Anthropomorphic image as origins of ancestor´s”Caves”. The stele -menhir of Anta do Telhal, Arraiolos, Évora, Portugal

Abstract

It is a fact that in Europe menhirs, stelae and statues and their origin, configuration, and maintenance in funerary megalithic spaces play an important role. The wealth and variety of antrompomorphic expressions in the Portuguese Alentejo form an interesting case study. The documentation of the engraved Anta de Telhal stele-menhir opens a new line of investigation. This is useful to reflect on the connectivity between open and closed architectures in Southern European megalithism. The movements of stones between them indicate a longue durée process, of which the manipulation of images on the ancestral stones is one of the clearest arguments for the creation of the past’s ideology.