Castro de Vila Nova de S. Pedro: XIII - recipientes de osso e de calcário

Abstract

The hill-fort of Vila Nova de São Pedro, situaded on the surroundings of Cartaxo, 70 km north of Lisbon, is a neolithic village that presents the uncommon feature of being surrounded by a double wall provided with semicircular sentry-towers, and contains the remains of a vaulted pottery furnace. In its palmy days it was probably a remarkable industrial center of flint, bone and ceramic articles, besides being in possession of an important copper metallurgy. In this hill-fort were found residues of a pre — Beaker stratum that was called Vila Nova I, to contrast with another occupation of level rich in copper articles and campaniform pottery which we called Vila Nova II. However most of the articles were collected from the area of tilled ground, thus without stratigraphy. Amongst the bone objects of this hill-fort there are a group of bone jars of reduced size particularly noteworthy. Most of them are nicely carved and we presume they were used as containers of feminine beauty products. The remaining bone objects of this remarkable hill-fort were considered in an article published in the periodical Zephirus (vol. XI, Salamanca 1960).