Zooarqueologia e tafonomia de Castanheiro do Vento

Dissertação mest., Arqueologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2007

This dissertation is the result of the study of the faunal remains recovered until the 2006 field season, in the archaeological site of Castanheiro do Vento, located on the top a of a 700 m high hill, near Teja Valley in Horta do Douro, Vila Nova de Foz Côa. The site is characterized by a complex architectural system in schist dated to the III/II millennium b. C.. Due to the geomorphological setting, the sediments result from the degradation of the local schist (manipulated by humans). Besides a very slow sedimentation process, the faunal assemblage shows some specific characteristics such as a very low percentage of identifiable material and a very high index of fragmentation. According to these characteristics, our study began with a taphonomic approach, trying to reconstruct the different phenomena responsible by the perturbation of the original accumulations of bones. In the case of the assemblage recovered in Castanheiro do Vento, we could see that the cultural and erosion were the main agents responsible by the characteristics of bones. Being a site constructed and re-constructed by humans with the local materials like stone and clay, and located in a top of a hill with very low sedimentation process, the assemblage corresponds mainly to secondary accumulations though there is a very small percentage of the original accumulation at the site.