The Archaeological Site of Cabeço da Espigueira through the lenses of Archaeosciences - A multidisciplinary approach to the past

8 - 12 May 2023

Cabeço da Espigueira is a fictitious site documenting several human occupations attributed to different chronologies, from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Late Neolithic (between c. 30 000 cal years BP to c. 5 000 cal years BP). The site is located on the left margin of the Espigueira rivulet, in a platform positioned 15 meters above the alluvial plain.
This advanced course proposes the artificial excavation of this site using a geoarchaeological approach followed by analyses of the sediments and the study of the archaeological record recovered therein through the lenses of Archaeosciences (e.g. stone tools, human and non-human bones, charcoal, seeds, domestic and funerary structures). The environmental scenarios experienced by the different generations of human communities who occupied Cabeço da Espigueira will be reconstructed through the analyses of sediment cores collected from the alluvial plain of the rivulet, particularly through palynological studies. 

The objective of this workshop is to introduce students to the process of Past reconstruction in its multiple dimensions (economic, social, technological, and environmental), using concepts, methods and tools of some of the different scientific domains that are part of the Archaeosciences.