Friday, March 8, 2013

0164 – Destruction of ditched enclosures


This is a major problem for ditched enclosures in Alentejo region. In the last few years agricultural fields are being reconverted and olive trees and vineyards are being planted in extensive areas. This is done without any previous Archaeological survey and the result is that a lot of archaeological sites are affected, destroyed or become inaccessible to research (for instance, for geophysical survey).

This is happening with some ditched enclosures, and our “google prospection” is documenting it, for some sites identified in images from 2003 or 2006 are now invisible or almost.

It was this that happened to Perdigões enclosure 16 years ago. There, though, it was possible to interrupt the process after the plowing and assume the area as an archaeological reserve. But recently, several others do not have the same fortune.


 Examples of identifiable enclosures in recent aerial images (left) and their actual situation (right).

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