Antonio C Valera
Biographic Data
| ID | 98551 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Antonio C Valera |
| GIVEN NAMES | Antonio C |
| FAMILY NAME | Valera |
| SIGNATURE | VALERA A C |
| AFFILIATIONS | ERA Arqueologia |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5492-3810 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 146 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Sheep and goat management practices at Perdigões (Southern Portugal, 4th millennium BC) via sequential carbon and oxygen isotopic analyses of tooth enamel
The archaeological site of Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) was a centre of social and ceremonial importance with diverse funeral traditions from the middle 4th to the 3rd millennium BC. Previous strontium isotope analysis of human remains indicates that these funerary contexts contained individuals from a wide catchment area. Together with artefactual evidence, it suggests Perdigões was a part of a large interaction network of settlem…
Fresh insights into sex-specific mobility in Copper Age Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) provided by amelogenin peptide analysis
Sex estimation based on amelogenin peptides in dental enamel has opened up possibilities to study prehistoric demography in a new light. The application of this technique is of particular importance for the analysis of prehistoric collective burials, where the commingled and disarticulated nature of human remains makes sex estimations challenging. This paper presents data on the sex of 35 individuals from the Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic site of P…
Rituals of Fire in the 3rd Millennium BC
This paper presents the context of secondary depositions of cremated and non-cremated human remains in the ditch/atrium of the Carrascal 2 site, which is an integral part of the extensive archaeological complex of Porto Torrão in Ferreira do Alentejo (Beja). The discussion will include its placement within the surrounding funerary contexts, absolute chronology, bioanthropological data regarding a minimum number of 25 individuals, part of which cr…
Crónica de una exposición. Vivencia de El megalitismo en las tierras de Granada. Museo de Sitio de los Dólmenes de Antequera (Málaga), 11 de julio 2023-11 de julio 2024
Monumentalidad en madera
En la arquitectura monumental y ceremonial de la Prehistoria Reciente peninsular, la madera ha sido considerada fundamentalmente como una materia prima accesoria para la construcción. Este texto presenta dos contextos (Outeiro Alto 2 y Perdigões, sur de Portugal) que, por primera vez, muestran la presencia de monumentos de madera. Se trata de círculos concéntricos de postes y empalizadas de madera, exclusivos en la Península, y que encuentran los…
A multidisciplinary study of Iberian Chalcolithic dogs
Faunal Remains Associated with Human Cremations
Different funerary behaviors are recorded in the Iberian Peninsula during Late Prehistory. Cremation is not the most common practice and the association between human cremains and fauna is even scarcer. We present two Chalcolithic pits (pits 16 and 40) from the Perdigões ditched enclosures, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal. Humans were accompanied by animals and other votive materials such as arrowheads, ivory anthropomorphic figurines, and marble…
The “Ferradeira” individual burial of Herdade do Álamo (Beja)
The individual burial of the Herdade do Álamo, located in Beja municipality, South Portugal, is presented along with its bioanthropological study, radiocarbon dating and isotopic approaches on diet and mobility. The results show a male, with a terrestrial diet and youth mobility, dating from the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. The archaeometallurgical study of the metal votive assemblage (one tongue dagger and three Palmela points) indicat…
A large-scale environmental strontium isotope baseline map of Portugal for archaeological and paleoecological provenance studies
Cattle and People
This volume originates in a conference session that took place at the 2018 International Council of Archaeozoology conference in Ankara, Turkey, entitled "Humans and Cattle: Interdisciplinary Perspectives to an Ancient Relationship." The aim of the session was to bring together zooarchaeologists and their colleagues from various other research fields working on human cattle interactions over time. The contributions in this volume reflect well the…
The use and abuse of cinnabar in Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia
In this study, total mercury (THg) was analyzed in archaeological human bone from 23 sites dating to between the Middle Neolithic and the Antiquity. A total of 370 individuals from individual or collective burials was sampled, mostly using cortical bone from the humerus. These individuals were recovered from over 50 different funerary structures ranging from tholoi, pits, caves, and hypogea. Although cinnabar (HgS) is a likely cause of mercury po…
Animal consumption and social change
The results from the study of the faunal assemblage from ditch 7 of the Perdigões enclosure (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) are presented. Dated to the Chalcolithic and the transition to the early Bronze Age it comprises a total of 3380 remains. Results show the rele- vance of swine, caprines, cervids, bovines and equids and their diachronic oscillation. Indicators of butchering and consumption were recorded, comprising cutmarks, anthropogenic …
The embodiment of craft production in Bronze Age Portugal
Two human lateral mandibular incisors exhibiting exceptional dental wear in the form of lingual surface grooves along the cementoenamel junction were recovered from the superficial levels of a pit grave attributed to the Bronze Age at the archaeological site of Monte do Vale do Ouro 2 (Ferreira do Alentejo, Beja, Portugal). Although a number of analyses of dental wear features acknowledge the relatively common use of the dentition for nondietary …
The Fragment, The Half, and The Whole
This paper presents the sequence of depositions inside Pit 50 of Perdigões ditched enclosure, dating from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, and discusses the patterning that emerges from the detailed analysis of the distribution and levels of integrity of pottery and faunal remains along the infilling sequence. It is argued that these patterns are intentional and incorporate metaphorical meanings. Some interpretative hypothesis are put for…
Addressing human mobility in Iberian Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosures
A lunate-triquetral coalition from a commingled funerary context from the Chalcolithic Perdigões ditched enclosures of Portugal
Carpal coalitions, resulting from a failure of separation of the cartilaginous precursors of the carpal bones during gestation, may be osseous or non-osseous. Even though lunate-triquetral coalitions are the most common of all carpal coalitions there is only one previous palaeopathological report of such a coalition. This study presents a non-osseous lunate-triquetral coalition found amongst the mostly cremated commingled bones from a Chalcolithi…
The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years
Genomics of the Iberian Peninsula Ancient DNA studies have begun to help us understand the genetic history and movements of people across the globe. Focusing on the Iberian Peninsula, Olalde et al. report genome-wide data from 271 ancient individuals from Iberia (see the Perspective by Vander Linden). The findings provide a comprehensive genetic time transect of the region. Linguistics analysis and genetic analysis of archaeological human remains…
Is enamel the only reliable hard tissue for sex metric estimation of burned skeletal remains in biological anthropology
Geochemistry, luminescence and innovative dose rate determination of a Chalcolithic calcite-rich negative feature
Mercury in archaeological human bone
The preburning condition of Chalcolithic cremated human remains from the Perdigões enclosures (Portugal)
The Iberian Chalcolithic displayed a remarkable variety of funerary practices, which has been related to interpopulation differences, intrapopulation social-cultural differences, and complex multistage funerary rituals. Perdigões, a Chalcolithic set of ditched enclosures, reflects such diversity including a wide array of funerary practices. Among those practices is cremation, which, despite relatively rare, is represented in different structures …
Unilateral absence of mandibular condyle in a Bronze Age male skeleton from Portugal
Diet and mobility of fauna from Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic site of Perdigões, Portugal
Investigating beads from Chalcolithic funerary cremation contexts of Perdigões, Portugal
Monte do Carrascal 2 (southern Portugal)
La temporalidad del recinto de fosos de Perdigões
Thirty five radiocarbon dates for the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosure of Perdiges (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) are presented. After a discussion of some of the problems of dating negative structures, a chronological sequence is presented for the ditch structures and for the social practices related to funerary behaviours and the manipulation of human remains. A clear Neolithic phase is identified, well separated chronologically …
Mercury in archaeological human bone
A large-scale environmental strontium isotope baseline map of Portugal for archaeological and paleoecological provenance studies
Ivory in the Chalcolithic enclosure of Perdigões (South Portugal)
This article discusses the social role played by ivory and ivory articles in the Perdigões enclosures (South Portugal) during the Chalcolithic (third millennium bc), in the context of the emergence and development of social complexity on the Iberian Peninsula. Perdigões is a Portuguese prehistoric site with some of the highest concentrations of ivory objects known in Iberia and with the greatest variety. The contexts, almost exclusively funerary,…
The transition to agriculture in south-western Europe
Animal limbs in funerary contexts in southern Portugal and the question of segmentation
Valera, António Carlos, Costa, Cláudia (2013): Animal limbs in funerary contexts in southern Portugal and the question of segmentation. Anthropozoologica 48 (2): 263-275, DOI: 10.5252/az2013n2a5, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5252/az2013n2a5
Collective secondary cremation in a pit grave
The use and abuse of cinnabar in Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia
In this study, total mercury (THg) was analyzed in archaeological human bone from 23 sites dating to between the Middle Neolithic and the Antiquity. A total of 370 individuals from individual or collective burials was sampled, mostly using cortical bone from the humerus. These individuals were recovered from over 50 different funerary structures ranging from tholoi, pits, caves, and hypogea. Although cinnabar (HgS) is a likely cause of mercury po…
Animal consumption and social change
The results from the study of the faunal assemblage from ditch 7 of the Perdigões enclosure (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) are presented. Dated to the Chalcolithic and the transition to the early Bronze Age it comprises a total of 3380 remains. Results show the rele- vance of swine, caprines, cervids, bovines and equids and their diachronic oscillation. Indicators of butchering and consumption were recorded, comprising cutmarks, anthropogenic …
The preburning condition of Chalcolithic cremated human remains from the Perdigões enclosures (Portugal)
The Iberian Chalcolithic displayed a remarkable variety of funerary practices, which has been related to interpopulation differences, intrapopulation social-cultural differences, and complex multistage funerary rituals. Perdigões, a Chalcolithic set of ditched enclosures, reflects such diversity including a wide array of funerary practices. Among those practices is cremation, which, despite relatively rare, is represented in different structures …
Non-destructive characterization of archeological Cu-based artifacts from the early metallurgy of southern Portugal
Anthropomorphic Figurines at Perdigões Enclosure
This paper focusses on a set of anthropomorphic figurines. It suggests that realistic human proportion and canonical body posture were pursued in the carving of these objects as a means of expressing ideology, in a context of diversified forms of manipulation of bodies in funerary practices. It is argued that, against a background of predominantly schematic art, the more realistic and canonical anthropomorphic representation of the human body was…
Diet and mobility of fauna from Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic site of Perdigões, Portugal
The embodiment of craft production in Bronze Age Portugal
Two human lateral mandibular incisors exhibiting exceptional dental wear in the form of lingual surface grooves along the cementoenamel junction were recovered from the superficial levels of a pit grave attributed to the Bronze Age at the archaeological site of Monte do Vale do Ouro 2 (Ferreira do Alentejo, Beja, Portugal). Although a number of analyses of dental wear features acknowledge the relatively common use of the dentition for nondietary …
Addressing human mobility in Iberian Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosures
Is enamel the only reliable hard tissue for sex metric estimation of burned skeletal remains in biological anthropology
The “Ferradeira” individual burial of Herdade do Álamo (Beja)
The individual burial of the Herdade do Álamo, located in Beja municipality, South Portugal, is presented along with its bioanthropological study, radiocarbon dating and isotopic approaches on diet and mobility. The results show a male, with a terrestrial diet and youth mobility, dating from the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. The archaeometallurgical study of the metal votive assemblage (one tongue dagger and three Palmela points) indicat…
Monte do Carrascal 2 (southern Portugal)
Monumentalidad en madera
En la arquitectura monumental y ceremonial de la Prehistoria Reciente peninsular, la madera ha sido considerada fundamentalmente como una materia prima accesoria para la construcción. Este texto presenta dos contextos (Outeiro Alto 2 y Perdigões, sur de Portugal) que, por primera vez, muestran la presencia de monumentos de madera. Se trata de círculos concéntricos de postes y empalizadas de madera, exclusivos en la Península, y que encuentran los…
Faunal Remains Associated with Human Cremations
Different funerary behaviors are recorded in the Iberian Peninsula during Late Prehistory. Cremation is not the most common practice and the association between human cremains and fauna is even scarcer. We present two Chalcolithic pits (pits 16 and 40) from the Perdigões ditched enclosures, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal. Humans were accompanied by animals and other votive materials such as arrowheads, ivory anthropomorphic figurines, and marble…
Cattle and People
This volume originates in a conference session that took place at the 2018 International Council of Archaeozoology conference in Ankara, Turkey, entitled "Humans and Cattle: Interdisciplinary Perspectives to an Ancient Relationship." The aim of the session was to bring together zooarchaeologists and their colleagues from various other research fields working on human cattle interactions over time. The contributions in this volume reflect well the…
Geochemistry, luminescence and innovative dose rate determination of a Chalcolithic calcite-rich negative feature
Investigating beads from Chalcolithic funerary cremation contexts of Perdigões, Portugal
A case of Human Bone Chalcolithic Technology from the Perdigões site (Alentejo, Portugal)
A human femur diaphysis in the form of a burin was excavated from a secondary burial context containing osteological remains and industry in the Archaeological Complex of Perdigões (Portugal). The majority of these evidences are thermo-altered and highly fragmented. Radiocarbon dates for this context place it in the middle 3rd millennium BC. Typological analyses indicate that the human femur fragment is a burin, and use-wear comparisons suggest t…
El Complexo Arqueológico dos Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal). Prospecciones Geofísicas - Campañas 2008-09
En 1997, bajo la coordinación de Era-Arqueología, se efectuaron fotografías aéreas, prospecciones superficiales y sondeos arqueológicos en el yacimiento neolítico-calcolítico de Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal), donde, durante más de diez años, se han venido articulando las distintas actuaciones hasta disponer de un esbozo bastante aproximado de su planta. En 2006, se abrió un programa de colaboración entre diversas instituciones inter…
Animal limbs in funerary contexts in southern Portugal and the question of segmentation
Valera, António Carlos, Costa, Cláudia (2013): Animal limbs in funerary contexts in southern Portugal and the question of segmentation. Anthropozoologica 48 (2): 263-275, DOI: 10.5252/az2013n2a5, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5252/az2013n2a5
La temporalidad del recinto de fosos de Perdigões
Thirty five radiocarbon dates for the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosure of Perdiges (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) are presented. After a discussion of some of the problems of dating negative structures, a chronological sequence is presented for the ditch structures and for the social practices related to funerary behaviours and the manipulation of human remains. A clear Neolithic phase is identified, well separated chronologically …
Collective secondary cremation in a pit grave
Recent prehistoric enclosures and funerary practices in Europe
The times and timings of enclosures / Alasdair Whittle -- Enclosures & burial in middle & late Neolithic Britain / Alex Gibson -- The place of human remains and funerary practices in recent neolithic ditched and walled enclosures in the west of France (IV-III Mill. BC) / Audrey Blanchard, Jean-Noel Guyodo, Ludovic Soler -- Funerary practices and body manipulation at Neolithic and Chalcolithic Perdigoes ditched enclosures (South Portugal) / Antoni…
Anthropomorphic Figurines at Perdigões Enclosure
This paper focusses on a set of anthropomorphic figurines. It suggests that realistic human proportion and canonical body posture were pursued in the carving of these objects as a means of expressing ideology, in a context of diversified forms of manipulation of bodies in funerary practices. It is argued that, against a background of predominantly schematic art, the more realistic and canonical anthropomorphic representation of the human body was…
Ivory in the Chalcolithic enclosure of Perdigões (South Portugal)
This article discusses the social role played by ivory and ivory articles in the Perdigões enclosures (South Portugal) during the Chalcolithic (third millennium bc), in the context of the emergence and development of social complexity on the Iberian Peninsula. Perdigões is a Portuguese prehistoric site with some of the highest concentrations of ivory objects known in Iberia and with the greatest variety. The contexts, almost exclusively funerary,…
The transition to agriculture in south-western Europe
A case of Human Bone Chalcolithic Technology from the Perdigões site (Alentejo, Portugal)
A human femur diaphysis in the form of a burin was excavated from a secondary burial context containing osteological remains and industry in the Archaeological Complex of Perdigões (Portugal). The majority of these evidences are thermo-altered and highly fragmented. Radiocarbon dates for this context place it in the middle 3rd millennium BC. Typological analyses indicate that the human femur fragment is a burin, and use-wear comparisons suggest t…
Monte do Vale do Ouro 2
Os contextos funerários da Pré-história Recente do Alentejo têm vindo a ser estudados e debatidos com base em novos dados que têm surgido devido aos trabalhos de Arqueologia de salvamento, principalmente relativos à grande quantidade de estruturas negativas. É neste contexto que surge a escavação de duas fossas no sítio do Monte do Vale do Ouro 2 que revelaram restos ósseos humanos, objecto de análise no presente trabalho.A fossa 97, datada do Ca…
Neolithic ditched enclosures in Southern Portugal (4th millennium BC)
This paper presents some new contextual data on five Neolithic ditched sites located in Alentejo hinterland (Perdigões, Horta do Pinheiro 6, Horta Nova 4, Estácio 6 and Cortes 1). An inventory of the available radiocarbon dates for the Neolithic (with twelve new dates) is provided and several aspects on the arising and early developments of the regional ditched enclosures are debated, e.g. spatial distribution, construction procedures, social re-…
O concheiro do Meu Jardim (Nazaré) no contexto das estratégias de produção e circulação de suportes lâmino lamelares no Neolítico Médio da Estremadura Portuguesa
Na planície aluvial da várzea da Nazaré (província da Estremadura Portuguesa, na região centro litoral do país), numa área que estabelece o contacto entre o antigo estuário lagunar interior e o oceano, foi identificado um sítio arqueológico conhecido por Meu Jardim, datado do Neolítico Médio (finais do V e IV milénios A.N.E.), com diversos momento de ocupação registados em estratigrafia, e localizado nas proximidades das jazidas de sílex que terã…
Unilateral absence of mandibular condyle in a Bronze Age male skeleton from Portugal
Diet and mobility of fauna from Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic site of Perdigões, Portugal
Investigating beads from Chalcolithic funerary cremation contexts of Perdigões, Portugal
Monte do Carrascal 2 (southern Portugal)
X-ray and neutron-based non-invasive analysis of prehistoric stone artefacts
Non-destructive characterization of archeological Cu-based artifacts from the early metallurgy of southern Portugal
The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years
Genomics of the Iberian Peninsula Ancient DNA studies have begun to help us understand the genetic history and movements of people across the globe. Focusing on the Iberian Peninsula, Olalde et al. report genome-wide data from 271 ancient individuals from Iberia (see the Perspective by Vander Linden). The findings provide a comprehensive genetic time transect of the region. Linguistics analysis and genetic analysis of archaeological human remains…
Is enamel the only reliable hard tissue for sex metric estimation of burned skeletal remains in biological anthropology
Geochemistry, luminescence and innovative dose rate determination of a Chalcolithic calcite-rich negative feature
Mercury in archaeological human bone
The preburning condition of Chalcolithic cremated human remains from the Perdigões enclosures (Portugal)
The Iberian Chalcolithic displayed a remarkable variety of funerary practices, which has been related to interpopulation differences, intrapopulation social-cultural differences, and complex multistage funerary rituals. Perdigões, a Chalcolithic set of ditched enclosures, reflects such diversity including a wide array of funerary practices. Among those practices is cremation, which, despite relatively rare, is represented in different structures …
The Fragment, The Half, and The Whole
This paper presents the sequence of depositions inside Pit 50 of Perdigões ditched enclosure, dating from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, and discusses the patterning that emerges from the detailed analysis of the distribution and levels of integrity of pottery and faunal remains along the infilling sequence. It is argued that these patterns are intentional and incorporate metaphorical meanings. Some interpretative hypothesis are put for…
Addressing human mobility in Iberian Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosures
Archaeology (28 works) · Geography (28 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (23 works) · Chalcolithic (17 works) · Bronze Age (16 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (15 works) · Archaeological and Geological Studies (14 works) · Biology (14 works) · Geology (11 works)