Working with Legacy Data to Identify Activity Areas at the Bronze Age / Medieval Settlement of Agroal (Ourém, Portugal)

Author(s): Katina Lillios

Year: 2025

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

<html>

Agroal is a hilltop settlement located in a karstic landscape along the Nabão River in central Portugal. Three seasons of excavation and survey were conducted at Agroal between 1988 and 1990 and revealed two phases of occupation: the first, during the Bronze Age (2000-1000 BCE), and the second, between the 13<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> centuries CE. The site’s Bronze Age date is significant as it remains one of the few excavated settlements of the period in the Iberian Southwest and provides insights into social transformations following the Copper Age (3000-2000 BCE) and 4.2 kya event. During its Medieval occupation, Agroal was a rural farmstead associated with the Knights Templar (later reconstituted as the Order of Christ), whose headquarters was located 15 km to the south, in Tomar. Thus, Agroal can contribute to understanding the relationship between rural communities and urban centers of the time. The site’s legacy data (maps, photographs, and finds catalogue) were recently digitized in order to carry out spatial analyses and discern possible activity areas (metalworking, animal butchery, animal corralling, food preparation, etc.). This paper presents the first results of these analyses, which will contribute to a diachronic understanding of the region’s landscape history.

</html>

Cite this Record

Working with Legacy Data to Identify Activity Areas at the Bronze Age / Medieval Settlement of Agroal (Ourém, Portugal). Katina Lillios. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510933)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

General
Digital Archaeology: GIS • Europe

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53077