Map of VNSP and nearby regions.
Vila Nova de São Pedro is the name of an
archaeological site in Portuguese
Estremadura where thousands of arrowheads were
found inside a fortified site.
It gives name to the Chalcolithic culture of Vila Nova de
São Pedro (also Vila Nova or
VNSP) despite of the fact that the main site is
the long-lived fortified town, or castro, of Zambujal, near Torres Vedras
, north of modern Lisbon
.
The urban stage, which is what seems to better define this culture,
lasts from c. 2600 to 1300 BCE, being contemporary of the SE
Spanish civilizations of
Los Millares
and
El Argar.
Earlier Background
Reproduction of a Sun-like carving
from VNSP
South-western Iberia is considered by many as
the original focus of Megalithism,
predating maybe by one thousand years the other oldest Megalithic
region: western France
.
Whatever the case, building of dolmens and whatever social
organization that they implied had a long tradition in southern and
central Portugal, along with neighbouring regions of Spain.
About the start of the 3rd millennium BCE, contemporaneous or
slightly before the first appearance of the metallurgy of copper
and precious metals, new styles of tomb building appear in the
western Mediterranean regions and also in those parts of Portugal.
There has been much debate on whether those new architectural
styles came from the Eastern Mediterranean or they are a local
autonomous development.
While tholoi seem to have a clear
Eastern origin, because Cyprus and the mainland culture of Tell Halaf
built them earlier, the other styles (mainly
artificial caves) are found earlier in the West than in the
East. In any case, no import from the Eastern Mediterranean
has been found for those dates other than the concept of the
tholoi in all Iberia or southern France, and also the new
ideas couldn't have come from the Aegean, where they are of later
date. Therefore, Cyprus remains as the only possible source for the
tholos, while probably all the other
styles are locally developed.
Also, it must be said that while
tholoi are common in Los
Millares and other regions, the evolved type of tomb that appears
in VNSP is the
artificial cave,
which is also common in SE France.
VNSP I
It's calculated that the Vilanovans started building fortifications
c. 2600 BCE, being the main one that of Zambujal, with a very
complex plan and up to six reconstructions in its lifetime.
The typology of the findings for this culture is very specific:
stylized cups, crescents of clay, sticks of slate and the so called
plate-idols, that some archaeo-astronomers consider to be precise
calendaries. Nevertheless, the exchange with other groups,
particularly Los Millares is also present in the archaeological
register.
VNSP II
With the arrival of the
Beaker
people phenomenon around 2200 BCE, rather a cultural
influence than a people itself, VNSP enters a new stage defined
basically by the presence of some burials with Beaker people
characteristics, while continuing with its traditions for anything
else.
Pamela-style arrow points produced in
VNSP
Anyhow, the presence of this phenomenon, possibly of trading
nature, is strong enough to consider that the second phase of the
Beaker people's culture is centered in this region. In this period
(roughly 2100-1900 BCE), the exchanges are more frequent and reach
distances of almost 1000 km.
Particularly intense seem now the exchanges
with the group of Treilles
in French
Languedoc. Nevertheless, the most common finding that was
manufactured by the Vilanovans, the Palmela arrowheads, are found
more commonly in the western half of the Iberian peninsula. The
Maritime or International style of bell-shaped beaker has also its
center in the region of Vila Nova and is extended by wide areas as
well.
After c. 1900, the beaker styles show a decentralization in the
Iberian peninsula, while in the continent the center goes back to
Bohemia. Nevertheless, this Vilanovan style is still found far away
from its nucleus, showing that the influence of VNSP is still
strong.
After the arrival of bronze technology to southern Iberia,
particularly to El Argar but also to southern Portugal, since c.
1800 BCE, the influence of VNSP, that will remain at the
Chalcolithic stage, slowly declines. Finally, c. 1300, it
disappears into the wider culture of the
Internally Burnished Pottery,
that includes most of Portugal and is part of the wider
Atlantic Bronze Age.
Notes
See also
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