15 June 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

5,500-year-old Menhir discovered in Portugal

A 5,500-year-old (that is around 3500 BC) menhir has been discovered in the town of São Brás de Alportel in the District of Faro, Algarve region, in Portugal.

A menhir is a single upright prehistoric stone monument, similar to a stele, and often buffed to create a phallic shape. They are one of the first stone monuments in human history, and in Europe, they are the first to have a religious function. In practice, they symbolized fertility, whether of animals, people or land, hence their form.

Archaeologist António Faustino de Carvalho made the announcement in front of the now-named menhir of Monte do Trigo, which was the focus of excavations he oversaw for a week in August. This is the first archaeological excavation in the history of the municipality of So Brás de Alportel.

The first-ever archaeological excavation in the history of the municipality of São Brás de Alportel started on August 14, 2021, following the discovery of a possible menhir by a resident looking for trilobites (fossils) at the top of Monte do Trigo, in the Machados area.

The Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve joined forces with the Municipality of São Brás de Alportel and the University of the Algarve (UAlg).

As soon as professor and archaeologist António Faustino Carvalho came across the object, he said he was “immediately 95 percent certain that we were facing a menhir”, he clarified to journalists last Friday, August 18, during the presentation of the preliminary fieldwork results.

Photo: João Lázaro

Next to the stone monument, he explained that it is a menhir of particular importance for the Eastern Algarve and of interest on a regional scale. “Its shape, the raw material it is made of (limestone), and its dimensions are the same as the dozens of menhirs from the Neolithic period that we already know of in Barlavento, in Aljezur, Lagoa, Lagos, and Vila do Bispo. Outside these municipalities, we aren’t aware of any”.

But that is not the only particularity of the archaeological find: it is also the first menhir in limestone and with characteristics that attribute it to the Neolithic period (5500 years ago, that is around 3500 BC) to be discovered in the Sotavento Algarvio.

Professor  António Faustino Carvalho, “in Sotavento, in Loulé and Salir, for example, there is the menhir of Cerro das Pedras, which was discovered by Estácio da Veiga in the 19th century, in Lavajo, in Alcoutim, there is also a meniric complex, which is also open to the public.”

But “these are the only examples we have in Sotavento of structures similar to this one, but here the key word is “similar” because they are not exactly the same». The Sotaventine menhirs “are made in other rocks, have other configurations, which are more or less truncated conical, prismatic or with irregular morphologies, not with this phallic morphology,” he said.

Archaeologist António Faustino de Carvalho with mayor Vítor Guerreiro – Photo: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação

They are, moreover, from “a later period of Prehistory, from the Chalcolithic period or Copper Age, they are about 5000 years old”, that is, at least five centuries older. new than the menhir of Monte do Trigo.

The menhir of Monte do Trigo “was lucky to be partially covered with earth and, as it is bulky, it will have resisted more to human action and the action of time.”

This menhir is no longer, that is, in the original place where it would have been erected, erect to mark the territory of the people who 5500 years ago would have lived on the slope and in the valley at the foot of the mountain, in the area that is now called Machados, on the edge of the EN2.

Although today it is lying down, originally it was vertical, marking the territory, most likely on top of the hill, perhaps with other menhirs in the vicinity.

As for the future fate of the Monte do Trigo menhir, a report, and topographical study will now be redacted, and the decision on what to do with the monument will be made.

Cover Photo: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação

Related Articles

Saxon ‘London’ was Bigger Than Previously Believed

23 February 2024

23 February 2024

Archaeologists digging at the northern end of Trafalgar Square found evidence that Saxon London’s center was bigger and extended further...

A well-preserved comb discovered in a 4th-century rare Alemannic chamber grave in Germany

4 September 2024

4 September 2024

During a rescue excavation in the center of the village of Gerstetten, located in the Heidenheim district of southwestern Germany,...

Antikythera underwater excavation digs up new discoveries “huge marble head”

20 June 2022

20 June 2022

The second phase of underwater archaeological research (May 23 to June 15, 2022) on the Antikythera shipwreck resulted in the...

1700 years ago the Korean peninsula had more genetic diversity than in our time, “Facial reconstruction possible through DNA analyses”

22 June 2022

22 June 2022

An international team led by The University of Vienna and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in collaboration...

The 2,200-year-old Agora of Aigai ancient city comes to light

19 August 2024

19 August 2024

Archaeologists have uncovered an agora (city square) during excavations in the ancient city of Aigai, west of Manisa. Aigai, located...

A rare 2,500-year-old shipwreck found off the Greek island of Kythera

5 November 2021

5 November 2021

A rare shipwreck from the ancient era was discovered during the maritime survey for the Crete-Peloponnese subsea link. The Independent...

Archaeologists in Iraq find 2,700-year-old wine press

24 October 2021

24 October 2021

Stone bas-reliefs carved into the walls of an irrigation canal some nine kilometers (5.5 miles) long, and the remains of...

2,000-Year-Old Dancing Man Statuette Unearthed in Siberia

6 May 2021

6 May 2021

During excavations for a new bridge over the Ob River in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest district, a ten-centimeter-tall figurine was discovered....

An ancient necropolis and coins discovered in Kastel Fortress, a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina

11 November 2024

11 November 2024

During excavations at Kastel Fortress, the national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, students and professors of Archaeology and History found...

3,000-year-old weavings discovered in Alaska’s Alutiiq settlement

3 September 2023

3 September 2023

Archaeologists have uncovered fragments of woven grass artifacts estimated to be 3,000 years old during excavations at an ancestral sod...

Archaeologists discover Ice Age human footprints in the Utah desert —may be more than 12,000 years old.

26 July 2022

26 July 2022

Daron Duke and Thomas Urban, a Research Scientist with Cornell University, discovered 88 preserved human footprints on alkaline plains at...

1500-year-old Stunning Pendant Amulet Depicting the Prophet Solomon Spearing the Devil on Horseback Found in Türkiye

15 November 2024

15 November 2024

During the excavations in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis in Eskipazar district of Karabük, Türkiye, an amulet from the 5th...

6,000-year-old Finds in Dorset Downs

11 June 2021

11 June 2021

In the Dorset Downs, a significant landscaping project has revealed a plethora of intriguing findings on a grand scale. Excavations...

A woman was buried in a canoe on her way to the ‘destination of souls’ 800 years ago

25 August 2022

25 August 2022

According to new research, Up to 800 years ago, mourners buried a young woman in a ceremonial canoe to represent...

Peru finds perfectly preserved a wooden figure in the Americas’ largest mud-brick city

29 June 2022

29 June 2022

A perfectly preserved wooden figure has been discovered at the Chan Chan archaeological site, in northern Peru, the Ministry of...