idols and votive plaques. In the first two decades of the 21st century, new and important data emerged on this subject, essentially as a result of the work to minimise environmental impacts in progress in the Alentejo region, which made it possible to identify and characterise new funerary rituals which apparently have a different behaviour in the face of death, especially as regards the presence of votive idols. The combination of all these data, with absolute dating and pigment analysis, allows us to reach some interesting conclusions about spaces, architectures, votive spoils and chronologies.