BRONZE AGE SPACES AND SYMBOLS – THE PARAMUNA SETTLEMENT AND ROCK ENGRAVINGS (PENALVA DO CASTELO): A CASE STUDY FROM CENTRAL PORTUGAL João Miguel André PERPÉTUO Archaeologist. Arqueohoje Co. (Viseu – Portugal) Filipe João Carvalho dos SANTOS Archaeologist. Arqueohoje Co. (Viseu – Portugal) Abstract: In the geographical area under analysis, Beira Alta (Center-North Portugal), we assist to an increasing development of Late Bronze Age settlements, due, we believe, to the introduction of a new element in the agro-pastoralist based economies: the production and circulation of metals, especially gold and tin. The archaeological record seems to sustain this thesis. They also confirm growing and widening contacts between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean worlds. In the wake of these changes new elites might have appeared, along with them different languages or new forms of power. On a platform situated outside Paramuna walled site, a new set of rock engravings has recently been discovered with possible representations of weapons. This platform may be related to a passage leading to the inner area of this settlement. This paper introduces this site to the academic world, which seemed to have been, so far, totally unaware of its existence. The rock carvings are also duly analyzed. At the end, it sets an approach on the association between those rock carvings and Late Bronze Age communities by trying to insert the former into the ideological, political and economical frame that compelled the people to produce them. Keywords: Late Bronze Age, Rock engravings of weapons; Power This region is unusually wealthy in tin minerals. The deactivated tin mines of Mangualde and Fornos de Algodres, are located in the environs of the study area. INTRODUCTION Paramuna settlement, Santo Ildefonso or more simply Muro, is a Late Bronze Age hillfort. It is located in the village of Esmolfe, council of Penalva do Castelo, district of Viseu Portugal. Its geographical coordinates are the following: 40° 40’ 45’’ Lat. North; 01° 28’ 09’’ Long1 (east of Lisbon) and it is set 641 meters a.s.l. Visually, the site looks down on a wide territory, so that its geo-strategic atop-position might have been crucial for Late Bronze Age populations. From the top of the hill where Paramuna site stands, one can easily see the neighboring hill, on the Dão’s left bank, where today, sits the castel of Penalva (Penalva do Castelo), probably inhabited at the same period as Paramuna. From this very site, one can also see Late Bronze Age settlements like Senhora do Bom Sucesso (Chã de Tavares, Mangualde), Senhora do Castelo (Mangualde), Senhora do Crastro (Orgens, Viseu) and Castro de Santa Luzia (Viseu). This fact shows in quite a clear way the existence of webs of sites and their deep intervisibility, unveiling some intensive contacts among them. The site is located at the south-western edge of a granite formation oriented NE-SW, parallel to the course of the river Dão, between Sezures and Esmolfe villages. Its highest point is at 866 meters of the geodesic vector of Pedras Altas. The access is difficult, as the site occupies a steep slope. River Dão and the Sezures’ stream are its water providers. The second also benefits from Ribeira do Oronho, which spring is sits exactly at the bottom of the hill, on top of which the settlement was built. Thanks to its strategic location in a major river valley, the site is provided with a strong power of control over the traffic roads and traditional crossing river spots. Ribeira de Sezures’s valley, situated to the NW of the site, inside the latter’s own exploitation territory, provides good soils for agriculture, which are still, nowadays, overly occupied by the neighboring populations. The site is located on a platform slightly sloping down from NE to SW, confined between two granite massifs working as huge natural defense blocking areas, painfully accessible. On the NE and SW sides, much more exposed, two rows of solid walls, which despite their dire state of deterioration, still impress because of the large amount of stone elements used for their construction. In the NW and SE flanks, rocky sides were equally filled in with stone elements, some of which showing noteworthy large dimensions. From a geological viewpoint, the rocky formation where the settlement stands is mainly constituted by mediumgrained granite, with sparse mega crystals and, in a lesser quantity, by medium-grained porphyroid granite (Ferreira 1974). 1 – Based on the Portuguese Military Map, in a scale of 1: 25.000, sheet 179, Penalva do Castelo, 3 ed., 1999. 119 THE CREATIONS OF PLACES THROUGH THE DEPOSITIONS OF SIGNS AND METALWORK symmetrical straight lines, ending in a V shape, on each end. This might represent a weapon, maybe a bow, a dagger or a sword, three of the most characteristic motifs related to power, in this period. On a second platform, located about 200 meters to SE from the central enclosure, and at a lower height, on one of the slopes facing river Dão, there is a second area of occupation, bounded, to the NW, by the rocky flanks that surround the main platform. There, we can see a halfcircled row of walls that defends the SE exposed flank. It is possible that a major increase in population, allied to an ever-increasing importance of the site within the regional context might have lead to the construction of this advanced area of settlement, much more exposed and with feeble defences. Two “U”-shaped motifs with appendixes are detectable at the upper and lower parts of this possible “weapon motif”. The remaining rock carvings, as for the ones we have already described, are simply sets of lines, with intentional interruptions that delineate straight lines and/or sub-circles. A last motif, mutilated in its lower part but that was re-constituted using the negative printed on what was left of the rock, stretches from the “spiral´s” lower edge to the SE limit of the panel. It is formed by two lines, one of which discontinuous, and by two ramifications drawn by two slanted lines. This one, at the end of the panel, draws a sub circular figure with a subrectangular motive on its focal point. To the SW, at the bottom of the huge granite outcrop where the settlement was built, in an area where access to the top seemed much easier, was identified a very schematic set of engravings on a table-shaped rock, undoubtedly linked to the Late Bronze Age settlement. THE PARAMUNA ROCK ENGRAVINGS We could not find any striking parallels for these rock carvings. Yet, it is possible that systematic archaeological surveys in the vicinities of Bronze Age sites might reveal similar places. The rock carvings are found in the open-air, on a large grained egg-shaped granite outcrop outside Paramuna’s walled area. The ceramics and the mold of foundry discovered at the soil surface within the walled area made possible to consider a Late Bronze Age chronology for this site. INTERPRETATIONS As far as the rock carvings are concerned, they were made by the technique of pecking, with a sharp-pointed metallic tool, showing U sections grooves, upon a horizontal even surface. One can clearly see that there was a previous preparation of the rock surface, which was smoothen prior to carving. There are no major differences concerning the engraving process. All the motifs are contemporary, without any kind of superimposition, and the same tools were used throughout. The fast-growing and strong developments achieved in the study of archaeology, over the last twenty years, in the interior of northern and central regions of Portugal, lead to the following observation: during the Late Bronze Age (about 1200-600 B.C.), it seems that the number of settlements located in high points increases. These settlements are strategically located, rising on the natural boundary between South and North, and between the coastline and the northern Spanish plateau. They are standing on strategic spots, within a territory of exploration, controlling important crossroads and paths, on the mountains and next to the rivers. Therefore, we suggest that they represent “central” settlements controlling large territories where there were other types of lowland settlements. Perhaps this original phenomena in this region is partly related to the assimilation of techniques that lead to a local production of metal artifacts such as arms, decorative objects and other tools with exogenous features and influences. Related with this, new local leaders appeared, empowered with the production of goods and with the circulation of metals [Senna-Martinez 1995; 2000; Vilaça 1995]. It should be noted that this is the first time that Beira Alta is granted some strong evidences about the existence of local production of metallic artifacts, well documented at the sites of Santa Luzia [Silva 1986a] and Senhora da Guia [Silva 1986b]. Although the agro-pastoral economy, allied to a strong recollecting activity are still predominant in the Late Bronze Age, among the communities of the socalled “cultural group of Baiões/Santa Luzia”, in which the place under analysis is located, a new economical element is introduced by the upgrowing evaluation of the At present, one can clearly see some of the impacts of deterioration on the engraved surfaces caused either by natural erosion or by mutilation and posterior anthropic actions, especially at the south-east edge of the rock. Some lines, now, set in a discontinuous way, could have been united, at the time of the engraving process. Moreover, we might actually been facing a part of a larger set of rock motives. Reading the set of rock carvings becomes an even harder task. Concerning the iconography, we suggest that it may be related to a subnaturalist thematic, where, probably, an armed human figure would be suggested through a few weapons, represented in a schematic manner. We agree with the assumption that some objects could be invoked by a minimal number of means (Sanches, 1992: 42). The main motif seems to be a spiral (a shield?), formed by a set of two distinct lines ending on each of the two edges in straight lines and angular corners, in a contrast to the rest of the set. On this spiral’s right, one can find an elongated motive, made by the continuation of two 120 J.M. PERPÉTUO & F.J.C. SANTOS: BRONZE AGE SPACES AND SYMBOLS – THE PARAMUNA SETTLEMENT AND ROCK ENGRAVINGS… Fig. 11.1. The context of Paramuna’s decorated stone Fig. 11.2. The Paramuna’s monolith with engravings, during fieldwork Fig. 11.3. Paramuna’s engravings Fig. 11.4. Detail of some engravings (weapons?) regional mines’ resources: gold and tin [Senna-Martinez 1995]. worlds. Sailing rivers would constitute a main access to the interior for those searching for the region’s most valuable metal itens: gold and tin. The rivers would also lead the way to the flowing of new ideologies and techniques that the locals would absorb and try to reproduce, through their own productions and cosmo- The metallic objects known in this region show an overwhelming Atlantic and Mediterranean feature unveiling the existence of some deep contacts with these 121 THE CREATIONS OF PLACES THROUGH THE DEPOSITIONS OF SIGNS AND METALWORK Fig. 11.5. The recording of Paramuna engravings vision. It was probably in this context of long-distance trade and regional and super-regional contacts that Paramuna’s rock engravings were produced. In the Late Bronze Age of the Western Andaluzia, Spanish Estremadura, Lower Interior Alentejo, Beira Interior and in the south of Beira Alta (where Paramuna is 122 J.M. PERPÉTUO & F.J.C. SANTOS: BRONZE AGE SPACES AND SYMBOLS – THE PARAMUNA SETTLEMENT AND ROCK ENGRAVINGS… located) there are stelae engraved with different sets of motifs, namely weapons, which are usually connected with the funerary sphere but can also be understood as manifestations of the power of elites (Gomes 1995). For some authors they represent real or mythical histories, exulting and showing heroism of deceased chiefs/warriors taken as an individual person and were made to remind the acts that had made of him a hero or a leader of the community (Gomes 1995; Harrison 2004). Acknowledgement We are very thankful to Ana Bettencourt (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal) for her comments and suggestions. References FERREIRA, A.B. (1978) – Planaltos e Montanhas do Norte da Beira. Memórias do Centro de Estudos Geográficos. 4. Lisboa. Given the existence of exchanges between the Beira Alta and southwest of the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Bronze Age, is likely that the representation of the idea of power through the engraving of weapons in stone spread from South to the North. In this sense, it is possible that communities at Paramuna adopt it in an innovative way, both in terms of the iconography and of the selection of the natural backdrop. GOMES, M.V. (1995) – As Estelas Funerárias da Idade do Bronze Final, no Centro e Sul de Portugal. A Idade do Bronze em Portugal, Discursos de poder. Instituto Português de Museus, Museu Nacional de Arqueologia. p. 130. HARRISON, R.J. (2004) – Symbols and Warriors. Images of the European Bronze Age. Western Academic and Specialist Press. The place elected for carving is located on a small platform at the bottom of the rocky massif where, primitively, the site was settled, outside the walled zone. It seems that, and after considering other options, it lays on the way into the settlement. Actually, at present, the access to the walled area is made through a path by the carved rock. PEÑA SANTOS, A. de la & REY GARCÍA, J.M. (1993) – El espacio de la representación. El arte rupestre galaico desde una perspectiva territorial. Pontevedra. Revista de Estudios Provinciais. 10. p. 11-50. SANCHES, M.J. (1992) – Pré-História Recente no planalto Mirandês (Leste de Trás-os-Montes). Monografias Arqueológicas 3. Porto. Taking all this into account we have placed the hypothesis that any individual might have been able to understand a part of the symbols engraved on this rock and the power dimension of its real or mythical leader(s) before entering the settlement. Hand in hand with the monumental and probably an intimidating row of walls, the engraved motifs, would eventually, emphasize the power of this community and its leaders. In this sense, this is also a place of communication that, in the long term, represents, and celebrates the power forward of an elite or an elite family or group. SENNA-MARTINEZ, J.C. (1995) – Entre Atlântico e Mediterrâneo: Algumas Reflexões Sobre o Grupo Baiões/Santa Luzia e o Desenvolvimento do Bronze Final Peninsular. A Idade do Bronze em Portugal, Discursos de Poder. Instituto Português de Museus, Museu Nacional de Arqueologia. p. 118-122. SENNA-MARTINEZ, J.C. (2000) – O “Grupo Baiões/Santa Luzia” no Quadro do Bronze Final do Centro de Portugal. Por Terras de Viriato, Arqueologia da Região de Viseu. Governo Civil do Distrito de Viseu. Museu Nacional de Arqueologia. p. 119-146. In a world where cooperation and competition, walked side by side, where supra-regional contacts were quite frequent, such a type of demonstration of power seemed fairly legitimate. It was not only materialized in the objects used by the leaders but also in the showing-off of a set of symbols translating the same power. VILLAÇA, R. (1995) – Aspectos do povoamento da Beira-Interior (Centro e Sul) nos finais da Idade do Bronze. Trabalhos de Arqueologia 9. IPPAR. 123