SIGNS ON MEGALITHS IN THE ENVIRONS OF ELVA AND EVORA IN PORTUGAL

ABSTRACT

Graphic signs and fragments of images on the walls of megalithic buildings and individual stone blocks are not so common. However, their presence greatly enhances the value of ancient monuments of material culture in order to understand the way of thinking of ancient people much better. Portugal is a land where the density of megalithic monuments identified is one of the largest in Europe, but in Portugal itself, in the environs of Evora and Elva the number of such monuments is one of the largest. One of the most famous monuments located there is the Cromlech of the Almendres. This remarkable monument is still insufficiently studied. The same applies to so-called isolated Menhir of the Almendres, located just 1.4 km far from the Cromlech of the Almendres. The research indicates that these monuments are just one part of a wide megalithic monument complex. A common feature of these monuments is their richness in ancient images and fragments of signs on stone surfaces that have been created and modified during very long period of time. The fragments of images are quite varied, and this study was aimed to identify them, thus enabling us to emphasize the main points of future studies to be carried out.

Keywords: menhirs, stone marks, Almendres Cromlech, stone circles