Casas das Mouras Encantadas – A Study of dolmens in Portuguese archaeology and folklore. Master's thesis 2014

Casas das Mouras Encantadas –A Study of dolmens in Portuguese archaeology and folklore

Quimera 2011: A casa da moura Zaida.

University of HelsinkiHumanistic faculty, Department of filosophy, history, culture and art studiesMaster’s thesis in archaeologyHenna-Riikka LindströmSupervisors: prof. Mika Lavento, lecturer Antti LahelmaOctober 2014

Tiedekunta/Osasto Fakultet/Sektion – Faculty

Humanistinen tiedekunta

Laitos Institution – Department

Filosofian, historian, kulttuurin ja taiteiden tutkimuksen laitosTekijä Författare – Author

Henna-Riikka LindströmTyön nimi Arbetets titel – Title

Casas das Mouras Encantadas – A study of Portuguese dolmens in archaeology and folkloreOppiaine Läroämne – Subject

ArkeologiaTyön laji Arbetets art – Level

Pro Gradu –tutkielma

Aika Datum – Month and year

Lokakuu 2014

Sivumäärä Sidoantal – Number of pages

104 + 13 liitesivuaTiivistelmä Referat – Abstract

Mouras encantadas eli lumotut mourat ovat yliluonnollisia olentoja, jotka portugalilaisen kansanperinteen mukaan asuvatmegaliittihaudoissa ja vartioivat niiden kautta kulkevaa reittiä elävien ja kuolleiden maailmojen välillä.Tutkimus vertailee Portugalin megaliittihaudoista saatua arkeologista dataa ja kansanperinteen megaliittihautoja koskevia tarinoita,käsityksiä ja uskomuksia, tarkoituksena selvittää olisiko fragmentteja muinaisesta uskonnollisesta maailmankuvasta saattanutkulkeutua symbolien tasolla kansanperinteen mukana nykyaikaan asti.

Tutkimuksen teoreettisena taustana on käsitys kollektiivisen mytologian hitaasta muutosvauhdista ja sen ytimen, symbolien,pysyvyydestä. Symbolit ovat mytologian vanhinta kerrostumaa, joiden ympärille kaikki muu on rakentunut ja kerrostunut ajankuluessa. Myytit itsessään muuttuvat yhteiskunnan muutosten myötä, kunkin sukupolven tulkitessa vanhaa materiaalia uudelleenomaan aikaansa parhaiten sopivalla tavalla, mutta symbolit yleensä säilyvät, vaikkakin niitä tulkitaan eri tavoin eri aikoina.

Muutokset hautaustavoissa kertovat muutoksista ideologiassa ja yhteiskunnassa, ja tutkimus seuraa megaliittihautojenarkeologisessa aineistossa tapahtuneita muutoksia neoliittiselta kaudelta rautakaudelle, selvittäen mitä muutokset saattaisivatkertoa kunkin aikakauden yhteiskunnallisesta ideologiasta ja uskonnollisista käsityksistä ja siitä minkälainen merkitysmegaliittihaudoille kulloinkin annettiin. Yhdistämällä arkeologian, folkloristiikan ja historiallisten lähteiden tuottamaa tietoamenneisyydestä tutkimus luo kuvaa niistä kehityslinjoista, joita ihmisten suhteessa megaliittihautoihin on tapahtunut niiden pitkänkäyttöhistorian aikana.

Tutkimuksen tuloksena on, että hyvin todennäköisesti Portugalin megaliittihautoja koskevaan kansanperinteeseen on kertynytaineksia hyvin monilta eri aikakausilta, ja että symbolisten yhtäläisyyksien nojalla on mahdollista, että siinä on fragmentaarisiaaineksia jopa megaliittihautojen syntyaikojen uskonnollisista käsityksistä, neoliittiselta kaudelta saakka.

Avainsanat – Nyckelord – Keywords

Mouras encantadas, megalith tombs, Portuguese dolmens, Portuguese Megalith Culture, archaeology and folklore, dolmen reuse,megalithic art, folklore of dolmens

Säilytyspaikka – Förvaringställe – Where deposited

Muita tietoja – Övriga uppgifter – Additional information

Index

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………..1

1.1 In the dolmen sat a maiden spinning a thread of gold………………………...1

1.2 Research questions and method………………………………………………..2

1.3 Earlier research……………………………………………………………………6

1.3.1 Studies in folklore…………………………………………………………6

1.3.2 Studies in archaeology…………………………………………………..8

1.4 Source material and the study structure………………………………………10

PART I

2. Megalithic phenomenon, tombs and burial practises…………........13

2.1 Different types of megalithic tombs in Portugal………..……………………..13

2.2 Chronology of different types of megalith tombs……………………………..17

2.3 Where were the megalith tombs built………………………………………….19

2.4 The megalithic phenomenon in the Western Europe and Portugal………...21

2.5 Burials in megalith tombs……………………………………………………….23

2.5.1 Burials in the Neolithic Period 4800-3000 BCE……………………...23

2.5.2 Burials in the Chalcolithic Period (approximately 3000-1800 BCE

and reburials in the Bronze and Iron Ages…………………………...31

3. The art of megalithic tombs……………………………………...………34

3.1 Paintings and drawings in the tombs………………………………………….34

3.2 Symbols in the art of the megalith tombs……………………………………..39

3.3 Some theories and interpretations on Iberian megalithic art………….…….43

3.4 The chist plaques of Alentejo…………………………………………………..46

PART II

4. Folklore on megalithic tombs and mouras encantadas…...………..56

4.1 Short introduction………………………………………………………………..56

4.2 Mouras – builders and inhabitants of megalith tombs……………………….58

4.2.1 Background………………………………………………………………58

4.2.2 The earliest known written references to mouras……………………60

4.3 Where and when to meet mouras…………………………………………….. 63

4.4 Mouras in the shape of snakes and bovines (and goats)……………………65

4.4.1 Symbolism of snake…………………………………………………….65

4.4.2 Snakes and bovines and goddesses in European mythologies…..68

4.5 Spinners of the thread of life……………………………………………………70

5. Megalithic tombs in folklore and tradition……………………...……..73

5.1 The relation between the stories and the narrators………………………….73

5.2 The traditions on megalithic tombs…………………………………………….75

5.3 Mouras and dolmens in toponyms……………………………………………..79

5.4 Church, dolmens and mouras………………………………………………….80

6. Comparing the archaeological and folkloristic data……………...…84

6.1 The symbolic similarities………………………………………………………..84

6.2 Search for the unchanged fragments in the moura –stories………………..86

7. Conclusions……………………………………………………………..….89

References …………………………………………………………………..93

Appendixes ………………………………………………………………..104

1

“On top of the hill are the remains of an ancient monument,

which people here call “anta”. Its tall, dark boulders are

supporting a horizontal stone, like the giant’s table put there for

a formidable feast. This is the house of Moura Encantada..

.. No one can boast about having gone near the dolmen. It is

guarded by a fierce bull, which paws the ground, furious mullet,

running around the dolmen. You can hear its low bellowing from

afar, when it smells a human. It chases away any reckless,

daring adventurers going too near to the “House of Moura”, like

this dolmen is called. Never have people seen a bull like that – it

is the horror of the entire neighbourhood.. “

(Chaves 1924: 209)

1.Introduction

1.1 In the dolmen sat a maiden spinning a thread of gold

Around 5000 BCE started the construction of different megaliths in Western

Europe, and continued throughout the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, until

about 1800 BCE (Service & Bradbery 1993:11). The use of these megaliths,

in its turn, as burial and ritual sites, continued sometimes for thousands of

years after their construction, and their use for magical purposes, mainly in

fertility magic, sometimes continued almost to the present day (Holtorf 2000-

2008). The tradition concerning megaliths is very rich in many parts of Europe,

and many themes occurring in it are common to a wide area. Some megaliths

were forgotten – they lost their significance in the lives of the communities and

disappeared from their stories, and in the end they were removed from the

fields to gain room for cultivation, or were used to construct something else.

Other megaliths instead maintained their central position in the traditions and

in the physical and mental geography1 of the human societies, as part of the

1 I´m basing the conception of physical and mental geography on Bintliff´s (2013) article, in which he iscommenting Tilley´s theory about the phenomenology of landscape. According to Tilley´s view, says

2

local identities. Who raised the megaliths? The answer to the question given

by folklore is perhaps a little unexpected, but there has been a rare consensus

about it across Europe – megaliths were built by women. The megalith –

constructing women of the legends are supernatural; they are able to change

their shape and take often the form of a snake or a bull (see e.g. Romero 1998,

Amades 1941). They are simultaneously young and old and have everlasting

life. They are reported to have taught people many skills from herbal medicine

to the manufacturing of iron. They are able to move in different elements –

upon earth and in the underground world, as well as in the watery realm. They

guard the boundaries between the worlds, control the weather and the

seasons, and appear to people in times when the boundaries between the

worlds have become blurred – in the times of approaching death, childbirth,

equinoxes and solstices, or at midnight and at midday (Cuba & al. 1999

[2006]). Besides the megaliths, the supernatural women also built the

landscape itself – hills, mountains and riverbeds are sometimes mentioned to

be their creations (Hull 1927). In other words, they seem to be more or less

omnipotent. No wonder that some scientists have linked them to the old

goddesses (e.g. Almeida, 1974). Where did they go? Nowhere! They still live

in the caves and in the dolmens and create the rainbow on the sky by combing

their golden hair.

1.2 Research questions and method

Travelling through different towns and villages in Portugal my attention was

caught by the many “moura” related place names. Almost wherever I went, I

soon encountered a “Cova da Moura” (Moura’s cave), a “Fonte da Moura”

(Moura’s fountain) and what made me to get interested – many “Casas das

Mouras Encantadas” (Houses of Enchanted Mouras) – by which name the

Portuguese people have been often calling the Neolithic dolmens. If I made

Bintliff, landscape is purely a social construct – a blank space, before it is filled with emotional andsymbolical significance. This is what I call mental landscape. But besides this, comments Bintliff, therehas to be also the landscape of practical and functional resources and work. This is what I call physicallandscape. In my view, these two concepts are intermingling and effecting each other in everyday life ofthe people who are living in the landscape and creating and shaping it with their actions.

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questions about these mouras, people usually answered that they were

Moorish princesses who had been living in the country hundreds of years ago.

But this didn’t sound satisfactory enough, taking into account that the Moorish

occupation was a fairly short period in Portuguese history, and that it didn’t

cover the whole area of historical Portugal, while the legends of mouras do.

The mouras of the legends and the legends of the mouras show characteristics

which seem to be hinting to more ancient than mediaeval origins, as well as

does the wide spread of similar kind of legends in Europe, and the all-inclusive

way the mouras appear everywhere in the Portuguese folklore.

I started to explore for more information about the mouras and their relations

to dolmens, and found a rich tradition of legends, beliefs, customs and magic

practises recorded by the researchers mainly in the 19th century. Discovering

the mouras as they were seen in the early narratives – powerful, godlike

beings, I started to become enchanted by the subject myself.

In this study I focus on the Portuguese dolmens and the rich folkloristic tradition

surrounding them. I use two different sources of information – archaeological

data and folkloristic material. My aim is to find out how these two fields combine

and cross each other – trying to find out if it would be possible that some

vestiges of the worldview of the people, who built and used the dolmens

thousands of years ago, would have been carried on, on a symbolic level, with

stories and legends, beliefs and practises, to our days.

I will proceed by gathering together material about the oral and practical

traditions associated to the megalithic graves in Portugal, and comparing it to

the material produced by archaeological research. My intention is to figure out

whether the information produced by archaeological research about ancient

rituals in megalithic graves has confluence with folkloristic material. In addition,

my intention is to find out how well the archaeological and ethnological material

is compatible with the recontructions of the religion of the Neolithic megalith

cultures. (For example Almagro Gorbea 1973; Frazão & Morais 2009;

Gimbutas 1989, 1991; Gonçalves 1989, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009; Muniz 2010;

Rodrigues 1986, 1986b).

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One starting point for the study is a vision about the religious worldview of the

builders of the megaliths, shared by many researchers (e.g. Almagro Gorbea

1973, Dames 1977, Frazão & Morais 2009, Gimbutas 1989, 1991; Gonçalves

1989, 1992, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009; Muniz 2010, Rodrigues, 1986, 1986b),

according to which the cycle of life, death and rebirth personified in Mother

Earth had a key role in it. In this view, megalithic tombs would have been built

to express the faith in reincarnation – they would have been built to serve as

wombs of the Earth itself, into which (all) the members of the community were

buried in a collective manner, so that they would be born again.

Another starting point is the idea that the stories, beliefs and traditions related

to the megalithic graves could still carry fragmentary material of the religious

worldview which prevailed thousands of years ago. The idea is based on the

theory outlined by for example Mircea Eliade (Eliade 1952 [1979]: 160-161),

Marshall Sahlins (1985), Jean-Pierre Vernant (1992), Anna-Leena Siikala

(2002) Fernanda Frazão and Gabriela Morais (Frazão & Morais 2009:25-40)

according to which the collective mythology of human societies might carry on

fragments of the ancient worldview, and that by following its symbolism it would

be possible to try to reach the ancient religious concepts.

By the human collective mythology I refer to the story tradition which is

essential to the self-identification of a community. The tradition presents the

criteria and the conditions for the existence of the community and its social

order. It tells about the birth of the community and the birth of its residential

area, and about the community’s ties to the area and its justification over it. It

defines how the community is different from other communities, and includes

moral norms and custom rules which unite the members of the community –

teachings about what kind of behaviour is acceptable within its moral

framework. The collective mythology is closely linked to the community’s own

living space. Often it includes a direct requirement to pass the tradition on to

new generations as a condition for the continuing of the community, thus

guaranteeing its own continuity. It is opposed to change, but changes when

5

necessary. The myths grow from the community and the community from the

myths, and one would not exist without the other. (Eliade 1959:149-150.)

Myths have a central position in world view and thus they are able to illuminate

past models of thought. By codifying the structures of a world view, myths carry

mental models of the past. The most fundamental areas of cultural

consciousness are related to the community’s world view and basic values;

mythology is constructed as a representation of precisely such basic structures

of consciousness. (Siikala 2002: 15-16.) The time, history and the change of

the social structures pile up additional meanings to the symbolism of the stories

and change them, but neither the symbols nor their structure change much

(Eliade 1952 [1979]: 160-161). Hartsuaga Uranga (2011), talking about

Basque mythology, compares it to an onion – the outermost peel is dirty and

of varied colouring. It is also the youngest layer. If we want to see how the

onion looked when it was young, we have to peel off layer after layer.

Stories themselves change over time and space, as society changes and the

geographical distance increases, but their most important elements, the core,

symbols, would remain unchanged. (Eliade 1952 [1979]: 160-161). The

surface elements come and go and take new forms, but the most essential

elements of the mythology form the structures of consciousness, needed to

sustain a world view and to resolve contradictions. Thus they are deeply rooted

and conservative. Myths are amongst the most tenacious forms of mental

representation. (Siikala 2002:16.) According to Hartsuaga Uranga (2011) the

folk stories, beliefs and legends are often fragmented myths or myth

fragments. The fragmentation happens when the social change is slowly

changing the traditional world view, so that the myth becomes, generation after

generation, in a very slow process, partly incomprehensible for the people

reciting it. When all else is gone, the symbols remain. The symbols are able to

put us in touch with the mind-set of societies that developed codes of

symbolism over thousands of years (Tresidder 2004).

Legends respond to social change by changing too. Looking at Portuguese

prehistory and the social changes taking place in its course I’m trying to keep

6

track of the layers the social changes have been piling onto the story tradition,

and look at what is left when the layers are removed - what is the unchanging

core of the tradition common to all the stories. I’m not searching for a

continuum extending uninterrupted and unchanged from the megalithic period

to the present day – I study a hypothetical possibility of fragmentary religious

material being carried through legends and practices. What interests me is:

Could the story tradition still alive in some areas of Portugal, and the beliefs of

clearly non-Christian origin about megalith tombs have their basis in the beliefs

and customs of the megalith period? After all, the idea that we would be able

to truly reach even fragments of the worldview of the people who lived

thousands of years ago is incredibly fascinating.

Portuguese megalithic tombs suit as a material for this study very well,

because the traditions related to them are exceptionally strong, and because

many of the tombs have been used in one way or other in religious, magical or

communal practices from the Neolithic time almost to the present day. The

significance of the megaliths in the lives of the people who live around them

certainly has changed many times over – what people think about them, what

meaning they give to them in their own personal lives and in the life of the

community, and how they do explain their existence. Change is particularly

significant for this study. Meanings change, but the Portuguese megaliths have

never lost their significance – become meaningless.

1.3 Earlier research

1.3.1 Studies in Folklore

There is no earlier study combining the archaeological data and folkloristic

material about the Portuguese mouras encantadas and the dolmens in the way

I’m going to do. Luckily there is plenty of folkloristic material collected mainly

in the 19th century, and the archaeological studies of the dolmens relevant to

this study, focusing on the continuity of their use, the art in and around them

and the studies on the burial practices etc. are numerous.

7

The greatest part of the traditions associated with mouras were collected in

the end of the 19th century. The most central early collectors were José Leite

de Vasconcellos (1858 –1941), Francisco Xavier d´ Ataíde de Oliveira (1842

– 1915), Teófilo Braga (1843 – 1924), Consiglieri Pedroso (1851 – 1910) and

Luís Chaves (1889-1975), who collected Portuguese folklore in different parts

of Portugal and of various fields, including traditions conserning mouras

encantadas.

During the Portuguese dictatorship (1926-1974) studying the non-christian

traditions was in disfavour. Some studies concerning mouras were made

outside Portugal – by Galicians Juan Amades (1890-1959), who collected

traditional stories about the megalith builders and beliefs related to dolmens

in the Iberian Peninsula, and Fernando Alonso Romero, who compared the

Galician tradition of mouras as constructors of the megaliths to other

European traditions of megalith builders; and by English Eleanor Hull (1860 –

1935), who connected the Gaelic Cailleach Bheara –traditions to Iberian

mouras.

Newer studies have been made e.g. by Fernanda Frazão & Gabriela Morais,

who published a comprehensive study in three volumes: Portugal – O Mundo

dos Mortos e das Mouras Encantadas in 2009, in which they wrote about the

connections of mouras to various aspects in Portuguese culture in a wide

range from linquistics to mediaeval legends and to certain characteristics of

the cult of Virgin Mary(s); Alexandre Parafita, who published 2006 “A

mitologia dos mouros” – a study about the legends considering mouros and

mouras in the Trás-os-Montes area, northern Portugal; and young

archaeologists Jesus Chaparro, Andrés Blanco and Valentín Martínez, who

interviewed local people about the moura -traditions and other traditions

related to megalithic monuments during their archaeological field studies in

Galicia 2010, and published the results in an article Percepciones míticas y

pautas de comportamiento en tornoa los espacios megalíticos de montaña,

2011.

8

1.3.2 Studies in Archaeology

The earliest studies about Portuguese megaliths were done mainly by the

same people who collected Portuguese folklore, since the two scientific fields

had not yet been grown apart. In his article Megalithic monuments in Spain

and Portugal (1887) Jean-François-Albert du Pouget de Nadaillac mentions

that at a conference held in connection with the International Exposition in

Paris in 1867, Gabriel Pereira, a Portuguese anthropologist, had presented a

list of 118 megalithic constructions in Portugal.

In the 19th and early 20th century the focus was on typologies of tombs and

archaeological artefacts and objects. In the excavations much attention

wasn’t given to the human remains, because, typically for the megalith

burials, the remains were deliberately scattered. Most descriptions of tombs

excavated in past centuries gave a picture of broken and commingled bones,

without any clear contexts, except when artefacts or better preserved skeletal

remains were detected. (Boaventura et al. 2014: 184.)

One of the most noticeable achievements in the first half of the 20th century

was the work of Georg and Vera Leisner. They excavated, documented and

published a huge amount of megalithic tombs, starting in the early 1930´s.

Their main work is the monumental publication Megalithgräber der Iberischen

Halbinsel 1943.

From the 1920´s to 1960´s the main focus in studies of megaliths was on

theories trying to explain the routes and directions of cultural influences, and

to figure out if the megalith builders in Portugal were indigenes or colonists

(Jorge 1987). According to the most prevalent view whole European

megalithic phenomenon was itself an indirect reflection of contemporary

oriental civilization, carried as part of a mortuary cult by seaborne

missionaries along the Atlantic coastlands (see e.g. Childe 1949).

Radiocarbon chronologies turned this theory upside down during the 1960´s.

The new technologies of dating, excavating, sampling and material analysis,

and also the social changes after the 1974 revolution changed the course of

9

interests. Most research relevant to this study has been done from the

1980´s onwards. I’m going next to list shortly some of the research lines most

significant for this study.

The life histories and reuse of West-European megalithic graves in later

prehistory has been studied widely in the 21th century, in Iberia for example

by Leonardo García Sanjuán, Pablo Garrido González & Fernando Lozano

Gómez (Sanjuán 2005, Gómez et al. 2007, 2008) and Rui Mataloto (Mataloto

2007). Katina Lillios has also been doing research on different mnemonic

practices, for example on the reuse of the Iberian decorated schist plaques

by later generations (Lillios 2010). Katarina Oliveira contributed this line of

study with her book Lugar e Memória (Oliveira 2001), in which she discusses

megalithic monuments as places of memory.

The art in the megalith tombs in Iberia has been studied for example by

Primitiva Bueno Ramírez, Rodrigo de Balbín Behrmann & Rosa Barroso

Bermejo (Balbín Behrmann & Bueno Ramirez 2000, 2006; Balbín Behrmann

et al 2010, 2012), Vitor Oliveira Jorge (1998, 2003) and Leonor Rocha (2004,

2012). Jorge’s and Rocha’s studies have focused on the distribution and

interpreting on different symbols. Bueno Ramirez et al. have been for

example comparing the symbolics found in the tombs to the symbolics in

open air rock art sites and in the different types of idols. They have been

breaking many old conceptions with their studies about the distribution and

chronology of paintings and engravings in Iberian megalith tombs.

The studies of Victor S. Gonçalves cover many themes, which are very

important to this work. He has been comparing the artefacts and burial

practices in different types of megalithic tombs and studied the chronology

and the symbolics of the slate plaques (Gonçalves 1989, 1998, 2004, 2006,

2008, 2009, 2011). Katina Lillios had been doing also lots of research about

the schist plaques. ESPRIT, the digital Engraved Stone Plaque Registry and

Inquiry Tool is her creation. ESPRIT is the first comprehensive and

searchable catalogue of the engraved stone plaques of late prehistoric Iberia

(Lillios 2004).

10

Osteology in megalithic tombs has been developing in Portugal from the

1990´s onwards. It´s results are important, telling about people buried into

the graves – information about their sex, age, health and about the treatment

of the bodies. Ana Maria Silva and Rui Boaventura are amongst the most

notable researchers on this field (Silva 1997, Ferreira & Silva 2007,

Boaventura et al. 2012, 2014).

The research of the orientations of the megalith tombs according to

astronomic events or towards special features in the landscape is still young

in Portugal. One of the most published authors is Fabio Silva (2011, 2013).

1.4 Source material and the study structure

The selection of source material for this work is the result of weeks spent in

the libraries of IGESPAR (Instituto de Gestão do Património Arquitectónico e

Arqueológico), Biblioteca e Arquivo Histórico do Museu Nacional de

Arqueologia and the Bibilioteca Nacional de Portugal in Lisbon, reading and

copying material. Some material I have found through internet. All the

folkloristic material I’m using is from secondary sources – from studies and

collections already published, because it has not been possible for me to go

through archives or to make interviews myself.

The geographical outlines for this study are not very firmly set because of the

nature of the subject. The main focus of the study is in the graves of the

megalithic culture in Portugal, and in the folklore connected to them, but as

far as the archaeological material is concerned I have found it useful to

include research material from the whole Iberian Peninsula, and allow

comparisons between contemporaneous megalithic cultures in other parts of

Europe as well. I defend this procedure with the clear connections and

similarities amongst the West-European megalithic cultures, especially when

it comes to the symbolic level, which is essential for this study. The same

11

principle goes with the folkloristic material – although the legends and

customs related to the megalithic monuments are very local and usually

connected to the monuments of a certain area, the similarities in the

folkloristic material are very obvious in a wide geographical area in Europe,

and thus it would seem an artificial attempt to outline strict geographical

limits, which don’t exist in reality, for the study, or to use the now existing

state borders, which certainly didn’t exist in the prehistoric times.

Chapter 1 of the study works as an introduction. In it I’m discussing the

research questions, earlier studies and the methodology of this study. I’m

also telling shortly about my personal interest in the subject.

Chapters 2 and 3 form the Part I of the study, in which I deal with the

archaeological data, while chapters 4 and 5 form Part II, in which I discuss

the folkloristic material. In chapter 2 I give first a short general overview onto

the megalithic phenomenon – an introduction to the megalith graves and the

burial practices in them, and to the megalith grave types in Portugal, their

dating, distribution and the regional differences. I deal also with the possible

link between the spreading of the neolithism in Europe and the spreading of

the megalithic culture in Portugal, and with the main characteristics of the

Mesolithic and Neolithic culture in Portugal. Next I discuss in a more detailed

way the burial practices in the Portuguese megalith graves throughout the

whole time span of their use, from the Neolithic period to the reuse in iron

age, simultaneously carrying along the parallel theme of the social change,

taking into account the possible reflections of the changes in the burial

practices through some example cases.

In chapter 3 I deal with the art in the megalithic graves. In it I give a

description of the art and the symbols included in it, cover the disposition of

the painted and engraved art inside the graves, give some interpretations

made of it and discuss its connections to the contemporary rock art. The

Alentejo schist plaques are discussed in a separate sub chapter, in which I’m

dealing with their manufacture, distribution, dating, positioning in the graves,

12

the symbols engraved onto them and some interpretations made about them,

the link between their amount and the amount of the bodies buried into the

graves, and their connection to the other art in the megalithic graves.

Chapter 4 starts with a short introduction to the second part of the study,

which deals with the folkloristic material. In this chapter I discuss first

generally the mythological characters, called mouras encantadas, living in

the dolmens in the Iberian tradition, and then in a more detailed way – their

role as the guardians of the borders between the worlds, and as escorts of

souls between the worlds, their role as helpers and as benefactors of fertility.

Next I tell about the different manifestations of mouras in the shape of snakes

and bovines, and the symbolic values traditionally given to those animals in

question. Then I tell about the connections of mouras to some of the

shapeshifting characters in the folklore of other parts of Europe. Next I

describe shortly the snake cult in Iron Age Portugal. Then I discuss about the

mouras in the role of spinners of the thread of life, the dichotomy of life and

death and the view of cyclic course of life and time.

In chapter 5 I discuss the megalith graves in folklore. I tell about the

collecting of the oral tradition – when and where it was collected, who were

the people telling the stories and what was their relation to the stories they

were telling, what was told about the megaliths, what was the relation of the

communities to the megaliths, what role did the megaliths and mouras have

in the life of the community. I tell about the practical traditions connected to

the megaliths – what did people do to them or with them – beliefs and fertility

magic. Next in the chapter six I give some typical examples of the moura

stories from the folkloristic collections, examples of place names with linking

to dolmens and mouras, and then I discuss the reactions of the church to the

beliefs and practises concerning dolmens and mouras amongst common

people.

13

In chapter 6 I’m comparing the archaeological and folkloristic data, piece by

piece, and demonstrating the possible confluences.

In chapter 7 I give the conclusions I’m making on the basis of the studied

material.

PART I

2.Megalithicphenomenon,tombsandburialpractises

2.1 Different types of megalithic tombs in Portugal

The building of megalithic constructions started between 4800 and 3800 BCE

on a wide area of Western Europe (Map 1). The earliest megaliths were

menhirs or individual standing stones, and cromlechs i.e. stone circles. In

Portugal their erecting started round 4800 BCE. Thus far the oldest dating for

a megalithic construction in Portugal has been made for the first building phase

of the Cromlech of the Almendres near Évora, 4800 cal BCE. (Gomes

1997:28.) (Fig.1.) Building of megalithic graves started some hundred years

later (Boaventura 2011). The radiocarbon datings for the earliest megalithic

14

graves in Portugal places them to the turn of the 5th and 4th millennia BCE

(Senna-Martinez et al. 2008).

Map 1. The megalithic cultures in Western Europe. Source: Cromwell 2014.http://www.cromwell-intl.com/travel/megaliths/

The basic types of megalithic graves in Portugal are a) dolmens, consisting of

large vertical upright wallstones i.e. orthostats, with a large flat capstone

forming the roof (Fig.2.) and b), tholoi – vaulted chamber tombs, in which the

roof structure is a corbelled dome supported by the orthostats (Figuereido

2004). (Fig.3.)

15

Fig. 1. Cromeleque dos Almendres. Photo by author 2013.

Fig 2. Dolmen Anta 2 do Barrocal (Évora). Photo by author 2013.

The stone chamber served as the burial chamber. Some graves have a

corridor leading to the chamber (Fig.4). Sometimes the graves are, or were

originally covered by a mound of earth or stones or a mix of both, though in

many cases the covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone

"skeleton" of the burial mound intact. Some graves have also had a special,

outside space, in front of the entrance, called “atrium”. This space was

separated from the surrounding area for example with a pavement done from

16

small pebbles, which sometimes were of a special color. The atrium was

possibly used in rituals connected to the burials done in the grave, and possibly

also in other ceremonies which took place around the dolmen. (Sanches

2006.) (Fig.5.)

Fig.3. Source: The history of Spanish architecture 2012.http://www.spanisharts.com/arquitectura/i_inicio.html

In Portuguese language dolmens are usually called with the word “anta”, or

with the word “orca/arca/urca” in Northern Portugal and Galicia. Other, more

locally used words for dolmens are “altar” and “mamaltar” = mama + altar

(breast/mother + altar). (Chaves 1951: 96-97.) Dolmens still covered by the

mound are called mamoa – a name which refers to the female breast, because

of the shape of the mound. In the case of Portugal, also the caves and artificial

caves or rock cut tombs have to be included into the study of the burial

practices of the Megalithic cultures, as they form part of it – the material

remains and the symbolic language in them are similar to that in the dolmens

and tholoi, and the burial rituals practiced in them have probably been similar

too. Apparently they belonged to the same magic-religious tradition.

(Gonçalves, 2009: 239.) According to Boaventura et al. (2014), over 3000

17

megalithic tombs – natural caves, dolmens, artificial caves and tholoi – have

been recognized in Portugal since 1850´s. (Map 2.)

Fig.4. Anta Grande da Comenda da Igreja. The entrance to the passage in front, theburial chamber on the back. Photo by author 2013.

2.2 Chronology of different types of megalithic tombs

The collective burial practice is typical for megalithic culture, but it pre-dates

the megalithic graves. It started in the natural caves – the caves were used as

burial sites long before, since Paleolithic era, but somewhere between 5000

and 4000 BCE there started to emerge changes to the burial ritual and to the

composition of grave goods. This far the earliest radiocarbon dated burial site

in Portugal, which can be linked to the megalithic culture, is from the Gruta do

Cadaval natural cave in Estremadura, Central Portugal. With an individual

covered by a big slab of stone, were the remains of artifacts typical also for the

earliest burials in dolmens – thin blades, axe, adze, shell beads, geometric

microliths and fragments of ceramics (although the ceramics is a rarer find). In

the cave were bones from at the least 24 individuals, who had been buried

there inside a fairly short time span. The radiocarbon date obtained from

human bones for this burial is 4150-3790 cal BCE (limited to 4060-3790 cal

18

BCE with 94.8% probability). The use of natural caves for collective burials

continued until the middle or third quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE,

simultaneously with dolmens and other types of tombs. (Boaventura et al.

2012.)

Fig. 5. Atrium of dolmen de Antelas. Source: Laranjeira 2013.http://antelas-omeulugar.blogspot.pt/2013/01/dolmen-pintado-de-antelas.html

The building of dolmens started fairly simultaneously in different areas of

Portugal, round 4000 BCE. This far the earliest dating for dolmens in Southern

Portugal are from Alentejo – The dolmens 2 and 3 of Vale de Rodrigo were

dated (3940-3520 cal BCE and 3940-3700 cal BCE). The radiocarbon dating

for these dolmens was based on charcoal. (Boaventura et al. 2012.) In

Northern Portugal for example dolmen de Antelas has given early datings:

4328-3998 cal BCE 2 sigmas and 4315-3981 cal BCE 2 sigmas (Senna-

Martinez et al. 2008). The artificial caves, also called rock-cut tombs, are a

slightly younger type of graves than dolmens. The earliest known dating is from

Sobreira de Cima, Alentejo, based on the bones of one individual, which were

dated 3640-3350 cal BCE. The radiocarbon dating for other artificial caves in

Alentejo and Algarve fall on between 3300 and 2900 BCE. (Boaventura et al

2012.)

The tholoi tombs seem to have been built mainly between 2900 – 2400 BCE

(Boaventura et al. 2012). There is no very reliable radiocarbon dating for this

type of tombs – the existing bone samples being taken from contexts possibly

19

mixed with earlier rock-cut tomb burials (Boaventura 2011). All four types of

tombs – the caves, dolmens, artificial caves and tholoi, were in use at the same

time and in the same areas. Ideologically, what was in stake, was probably

only the different implementations of the same theme. (Gonçalves 2009:249.)

Map 2. Distribution of megalithic tombs in Iberia. Source: Rocha 2004.https://dspace.uevora.pt/rdpc/bitstream/10174/2301/1/SinaisPedra.pdf

2.3 Where the megalith tombs were built

The selection of the spot in which the dolmen was erected seems to have been

very relevant. Dolmens were often built on places which possibly had

preceding ritual significance. In Portugal it was common to erect the dolmen

on a site where there already was a menhir (Lillios 2010). The mound which

was piled over the dolmen also swallowed the menhir in some cases (Alvim

2010: 29-30). In some cases the menhirs were reused in building a dolmen

(Calado & Rocha 2008: 61).

20

Also the reuse of the old living sites as burial places was common throughout

Europe in the megalithic cultures, and that is the case in Portugal too. The

phenomenon has been linked for example to the cult of the ancestors, the want

to incorporate the structures made some generations earlier to the new cult

complex. (Goméz et al. 2008.)

Excavations have shown that various ritual acts were performed during the

process of building a dolmen. For example the stones for the dolmen were

chosen carefully – they were often of unusual colour or texture, and were

sometimes brought behind long distances (see for example Boaventura 2000,

Kalb 1996). On the bottom of some dolmens were deposited rare pebbles, and

fires were burned in many phases of the construction. It seems that the

headstone of the dolmen (opposite the entrance) was erected first. In the ready

dolmen the headstone played a significant role – in decorated dolmens it is

always the most decorated stone. Often the headstone is also the biggest

orthostat, and frequently sculpted as a stele. It is possible that it had a central

meaning in the rituals performed already before rest of the dolmen was

erected. (Sanches 2006.)

During some excavations, under the dolmens has been found a layer of

scorched earth. This has been interpreted for example to be a part of

“purification” of the land prior erecting the dolmen. Under the dolmen number

3 in Vale de Rodrigo (Alentejo) was found a thick layer of dark clay, which had

been brought to the site from a nearby river bottom to cover up the remains of

earlier residential layers. (Armbruester 2006: 53.)

Another suggestion made about the process of selecting certain places as

sites to erect dolmens, is a theory based on the studies by Flores et al. about

dolmens as signposts, erected along the herding routes to outline the

landscape and to serve as road signs, from which the ancestors would be

guiding the footsteps of their descendants, quite literally (Flores et al. 2010).

It is clear that the orientating of the dolmens (the entrances of the dolmens)

towards different astronomical events, or towards meaningful spots in the

landscape, have also had its impact for the choice of place. Most Iberian

21

dolmens are orientated towards east, to the rising sun (Jorge 1998:77) or

towards the Spring Equinoctial full moon (Silva 2011). In Mondego Valley in

the Central Portugal the dolmens are orientated towards Serra da Estrela (Star

Mountain Range) and towards the rise of particular red stars, Betelgeuse and

Aldebaran, over the mountain range at the onset of spring. The Neolithic

transhumance community moved in spring with their flocks up onto the Serra

de Estrela, and back down to the Mondego valley in autumn. (Silva 2013.)

From that point of view the rise of the stars over the Serra de Estrela in spring

was a significant event.2

2.4 The megalithic phenomenon in Western Europe and Portugal

Under the title “Megalith Culture” has been placed various different cultures

in wide area of Western Europe. Nevertheless, they seem to have been

connected by similar symbolism, burial practises and presumable also by

similarities in the ideology behind those. The regional differences in

decorating and constructing of megaliths, the differences in grave goods and

their positioning inside the graves, and the differences in the treatment of the

bodies, are probably partly results of different resources, for example building

materials, in different environments, and partly caused by local traditions, the

roots of which are farther back in the prehistory.

The beginning of the megalith construction – erecting the menhirs and

cromlechs aka stone circles – seems to go in Portugal fairly well hand in

hand with the neolithization. The earliest monuments were, according to

Calado and Rocha (2008:61), the result of the absorption of the Neolithic way

of life by the indigenous late Mesolithic communities. In the Mesolithic time

2 It is interesting that the local folklore gives support for the idea of transhumant community followingthe stars – a popular legend tells about a shepherd who loved a star. “There once lived a shepherdwhose only friend was his dog. This shepherd longed to travel to the mountains beyond his village. Onenight while gazing at the starry sky a star with the face of a child came down and spoke to him, sayingthat it would guide the shepherd to where he wished to go. So the shepherd walked for years and years,looking for his destiny, with the star smiling down on him. One day he came to the top of the highestmountain he could find. Because it was closer to the sky and his star he decided to stay there and go nofurther. This, according to the legend, would explain the name of this mountain range. (Beyondlisbon2013.)

22

the population in Portugal was concentrated in estuarine and coastal regions,

where resources were varied and abundant. Stable isotope analysis of

carbon and nitrogen in bone of human remains from Mesolithic burials in

Portugal has shown that the Mesolithic groups had a diet comprising 50%

marine foods. They built their houses over huge shell middens formed of the

shells of marine molluscs, and buried their dead into them. In the later part of

the period, many of these Mesolithic sites were utilised all year round and

reflect a semi-sedentary settlement pattern In Portugal. (Chandler et al.

2005.)

Neolithic phenomena first began in Portugal in the fertile southern riverside

plains (Cardoso & Carvalho 2003). In the archaeological record the

neolithization shows first as ceramics and domesticated sheep or goats.

Probably also small scale horticulture was part of the economy, but the

neolithization process in Portugal was very slow. The economy of most

communities was based on mixed – new and traditional – resources,

combining gathering, hunting, herding and horticulture. The proper farming

based economy started somewhat later. (Frank & Silva 2013.) For example,

in the Algarvian shell midden site Barranco das Quebradas, only the

youngest, surface layers, contain ceramics (Bicho et al. 2003).

The megalithic burial practices began a little bit later than acquiring new

Neolithic economical practises. The burials were made in caves, but the

burial practice and probably the ideology behind it were already similar than

in the megalith graves a bit later (Cruz 2000: 74). The earliest known

Neolithic residential site in Portugal is the Cabranosa site in Sagres, Algarve.

It was a sedentary settlement with domesticated sheep or/and goat and

locally produced cardial vases. The radiocarbon dating from sheep/goat bone

gave the result 5700 cal BCE. (Cardoso & Carvalho 2003.) There is other

early datings from different regions of the country, fro example from Pena

d´Aqua in Estremadura (5400 cal. BCE 1 sigma) and from the Mondego

valley, about 5000 BCE. There is, though, big variation even inside small

regions in adopting the new Neolithic practices. (Bellwood 2005.) And on the

other hand, there was also communities who continued their Mesolithic

23

lifestyle based on hunting and gathering and sea resources, but who

nevertheless started to erect megaliths at the same time (4800-4400 BCE)

with the communities who had, at least partly, adopted the Neolithic economy

(Señóran Martín 2008:438).

Some scientists, like Senna-Martinez (1995), connect the shift to the

collective burial and the removing of the individuality of the bodies with the

social transition towards more democratic society ideal, which probably

happened during the Neolithic period. This, in turn, would be a reflection of

the collective form of farming in its early stages, before the emerging of the

idea of private landowning (Silva, T. 1997: 580). Some researchers (e.g.

Getty 1990, Pennick 2000) reckon that the continuously increasing

dependence on the fertility of the land and the production of the fields led to

worship of the earth and to a fertility cult, which would have been focused

around the goddes personificated as Mother Earth. According to this

interpretation, the megalithic tombs would not actually have been graves, but

symbols built to represent the uterus of the Earth itself, where the dead

bodies or parts of them would have been positioned – like a seed – so that

they would be able to be born again (Dames 1977:30, Gonçalves, 1992:37-

50).

Most likely the transition to the Neolithic economy has further increased the

interest to follow the cycle of nature, celestial bodies and time, and may have

led into a cyclic conception of time, in which everything, including humans,

are part of the endless cycle (Gómez et al. 2007:123). The astronomical

orientations of the stone circles and megalithic tombs towards the sunrise of

solstices or equinoxes also tell about the importance for megalithic cultures

to monitor the flow of time. (Alinei & Benozzo 2009:36).

2.5 Burials in megalith tombs

2.5.1 Burials in the Neolithic Period 4800 – 3000 BCE

The existing knowledge about funerary customs in Portuguese megalithic

24

graves is far from complete. The acidic soil preserves bone poorly. The

bones placed on the bottom of the dolmen are at the mercy of the animals,

roots, weather and geological factors. Completely intact dolmens are found

only rarely. Large proportion of dolmens has been used continuously for

hundreds of years, and often also reused in later times, and the layers are

mixed. (Silva 1997:211.) Treasure seekers have also caused destruction. A

large part of the excavated dolmens were excavated during the so-called

”Black Period” of Portuguese Archaeology, 1930 -1974 – i.e. during the

dictatorship – when the study of the past was in disfavour, the publishing was

infrequent, and the methods used were sometimes haphazard. (Gonçalves

2006.) Systematic study of human remains of megalith tombs started in

Portugal only in the 1990´s.The fragmental, scattered bone material wasn´t

earlier in the focus of archaeological interest. (Boaventura et al. 2014.)

It seems that there was great variability in the funerary customs as well as in

the ways the dead bodies were treated, which is understandable taking into

account the long period of usage of the megalithic graves. Different

secondary burial practices seem to have been common. Probably only the

bones were placed into the smaller dolmens, after the body had first been

either buried to the ground until the soft parts had decomposed, or the flesh

was separated from the bones in some other way. Into the bigger dolmens

the bodies were placed as whole. When new corpses were brought in, older

remains were moved aside or bones grouped according to a specific formula

– femurs in one stack, skulls in another etc, or they could be arranged

according to age groups – one stack for adult’s bones, another for children’s

bones and a third pile for the bones of infants. In two intact dolmens the

bones were arranged on the floor ornamentally to form patterns which

resembled the geometrical motifs seen in the contemporary rock art and in

the art of the dolmens. (Silva 1997:212.)

In some cases there are cutmarks in the bones, which has been interpreted

most likely to be caused by disarticulation and defleshing connected to the

bone cleaning of secondary burial practices. This is the case for example in

dolmen of Carcavelos, Central Portugal, which has a very long period of

25

usage, from about 3500 BCE to 2200 BCE, according to the fact that

amongst the grave goods both geometric microliths (typical to early

Neolithics) and bellbeaker ceramics (late Neolithic/Calcolithic period) were

present. In the dolmen were bone remains from 80 adults MNI (minimum

number of individuals). In the microscopic and macroscopic analysis 24

cutmarks were recognized. The children’s bones were not studied. (Antunes-

Ferreira et al. 2008.)

The minimum number of individuals (MNI) in the megalith tombs varies

greatly – from under 10 to over 400. In the tholos of Paimogo 1 there is an

estimate of 413 individuals (Silva 2003). This is probably partly explained by

the long span of usage of some tombs. It seems that the number of

individuals in the graves was growing towards the late Neolithic and

Calcolithic periods. (Boaventura et al. 2014.) Both sexes and all age groups

are represented amongst the bone material of the dolmens – there is no

signs for example of favouring one sex at the expense of the other (Ferreira

& Silva 2007:14-15), although the bone material analyzed from megalithic

tombs in Algarve and Estremadura indicate a sex ratio in favor of females

(Boaventura et al. 2014). Due to the lack of preservation of the bone material,

it is difficult to assess how big proportion of the community members were

buried into the dolmens, but the blending of the bones and the deliberate

destruction of the individuality of the deceased has usually been interpreted

as signifiers of a prevailing ideal of a somewhat democratic society, in which

everyone was guaranteed a share of the life after death (Gonçalves 2008).

In some dolmens the bones have been burnt, and also the artefacts in the

dolmens sometimes show signs of fire. In some dolmens there is a mixture of

burnt and unburnt bones. (Cunha et al. 2007:110.) Sometimes there is radial

lines carved into the bones which have been interpreted to represent the rays

of the sun (Cunha et al. 2007: 116). (Fig.6.)

26

Fig. 6. Carved lines on a bone from dolmen Anta do Olival da Pega 2. Source:Cunha et al. 2007. http://www.uc.pt/en/cia/publica/AP_artigos/AP24.25.07_Silva.pdf

The bones are often cleaned by light sanding and then painted with red ochre

(Gonçalves 2003: 274-275). The grave goods are situated inside the

dolmens in a way which makes it impossible to connect them with any

individual deceased. For example, the ceramics are sometimes set on line in

accordance with the longitudinal axis of the dolmen (Leisner et al.

1951[1985]). (Fig. 7.)

27

Fig.7. Ceramics along the longitudal axis of the dolmen. Anta 1. do Poço da GateiraSource: Leisner & Leisner 1951[1985].

The most common artefacts situated into the megalithic graves in the earlier

phase of their use were geometric microliths, pottery, usually plain and

globular (Fig. 8), polished stone axes and chisels and small zoomorphic

sculptures (Leisner et al. 1951[1985]:145-146). (Fig.9.) In the later phase the

28

arrowheads, big flint blades and the decorated schist plaques (the plaques

after 3500 BCE) are common finds. The ceramic styles wary more and the

zoomorphic sculptures are still present.

Fig.8. On the left: ”Dolmen type” pot, Middle-Neolithic period, Anta Grande daComenda da Igreja. On the right: Late Neolithic pot with three nipples, Anta 1 doPoço da Gateira, Source: Museu Nacional de Arqueologia 2014www.Museuarqueologia.pt

The manufacture of the so called Alentejan schist plaques began around

3500 BCE and continued for about thousand years (Gonçalves2011). They

are about palm-sized, thin plaques made of schist or slate and decorated

with engravings and sometimes with paint (Fig.10). Their manufacture was

professional, and was concentrated into specific "workshops" in the interior

Alentejo region, from where they spread towards the coast and to the

Andalusia in Southern Spain, with which the Alentejo region already had

strong cultural connections (Calado 2010). I’ll discuss the slate plaques more

detailedly in chapter 3, which deals with the art in the megalithic tombs.

A rare, but interesting group of artefacts are bâculos de xisto (schist crusiers)

(Fig. 11.) Some dozens of them have been found, exclusively in Portugal, in

megalithic burial context. They are decorated in the same style than the

schist plaques. Their purpose and significance is unknown, but similar kind of

objects has been found pictured engraved in some menhirs and in other rock

art context, and as decoration motive on ceramics. (Gonçalves 2011.) In the

tombs the bâculos are placed near the headstone of the dolmen, which is

29

considered to have a special significance (Museu de Évora 2014).

Fig.9. Bone rabbit/hare figures from various megalithic burials. Source: Leisner, G. &

Leisner, V. 1951[1985]:151. 1-3 Cova da Moura; 4,5 and 15-17 Cabeço da Arruda; 6

and 7 Anta Grande do Olival da Pega; 8,13 and 14 caves in Cascais; 9 Gruta da

Carrasca; 12 Anta Grande da Comenda da Igreja; 18 Portalegre; 19 Gruta da

Galinha; 20 Elvas region.

In Late Neolithic Period into the megalithic graves in the coastal area

appeared lime stone idols (Fig.12.) and mortars, which are related to the

Mediterranean cultural influences. The mortars were used to grind red ochre.

(Gonçalves 2006:53.) The limestone idols were arranged in the graves so

that they formed an equilateral cross on the bottom of the tomb. The

appearing of the lime stone idols is probably connected to the emerging

Chalcolithic period and to the international metal processing and trading

centers starting to evolve on the coastal area. (Gonçalves 2006:505-507.)

Simultaneously, for the first time, the fortificated habitations appeared into the

Portuguese landscape. They may be a sign telling that the hierarchisation of

the society had begun. (Gonçalves 1989:299.)

30

Fig.10. Slate plaques, Granja de Céspedes. Source: Heitlinger 2007.http://arqueo.org/index.html

Fig. 11. Chist crusier from dolmen Anta 4. Da Herdade das Antas, Montemor-o-Novo. Photo: Museu Nacional de Arqueologia 2014. Artefact No: 989.29.1www.Museuarqueologia.pt

31

Fig. 12. Chalcolithic idols from megalithic burials in collections of MuseuArchaeológico do Carmo. Photo by author 2010.

2.5.2 Burials in the megalithic graves in the Chalcolithic period(approximately 3000 -1800 BCE) and reburials in the Bronze and IronAges

During the Chalcolithic period the burials in the Portuguese megalithic graves

turned towards the direction of individual burials – instead of mixing the

bones of the deceased, the bones of each individual were now stacked onto

separate piles. It is thought that the cult of the ancestors would have been

growing at this time, as well as its harnessing to serve the justification of the

rising ideology of private landowning. (Goméz et al. 2008.)

The schist plaques were situated under each skull (while earlier they were

mixed amongst other grave goods and bones). Novelties amongst the grave

goods were copper arrowheads and bellbeaker vessels. Starting from the

final part of the Chalcolithic period, approximately 1800 BCE, the skeletons

were not anymore dismantled. The grave goods were given individually for

each deceased. For example in the dolmen number 1 of Poço da Gateira,

near Évora, the dead were placed to rest in a half-sitting position, leaning

against the walls of the dolmen. All the corpses in the dolmen had still

received equal treatment and equal grave goods – a polished axe and a

32

polished chisel. (Gonçalves 2006.) However, in some Chalcolithic tombs we

can see signs of different treatment of the corpses deposited in them (Castro

et al. 2009:49-57).

Inside some dolmens were built slate coffins, and the corpses positioned into

the coffins got more grave goods than the corpses placed outside them. At

the same time the internal hierarchy of the tombs began to take shape – the

corpses with biggest amount of grave goods were placed in middle of the

burial chamber and as near as possible to the big headstone opposite the

entrance of the dolmen, which seems to have carried a special importance.

The deceased who received less gifts were positioned on the peripheries of

the burial chamber. (García-Martinez de Lagran et al. 2010:257.)

Possibly in response to the march of the hierarchisation the bones and grave

goods in some megalithic graves were subsequently mixed with each other

and the slate coffins were eradicated, and the grave thus ”democratized”.

Similar interpretation has been made about so called ”lime-kiln tombs”.

(García-Martinez de Lagran et al. 2010:272.) Lime-kiln tombs were tholos

tombs built of limestone, which were intently demolished by fire after few

generation´s use. A wind shelter was built on top of the tholos to enable the

burning, and the fire was maintained for days, until the limestone

constructions were melted, according to the results of experimental

archaeology. 3 Water was poured over the melted limestone, in consequence

of which a hard, about half a meter thick lime-cement layer was formed. The

residual remnants of the wall constructions were scattered. Archaeological

studies found out that the past generations had built slate coffins inside the

3 In the archaeological experiment 1999 a replica of the La Peña de la Abuela tomb in Ambrona (Soria, Spain)was built and fired. “Once the replica was finished it was surrounded by a wooden screen and covered by heatherand mud, as was found in the La Peña de La Abuela excavation, which would protect the combustion from thewind.. ..During the firing it was necessary to restock with a considerable amount of quick lighting dry fuel as hasbeen widely recorded in the local traditional ‘lime-kilns’” The amount needed proved to be 20 tons. “After 35 hoursof experimental firing, only the top of the structure had been transformed into quicklime (CaO), whereas in the restof the replica, only a thin layer was sufficiently dehydrated to form quicklime. It is important to note that thethickness of the replica walls (70 cm) would have required a much more prolonged fire (perhaps two more days andnights) to melt the whole structure.. ..To obtain 2000–3000 kg of quicklime, a minimum of ten hours of continuousand intense fire was required. This clearly shows that the large quantity of quicklime found in La Peña (4 m3) or ElMiradero (10 m3) is impossible to produce accidentally and obviously reflects a deliberate and complex behaviour.”(Garcia-Martinez de Lagran et al. (2010:271-272)

33

tholos tombs. The corpses buried inside the coffins were all male, and they

had been given more grave goods than the female corpses buried outside

the coffins. The burning of the tombs and concealing all their contents inside

a lime shell has been interpreted as an effort to restore equality among the

dead. After the ”democratization” a similar tholos tomb was built over one of

the burned tombs, and in it the burials continued in the traditional, more equal

manner. Over the other burned graves were piled stone heaps, and on top of

one was erected a menhir. ”Lime-kiln tombs” have been thus far found few in

Portugal, Spain and France. (García-Martinez de Lagran et al. 2010.)

On the early Bronze Age (1800 – 1500 calBC) the burials changed to

individual burials. The deceased was put into a stone coffin, which was

surrounded by a stone circle, over which was erected a mound. The Bronze

Age barrows are often located next to or on top of the Neolithic grave

mounds. The megalithic graves were also often reused. Reuse was common

throughout Europe. For example a study made on the Mecklenburg-

Vorpommern area in Germany has shown that of the 144 megalithic graves

in the area one third was in reuse, if only the internal use of the burial

chamber is taken into account, and 50 per cent, if the outside ritual activity

closely connected to them is taken into account as well. About 30 per cent of

the reburials were made in the Pre-Roman Iron Age (Holtorf 2000) and it was

still rather common throughout the Roman era (Goméz et al. 2007). The

studies made in Northern France and in UK indicate continuous reuse of

megalithic burial sites in Bronze Age, Middle Iron Age and even in the

mediaeval period (Sanjuán 2005:601-603). Thus, the secondary use of

megalithic tombs cannot be considered a marginal phenomenon.

During the Middle Bronze Age (1500 -1000 calBC) the reuse of Neolithic

graves accelerated (Mataloto 2007:130), and at the same time into the

villages and homes appeared shrines apparently dedicated to the cult of the

ancestors – artificial podiums on which were brought Neolithic schist plaques

from the graves, and in two cases also bellbeaker vessels from the

Chalcolithic period. It is possible that also the reuse of the megalithic graves

in the Bronze Age had to do with the ancestor´s cult. (Mataloto 2007:131-

34

132.)

In Bronze Age it was common to resettle earlier settlements or turn them into

burial sites. There is also evidence about attempts to mimic the artefacts of

earlier periods, for example the ceramic bowls imitating the female breast

have been made in the same settlement sites both in the end of the fourth

millennium and in the Bronze Age. (Sanjuán 2005:597.) The use of

megalithic graves continued also in Iron Age. Funeral urns were deposited

into them. Urns were deposited for example into the Dolmen of Tera near the

town of Mora as late as during the 5th and 6th centuries ACE. In the context

of the urn burials has been found Venus and Matres figures, which are

connected to the fertility cult. (Gómez et al. 2007:123.)

3.Theartofmegalithictombs

3.1 Paintings and drawings in the tombs.

The painted and engraved art of the Iberian megalithic graves represents the

same technique and style than the Neolithic schematic rock art in the open

rock art sites (Balbín Behrmann & Bueno Ramirez 2003). (Fig. 13.)The rock

art was mainly done in rock shelters, connected to river crossings, along the

waterways and engraved in stones, which are thought to have marked the

grazing land borders or the locations of settlements and water sources

(Rocha 2004). The engravings on the menhirs are also part of the same art

tradition, as well as the decorated schist plaques and other mobile art (Balbín

Behrmann & Bueno Ramirez 2006). The art sites form a network into the

landscape, and fills it with meanings, which can be identified and understood

even by a stranger wandering thither (Rocha 2004).

It is remarkable that the majority of decorated dolmens in Portugal are in the

Central and Northern part of the country, while the decorated schist plaques

fill the dolmens in the South. It seems that the permanent art in the North and

the mobile art in the South played similar role in the burial context. (Rocha

2004.) The division is not totally exclusive – there is some decorated

35

dolmens in Southern Portugal and some schist plaques found in Northern

Portugal. (Map 3.) Since the 1980´s many more decorated megalith tombs

have been found in Southern Portugal too (Sanches 2006).

Fig. 13. The head stone of Dolmen de Areita, Viseu – the same schematic style thanin contemporaneous rock art. Source: Carvalho et al. 1998:66.

36

Map 3. Megalithic art in Iberia.Besides megalith tombs the map covers decoratedmenhirs and cromlechs. White dots mark the sites known in 1981, black dots marksites found between 1981 and 2003. Source: Balbín Behrmann & Bueno Ramirez2003.

Many scientists (e.g. Balbín Behrmann et al. 2000, Cruz 1995, Jorge 1995,

O´Sullivan 2002) divide Neolithic art into the art of public space and into the

secret art of the graves. The motifs of the art in the megalithic monuments

differ from the motifs of the art of the public space mainly by there being

more anthropomorphic symbols amongst them. The painting and drawing

techniques has been used in Iberia supporting each other, both in the graves

and in other art sites. The art of the graves is polychrome (fig. 14.) – the

colors are red, white and black, while the open air art is monochrome – the

only color being red. The schist plaques and other idols in the graves also

represent the same art tradition, and they should be seen as part of it.

(Balbín Behrmann & Bueno Ramirez 2003.)

37

Fig. 14. Polychrome art in dolmen Anta de Antelas. On the left twoanthropomorphic figures and on right the sun between ziguezague lines. Source:Laranjeira 2013. http://antelas-omeulugar.blogspot.pt/2013/01/dolmen-pintado-de-antelas.html

Regardless of the size of the megalithic grave, it is the so called headstone,

opposite the entrance (often the largest orthostat), and the orthostats next to

it, on which majority of the art is located. (Fig.15.) Art is often also lining the

entrances, through which people (or deceased) are moving from one space

into another. (Behrmann et al. 2006.) There is also often art in the so called

threshold stones, which don´t have any structural role in the dolmens, but

which are thought to serve as space dividers, by stepping over which a

person moves from one space into another – from profane to sacred and

even holier (O´Sullivan 2002).

38

Fig. 15. The decorated orthostats of the dolmen 2. In Portela do pau. Source:

Sanches 2006.

According to the radiocarbon datings of the pigments, the art in the

megalithic graves is from the same period than the megaliths themselves,

and so they should be seen as a part of the architectural whole. They have

been already part of the design of the dolmen. (Balbín Behrmann & Bueno

Ramirez 2000:287-289.) For example in the dolmens of Dombate and Pedra

Cuberta in Galicia, Spain, the entire inner surface of the burial chamber has

been first painted with white colour, over which has been painted

representative art with red (Jorge 1998).

In some cases some symbols have been repaired or altered during the later

use of the dolmens. For example in the dolmen of Antelas (Oliveira de

Frades) has been recognized two different shades of red colour, but in spite

of this, ”archaeological data points to an individualized iconographic and

architectonic programme for each dolmen”. (Sanches 2006:129.)

39

3.2 Symbols in the art of the megalith tombs

Art in the megalithic graves follows a particular set of norms, be it in a

dolmen, tholos tomb, cave or artificial cave in whatever part of Portugal,

maybe in whole Iberia or even in the whole vast area of the European

megalithic culture – the same motifs are present, and their positioning inside

the graves is similar. The central motifs of the megalithic art are:

anthropomorphic symbols, symbols probably representing sun, snake and

horned animals, weapons and geometric figures – triangles, quadrangles,

rhombs, zigzag lines and circles. (Fig.16) The symbols are appearing in the

art in certain combinations, like anthropomorph with a snake or

anthropomorph with sun. Often the anthropomorph is combined with some

animal, which is commonly thought to symbolize fertility and rebirth – like

snake, hare or a horned animal, usually deer. (Fig. 17.) The same symbols

are central to the mythology of the entire Western farming culture for a long

time. (Balbín Behrmann et al. 2000:293.)

40

Fig. 16. On top: Drawings of details in dolmen Anta de Antelas (Rodrigues 1991).On bottom: Drawing of a detail in dolmen Anta de Antelas. Two anthropomorficfigures and a comb over the smaller figure. (Gonçalves 2004:12.)

The fact that there is pictures of deers, and also hunting scenes present in

the megalith tombs, which, one should imagine, would not have been very

central themes anymore in Neolithic culture, tells, according to Balbín

Behrmann & Bueno Ramirez (2006b), that the artists were picturing the life of

mythical ancestors.

In studies made about the visibility of the symbols in the dolmens using

different artificial lightning, it has been noticed that some of the symbol

combinations seem to have been planned in a way that they seem to be

moving or dancing seen in the light of a torch (Sanches 2006:135). There is

evidence that large part of the megalithic graves in Iberia, which today are

undecorated, were once decorated. If the capstone of the dolmen is

removed, erosion eats the paintings and more delicate engravings from the

orthostats in few years. For example the dolmen Mamoa 2 do Alto da Portela

do Pau in the Northern Portugal is the only one in the group of five dolmens,

which has its capstone unremoved, and also the only one with art inside – six

of its seven orthostats are painted. It is very probable that there has been art

also in the other dolmens of the group. In some cases traces of the

decorations are only left in the basal parts of the ortostaths, where the

deposition of sediments has been conserving them. (Jorge 1998.)

41

Fig. 17. On the left: Horned animal, snake, and a possible mix of these two. .Engravings of dolmen de Aliviada, Portugal. (Silva 1984.)On the right: Deer or elk in dolmen de Châo Redondo, Portugal (Shee 1981).

The use of red ochre is widespread in all megalithic graves, but its volume

fluctuates greatly. In the cave of Lapa do Fumo in Sesimbra there is so much

red ochre that the cultural layer has been named according to it as ”Camada

vermelha” – Red layer. Also in some dolmens the whole burial chamber is

painted red. (Jorge 1998.)

The orthostats are sometimes divided vertically or horizontally into different

image fields either with straight or wavy lines. Sometimes the lines are

framing a picture. Most thus framed pictures are in the headstone, opposite

to the entrance of the dolmen. For example the headstone of the dolmen

Mamoa 2 do Alto da Portela do Pau is divided into horizontal areas with

groups of zigzag or wavy lines, which alternate with the unengraved zones.

The impression is very similar than the decorations in the schist plaques in

the Southern Portugal. This raises the question whether the headstones of

Northern Portugal decorated in this style share the same ideological meaning

with the schist plaques found in the megalithic graves in the South. Similarly

decorated headstones are found for example in the dolmen Rapido 3

(Esposende, Portugal), in the dolmen Forno dos Mouros (Coruña, Galicia)

and in the dolmen Castaneira 2 (Pontevedra, Galicia). (Jorge

1998:74.)(Fig.18.)

42

Fig.18. On the left: orthostat in Dolmen de Santa Cruz (Bueno Ramirez 2010).http://www.man.es/man/dms/man/estudio/publicaciones/conferencias-congresos/MAN-2009-Ojos-cierran/MAN-Con-2009-Ojos-cierran.pdfOn the right: The headstone of Dolmen 2 de Chão Redondo, Sever do VougaSource: Castela 2013. http://www.portugalnotavel.com/

Sometimes on the dolmen headstone is pictured a human-animal hybrid, and

sometimes a ”hieratic” figure, who is holding hands, as if protectively, over

smaller anthropomorphic figures. There is something projecting from the

figure, which may represent the rays of light, or possibly a skirt. (Jorge

1998:76.) The left hand side of the dolmens (watched from the entrance) is

always more decorated than the right hand side, and majority of the

anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images are also located there (Jorge

1998:73). It is possible that the left side of the dolmen was esteemed as

”holier” than the right hand side. The sun symbols, instead, are located on

the right side, which may be explained by the fact that the majority of the

Iberian dolmens are oriented towards east, and the sun shining through the

entrance of the dolmen has illuminated the right side, that is the north side of

the dolmen, for a longer duration. (Jorge 1998:77.)

43

It is noticeable that some symbols in dolmens are situated on the outside of

the orthostats, where they have been hidden by the mound piled over the

dolmen, and thus impossible to be seen after the dolmen has been built

ready (Rocha 2004). In some dolmens the corridor is so low that they must

have been entered by crawling, and the chamber itself can be too low to be

standing upright. Correspondingly the art is sometimes situated in the lower

part of the orthostats, so that being able to observe it, one needs to be laying

on the bottom of the dolmen. (Sanches 2006.)

3.3 Some theories and interpretations on Iberian megalithic art

There are various different theories and studies about the meaning of the art

in Iberian megalithic tombs. I’m now introducing shortly the most relevant

amongst them: According to Sanches (2006) the symbols or motifs in the

decorated dolmens would have worked as ”highly encrypted containers of

stories or ideas” and people would have shared and recounted myths and

mythologies through them. Thus the decorated dolmens would have been

”deposits of very specific memories and stories”. (Sanches 2006:131.) But

most of all, according to Sanches, the iconographic motifs and their

organization and distribution in the dolmen, would have served as a

generating force of "scenarios”, together with the natural or artificial lightning.

They would have guided people through the dolmen, along a certain route,

directing them to see certain visions from wanted angles, and thus to go

through certain experiences created by the light, space, movement and the

cultural meaning of the symbols together.Thus the iconography and the

architecture of each dolmen would embody an organic unity, conceived for a

specific purpose. (Sanches 2006.)

Rodrigues sees the symbols in dolmens as representing the most central

themes of the religion of their Neolithic builders – themes of eternal return

and the travel of souls from world to world (Rodrigues 1991). Bueno Ramirez

and Balbín Behrmann see the megalithic art as part of territorial behavior of

Neolithic and Calcolithic communities. The partial meaning of Iberian

44

schematic rock art would have been to mark the area as to belonging to a

certain group of people. The art would have been directed to both inside and

outside – to tell outsiders about the existing occupation and its longevity

through generations old art tradition – and to position the new generations of

occupants onto the long line of traditions through the rituals related to the art

sites. The art in the megalithic tombs would have been a more secretive

version of the same art tradition – directed to a more restricted group of

people. The fact that there is more anthropomorphic figures in the burial

contexts than in the open air art, proves, according to Bueno Ramirez and

Balbín Behrmann, the territorial nature of the art. The past generations buried

into the dolmen would also been pictured on the walls, often together with

animals symbolizing rebirth, like snakes or deer. The tight connection of the

art tradition to the past generations and to the territorial rights would also

explain why the Neolithic symbolics and artistic style were still significant for

the Bronze Age people. (Balbín Behrmann & Bueno Ramirez 2000, 2003,

2006, 2009, 2010.)

According to the entoptic theory, first introduced by Dowson and Lewis-

Williams in 1988 (Dowson & Lewis-Williams 1988) the rock art was created,

at least partly, in connection to consciousness-altering practices. The altered

states of consciousness (ASCs) is a term first used by Arnold M. Ludwig in

1966. By ASCs he meant every mental state which differs from the baseline

or normal woken state. (Ludwig 1966.)

ASC can be achieved by various ways from rhythmic dancing to taking of

drugs, and from fatigue to sensory deprivation. These processes affect the

nervous system in similar ways. All human beings share the same

neuropsychology, and certain sensations are recorded in very different

cultures. These sensations include the illusion of flight, a sense of falling or

descent and sensation of travelling through a tunnel or a vortex. (Bradley

2009:65.)

As well as bodily hallucinations, the nervous system also generates intense

visual effects which are called entoptic phenomena. Entoptic images or

45

phosphenes are "visual experiences which are generated by structures in the

visual nervous system and whose shapes are determined by properties of

those nervous structures" (Dronfield 1996:374). There are six types of

geometric images, which are recognized to be common for visions

experienced in different altered states of consciousness. The six phosphenes

are: grids/lattices, parallel lines, dots, zigzags, curves and filigrees/meanders.

The images change their shape somewhat depending of the deepness of the

altered stage the person is in. (Dronfield 1996.)

In the case of Portuguese dolmens, the entoptic images are represented

fluently, not only on the dolmen walls, but also in the decorated schist

plaques, thousands of which have been found from the dolmens. According

to the theory the entoptic art would have had to do with shamanistic practises

and shamanistic tripartite worldview. The images would represent the visions

experienced in altered state of consciousness during (shamanistic) rituals,

and repeated in art, to maybe work as kind of road maps back to the

otherworld visited – between the three layers of the world. (Bradley 2009.)

Dowson and Lewis-Williams later (1993) defined the use of phosphenes in

Neolithic art by adding, that though the phosphenes produced by brain seem

to be the same in different cultures and in different times, what people see

and then recreate in art is mediated by cultural expectations, and the art is

construed according to culturally constructed expectations.

The phosphenes seen in altered states off mind are closely connected to the

also universally experienced bodily hallucinations of flying, falling and

travelling through a tunnel or vortex. These experiences would have been

explained according to the cultural expectations, but it seems that a common

way to explain them was a view of world as divided into different dimensions

or different layers. The flying sensation would have taken people into the

upper world, while the sensation of going through a tunnel or vortex took

people into the lower world. Bradley (2009) makes an important observation

that the sensation of going through a tunnel or vortex is also common in

near-death experiences.

46

3.4 The schist plaques of Alentejo

The manufacture of decorated schist plaques started about 3500 calBCE in

the interior of Portugal, in the area now called Alentejo, south from river Tejo,

wherefrom they spread to the coastal areas, towards North and to the

Spanish Andalusia (Gonçalves 2011).(Map 4.) The material of the plaques is

schist or slate. Their size varies between 8 and 25 cm of length. The plaques

are generally trapezoidal shape, sometimes quadrangular or triangular.

(Lopes 2011.)

Map 4. Distribution of the finds of schist plaques in Iberia. Source: Bueno Ramírez2010:43.http://www.man.es/man/dms/man/estudio/publicaciones/conferencias-congresos/MAN-2009-Ojos-cierran/MAN-Con-2009-Ojos-cierran.pdf

The decoration of the plaques is geometric and sometimes anthropomorphic

in a highly stylized way. (Fig 19.) In some cases the plaques have also been

painted red (Bueno-Ramirez 2010). (Fig 20.)

47

Fig 19. On the left: Antropomorphic plaque with nose and hands. Museu daCoudelaria de Alter, Portugal (Cat No: AH 197) Source: Lillios 2004.

On the right: Anthropomorphic plaque with ”solar eyes”. Museu Municipal deSesimbra, Portugal. Source: Lillios 2004, artifact 541.http://research2.its.uiowa.edu/iberian/index.php

The plaques have generally a bipartite structure, with the lower portion of the

plaque made up of 2-14 horizontal registers of repeating geometric motifs,

such as triangles, zigzags, and checkerboards. The top section is usually

called ”head” and the lower section ”body”. There is one or two holes drilled

to the plaques, and obviously they are designed to be hung on the neck.

(Lillios 2004.) (Fig. 21.) Apparently they were, though, only destined to be

used in after death rituals, since there is only few plaques found in settlement

context. Nor does there appear similar traces of usage on the plaques, as

were soon resulted in the tests of experimental archaeology.4 Apparently the

4 In the experiment 8 chist plaques were produced using calcolithic techniques, and six of them wereworn as pendants for a months time. After this period the plaques and their perforations wereexamined for damage and wear, and compared with the two unutilized plaques. As a result from themonth´ s use, the plaques showed clear signs of wear on the surfaces directly superior to theperforation, underneath the cordage. Similar traces has not been found in the prehistoric plaques.(Woods & Lillios 2006.)

48

plaques hung around the neck of the deceased when they were put into the

grave, but later when the bones were moved aside, the plaques were mixed

amongst the bone material according to the ideology of fading out the

individuality of the corpses. When the plaques are found in good association

with individuals, in the later burials, they are found placed on the chest or

alongside the body. (Jorge 2003.)

Fig. 20. On the left: Front side and back side of a plaque from Garrovillas, Câceres,Spain.On the right: Front side and back side of a plaque from the dolmen de Trincones,Acântara, Câceres, Spain. Traces of red paint.Source: Balbín Behrmann et al.2009:51

The manufacture of the schist plaques continued until about 2500 calBCE.

On the coastal region similar plaques were made of limestone, and few

examples have also been found made of sandstone and ceramic. (Gonçalves

2008:112.) The plaques have been found in all types of megalithic graves in

southern Portugal alike – the dolmens, tholos tombs, caves and artificial

caves (Lopes 2011).

49

Fig. 21. A plaque in Museu Archaeológical do Carmo, photo by author 2013.

Since the late 19th century, archaeologists have excavated thousands of

engraved schist plaques from collective burials in southern Portugal and

west-central Spain. About 1200 of these has been published, but it is difficult

to know precisely how many plaques remain unpublished and in museum

collections. The estimated amount made by Katina Lillios (Lillios 2004) is

about 4000.

It seems that the plaques were manufactured in one or more production

centers. This far only one production center has been found, during the

excavations of Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic village Aquas Frias, in

the Évora district. The village was surrounded with three concentric ditch and

bank semicircles, the open side limited by a river bed. Inside the area thus

limited, were various different structures – house depressions, storage pits,

pole holes, wall ruins and different stone pavements and lots of artefacts

typical for this era. Amongst all this was found over hundred schist plaques,

representing all the stages of production – unprocessed pieces of schist,

shaped schist plaques, partly polished plaques, and ready, decorated

plaques. (Calado 2010.) (Fig.22.)

50

Fig. 22. Unfinished schist plaques. Photo: Calado 2010.http://crookscape.blogspot.pt

The location of the village might give an explanation for its central role in

plaque making: It is the village most closely connected to the Algueva rock

art concentration on the right bank of the river Guadiana. The area was

scarcely populated during the winter months, but the population, largely

dependent on transhumant herding, moved to the fresh Guadiana river sides

for the dry months of summer. According to Calado (2010) it is probable the

Algueva rock art site was a holy place and a meeting point for a large number

of people from a wide area, who get together there every summer.

51

Some plaques have representations of eyes, often with radiating lines,

usually called ”solar eyes”. Many scientists interpret the plaques to be

representation of the Mother Goddess, the source of life, and for that reason

companion of the dead. (e.g. Gonçalves 2004, 2008; Rodrigues 1986,

1986b.) According to other proposed interpretations, the decorations of the

plaques would signal the ethnic identification of contemporary groups

(Bueno-Ramírez 1992) or the generational distance between the deceased

and an important ancestor, and the clan/lineage affiliation (Lillios 2002,

2004).

The main decorative motifs on the plaques are triangles, zigzag lines and

rhombs, all of which are considered to symbolize the feminine divinity

(Everson 1989) or the fertilizing powers of rain (Golan 2003). In some cases

the anthropomorphia of the plaque is emphasized by adding hands,

sometimes womb, or a triangle, possibly representing the feminine genitals

(Gonçalves 2005). (Fig. 23.)

52

Fig. 23. Sex characters in schist plaques: At the bottom of the schist plaque found in

dolmen Anta Grande da Comenda da Igreja, can be seen a figure – a vertical line,

bordered with shorter, horizontal lines. According to Gonçalves it is a representation

of female genitals. (Gonçalves 2005:171.)

Some plaques are cut to better present the anthropomorphic outlines. The

”solar eyes” emerge to the plaques during the Chalcolithic period (3000 –

53

2500 calBCE). The cults of sun and the Mother Goddess are considered to

be combined in these ”goddesses with solar eyes”. (Gonçalves 1998:131.)

Sun / eye symbols are also found in bone idols, lime stone idols and ceramic

bowls at the beginning of the third millennium BC in the area which covers

Lisbon peninsula, Alentejo and Algarve in Portugal, and Badajoz and Huelva

in Spain (Gonçalves 1998). (Figs. 24, 25.)

Fig. 24. The main distribution areas of the different Iberian sun eyed idols. Theschist plaques are marked by a purple rectangular and the bone and lime stoneidols with a red rectangular. Source: Hurtado 2010:176.http://www.man.es/man/dms/man/estudio/publicaciones/conferencias-congresos/MAN-2009-Ojos-cierran/MAN-Con-2009-Ojos-cierran.pdf

It is probable that the ”eye-goddess” is connected to the Mediterranean ”owl-

goddess” (Gonçalves 1998:310-311). In the final stages of schist

manufacture there appeared a new ”anthropomorph in anthropomorph”

theme, in which a smaller anthropomorphic figure is pictured inside the chest

of the bigger figure. According to Gonçalves these are representations of the

54

Young God of the Mediterranean mythologies, to whom the Goddess gives

birth, and who then becomes her divine partner. (Gonçalves 2006:505.)

Fig. 25. Vase with solar eyes and possible genitals from Monte de Outeiro. MuseuGeologico, Lisbon. Photo: Cardoso 2008.

In some dolmens with high degree of preservation of bones, it has been

noted that the number of the schist plaques is correlating with the number of

corpses buried there, so that all deceased but the children under six months

of age have been given a plaque with them into the grave (Gonçalves 2006).

For example in the dolmen Anta 3 da Herdade de Santa Margarida, in

Reguengos da Monsaraz, were found 22 schist plaques and fragments of

two plaques. The bones in the dolmen were identified to have been belonged

to 27 individuals (dated between 2900 – 2500 calBC), three of whom were

children under six months of age. (Gonçalves 2006:490.) It would therefore

appear that the children were taken as members of the Neolithic society or

the religious community as about half a year old. However, the situation is

different in some dolmens – for example in the tholos tomb Olival da Pega

55

2b, dated similarly and just few kilometers away, were 120 burials and only

four schist plaques (Gonçalves 2006:490). Thus, the number of schist

plaques can only indicate the minimum number of individuals buried inside a

grave.

Besides the connection to the decorated orthostats in the dolmens, some

researches also see a connection between the schist plaques and the

decorated menhirs from the late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, some of

which are anthropomorphic (Bueno-Ramírez 2010). There is also a possible

continuum in the style (and ideology) to be seen still in the menhirs of the

early Bronze Age (Baptista 1985). (Fig.26.) The distribution of the Bronze age

menhirs also hints to a continuum of some sort – the menhirs are on the

same areas with the Neolithic megaliths, and often erected next to them

(Santos 2009).

Fig. 26. On the left: Menhir da Ermida. Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age (Baptista

1985). On the right: Menhir do Riomalo de Abajo. Late Chalcolithic/Middle Bronze

56

Age (Bueno Ramirez 1990).

PART II

4.Folkloreonmegalithtombsandmourasencantadas

4.1 Short introduction

“Or if we trust the village taleA wayward maid in witching hourWhen stars were red and moon was paleReared thy dread mound by magic power”

Sir Walter Scott (Grinsell 1976: 214).

Archaeology and folklore share common origins. They both have their roots

in the activities of antiquarians from the 16th to 19th centuries. The

antiquarians saw their task to be to preserve fast disappearing relics from the

past – be they material (e.g. prehistorical monuments) or immaterial (e.g.

traditions, tales, songs, practises and beliefs) (Bruford & Macdonald 1994).

In the 19th century the fields of folklore and archaeology began to define

themselves as separate academic disciplines. Chairs of folklore and

archaeology started to be created in different universities in Europe.

Archaeology defined itself to be dealing with material remains of the past,

while folklore focused on oral traditions, rituals and practices. (Gazin-

Schwartz & Holtorf 1999.)

During the 20th century the disciplines diverged from each other, both

developing through acquiring new approaches and techniques. The

disciplines have since sometimes drifted into fruitless disputes about which

one of them produces more authentic picture of the past. (Chippendale1993.)

Instead of disputing it would be more advantageous to admit that both

disciplines are alone able to produce only partial information of the past, and

that by using both sources of information side by side could in many cases

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“provide a richer basis for understanding what once was, and what might

have been” (Chippendale 1993:9).

The Annales school of history in France (from 1930´s onwards) aimed into

writing total history. Their method was to combine information produced by

the different disciplines studying human past. (Bintliff 1991.) One line of

research initiated by the school is known as the history of mentality. Its aim is

to get to the heart of the world of human experience and thought. Mentality is

defined by Le Goff (1978) as the nature of the collective mind of a group of

people. The concept of collective mind comes thus close the concept of

collective mythology, through the concept of worldview, with which they are

both tightly entwined. Mythic traditions are slow to change, and through them

it is possible to get in touch with the past world views and the mentalities.

The myths “carry voices from the ancient past to the present day. We can try

to trace roots of our world view by listening to this voice” (Siikala 2002:18).

The folk stories are not nessessarily meant to be taken literally. They are told

in mythological, symbolic language, which needs to be interpreted. They tell

more about issues meaningfull for the tradition, and about the world view of

the people telling them than about historical facts.The meaningfulness of the

stories is the force guarding them from vanishing.

During the last decade archaeology has become more interested into the

effects of memory for past human behaviour, and into the mnemonic

practices (see e.g. Lillios & Tsamis 2010). Mnemonic practices iclude for

example the reuse of funerary monuments or building new tombs next to old

dolmens, or reusing and reforming items or bones of foreparents (supposed

or real) in connection to the cult of ancestors. Thus archaeology has become

more interested into the whole life history of a monument or an artefact, not

just its original making and use. In folklore funerary monuments don’t belong

into any particular time. They belong to the whole long span of time in which

they have had a meaning in people’s lives. (Gazin-Schwartz & Holtorf 1999.)

In case of Portugal, according to folklore, the megalith tombs were built in the

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beginning of time by mouras, and served as connecting portals between the

worlds throughout the times. They were full of snakes and bones, pigs and

figs; naked girls climbed over them at night time and treasure hunters were

driwen away from them by angry bulls at day time.

In this second part of the work I’m focusing on all of these.

4.2 Mouras as builders and inhabitants of megalith tombs

4.2.1 Background

According to folklore in Portugal, Spain, France, the British Isles, Basque

country, and in some areas of Germany and Italy, the dolmens were erected

by women, who were carrying huge boulders over their heads, inside their

aprons or on the tips of their little fingers, simultaneously spinning, weaving,

breastfeeding a child or churning butter (Chaves 1951:109). In Portugal the

constructor of the dolmens is called by the names Moura, Moira, Mara or

Velha (old woman). In Spain she is known as Moura, Mora, Mari or

Vieha/Vella (old woman). In the Basque region her name is Mari or Mairi

(Barandiaran 1984). In Italy she is known as Vecchia (old woman) or as

Nonna (grandmother) (Romero 1998). In Brittany she is called Gwrac´h (old

woman) (Alinei & Benozzo 2009:28) and on British Isles her name is either

Cailleach Bheara or Old Woman/Hag of Beara (Hull 1927). Owing to the

influence of the church mouras as megalith builders were sometimes

replaced by Virgin Mary or Satan (Amades 1941:121, Gallop 1961:80).

According to etymology the word moura has two or more intertwined roots.

Moura (moira, maura, mediaeval form ”mora”) is the feminine form of the

word ”mouro”. It shares common roots with the Celtic word mrvos (dead) and

with the latin word mortuus, from which were derived the portuguese and

Galician morto (dead). (Frazão & Morais 2009:18.) The Greek word moira

(part, lot, destiny) has also to do with the origins of moura (Golan 2003:427),

as well as the Celtic word mahra or mahr (spirit) (Frazão & Morais 2009:18).

The words in many nowaday’s languages meaning moisture, rain (Tamil

mãri) and sea (Latin mare) are, according to linguistics, also connected with

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the same web of meanings (Golan 2003:427). In the medieval Portuguese,

the word "moura" meant dead. On the basis of these words the linguists have

reconstructed the Proto-Indo-European word *mr-tuos (dead) (Frazão &

Morais 2009:18) and also the Nostratic *märä (water) (Golan 2003:424). But I

have to also take into account the possible linguistic (besides other kind)

connection between the family of mouras and the great Basque goddess

Mari. “Mari” is used as a common noun in the sense of “lady” or “woman “in

the whole Basque area (Bausani 1956).

”Mourama” is a name used about the land or world of mouras (Sarmento

1990). Mouras have a clear linguistic connection with another species of

supernatural beings – mourinhos/maruxinhos, who are little hominid

creatures living in their own underground dimension. They are roughly

equivalents to the gnomes or elves. (CEAO 2010.)

The word ”moura” got later, after the Moorish occupation, mixed with the

word referring to the Moorish occupants of the area. This had also impact on

the stories of mouras – they got sometimes more exotic scenery or turned

into stories about forbidden love between a Christian hero and a Moorish

princess. The fact that also on British Isles names like Muir, Mor, Mhor, More

and Moor are often associated with megalithic monuments (Monaghan

2004) tells that the origins of the mythological occupants of the dolmens

cannot have much to do with the medieval moors.

Besides mouras, also male mouros are present in the stories, although they

appear much more rarely. Their only task in the stories seems to be to guard

treasures. Unlike mouras, who are beautiful, wise and charming, the mouros

are insensitive, aggressive, evil and warlike and interested only into

valuables. It is possible, also considering their narrow role, that they are

much younger characters in Portuguese folklore – possibly reflecting the

memories people had of the Moorish invaders (or reflecting the image

imposed by the church of moors as a negative opponent of the good

Christians), possibly mixed with the gnome -like mourinhos, who were, like

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the dwarves, manufacturing gold- and silver items in their underground

homes (CEAO 2010). Amália Marques (2013) points out that there is a

difference between the characters of these male mouros of Southern and

Northern Portugal. According to her their negative characteristics are much

stronger in south, which might reflect the fact that the northern area of

Portugal was much shorter time under the Moorish rule – only about 150

years, while in South it lasted about six hundred years – and thus the

memories of people of North weren’t so strong. In the character of mouras

there is, instead, no differences between the South and the North. (Marques

2013: 20-22.)

4.2.2 The earliest known written references to mouras

The earliest known written reference to mouras is in Vasco de

Aponte’s ”Relación dalgunhas casas e liñaxes do Reino de Galiza”

(Relationship of some houses and lineages of the Kingdom of Galicia), which

was published between the years 1530 and 1535. Vasco de Aponte

attempted in it to establish a genealogical history of the various noble houses

of Galicia. The book tells also about an unlucky treasure hunting trip

organized by nobleman Álvaro Perez de Moscoso (a historical figure, who

died 1468). The trip was made into the Coruja cave (= Owl cave), which was

locally known as a place where the mouras resided.

”According to what people say, advised by a friar he went into Coruja cave to lookfor a big treasure. He took with him thirty squires and labourers who were verystrong, and before them many burning torches and very big oak trunks. And into theentrance of the cave they fastened long ropes with sticks. People were well armed.When they were going into the cave they discovered very big birds that blow themstrongly on their faces. They walked until they arrived at a large river, and on theother side of the river they saw strange, beautiful and very well dressed people, whowere playing instruments and looking at big treasures. But they were so afraid of theriver that they did not dare to go across it. So, they were all in agreement to return,but the friar said: “Go on, go on, there is no trouble”. And they did not want tobelieve it. Then, the wind blew so hard that the torches were put out. And when theymanaged to go out, they had breathed poisoned air so that they did not live longerthan one year, and afterwards the friar lost his sight”. (Costas Goberna et al.2008:21-22.)

The second known literal reference to mouras is in ”Silva Curiosa” by Julián

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Iñiguez de Medrano, from the year 1586. In the book he tells about a

pilgrimage he made into Galicia. In Finisterre/Fisterra he climbed on the top

of a hill to get a closer view on a dolmen located there. A local shepherd

warned him on no account to climb over the dolmen, because in it lived

enchantress Orcavella, who was a powerful spellweaver. According to the

shepherd Orcavella was also the one who had built the dolmen. The dolmen

was told to be full of snakes, and at nighttime, people told, they often heard

horrible sounds and shrieks from it. Orcavella herself was believed to be

alive part of the year, and part of it dead. She was, told the shepherd, a

danger for all living things. (Romero 1998: 21-22.)

Fray Martín Sarmiento ordered the selfsame dolmen to be demolished in

1745, because the unfertile couples had a custom to sleep on its capstone

for remedy (Romero 1998:23). Interestingly, there is knowledge about the

same fertility magic still possibly continuing on the spot where Orcavella’s

dolmen stand, on the summit of Monte Facho.“For some pilgrims, locals, and notables, the mountain has become a final restingspot; a finality of the journey of life. For others, it’s a place of birth, at least ofconception. It may be (or may not be) interesting to note that there’s one specificand famous stone on Monte Facho that sterile couples from centuries ago (and quitepossibly, recently too), following a Celtic rite of fertility, would have sexualintercourse to hopefully conceive. I only saw one couple on my entire trek to MonteFacho and they were fully clothed. As for me, I was alone and, at the time, had noidea about the famous stone or its location.” (St. Germain 2013.)

It is interesting to note in what kind of form the story of Orcavella is told

nowadays. This is what the official website of the Finisterre municipal

executive board is telling about it:

“We don’t leave out, even if it looks like a legend, Orca Vella dolmen, which could bethe westest at the peninsula, located at Monte Facho summit, place of a strongsymbolism, related with the fertility and death rites, embodimented on the figure ofthe mythical Orca Vella.. ..Facho mountain was the secluded spot of a barbarianwoman called Orca Vella, who, after a long life devoted to magic, robbery, eating kidsand to chase after people, chose this place to finish her days. She dug a grave andburied herself together with the body of a shepherd that she had bewitched. Hearingthe shepherd screams the people came, but couldn’t do anything due the snakeswhich came out from the sarcophagus.“ (Concello Fisterra 2012.)

The third early written reference to mouras is a legal document from the

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beginning of the 17th century. Galician priest Vázquez de Orxas brought a

lawsuit against the member peasants of his own congregation about the

ownership of some dolmens and the gold items inside them. His own right for

the dolmens, he claimed, was justified, because a moura had given the

golden treasures as a gift for one of his servants, and suggested him to go

and get a spade and to start to dig in the dolmen. The priest’s servant had

got the spade, but the enraged villagers had stopped him.

“... As one of his servants called Hilario Alonso had found there a disheveled womandressed in brown clothes and with her hair down, when it was already getting dark.He was going to the mill with a “fuelle” (it is a measure of capacity for solids) ofgrain. He had in his hand some hairs, and the moura asked him what he thoughtwas better: she herself or what he had in his hand. He answered that she was better– so she ordered him to go and dig the hillock of the megalithic chamber tomb inSegade and there he would find a treasure for him and all his generation.” (CostasGoberna et al. 2008:21-22.)

Next time mouras are mentioned in 1734, in Bernando Pereyras book

”Anacephaleosis medico-theologica , magica, juridica, moral e politica”. The

book mentions mouras encantadas, who appear in the form of beautiful

women or enormous snakes or as snakes with woman’s hair. According to

the book Mouras have treasures, which turn into coals, sand or bricks if

people are trying to rob them. The writer thinks that the mouras are nothing

else than earth demons. (Vasconcellos 1938:497.)

In these early accounts most themes which can be found in the stories

collected from people in the 19th and 20th centuries, are already present –

mouras are mentioned to be beautiful, they have treasures, which they hide

in caves or dolmens, which they have constructed and in which they live. In

the case of enchantress Orcavella also the spinning, snakes and the fact that

the moura belongs both to the worlds of the living and the dead is mentioned.

What comes to Orcavella’s name, it seems to be interesting combination of

two words – ”orca” and ”orco” are words used about dolmens in northern

Portugal and Galicia, besides which ”orco” means the world hereafter

(Chaves 1951:101). ”Vella” is a variation of the world velha, which is one of

the alternative names for mouras and means ”old woman”. ”Orcavella” could

thus be translated as ”The old woman of dolmen” or ”The old woman of the

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hereafter world”.

The punishment of greediness which confronts the treasure hunters in the

Coruja cave is present in many stories in the folkloristic collections, and the

erotically charged question the moura makes to Hilario Alonso is a formula

followed in countless encounters – the moura asks from her (always male)

conversation companion whether he thinks she is more valuable than this or

that item – and if the man answers correctly (affirmatively) he gets a reward.

The story of Orcavella told by the municipality website five hundred years

later still contains the key symbols, although the story is twisted – the old

woman who built the dolmen and who is powerful enchantress, and possibly

dangerous, the death of her, and the snakes are all present.

4.3 Where and when to meet mouras

The mouras of folklore are wise and breathtakingly beautiful women with

golden or raven black hair (although in Galicia they are often redheads) and

enormous riches. They dress usually in white and glow divine light. (Pedroso

1881b: 6.)

The enormous riches of the mouras can be interpreted as symbolizing life

and fertility (Frazão & Morais 2009: 47). People typically encounter mouras in

times which in Portuguese are referred to as "entreaberto," which literally

means "ajar" – in times when the boundaries between the worlds are ajar –

the midnight, the noon, the solstices and equinoxes and the dawn and sunset

(Frazão & Morais 2009:26). Absolutely the most common time to meet

mouras is the sunrise at the midsummer morning, when the mouras are

rising together with the sun from one world to another (Vasconcellos

1882:87).

The most usual places to meet mouras are caves, dolmens, fountains and

other water sources. Midsummer night has been in Portugal a magical

moment, when people have been trying to affect the future, specially their

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health and fertility and luck in love, by magical practices. The choice of time

and place have been important in doing such magic. The best time has

usually been thought to be the midnight, and the best places to do magic

have usually been places in which traditionally also the mouras tended to

appear, and where it was possible to encounter them. (Pedroso 1881b: 7-

12.)

In midsummer nights the women of marriageable age went to certain

fountains to wash themselves to become ”as beautiful as mouras” (Pedroso

1881b: 5). The water of such fountains near which a moura had appeared, or

in which people had seen mouras washing their clothes, had strengthening

and recuperative properties, especially in the midsummer nights (Benozzo

2009:8). Unwell people and animals were brought to have a bath in such

fountains, or their clothes were washed in them (Pedroso 1881b: 4). The

children were given water from these fountains to drink so that they would

grow strong (Romero 1998). The childless couples spent the midsummer

night together on the top of certain dolmens to become fertile (Romero

1998:23), and the young maidens stripped naked and rubbed their ”navels”

against the dolmens to find a husband (Frazão & Morais 2009b: 41).

The dew of the midsummer morning, rising from the earth, aka Mourama,

had also potency to increase the fertility and the luck in love (Pedroso 1881b:

8). The young maidens were rolling naked in dewy flax fields in the

midsummer mornings to gain better luck in love and better possibilities to get

married (Gallop 1961:111). Interestingly this custom was also widespread in

Finland (Seurasaarisäätiö 1999).

While meeting people mouras were sometimes passing them ”old

knowledge” and skills, for example knowledge in herbal medicine and healing

skills (Frazão & Morais 2009:35). At other times they gave gifts to people –

most commonly figs, beans, a rabbit or a pig, all of which can be read as

fertility symbols (Frazão & Morais 2009:27) – or tested their loyalty to old

customs and behavior norms. Sometimes mouras appeared to help in difficult

childbirths (Braga 1885[1994]:63). Still in the 1930s in some areas of

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Portugal the babies were called ”mouros/mouras” until being baptized (Gallop

1934:127). This may indicate that prior to the baptism in which the child was

taken in as a new member to the community, he was thought to belong to

another world, the world from which he had come from, amongst the mouras.

4.4 Mouras in the shape of snakes and bovines

4.4.1 Symbolism of snake

Besides appearing as charming young women, the mouras shifted their

shape in certain occasions, in most cases for bulls or cows (Pedroso 1881b:

7), other horned animals like goats (Parafita 2006:296) or snakes (Pedroso

1881: 52, Gallop 1961:78), which could be of giant proportions. Even while in

the shape of a snake the mouras often had long, golden hair or human eyes

(Pedroso 1881:52). In the shape of bulls the mouras for example scared

away intruders approaching the dolmen with intention to search for treasures

(Chaves 1951: 111).

As symbols the snake and the bull are seen as representing the feminine and

masculine sexuality and power, and therefore in mouras both are combined.

Explanations for the connection between mouras and snakes have been

seen in that they live both in the underground world, in the terrestrial world

and in the watery realms. (Figuereido 1973.) Connection can also be found in

the thematics linked to both – fertility, life and death. Before the Christian

demonization snake was generally seen in the European tradition as a

symbol of rebirth and the cycle of life because of its periodical skin shedding

and annual rotation – the snake spends the winter season hibernating in

burrows or cracks of rocks, aka in the underworld, and rises together with the

waking nature and sun back to our terrestrial world. Thus it is connected not

only to the cycle of life and death, but also to the cycle of nature and to the

annual and daily rotation of the sun between the worlds. (Gomes 1999:233-

237.)

Snake symbolizes also healing, and is linked not only to sun but also to

moon. The wonderful ability of the snake to periodically desquamate the

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integument covering of its entire body without bleeding, illness or infection,

and immediately produce a new, perfect body covering without scars or ticks

or dermatoses has been seen as a miraculous healing far beyond the human

scope. Moon is linked to the snake through its periodical waxing and waning

– it is, like the snake, renewing itself from time to time. The same rhythm of

waxing and waning has long been associated with the rhythm of female

menstruation, but also to the pregnancies and the female body-shape

changing with them. (Al-Sudairy 2013.) When the moon is crescent, its sharp

points resemble the horns of a bull. In many cultures the moon is then said to

have “horns”, and thus it is also associated with the bull. (Carvalho 2011.)

Snakes are a common motif in the Neolithic rock art and also often present in

the decoration of the dolmens and other megalithic sites (Balbín Behrmann &

Bueno Ramirez 2006b). (Fig.27.) Most often the snake is pictured together

with the sun or as swallowing it, mating with another snake or as a mere

track beside a footprint engraving (Gomes 1999:228). (Fig 28.) The snake

cult intensified in the Bronze Age, and reached its height in the Iron Age, from

which time there have been found snake drawings and snake artefacts in

abundance, particularly in the fortified residential and trade sites. (Gomes

1999:227-228.)

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Fig. 27. On the left: Menhir de Monte da Ribeira, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal.Snakes and possible solar symbols. On the right: Menhir de Gargantáns, Pontevedra,Galicia, Spain. Source: Balbín Behrmann & Bueno Ramirez 2006b.

The snake swallowing the sun is probably connected to the widespread myth,

in which snake swallows the sun in the evening when it sets, digests it during

the night when the sun proceeds through the snake (and the subterranean

world). In the morning the snake defecates the sun, and it is ready to rise

again. (Järvinen 1997:28.) The serpent’s trail and the shoeprints pictured

side by side could be interpreted as a sign of the presence of a moura

changing her shape from a human to a snake, or vice versa. Sometimes the

snakes of rock art are pictured in such way, that they seem to be crawling out

from a cleft in the rock, like the ten meter long serpent drawn onto the cliff in

Vila de Rei, Central Portugal. According to a local legend it is an imprint

made by a moura. (Gomes 1999: 221-223.)

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Fig. 28. Pedra da Serpe, Castro de Penalba, Campo Lameiro, Galicia. According toGomes (1999:228) the engraving is either from Bronze Age or from Calcolithicperiod.Photo: Goberna 2012. http://oestrymnio.blogspot.fi/2012/03/historia-de-galicia-vi-la-cultura.html

4.4.2 Snakes, bovines, goats and goddesses in Europeanmythologies

Snake is linked to many European fertility goddesses – the Minoan Rheia,

Punic Tanit and Astarte, Greek Artemis, Athena, Hecate, Persephone and

Demeter (Gomes 1999:235), but also to the important themes considering

sexuality in Christian belief – as the seductive snake in Paradise, and also as

the snake companion of Nossa Senhora de Conceição, the Lady of

Immaculate Conception, who is pictured with a snake and a crescent moon.

In the earliest images Lady Conceição is seen walking side by side with the

snake, in later pictures she is treading on the snake’s head. (Frazão & Morais

2009:33.) Many researchers regard her as one of the successors to the

fertility goddesses of earlier religions (Frazão & Morais 2009).

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Espírito Santo claims that until the strong promoting of the cult of Mary in

Portugal in the 12th century, people where still worshipping moon. (Espírito

Santo 2005.) In XI and XII centuries pictures of so called Black Virgins were

painted or sculpted for many churches in Europe – their main distribution

area is France and Iberian Peninsula. The virgin was sometimes shown

breastfeeding simultaneously an ox standing on her right side and a huge

blue snake on her left side. (Birrento 2003.) The black color of the virgin has

been a subject of many debates. Some scientists claim it is representing the

color of earth, soil, and is thus symbolizing fertility and the earth itself

(Carvalho 2011).

The Basque goddess Mari is, like mouras, often moving in the shape of a

snake or a bovine (Romero 1998.) Everson (1989) points out that Mari is in

one of her various zoomorphic shapes when she is in the underworld, while

when moving upon earth or on the sky she is seen as a woman radiating light

like the mouras, or as enveloped into flames.

Other deities sometimes seen in the form of bovines are for example the

Celtic goddesses Damona (the name meaning ”Divine Cow” and Boann

(Bovine Wise Goddess). Besides being associated with bovines, they were

also associated with healing, springs or rivers. In Utrecht, Germany, was

honoured a goddess called Borvoboendoa (Seething White Cow). (Beck

2009.)

It is interesting that both the mouras in the Portuguese folktales, and the

goddess Mari in Basque mythology are sometimes seen as women with

goat’s hooves. The entities called ”mairi”, who built the dolmens in Basque

country, also have goat’s hooves. They are partly independent creatures,

seen as the servants of Mari, partly representations of Mari herself. (Everson

1989.) In Northern Portugal the Death was a woman, who had goat’s hooves

(Parafita 2006: 48-49), and in ancient Greece dead appeared in the shape of

snakes, tells Gallop (Gallop 1961 79-80).

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In the Portuguese stories the bovines (or goats) and the snakes are

connected through milk. Mouras are often asking milk from people and

paying very well for it, and in some stories they are sucking the milk straight

from the cows in the form of a snake. In some rare cases they’re also trying

to suck breastfeeding human mothers. In Portugal stories about a cow

adopting a snake and feeding it like a calf, so that it grows enormous, are still

common. (Parafita 2006.) The belief in milk drinking snakes seems to have

been (and still being) very widespread. Enquiries I made through internet

showed that this belief is known in Iberia, Germany, Baltic countries, Russia,

Finland and Scandinavia in Europe, and also in India. In Finland and Estonia

people kept snakes living under the floors of the houses in 19th century and

fed them with milk. Their welfare was directly connected to the welfare of

cows, and killing a snake led to the death of a cow. (Ruuttu 1931.) Since

snakes are reptiles and milk thus cannot be part of their natural alimentation,

and reptile specialists are assuring that a snake only drinks milk if it is so

badly dried it will drink whatever liquid, it seems to me that in this case the

mythological elements and their connection with each other (snake-milk-cow)

are simply stronger than the facts, and thus the milk sucking snakes continue

their lives in urban folklore, but this subject needs clearly deeper exploring

than I’m able to do within the limits of this study.

4.5 Spinners of the thread of life

Mouras were often seen sitting on the entrance of a dolmen or a cave,

combing their golden hairs or spinning golden yarn or the rays of sun (Costas

Goberna et al. 2008:22). Golden combs, scissors and spindles are their

attributes, which they’re sometimes promising for people as a payment of a

service. In Galicia the mouras were spinning the thread of life. (Gallop

1961:78.) This links them to the moirai of Greek mythology, the Fates, in

whose hands were the life and death of people and gods. In the late Homeric

tradition there was three moirai, who appeared to the bedside of every

newborn and ordained their fate. One of them spun the thread of life, another

was measuring it to the right length, and the third one cut it off. In the earlier

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mythology there was only one Moira, the ruler of life and death, who was the

daughter of Nyx, night, to whose decisions even Zeus had to submit. (Atsma

2012, headword: moirai.)

The Norns of the Germanic mythology are also connected to the Greek

Moirai and Iberian mouras. They sat, spinning, on the base of the world tree

Yggdrasil and watered it every day with water they brought from the Well of

Destiny, thereby maintaining the life and world order. Norns were, too, visiting

the newborns and ordaining their fate. (Nordic Familjebok 1913, part 19,

headword: ”nornor”.) The Valkyries of Germanic mythology also share a

common ground with norns and mouras. They decide who will die in battle,

and carry the fallen warriors to afterlife (Davidson 1993).

Germanic Berchta/Holda is also a goddess with dual nature, in whom the

thematics of light and darkness, day and night and birth and death are

combined. As Berchta she is a heavenly sun goddess, who carries still

unborn souls with her, driving the sun wagon pulled by cows. Delivering the

souls of the newborn she appears as the grandmother or a female ancestor

of the family. As Holda she rules the dead and the underworld. In Christian

times Berchta get the task to take care of the souls of babies who died

without being baptized. (Grimm 1883[2004]:267-282.)

Her two roles have not, however, been evaluated by the criteria of good or

evil – they have clearly been considered just as fulfilling two equally

important tasks in the course of the cycle of life and death, since it is Holda

(Hulda/Holle), who is teaching people to grow flax and work it into linen, to

spin, to churn, to sail and to forge iron. She was also considered as a moral

role model, and people avoided domestic disagreements not to irritate her. All

the chances of weather were results of Holda’s actions. It was common

knowledge that a sudden snowfall was caused by her plumping up her

feather mattresses, and that the rain was caused by her washing the bed

sheets. When people encountered Holda, it happened most often at noon

near a fountain or in a cave full of wonderful things. Holda was dressed in

white and was often seen combing her long black hair. She was gifting

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people blue flax flowers or grains of wheat, which later turned into nuggets of

gold. Holda had a magical fountain of everlasting youth and healing, in which

she bathed once a year. (Aguiar 2011.) In Tyrol young women who wanted to

become healthy and fertile bathed in Frau Holle’s pool (Davidson 1993).

Midwinter was a time consecrated to Holda. During the 12 nights, nowadays

known as the Christmas time, Holda opened the gates of the underworld so

that the dead could visit their families. The earth was fertilized when the

masses of dead passed by. (Aguiar 2011.)

Mortals, wanting to reach Holda’s underworld realm, had to diwe into a well,

like happens in the best known tale of Holda, “Frau Holda” collected by the

Grimm brothers, first published in 1812. In it a good and industrious, but

maltreated daughter drops her stepmothers’s spindle into the well, trying to

wash blood out off it after cutting herself. The girl is afraid of her stepmother’s

wrath and leaps into the well to end her miserable life. She finds herself in

the world of Holda, where she stays for a long time, working as Holda’s

servant. Holda is so satisfied with her industriousness and kindness that she

sends her back home with a load of gold. (Motz 1984.)

.

Cailleach Bheara of British Isles is one of the spinning dolmen-builders. As

mouras, she is said to have been simultaneously young and old. She was

often shifting her shape into a cow or a bull. Like Ishtar of Babylon and

Germanic Holda she was reviving her youth by bathing every hundredth year

in a certain lake. Cailleach had many lovers, and in some stories horned

sons. She dominated the weather – she caused the snowfall by shaking her

duvet filled with down, and raised a storm and brought on the lightnings with

her hammer. Besides the weather Cailleach dominated also the seasons.

The winter started and the landscape turned white when she washed her

grey hood in the maelstrom of a certain fiord, and she started the spring by

throwing her hammer under a holly bush. Cailleach was older than any living

thing – she had created the landscape in which she lived, and could

remember the time when it was different. She had also built the dolmens, and

many of them are named after her. She moved also in underworld and

discussed with the dead. (Hull 1927.)

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The Basque goddess Mari is also sometimes seen to spin, while she flies

across the sky raising thunderstorm. She is manifesting herself as a rainbow

and as dew round mountaintops, a woman whose head reaches the clouds,

or whose head is encircled by the moon, or in various animal forms. She is

the guardian of people’s morals, like Germanic Holda, and hates specially

lying, boasting, selfishness, breaking promises and lack of respect for others.

She resides in the subterranean world – certain caves are known as her

homes, but actually she is omnipresent – she knows even people’s thoughts.

She is connected both to the moon and sun, dominates the weather, and is

accompanied by a fiery snake, Sugaar, and a horned billygoat, Aker.

(Bausani 1956.) Another detail connecting goddess Mari with the Portuguese

mouras, is the common belief that Mari's habitations are richly adorned with

gold and precious stones. Gold comb is one of her attributes too. (Everson

1989.)

5. Megalithic tombs in folklore and tradition

5.1 The relation between the stories and the narrators

The majority of the Portuguese moura stories were written down by collectors

in the late 19th century. For the narrators of those times the stories were not

fairytales, but part of their world view and their everyday reality. The incidents

they were telling about – encounters with mouras – had happened in their

own home region, and usually either for people they knew – older relatives,

neighbours, and sometimes themselves, or they were older stories, repeated

generation after generation. D´Ataíde Oliveira, who collected stories from old

people in the Algarve area in the 1880´s and 1890´s, told that for them the

stories were reality. He described how the old people were reciting their

stories carefully, word by word, like they had themselves heard them to be

told, seriously and fervently, ”with similar kind of intonation as when reciting

Pater Noster”. (Oliveira 1996[1898]:20.)

The narrators themselves told that they had carefully learned and copied the

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right words, intonation and rhythm, asking to hear them again and again, to

be able to tell them forward ”the right way” (Ibidem). The stories were not told

to whomsoever in Oliveira’s times – Oliveira was accepted, because he lived

the biggest part of his life in Loulé (Algarve) and was known to people, and

because he had proved his loyalty to the community and given acceptable

reasons to write the stories down (not just for curiosity’s sake, but to preserve

something valuable).”.. - A woman who lives there could tell you about many interesting

encounters.

- Who is this woman?

- I can’t tell you.

- It is told that in this parish there has been also many encounters with mourasencantadas. Could you tell me about some cases?

- Not today. It is already late. But I advise you to make visits to certain places.

- What for?

- You will soon get many interesting notes if you visit Quarteira, Cabeço deCamará, Gilvrazinho and some other places. But, I have to give you another advice.

- Yes?

- Caution! We hardly talk about these cases, which are connected to particularpeople, in fear of aggression from those people who mock mouras encantadas andinstead live in constant fear of witchcraft.

And it is certain that Mrs. Maria da Gloria has much reason. More than once Inoticed in certain people some air of disbelief in mouras encantadas, and theselfsame people spending their nights together at home, repeating, full of fright,thousands of episodes of attacks of malevolent witches.” (Idem, p. 36.)

The reason for this caution, Oliveira was told, was that the stories were

important for the narrators themselves, and they didn’t want to take the risk

that the stories would be ridiculed and thus the whole community insulted.

(Idem, p. 21.) In the late 19th century Algarve the mouras were still living

reality – people were constantly living with the possibility of an encounter with

mouras, and the oral tradition was preparing them for those occasions by

giving valuable information about the best way to behave and act in the

encounters, so that the outcome would be best possible.

”On another occasion”, continued the almost blind old lady, ”my neighbors were atwork on the threshing floor, which is very close to the Fonte da Moura (The Moura’sfountain).. ..One of the workers went to fetch water from the Fonte da Cassima, andpassed the Fonte da Moura fountain on his way there. When he was about fivemeters distance from the fountain, he saw, in front of it, figs that had been laid on a

75

beautiful carpet to dry in the sun. He found it very odd, that there could be figsdrying in the sun already in June, and so he approached the carpet to make sure hesaw right. He caught five of the figs and stuffed them into his pockets, but at thesame moment a woman, dressed like a moura, appeared in the entrance of thefountain. `Pick, pick!´ the moura said, but my neighbour was so startled that he runback to the threshing floor. There he told to his companions what had happened,and because they looked a bit doubtful, he took the figs from his pockets to showthem, but alas! He only found five coals!. ..It was his own fault. If he had kept themas a secret and not told about the encounter, they would have turned into five piecesof gold!” (Oliveira 1996[1898]:28.)

A century later the young archaeologists Blanco, Chaparro and Martínez

were interviewing local people in the Galicia area about the moura stories

related to dolmens. They told that in the story gatherings the young people

started to mock and make fun of the mythical stories the older people were

telling, and to ask for rational explanations for the events in them. Soon the

old people shut their mouths and refused to tell anything if the young people

were present. The archaeologists then started to interview everyone

separatedly, and in those circumstances the young people, too, were

behaving quite differently. They admitted that, although they didn’t believe in

the old stories, the stories anyway affected their behaviour, because

whenever they were alone or in a small group near the dolmens, they grew

silent by the respect for the mouras, who, according to the old stories, lived in

the dolmens. (Blanco et al. 2011.)

5.2 The traditions on megalith tombs

The belief traditions are often closely connected to the archaeological

remains in the vicinity, especially to the megalithic graves, which have acted

as key points both in the secular and profane geography of the settlements.

Dolmens have been central in the secular, everyday geography of the

community, because they have served as landmarks which people have

been referring to, and orientated their movements according to, or they have

served as boundary markers. Often they have also been the meeting places

for annual village celebrations.

In the profane geography dolmens have been one of the most important

76

points of the settlement area, and as such they have effected the everyday

lives of people by demanding certain kind of attention and consideration.

People can’t have been conducting themselves in whatsoever way around

them, and specially in certain times of the day and of the year, on the times

which are called ”entreaberto”, the dolmens have been places either to avoid

or to seek for, depending on the current view and beliefs, and on the wished

consequence.

Besides megalithic graves, also the caves and fountains were important in

the moura tradition and thus also important landmarks in people’s cognitive

maps. According to the Portuguese tradition, all of these are liminal areas

between the underworld and the terrestrial world – between the here and the

hereafter, and through them leads a route from one world to the other.

(Frazão & Morais 2009:36.)

The underworld is called ”Mourama” in Portugal, and ”Mourindade” in Galicia.

The passage to Mourama goes through dolmens, caves, fountains or

rainbows. (Frazão & Morais 2009:47). The demotic name for the rainbow is

”Arco da Velha” in Portugal and ”Arco da Vieha” in Spain (The arch/ bow of

the old woman) (Vasconcellos 1882). As mentioned earlier, Velha and Vieha

are also parallel names for the mythical dolmen builders. Sometimes the

Mourama can also reach for people – the morning dew and mist rising from

the ground and the dense fog are like an extension of Mourama invading the

human world. In midst of the fog it is possible to encounter a moura or see a

sign of their presence. For example a fig tree standing in the dew full of figs

in wrong time of the year is a clear sign to everyone about the presence of

mouras (Parafita 2006:103), and the echo is the sound of their voices

(Vasconcellos 1882).

People’s attitudes towards dolmens and encounters with the mouras have

been clearly very bipartite. On one hand the mouras and the dolmens have

been seen as benevolent to the surrounding community – people have asked

help from them for infertility and illnesses and used them in various kind of

magic related especially to fertility. For example Martín Sarmiento wrote

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about infertile couples, who spent nights on the capstone of the dolmen on

the Pindo mountain (Galicia) to get children (Sarmíento 1975[1745]: 105),

and observed similar practice on the capstone of the dolmen on Monte Facho

(Galicia), which he later ordered to be demolished (Romero 1998:23).

Similar kind of custom was known in Sintra, where couples, who were

planning to get married, were ”testing their happiness in marriage” by

spending their night on top of Anta de Belas dolmen (Chaves 1951:112), and

in Serra de São Domingo, Lamego, where infertile women lay down on the

capstone of the dolmen to become fertile. In Requião women were licking a

stone called Pedra Leital (The Milk Stone) to increase the amount of their

breast milk. The stone had been part of a demolished dolmen. (Pedroso

1881:49.)

In the Lisbon region the dolmens had an important role as accepted

authenticators of marriages. The marriages made on a dolmen were

acknowledged and had an official status in the eyes of the community, and

the children born of those unions were not considered as bastards. An old

folksong from the Alentejo area might bring some more sidelight on the

matter in what way the dolmens were used in marrying: ”Três voltas dei ao

penedo – para namorar José” (Three times round the rock – and José is

married.) The French tradition knows instead the concept of a ”Three days

marriage” made also next to the dolmens. (Pedroso 1881: 50.) The

information from Galicia, according to which inside the dolmen of San Xian

live unbelievably fertile animals, and round the dolmen grow miraculous

medicinal herbs, is also telling about the relation of dolmens to the healing

and fertility (Costas Coberna et al. 2008:23). Another old song, from

Guimarães, tells ”Venho a esta penha, para que fillos tenha, ou rapaz ou

rapariga que me saia da barriga” (I come to this rock to have children, a boy

or a girl to come out from my belly) (Romero 2007:30, quoting Taboada

Chivite 1980).

Besides giving fertility and health, the dolmens had power to protect people

and animals from different threats. In Alentejo area people sought shelter in

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dolmens during thunderstorms, because they believed them to protect people

and animals against streaks of lightnings (Vasconcellos 1882). Dolmens had

also power to protect sheep, goats and cows against beasts. Shepherds

spent their nights willingly inside the dolmens and let their flocks overnight

round it, since they knew they would be safe. People travelling long distances

also often sought safety from the dolmens. In some places people storaged

fruits inside the dolmens, because there they stayed fresh for longer time and

also tasted better. (Chaves 1951:112.)

In the area of Beira Baixa dolmens were also used when people tried to

foresee the future. The first sheaf of straw of the year was burned in front of

the dolmen, and the direction of the smoke pointed out where the next year’s

harvest would thrive best. The dolmens were given the first portions of all

yields – first ripe fruits and ears of grain and the first milk of cows. (Chaves

1951:112.)

It is notable that the majority of traditions connected to the dolmens are

positive. On the negative side are some mentions of dolmens being

dangerous or impossible to enter because of the snakes or angry bulls

keeping a guard (Chaves 1924:209) and some information about the witches

having their meetings inside some dolmens on Friday nights. In those

occasions they were dancing and hopping on the capstone of the dolmen,

thus rising a harsh wind to prevent people from approaching it (Amades

1941:129).

On the other hand, dolmens and mouras have also been feared and avoided

(Chaves 1951). This might be explained by the dichotomy of life and death

related to mouras – their field of tasks seem to encompass both the

convoying of souls to be born into the human world, and escorting the souls

of the deceased to the world hereafter. This might be reflected in some

stories about mouras – they are told to have in the dolmen one barrel full of

gold and another barrel full of pestilence, and from outside it is impossible to

say which barrel is which. The barrels can be interpreted to be symbolizing

life and death and the fact that mouras can be offering you both. The church

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has also a role in promoting more negative attitudes towards old traditions by

turning mouras into witches or into Moorish enemies of Christianity.

In Appendix 1. of this study is a collection of moura –stories from different

sources to illustrate the study.

5.3 Mouras and dolmens in toponyms

The presence of mouras in megalithic graves and caves is manifested in the

names they have been given. Often the existence of the grave or the cave is

the basis for the toponymia of the entire surrounding region. Typical names

given to dolmens everywhere in Portugal are for example Casa da Moura (The

house/home of Moura), Pala da Moura (Pala is a boulder, resting, in horizontal

position, on other stones), Pedra da Moura (The stone of Moura), Sepultura

da Moura (The Tomb of Moura), Cova da Moura (Moura’s Cave), Moimenta

da Velha (The grave of Old Woman), Casa da Velha (The House/Home of Old

Woman) and Casa Encantada (Enchanted House). Caves have been named

in the same way – for example Cova da Moura (Moura’s Cave) or Casa da

Moura (Moura’s House/Home). Other interesting names given for dolmens are

for example Meda dos Ossos (Heap of Bones), Pedra do Altar (Altar Stone)

and Urna (Urn in which the ashes of a cremated body are interred). These

names tell that people had some knowledge about the old meaning of dolmens

and their use as graves still in somehow resent times. Of course we could think

that people had the knowledge because they went to rummage around in the

dolmens and encountered bones, but taking into account how rare it is to find

preserved bones in the dolmens, it is not a very plausible explanation.

Such names as Mamõa, Meimoa, Mamoela, Mamoinha, Mamunha and

Mamaltar have been given to dolmens still covered by a mound – the names

refer to their shape resembling a woman’s breast. In Galica and North Portugal

the dolmens are called with the name Orca/Orco/Arca. Orco means also the

world hereafter. (Chaves 1951:101.) The legends of Galicia tell about a woman

called Orcavella, who lives in dolmens and guards the entrance to Orco (to the

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dolmen or to the world hereafter). No living human can pass her. (Cuba et al.

1999[2006], headword: orca.)

Names Pedra dos Casamentos, Anta dos Casamentos and Peninhos dos

Casamentos (Stone/Dolmen/Little Stones of Marriages) (Chaves 1951:112)

tell about the use of dolmens in fertility magic, which continued still at least in

the beginning of the 20th century (McGuire & Sébillot 1902). Towns Mora,

Moura and Bicha Moura are named after their legendary mouras. Many towns,

villages or formations in the landscape have been named after the dolmens,

for example Vale das Antas, Pais de Antas, As Antas, Antelas, Antela, Pinhal

de Antas and Antão. Serra dos Ossos (Highland of Bones) was named after

the dolmens on its ridge. The church destroyed the dolmens, because people

gathered round them on special days. (Braga1885 [1994]:63.)

Toponymia connected to legends, and legends or traditions connected to

certain geographical spots, serve still as one starting point for Portuguese

archaeologists, when they plan archaeological inventories. “A Moura walked

on the ridge of the hill”, “In old times witches sat in the cave spinning” or “Our

Lady appeared in the mouth of the cave” – this kind of legends have led

archaeologists to find many prehistoric burial sites – thus the folklore connects

prehistoric times to today´s world. (Frazão & Morais 2009:13-15.)

5.4 Church, dolmens and mouras

The policy of the Catholic Church towards older beliefs and customs has

always been to either destroy them or to assimilate them into its own doctrine.

One source telling about the church’s relations to megalithic graves are the

various edicts, orders and rules given by church councils and bishoprics

throughout times (See Appendix 2). For example, in the year 567 AD the

bishop of Tours (France) ordered the priests to drive away from the church all

such persons, who “were seen to do near certain stones such deeds which

don’t have anything to do with the church’s ceremonies” (Warner 2004). In 572

AD the archbishop São Martin of Braga (Portugal) forbid people from taking

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food “to the Mounds of the Dead” or giving sacrifices to the God for honour of

the dead (Almeida 1974) or having a mass in the tombs of the dead, adding,

that “it is not right that pious and innocent priests celebrate sacraments on the

fields of the dead” (Goméz et al. 2008). In 1534 the bishop of Évora forbid

people from keeping “altar stones” (Braga 1885[1994]). Still in 1563 the

bishopric of Lamego (Portugal) announced that it was “requesting and

supporting that the holy processions would not go up to the hills and to the

stones, but only to the church” (Braga 1885[1994]).

Martinón-Torres, who analysed 17th century documents concerning megalithic

constructions of Galicia, find out that the holy processions of that time still

visited the dolmens, and that many annual celebrations were hold around

them, although these dolmens were never “christianised”. (Martinón-Torres

2001:112-113.) In some villages in the Alentejo area it is still (2001) a custom

to gather around certain dolmens to celebrate Magusto (In Galicia and Asturia

Magosto) (Oliveira 2001), which is a successor of the old celebrations of dead

held in most parts of Europe in the turn of October and November

(Vasconcellos 1938, VII). In Magusto people roast chestnuts (or acorns) in fire

and drink wine. Both acorns and chestnuts formed an important part of the

nutrition of people still as late as in the 1930´s. In Alentejo people gather round

the dolmens also to celebrate Maia – the coming of spring. Then it is custom

to gather wild flowers and to eat black pig, an Iberian breed, whose origins can

probably be traced back to the Neolithic period. (Oliveira 2001.)

Clearly the old traditions were, and are, strong. In Portugal the church

destroyed many dolmens or infested them with demons and witches, but it also

“sanctified” many of them by turning them into chapels and by dedicating them

to certain saints. These dolmens are called “Anta-Capela”. (Figs. 29, 30.)

Usually this procedure was defended by an apparition of a saint in the dolmen.

The dolmen was “baptized” accordingly – for example the dolmen Anta de Arca

was renamed Anta de Espírito Santo de Arca. Similar renaming encountered

many fountains – for example the fountain Fonte da Moira in Braga was

rededicated and renamed as Fonte da Nossa Senhora do Carmo (Fountain of

Our Lady of Carmo) (Vasconcellos 1938:520).

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Fig. 29. Anta Capela de Pavia. Photo by author 2013.

Fig. 30. Anta Capela de Pavia. Photo by author 2013.

The indoctrination was successful – instead of a moura in her radiant white

clothing, Nossa Senhora started to appear to people in similarly radiant

83

garments, on fountains, caves and dolmens. In some cases she was seen

carrying a huge boulder on top of her head and knitting a sock simultaneously,

or feeding baby Jesus (Romero 1998:16). The old beliefs didn’t disappear, they

were just shaped a bit, to fit better into the newly shaped society – a process

which had probably happened already many times before.

The fertilizing powers of the dolmens were carried on into the syncretistic

legends. For example according to a local legend São Brissos, the saint of

Anta-Capela de São Brissos in Montemór-de-Novo, “has a son with Nossa

Senhora de Livramento (Our Lady of Deliverance). But São Brissos cheated on her

with Nossa Senhora das Neves. When a drought is threatening to ruin the crops, and

people want rain desperately, they go to the Anta-Capela de São Brissos and take

the image of Nossa Senhora de Livramento (she is also called Nossa Senhora da

Anta) with them, but leave the baby Jesus behind. They take The Senhora to the

Church of São Brissos, and situate the image onto the back of the image of São

Brissos. Nossa Senhora de Livramento starts to cry, because she is taken away from

her son, and because she has to be near the treacherous saint of a boyfriend. That

causes the rain”. (Montemaior 2005.)

This story is also a good example about the Portuguese people’s relation to

Our Lady. About every town or village has an Our Lady of its own, residing

most commonly in small caves turned into chapels or shrines, because of an

apparition seen in them. These apparitions (or images) of Our Lady are not

understood to be one and only. Each one of them has a name given after the

place she appeared to someone or after the place her chapel is in, for example

Nossa Senhora da Pena, Nossa Senhora do Monte, Nossa Senhora da

Arrábida etc. They are regarded as individual deities, who can rival or befriend

each other. It is very plausible that this is also influenced by the prevailing

religions. The way the Basque people regard the Goddess Mari is very similar

– they know her to be one, but treat all her apparitions as separate persons.

They are also named similarly than the Christian Mary, after the geographical

spots she has been seen, for example Marije Kobako (Mari of the Cave), Andre

Mari Munoko (Lady Mari of Muno), Anbotoko Dama (Lady of Anboto) etc. It is

clear that the similarity between the names Mari, Mairi, Moira, Moura and the

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name Mary/Maria made it easier for the Christian ideas to spread amongst the

people in Iberia through the cult of Mary. (Everson 1989.)

6.Comparingthearchaeologicalandfolkloristicdata

6.1 The symbolic similarities

The first signs of emerging megalithic culture in Portuguese landscape were

the menhirs and cromeleques people started to erect around 4800 BCE, more

or less simultaneously with the first steps along the road of the new Neolithic

way of life (Calado & Rocha 2008). At the same time the burial practices

started to change from individual burials towards collective burial rituals

(Boaventura et al. 2012). The adopting of Neolithic economy was slow and

partial, but even so it had a big effect on the lives of societies (Frank & Silva

2013). The late Mesolithic societies were sedentary or semi-sedentary, but

after acquiring sheep/goat breeding as part of their economy they had to also

acquire the transhumant lifestyle. This moving between valleys and serras or

between plains and riverbeds was done according to the cycle of the year, and

it was communal – the whole village was moving. In archaeological record this

shows clearly for example in the Tejo valley, where the summer habitats were

low down in the valley, with the rock art sites in the river shore, and the winter

living sites were high up on the slope, the corresponding rock art sites being

on the hillside outcrops. (Balbín Behrmann et al. 2008.) The communal lifestyle

and the following of the cycle of the years more keenly than before were maybe

the basis for the changes in religion, reflected in changes in the burial practices

and in the erecting of the menhirs and cromeleques. The collective burial would

reflect the communal model of life, in which social equality probably played an

important role – an equality which also followed people beyond the death

(Senna-Martinez 1995).

The menhirs had maybe a role in showing the best herding routes or borders

between the pasturelands of different villages. The cromeleques are

connected to the new significance of following the flow of time and the cyclic

85

movements of the heavenly bodies. The transhumant moving between valleys

and serras according to the cyclic movements of celestial bodies, is maybe

reflected in the legend explaining the name of Serra da Estrela, in which a

shepherd follows a star up to the mountains (Beyondlisbon 2013). The folklore

tells that the menhirs are distaffs which the Moura dropped on her way to build

the dolmens. Since she had the pile of dolmen stones over her head and her

arms occupied, she let the distaff stay where it fell. (Romero 1998.) It is

interesting that the folktales seem to record the order in which the megaliths

were erected – first the menhirs, next the dolmens.

The building of dolmens started somewhere during the fifth millennium BCE

(Senna-Martinez et al. 2008). They were built as special spaces in which the

dead were deposited collectively, to fulfil some ideological demands and to

serve as scenes for ritual activity. It is possible that the keen following of the

cycle of nature, seasons and stars had led to a cyclic view of life and existence,

eternal return in which human beings were also a part. The annual cycle of

vegetation and spawning of the domesticated animals stressed the

significance of fertility and the role of earth, from which the society collected its

crops and to what the living things turned to after death.

Amongst the archaeological material inside the graves many details can be

seen as pointing towards this interpretation – the substantial use of red ochre,

which is usually seen as symbolising blood and life (Jorge 1998), the

orientating of the dolmens towards the sunrise and in Portugal most commonly

towards the full moon of the Spring Equinox (Silva 2011), when the nature

awakes to a new life, possibly symbolising the dead people awakening into a

new life too; the sun beam carvings in human bones and skulls (Cunha et al.

2007), the frequency of snake – motifs in the art, which in most cultures has

symbolized renewal and rebirth (Gomes 1999), the whole complex of the art

inside the tombs, which many researchers interpret as scenes of the soul’s

travel from one world to the other (Rodrigues 1991), or as roadmaps for both

living and dead between the worlds (Bradley 2009); the decorated schist

plaques given to about every member of the society (Gonçalves 2006), maybe

to guide them on their journey after the death, often picturing sun/eye motifs

86

connected to the Goddess (Gonçalves 2008); and the thousands of little

figurines representing either animals usually connected to fertility – hares,

rabbits or piglets – or the feminine figurines with stressed sex characteristics,

and even ceramics with breasts.

Most interpretations about the role of art in megalithic graves see it as carrying

the most central mythological themes of the cultures which built the dolmens

and used them. The entoptic theory sees the art as representing visions and

hallucinations seen in altered states (Dowson & Lewis-Williams 1988), and it

is quite possible that these experiences were explained as visits to the world

where the dead and unborn souls, or gods, resided. In dolmens the art could

have helped the dead buried there to find their way to the next world, and

possibly also the borning souls to find their way to our world. It is also possible

that the art helped also the living members of the community to travel to other

worlds during rituals made inside the megalithic graves.

The folkloristic tradition on dolmens support this interpretation by making

dolmens liminal spaces between “our world” and the otherworld, between

worlds of living and the dead and still unborn (Frazão & Morais 2009). It

populates the dolmen with godlike female beings, whose names are

etymologically connected to death and spirit (Frazão & Morais 2009), who have

built the dolmens and the surrounding landscape, and who can test people’s

morals or gift them fertility and riches, skills and knowledge or death. These

female deities carry along the symbolism seen in the art of the dolmens, by

changing their shape to snakes and horned animals and by appearing in the

thresholds – when the sun is at its highest at noon and in midsummer, and by

surrounding themselves with rabbits and piglets. The legends about mouras

fill the dolmens with beans and figs and treasures, which all are thought to

symbolize fertility (Frazão & Morais 2009).

6.2 Search for the unchanged fragments in the Moura -legendsNext I’m making a daring sketch about the possible evolution of the Moura –

related legends (see appendix 1), stripping the layers piled on them by time

87

and social changes. I’m not claiming my sketch to be the right one, it is just

one possibility.

a) Typical elements in the legends told about mouras, collected in the 19th –

21th centuries: Mouras are beautiful, young and sad Moorish princesses,

encantadas i.e. spellbound, by their Moorish fathers, in an eternally

unchanging existence in caves, dolmens and water sources, to guard

treasures hidden there. Because of the spell the mouras are often wholly or

partially in the form of a gigantic snake. They cannot leave their

whereabouts, and are often guarded by an angry bull.

In the other variants of the legend they live in magnificent underground

palaces made of gold and silver and connected to various geographical

points through underground passageways guarded by hideous snakes. The

mouras fill their time by counting their huge riches on sunny days, and by

spinning and weaving golden threads. They show themselves to people

mainly in midday, midnight and Midsummer. Their main aim is to get free of

the spell, which they can only do by the help of a human, who is courageous

enough to kiss the moura in the form of a giant snake, or let the moura-snake

to eat them and again defecate them back into human form.

These attempts never work, and the mouras remain sad and spellbound and

cry so much that their tears have given birth to certain rivers and lakes. Why

the mouras are guarding the huge treasures, is explained by vaguely

historical happenings – the moors had to flee when the Christian forces

reinvaded the land, and since they could not take their immense treasures

with them they hid them and cast a spell over them and left an unlucky

daughter to guard over them. Sometimes the spellbounding of a daughter is

explained by her unsuitable love for a Christian prince.

b) Many legends collected at the same time don’t, instead, mention anything

about the moura’s Moorish origins or their being spellbound or seeking to be

freed from it – in these legends the mouras are living their lives in the caves

or dolmens or in the underground world, and when socializing with humans

88

they don’t want anything from them – except maybe milk, to which they seem

to be addicted – they’re, instead, testing people’s morals and offering them

opportunities to become richer if they are morally strong enough.

In these legends mouras are, too, sometimes in the shape of giant snakes, or

sometimes goats or bulls, but they seem to be it on their own free will, not

because of a spell. They have, also, treasures, often in the form of golden

scissors, comb, spindle or gold thread, and very often figs, which can turn

both into gold and coals, depending on the behaviour of the person to whom

the moura has given them. In these stories the mouras often show sympathy

for people who are very poor or ill, and for kids, but they can also punish

pretty cruelly people who are violating the norms of good behaviour. Breaking

a promise given to a moura can also lead to death. The encounters with

mouras usually come as surprises for people.

c) In the third group of legends people are actively searching for mouras, by

going to dolmens, caves or water sources, in which, according to tradition, it

is possible to encounter them, on times, when it is most plausible to happen

– on midday, midnight and midsummer. People go in search for mouras to

get help with illnesses, infertility and hard luck in love, and mouras are

helping them. In these legends too, the help is sometimes given only after

some kind of moral testing, in other stories it has more to do with being in the

right place at the right time, doing the right things – mastering the local

traditions. The mouras are pictured as surrounded with piglets, rabbits and

chickens, which they often gift to people. This concept of mouras is also

reflected in the collected knowledge of old traditions, not only in the stories

people were telling.

d) In the next category of legends the central theme is the moura’s appearing

to people (without people seeking for their company) as a sign of

approaching death, but they also appear to women in difficult and dangerous

labour, and it seems they have the power to decide if the result is happy (a

surviving mother and a baby born health) or unhappy (either mother or child

89

or both dead). I add to this group of legends the habit to call unbaptized

babies ”mouras”.

e) The fifth category of legends tells about the mouras as divine beings who

were living in the landscape before people, and who were helping people by

teaching them many skills essential to their culture and self-identification –

animal husbandry, tilling the earth, spinning, weaving, gardening,

ironsmithing and navigating on the sea.

f) The sixth group of legends tell how the mouras (or The Moura) came to the

area in the beginning of the time and shaped it – it’s hills and valleys and

rivers, dolmens and menhirs and red paintings on the rocks, and gave birth to

children, who possibly became the ancestors of the community who is telling

the legend. What was there before this? A feminine deity, who was also the

landscape itself, from whom the living things were born and to whom they

returned in the cycle of life? Possibly.

7. Conclusions

According to folklore the Portuguese dolmens were built by supernatural

feminine beings called mouras. The same beings, or at least very similar

beings seem to have built dolmens round Europe. Folklore makes it clear that

these women are about omnipotent – they have everlasting life, youth, beauty

and riches, wisdom and skills, which they are teaching to people. Big part of

these skills connects the mouras before anything to the Neolithic revolution –

mouras taught people spinning, weaving, cheese making, brewing and

ploughing, and gave sheep, pig and cow as a gift for people. They inhabit

dolmens and caves, into which the past generations buried their dead, and

guard the border between the otherworld and the world of humans. The

folkloristic material forms a snarl, from which leave links to different directions.

Linguistics connects the Portuguese mouras to many different European

goddesses, and so do their activities too, the spinning, weaving and combing.

Linguistics gives also a hint about the tasks of these moura-mari-marion

90

goddesses, by connecting them to the themes of death and spirits, and

folkloristics connects them to life, fertility, health and old wisdom.

Mouras appear on the interfaces of this world and the otherworld and guard

over riches and death and the morals of local people. The toponymes tell us

that people were aware of the use of dolmens and caves as burial sites, and

the same conclusion can be drawn from the fact that the mouras, who are

guarding the borders between the worlds of the living and the dead, were

situated especially into the dolmens and caves which had been used as

graves. The most important task of mouras and the core of the legends telling

about them, seems to be to escort the borning and dying human souls from

one world to another, and to gift fertility and health for humans and animals –

in other words – birth, life, death and the connection to earth.

When searching for fragmentary mythological elements of hypothetical

Neolithic belief in Mother Earth and rebirth connected to megalithic burial

traditions, the Portuguese mouras and their European counterparts are good

candidates. It seems that besides the elements of the ancient goddess of cycle

of life, in them possibly combines also some elements of the Bronze Age

ancestor worship and elements of the snake cult, which reached its peak in

the Iron Age. The Moorish period in Iberia added some oriental characteristics

on their image, and the Catholic belief gave some new shades too. The

Medieval period mixed them with witches and the 20´th century added the layer

of New Age.

After the building and the first using of the dolmens, every generation had to

come up with their own interpretation and explanation for the big stone

structures, which were dominating the landscape they were living in. The

interpretations were built on the basis of the size, persistence and dominance

of the structures, and on the possible oral tradition, which maybe was regarded

as worthy and believable, or maybe not. The Bronze Age societies inherited

from the Neolithic society part of their mythologies and worldview, customs,

and, before all, the monuments and the landscape, in which the inheritance

91

was materialized, and a huge load of symbols, which they moulded and

reinterpreted to match the needs of their own time.

Through reinterpretations the holy places of the Neolithic period were

assimilated into the tradition, identity and social structure of every era and

generation. Dolmens form a link to the past and past generations. In Bronze

Age in Portugal prevailed a cult of ancestors – in houses were little home

altars, over which had been placed artefacts brought from the Neolithic tombs.

The Bronze Age ceramics was often imitating the Neolithic ceramics. The dead

buried into the dolmens were apparently regarded as ancestors, where they it

in reality or not. By the reuse of tombs people made themselves part of the

continuum, on one end of which the ancestors were certifying the identity and

the social organization of the latest generation and justifying its connections to

the earth and its rights over the land.

During the Neolithic period people adopted new practices as part of their

economy, and many of these new practices were done communally. To support

the collective economy the society’s ideology developed to democratic

direction. By and by the society became more and more dependent on the

earth and the yields. The earth became central in the religion, and people paid

lots of attention to the following of time, seasons and the heavenly bodies, and

probably also placed themselves as part of the same never-ending cycle, in

which birth and death, day and night and summer and winter followed one after

the other.

Everyone had a share of the life in here and in the hereafter, and the share

was probably more or less same for everyone. The diverse artefacts in the

archaeologic material – especially the decorated schist plaques, which were

put to the tomb with the dead community members, and the limestone idols

which represent the same symbolism, might tell about the belief in the cycle of

life and death, which was personificated in the figure of the goddess

representing the earth. The anthropomorphic figures in the art painted or

carved on the dolmen walls don’t usually have clear sex characteristics, but

when they do they can represent both sexes. In search for the Neolithic

92

goddess, we have to keep in mind, that her presence is not exclusive – male

characters can also well be present. In the orthostats of the Portuguese

dolmens are sometimes reliefs of breasts, which can be seen representing the

life-giving power of the body of the Goddess. The idea of a dolmen as the

womb of Goddess is easy to accept when thinking of the dolmens, whose

whole chamber is painted with red ochre.

The art and symbols in Portuguese dolmens, and their orientating towards the

rising sun or equinoctial full moon can be seen as telling about the faith in

rebirth. The art itself can be seen as made to guide people – living, dead and

unborn – to travel between the worlds of living and dead. Megalithic graves

were burial sites and places for burial rituals, but it is very plausible that it

wasn’t their only, and maybe even not their main function. It is likely that they

were, like the churches in Christian times, spiritual centers, around which the

community get together to celebrate important dates and happenings, to

negotiate and agree about matters concerning the whole community, and to

strengthen their communality. Many mentions in folkloristic archives about

annual celebrations around the dolmens point to that, as well as the many bans

given by bishops concerning those traditions. (See Appendix 2.)

Martinón-Torres, who analyzed the 17th century documents concerning the

dolmens in Galicia, noticed that the processions visited the dolmens and also

many annual celebrations were held around them. In Alentejo area it is still a

living tradition to get together next to certain dolmens to celebrate the feasts

Magusto and Maia, which have to do with the reminiscing about the dead and

the coming of the spring – death and birth. The archaeologic proofs of the

reburials in the dolmens, which continued until historical times, the folklore

and strong traditions concerning dolmens, and the continuing interest the

church has been showing towards dolmens and the traditions connected to

them, all prove about the significance the dolmens have had throughout

millennia.

When in the beginning of the time continuum are the dolmens, bursting with

symbolism connected to fertility, life and femininity, and on the other end of the

93

continuum are the same dolmens inhabited by a supernatural, omnipotent

feminine deity, who has taught people the most central skills and knowledge

connected to the Neolithic way of life, and who is gifting people health and

fertility, but also tells about approaching death and tests people’s morals, and

who has built the dolmen and the landscape around it, and who guards the

border between the lands of the living and the dead – it is very plausible that

what we have at stake are the extreme ends of the same religious tradition.

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Appendix 1. Legends of mouras, some example stories

“Old people say that in the beginning of the world Moura came here, andmade her home in middle of the boulders. There she gave birth to somechildren, and gouged out cribs for them in the stones.It is also said that the Moura was carrying large boulders over her head, andchildren in her arms, and she was also spinning. All this at the same time.The boulder called Penedo Redondo along the road of Escapa was broughtthere by the Moura.Still it is told that she was sprinkling gold over the stones when it was sunny.The Moura was a woman from the waist up, but the down part was of a goat.At the site of Fraga da Moura, one sees the cribs excavated on the rock, around rock drum and little holes where she put the spindles she spun. Thereis also there a gap between the rocks, but nobody knows what is there.”São Pedro Do Sul, Viseu 1999 (CEAO 2006.)

“In Chã (Alijo) a moura built her home (a dolmen) alone. She had piled thestones over her head, and carried her baby in her arms.” (Parafita 2006:103.)

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“Dolmen named Casa da Moura (Quequas, La Montaña, Entrimo) was builtby a moura on the midsummer night. She was carrying the stones over herhead, and spinning at the same time with seven distaffs. (Romero 1998:12.)

“An old Aragonese legend of the Dalle Morisca said that “a woman appearedwho spun with her distaff and carried the great horizontal stone of the dolmenon her head. As she reached the place where the dolmen of Rodellar nowstands, she set the stone in the position in which she had carried it. InPortugal, a spinning moura carried the wonderfully carved Pedra Formosa ofCitania de Briteiros.” (Gallop 1961: 77.)

“In Tordoia, near Coruña, is a dolmen which is commonly called Casa daMoura. According to legend it was built by a moura who carried the stonesover her head, while her hands were occupied in sewing clothes.” (Romero1998:12.)

“The capstone of the dolmen called Casia da Arquela (Lugo) is a huge slab.A young and cute moura carried it there over her head” (Romero 1998:12).

“Near the waterfall of Flamisell, outside of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain) is adolmen called Casa Encantada (enchanted house). It was the home of agiant woman, who had also built it. The giant woman was often seen walkingand spinning with her enormous spinning wheel. Sometimes she was invited

to go and stay in a farmhouse, but she always refused, answering: “Casamia, cama mia” (My home, my bed – equivalence for the saying ‘Home sweethome’.) On one night she returned again to home, but she died during thenight. So her house became her tomb. There it still stands, and the ownerburied inside.” (Amades 1941: 121.)

“A woman of ninety years of age told me that at the time when the convent ofVila de Feira was being constructed, mouras brought big stones to theconstruction site carrying them on top of their heads, so that their hands wereleft free to work with the spinning wheels they were also carrying along.”(Vasconcellos 1963:65.)

“These beliefs are also present in North, in the province of Salamanca. Nearthe village of la Pena (Vitigudino), there is a huge rock, 41 meters high and70 meters in diameter, called Peña Gorda. According to the tradition of theplace, it was originally a small stone the Virgin Mary was carrying, and whichshe threw down some point. Going rolling down it acquired the enormoussize it has today. A pastor of the town, called Lucio Criado, told me that theVirgin came spinning with distaff and spindle and carrying the stone on herhead. She dropped the spindle, and when she went to pick it, she droppedthe stone. (Romero 1998:16.)

”When the girls of Caldas de Rainha go to the fountain in the midsummernight to get some blessed water, the mouras encantadas, clothed in whiterobes, appear to them and teach them how to use the water to cure manydiseases.” (Pedroso 1881b: 5-6).

“Senhor António was going to fetch water from a well, which was called theWell of Moirinho. He told some ladies `I’m going to fetch water from Poço doMoirinho.´ He went. He sat on the brim of the well and lit a cigarette, andwhen he was smoking he heard a voice from the well say: You’re going to dieafter a year! And he then when he went home, and told people about it.Whena year had passed by, he said: Today I'm going again to the Moirinhowell, to see what happens to me. He arrived there, sat down (on the brim)and made a cigarette. When he was smoking, he died. His family at homewas already distraught because he was not home. They went to the well andfound him dead. People, who had seen him go out alive, saw him comingback dead, in a chart pulled by beasts. This is a fact!” (CEAO 2006) Vila realde Santo António, Faro, 1990´s.

“In Loulé, it is told about a man, who was returning home late at night, nearthe fountains of Fonte da Moura and Fonte das Romeirinhas. When hearrived to the gate of his house, he heard the village klock to ring the sign ofmidnight. When he was unbolting the gate, he saw, next to the wall, a womanattired in white.The man asked who she was, but her only answer wassilence. The man threatened her with his gun, trying furiously to open thegates. He felt a bang on his head and fainted… It is not known what

happened between him and the moura, but after that night he was alwayslooking sad, and died soon after.”(Frazão & Morais 2009:42.)

“In the village of Marrancos was a very shy boy, who could not utter aloudany of his thoughts. Until when he fell madly in love with a girl of the samevillage. When he saw her, he could only look at her beauty. Later he met heragain, but he still could not even tell her that he thought her to be beautiful.The life was passing by for this young man, but his shyness stayed. One dayhe went to the Cova dos Mouros and sat down to read the Book of St.Cyprian, to see if he could found in it a solution to his problem. When hefinished reading it, a snake approached him. To his big dismay the snake bithim, and next, to his shock, in front of him appeared a beautiful Mouraencantada. Being fed up with all adversity, he exclaimed: Why the hell is allthis happening to me? I don´ t want to hurt anyone, and there is only onething I have ever asked in my life: to marry the girl I love! For his surprise theMoura looked him in the eyes and told him that his wish would be fulfilled.The boy ran away scared, but the truth is, that after a few months he marriedthe girl whom he wanted and dreamed of. Currently, people who haveproblems in life, or go through difficulties, or have unfulfilled desires, go tothe Cova dos Mouros, and read the book of St.Cyprian (if they dare) andwish that their wishes would become realized.“Year 2002, Place of collection Braga (CEAO 2006.)

“There is a moura in O Folón cave!”, a woman of about 70 years old warnedus, when we were going to visit O Folón cave in 1992. Afterwards we did lotsof research concerning the folklore of the region, writes Costas Coberna et al(2008), and continues: “Thanks to the ethnographic investigation of AfonsoRodríguez (2004), we found out that at the end of the twentieth century,people visited the entrance of the O Folón cave and left there hens asofferings to the moura, asking from her many favours: abundant harvest andprotection against the evil eye.” (Costas Coberna et al. 2008.)

“Some meters from the river Tua and the road which connects Vilarinho dasAzenhas and Cachão, is a steep cliff, which people call as Cliff of Moura. It istold that in all Midsummer evenings there appears a moura encantada. Allpeople don´t see her, but those who do are considered to be lucky. Their lifeis going to be easy and pleasant, and they will become successful and rich.”(CEAO 2006.)

“The dolmen Anta de Paranho de Arca was built buy a moura, and thehorizontal stone, which lays upon the pillars was brought there by that moura,who carried it upon her head. She was spinning with the spinning wheel atthe same time, and also carrying a child in her arms. The moura appearsevery year in the dawn of the midsummer day to spin on top of the dolmen,surrounded by golden objects. The happy mortal, who first comes on the spotand encounters the moura on that day, has to answer a question whichhe/she thinks is more beautiful - the eyes of the moura or the gold items shehas. If the person answer that the gold items are more beautiful, they turnimmediately into ashes. Only the persons who think the eyes of the moura

are more beautiful can get the golden things.It is also told that under the dolmen there are gold objects, which can berescued by reading spells from the book of S. Cyprian. Some decades ago 3or 4 guys went there in midnight with some oil lamps, to recite verses fromthe S. Cyprian, to get the gold. It is told that during the first verses, rose sohard wind, that the lamps went dark and all the guys run horrified to theirhomes.”(CEAO 2006.) Oliveira de Frades, Viseu, 1990´s.

”In Vilarinho da Castanheira is a dolmen called Cova da Moira (Moira´scave). The legend tells that on the midsummer nights a moira is seendancing inside it. The lid of the dolmen is seen to be moving too – how manyturns the moira makes, as many turns does also the capstone of the dolmen,accompanying the moira, who dances below it.” (Parafita 2006: 231.)

”Along the river Tâmega and near the village of Arcossó, in Chaves county,there is a boulder which is known as Calhau da Moura (Moura´s rock).People tell a beautiful legend about it. They say that one day a shepherdesswalked with her flock on the bank of the river, when she saw a beautifulwoman sitting on the boulder, spinning. The threads she was spinning wereof gold. They stood looking at each other for awhile, but suddenly the spinnerrose from the boulder and walked toward the shepherdess, and asked:

-Could you give me some milk?The shepherdess immediately said yes, and went to one of her sheep, filled abowl with milk and gave it to her. But because she was curious, she also triedto question the stranger:

-Who are you, lady? And what are you doing on that boulder?-I am a moura encantada – she answered – and I live there.

The shepherdess didn´t get much wiser, but couldn´t make more questions,because the moura clearly wasn´t a great conversationist. The moura put abox on the hands of the shepherdess, and said:

- Here you go, and don´t make more questions. And this box you canonly open when you get home.Then the moura returned on her boulder and disappeared. The shepherdessreturned home with her flock, but on the way she started to wonder whatcould be inside the box. – Should I open it? Or should I not? And her curiositywas such that she could not resist it. She opened the box, right there. Andwhat did she saw there? Gold? Gold thread? Gold coins? ... None of that!There was only bits of coal! Then she began to cry, disappointed, because ofthe big hopes she had already created. She throw off the bits of coal and thebox, and walked forward. But when she had taken only a dozen steps, sheturned around, and what did she saw? The moura was there, quietly pickingup the pieces of coal and the box, but she had barely touched them whenthey turned into gold coins. The shepherdess left the sheep and ran after themoura, asking forgiveness. But the moura didn´t hear. She disappeared withthe box and gold, and the woman didn´t see her ever again. According to

people she still lives in the boulder, called Calhau da Moura.” (Parafita 2006:241.)

”In the village of Pombal de Ansiães, on a hill overlooking the river Tua, andnext to the hot springs of S. Lourenço, there is a group of well alignedboulders, which the people call Castelejo. The people also say that during thefull moon there can be heard the beating of a loom, and sometimes the sadcry of a moura encantada. A shepherd from the village once stopped there tospend his night, and saw the moura combing her beautiful long hair. Full ofcuriosity, and because she seemed like a very beautiful woman, heapproached to make conversation with her. Only then he could see herbetter, and noticed that she was a woman only from the waist up. The lowerpart of her was a snake. The shepherd shivered all over and took three stepsbackwards, ready to flee. But the moura called him, saying: ` Do not be afraidof my looks. Now I'm in this state, but I am a beautiful woman. If you havedoubts, you can come back on the midsummer night, and see me as I am,bathing in these waters.´ It is said that the herder went there again onmidsummer night, and saw the moura bathing in the waters of S.Lourenço,and that she was more beautiful than any other woman. It is also said that fora long time, it was customary for young women of the village, to go to bath inthese waters on the midsummer night, in the belief that they would alsobecome beautiful and seductive.” (Parafita 2006: 230.)

“Before reaching the “Penedo dos casamentos” (The stone of weddings),there is another ruin, almost next to it. In old days, there was a big snakesinging there (zêê zêê), who died. Probably it was a moura” (Sarmento1998:75.) Place: Guimarães

This case was told to D´Athaide Oliveira in the 1880s by an old woman, whowanted to remain unnamed:” -How do you know that the mouras encantadas have meetings in certaintimes?- I heard from the old people. They told that the mouras arrive through theirunderground passages, and before the meeting starts they bath in three tubs.One is made of copper, one of silver and one of gold. I´ll tell you a caseconnected to this, which happened to my grandmother: In an August night,my grandmother was in her room sewing, when she thought she heard rain.She was surprised, since just moments before she had watched out throughthe window and the night had been clear. So she rose and went again to thewindow. The night was beautiful and the sky clear from clouds. She returnedto her room, sat down and started working anew, and then she heard the rainagain!. It seemed so extraordinary that she headed to her mother’s room,where she was in bed. She told her mother what had just happened. Hermother answered only `Go to your room and shut the window, and come thenback to me.´ My grandmother fulfilled the orders and returned to her mother.

- Do you know what you heard, my daughter?

- I heard the rain.- You were fooled. It seems that tonight there is a large gathering of

mouras encantadas. They have already done their bathing, and now theservants are emptying the tubs. What you thought was the rain, was actuallyinvisible hands emptying the tubs on the street. My grandmother told me thiscase many times.” (Oliveira 1996[1898]:44 - 45)

“According to what people tell, on the hill of São Bartolomeu is buried a largebarrel of gold, which is guarded by a snake-moura or a moura encantada,and a barrel of olive oil and a barrel of plague. The barrels of gold and oil areof such value that they would make Portugal the richest country in the world,if they were unearthed, but people do not dare to do so because they areafraid of the snake-moura and the plague. Several people have thought ofdisenchanting these treasures, using the Book of São Cipriano.5 One day agroup of people tried to do the disenchanting. They draw on the ground a ringof Solomon and uttered the ritual words, but they were afraid to continuebecause a raging storm rose suddenly, the trees were falling and the groundwas shaking. It is also told, that the Moura had a habit to polish the gold onthe day of St. John. Once a farmer saw the Moura in this work, and dazzledby so much gold, exclaimed: -Good heavens! Holy Name of Jesus! Whenhe exclaimed these words, the earth opened up, all the gold disappeared,and the beautiful Moura transformed into a colossal serpent.”The story has been written down in Aveiro 1953. (CEAO 2006.)

“.. Another man, called José Gigante, met one day the Moura and made hersome filthy propositions. It is clear that the man didn't recognise the Moura;she gave him such a beating that he had to stay many months after that inbed. But this was not enough. After this José Gigante felt every now and thenblows on his sides, although he didn´t see anyone. After much suffering, hedecided to change residence, and he left for Gibraltar, where she wasemployed to work on lighters. But the Moura didn´t leave him alone. Oncertain nights he received beating, which made him cry aloud for help. Manypeople tried to help him, but still he continued to be beaten, without anyoneseeing who was beating him.Tired and tortured, he returned again to his home region, looking for housingin Santa Luzia, amongst the fishermen, two kilometres from Tavira, in a hutwhere he died. At the time of his death the unhappy man declared that theMoura was beating him. Even if those who become naughty with ladies, earnsome kind of punishment, a lot of people thought that that was too cruel.

5 São Cipriano (Saint Cyprian) is a legendary figure, a great sorcerer in 4th century AD. According tolegends he spent years in Babylon learning astrology and became there a student of the famousPortuguese witch, Bruxa de Évora, another legendary figure, and inherited her big collection of booksabout witchcraft. Saint Cyprian later turned into Christianity and became the Bishop of Antioch. Thegreat Book Of Saint Cyprian, claimed to be written by the saint, is a collection combining texts frommany grimoires. It was published in Portugal and Spain 1849 with the title “The Book of Saint Cyprian,taken from a manuscript made by the Saint himself, who teaches how to undo all the spells made by theMoors in this Kingdom of Portugal, and also how to find the places where riches can be found." The bookspread widely in Iberia and was commonly used in all sort of magic. (Vasconcellos 1918.)

Such cases hitherto narrated, created around the Moura Fatima a badreputation of one steeped in hatred and ill will, but there are others whichreflect a warm heart.Once a young mother passed near the well, leading a child by the hand. Nearthe fountain was extended a carpet of figs drying in the sun. Quite naturallythe child started to cry, because his mother would not allow him to go to thecarpet to pick some figs. But while the child was crying, the Moura came andgave the child two figs and then she disappeared. The child was very happywith the figs, putting them in his pockets to show to his father. As soon as hegot home he ran to show the figs to a sister. And they were all amazed whenthey saw in the child’s hand two beautiful gold coins.” (Oliveira1996[1898]:XXIII, p.185-188.)

“Once, many years ago, two boys went to fetch water from the fountain.When they were leaving, their jugs full, suddenly to them appeared abeautiful woman, whose hair looked like golden threads, and went downbelow her shoulders in thick plaits. The unexpected appearing of so beautifula woman startled the boys. But she approached the boys, with anastonishingly naive smile playing on her lips, and prompted them to takesome figs, which were drying in the sun over a small palm mat. The olderboy, out of contempt or for some other reason, didn´t accept the treat, butcontinued walking. The other boy, who was younger, accepted the gift withpleasure, and took a handful of beautiful figs from the mat, thanking thewoman for the sweetness of her present. The woman was watching himhastening his steps, to catch up with his companion, who was already at adistance. When the younger boy showed the figs to the other boy, they hadturned into pieces of gold, and they were both very astounded. The youngerboy said: `You lost a lot because you didn´t want these!´ `Who gave youthese pieces?´asked the older boy. `They are the figs I took from themat!´answered the younger. Amazed and full of regret for not havingbehaved in a more gentle way with such a rich lady, the older boy returned tothe same road where they had encountered the woman. With a sourexpression the woman mocked the boy: `Do you want figs? Want figs? Thefigs you didn´t want when I was offering them to you? ´ The boy was stunnedand couldn´t say a word. The woman disappeared with the speed of alightning.”(Oliveira1996[1898]: Ch. X p.130-131.)

”In Ameixial (Southern Portugal) a yong man encountered a beautiful woman,sitting on the roadside. She was as white as the foam of the sea, and herthick hair was like silver. She was sewing something, and using a pair ofgolden scissors. The young man was staring, dazzled, both at the womanand her scissors. The woman smiled sweetly and asked ‘Which one do youlike more?’, but the yong man didn´t understand the question. The womanasked again ‘Well, which one do you like more, me or the scissors?’ Thisquestion upset the young man, who started to think that maybe she wasn´t a“good woman”. That´s why he answered: ’I like the scissors more!’ Thewoman said, in a serious tone: ’Oh how stupid you are! You just lost afortune!’ and dissappeared, leaving the young man standing his mouth open.

She was a moura. Later, up to these days, many people have seen themoura spinning or sewing on the same spot.”. (Oliveira 1996[1898]:89-90)

“There is a legend... a legend from Guimarães, which tells that if anyonecould be able to read what is written on Pedra da Moura (Moura's stone),would get a wish fullfilled. Well, a man who wa paralyzed and wanted to walkagain, managed to read the engravings, and his wish to be walking againbecame true! But, at least this is what is told... because of some works thestone had to be demolished, and the man became paralyzed again.”(CEAO,Guimarães 2006.)

“One day a man, returning from work on the fields, was passing the FonteFria fountain" in Lebução, when he saw a large snake that had a woman'sbody from the waist up. It was an enchanted Moura who had been there along time.The Moura started to talk to the man, and asked many questions. The manwas very scared, and he answered all the questions the Moura was making,so that in the end the Moura knew everything about his life. At last, the Mouraspread a carpet with drying figs on his feet and told the man to take as manyas he wanted. ‘Give me your hands, and I give you some to take with you tohome too!’The man stuffed six figs into his pockets and went home. There he told hiswife what had happened. But when he took the figs from his pockets to givethem to his wife, he was very amazed, because instead of six figs there wassix gold coins!His wife stood there, scolding him, because he had only picked six figs, andleft all the others behind. Soon she forced him to return to Fonte Fria, to seeif rest of the figs would still be there. The man was very reluctant, but he wentanyway. When he arrived to the fountain, there was no figs anymore, but thesame Moura appeared again soon. She handed him a sewing kit and said‘Take whatever you want!’ The man saw there a pair of golden scissors,decorated with precious stones, and he did not hesitate, but picked them. Butwhen he was on his way back to home, he slipped on a rock and the scissorsstabbed him on the chest and he died. People say that such misfortuneshappen whenever the encounters with Mouras are not kept secret.” (Parafita2006.)

“In a certain place called Poiares, near Regua, appears continuously a moirain the shape of a winged serpent” (Vasconcellos 1938:503).

“On many dolmens was engraved a cross, the idea being to christianizethem. They engraved a cross on to the capstone of the dolmen called Cistade Puig-Rodó. People tell that there was an old woman living in it with herflock of pigs, but as an effect of the christianization they moved away.“(Amades 1941: 133-134.)

"Near Montemor-O-Novo in Alentejo, a shepherd wanted to rest a bit. Heremembered a dolmen near by, went inside and lay down, but the door of thedolmen shut tightly, and the shepherd only had air enough for a day. Somepeople heard his shouting and tried to help him out, but they couldn´t do

anything. When there was almost no air left, a beautiful moura, whoresembled a fairy, opened the door. It is told that those who see this moura,will live happily." (Oliveira 2001:66)

“In Lagiosa, near Citânia de Briteiros, a moira is often seen spinning andherding sheep. It is said that actually the sheep are the treasure of the moira,only in the shape of sheep.” (Vasconcellos,1938:503)

“My mother told that in Boza, where there is a Moira Encantada, appearsalso many odd items: pots and jugs and lots of old gold and copper.”“My grandmother told that a Moira Encantada walks here, on the fields ofDavid, where she has been seen by women, who were there drying fishingnets. She was beautiful as the sun!”“When I was a lad – now I’m 78 years old – it was told that a Moira appearedoften next to the Fonte Velha fountain in Vila Velha. The girls and womenwent crazy because of it, being sad because a young woman so beautifuland rich, had to roam around in the shape of a snake.. they brought her milkin bowls, which they left on the spot where she was most often seen.” Póvoade Varzim, Porto, 1930´s. (CEAO 2006.)

“In one night, continued the old lady, my mother was sleeping with my father,who had returned from Faro, and I was asleep in my crib. At midnight mymother heard knocking on the front door. The knocking continued, and mymother didn´t want everyone to be awaken, and so she rose from the bedand went to the door. She opened the door a bit ajar and saw three womenoutside.

`What do you want at this hour?´`Tomorrow, before the sun sets, tell your husband to loan two bulls and

to bring them here. And when it is midnight, you, lady, driwe them to theFonte da Moura, and load them with gold which you can find in the entranceof the fountain, and with wheat, which there is a whole mountain! Only whenyou have driwen the load home, you can tell everything to your husband.´

`Who are you, ladies?´ asked my mother.`We are sorrwfull enchanted ones.´

And they disappeared immediately.The next day my mother told everything to my father. My father answered:

`You fool! If you had kept your mouth shut we would be very rich!´However, my father was renting the two beasts, and mom led them to thefountain at midnight, but the mount of gold disappeared.If my mother had done what the mouras told her to do, I would be today avery rich woman.” (Oliveira 1996[1898]:29-30)

"It is told that sometimes the shepherds were keeping the rain sitting insidedolmens, and then they sometimes heard singing. Sometimes they sawoutside the dolmen three or four girls, who were dancing in a circle, holdinghands and singing.” (Oliveira 2001:67-68)

“The Moura had a habit to give bread for a girl who was very poor. One dayshe gave the girl a basket, which was covered with a towel, and told her not

to look inside before reaching home, even if she felt curious.Even so, halfway to her home, the girl lifted the towel, and a bunch of beetlesflew out from the basket. When the girl get home and lfted the towel again,there was one gold coin in the basket. It was the only coin, which had notturned into a beetle. If she had not been as curious, she would have getmany more coins.”CEAO, Torres Vedras, 1999.

“Some people say that if someone walks seven and half turns round Cabeçodo Carvão between midnight and one a clock, without looking back, a doorwill open into an enormous palace with endless halls and passages. Whenentering, one has to leave a long rope onto the entrance and bind the otherend round the waist. The palace is so huge, that without the rope it would beimpossible to find the way back to the door, and one would remain thereforever, spellbound in the Moura´s place. The elegant and gracefull Moura,who is covered with emeralds, appears when someone enters. She walksthrough the halls with the visitor, but doesn´t give much information about thethings seen there.It is told that once a very poor man was coming out from the Moura´s land,and the Moura walked with him to the door to say goodbye. On the door shesaid to the man: `Take this bag of figs with you, they are very good!´ Whenthe door closed behind him he said: `I´m happy I still have some brandy inthe cottage. It will be very good with the figs in the cold of December!´ .When he was going to eat some figs, they turned into gold coins! He watchedinside the bag, and there was figs, no coins. He took some from the bag, andimmediately they turned into coins! Soon he had a bagfull of gold coins!He returned to Alcains as a rich man.”(CEAO 2006.) Castelo Branco, 1990´s

“Long time ago in Penha, Salgueiro do Campo, was a ruin, which was calledCasa da Moura (Moura's house). It was like a stone altar, but it wasdemolished by a mason, who used the stones in the construction of hishouse in Rua da Serra.It is still told in Salgueiro, that the Moura had buried a cauldron full of Goldcoins in Penha, but it has never been found. Because of the constant comingand going of flocks of sheep and goats, the cauldron lost its ears.”(CEAO 2006.) Salgueiro do Campo, 1990´s

”Close to the Rochado da Moira (Moira´s rock) a shepherd found a fieldcovered with jewels, guarded by a beautiful woman with long blond hair, whotold him: "Come back tomorrow and kiss my lips, regardless of the form yousee me in." Next day the shepherd came back and encountered a snake whowanted to kiss him. He was afraid and lost everything.” (Santo 1989: 39.)

“Legend has it that in Rameseiros (Montalegre) there are Mourasencantadas, and some people claim to have seen them, extending gold inthe sun. (...)The legend tell too that in Rameseiros, on the boulder that has

the letters, appears a Moura, combing herself, and when she sees peopleshe hides. A man saw a Moura in Rameseiros, in the shape of a goat,combing herself, and she told him that if he gave her a kiss, without lookingback, he would become rich for life, but as he fled, she told him: -Flee,coward, or your coat will be ripped! (Parafita 2006: 296.) Year: 1919 Place:Vila de Perdizes, Montalegre.

In Belver, near the castle, is a very deep well, which is called O Poco dastrês pombas (The well of three doves). In that well is a moura encantada, andto break the spell, one has to go at night to that well, wearing white clothes,and never watching behind, even if there was sounds of people or animals.One has to go to the well and watch at the bottom of it to break the spell. Thisfar no one has been able to do that, because everyone is scared thatsomething bad would happen, and so, the moura is still spellbound on thebottom of the well.(Graça 2000:194.)

“One day when a herder was with his flock on a mountain called Gra deFajol, a Frenchmen came to meet him there and asked if he could take himto a dolmen, called Fossa del Gegant, about which the people were talkingabout. The herder accompanied him to the dolmen. When they get there, theFrenchman took a book, from which he was reading odd words the herdercould not understand, and look! The capstone of the dolmen opened! Behindit there was a cavity, and the two men went in. It was full of green peas. TheFrenchman took some pods and gave some to the herder too. Immediatelythe capstone of the dolmen started to close itself. The Frenchman read somemore words from his book, and now opened one of the sidestones of thedolmen, and behind it there was a mountain of green beans!Both men stucked their pockets with them. In the same way opened a thirdstone and behind it they found tons of broad beans. Both men took some ofthese beans too, and then they went their own ways. Next day the herderwas going to give the peas and beans to his flock to eat, but he found outthat they had changed into coins! The peas had turned into copper coins, thegreen beans into silver coins and the broad beans into gold coins. Whenpeople saw the coins and heard what had happened, they went anddestroyed the dolmen to get their share of the riches, but they didn´t findanything at all of what the lucky herder had seen.” (Amades 1941:130-131.)

“The dolmen of Pedra Gentil in Vallgorguina, Valles del Maresme, is widelybelieved to be the meeting place for witches, where they held their dancesand covens. It is believed that all of them have to give a conduct of their baddeeds to the head witch, and that, if in the judgment of the assembly, a witchhas failed to fullfill her tasks, she is going to be hanged on the dolmen,without pity or compassion. To prevent the mortals to see the body whilehanging, or to approach the megalith, the witches triggered furious winds inall directions. This belief has led to the popular saying: “It seems a witch ishanging”, when a day is windy. But an old fisherman of the east coast thinkshe saw on some days when the wind was only momentous, a decaying bodyswinging on the dolmen. It is also said that when the witches want to raisethe wind, they are hopping on top of the dolmen.” (Amades 1941:129.)

Appendix 2.Edicts, orders and rules given by church councils and bishoprics

in Europe concerning old beliefs, customs and megalithic monuments

197 AD (Rome) Apologetigum by Tertullianus announces that all paganholy places have been christianized. (Braga 1885[1994])

435 AD (Rome) Codex Theodosianus includes a law, according towhich all pagan holy places and other edifices have to be destroyed andpurified by erecting a cross on their place.(Braga 1885[1994])

567 AD (France) The bishop of Tours urges the preasts to cast out fromchurch all such persons, who have been seen doing certain acts, which don´thave anything to do with the church´s seromonies, on certain stones.(Warner 2004)

572 AD (Portugal) São Martin, archbishop of Braga, forbids people fromtaking food to the mounds of the dead and making there sacrifices for theGod to the credit of the dead (Almeida 1974) and from celebrating the masson the mounds. "It is not right, that devout and innocent preasts arecelebrating sacraments on the fields of the dead.” (Goméz et al. 2008) In hisessay "De correctione Rusticorum" archbishop forbids people who hadreceived the baptism, from having ”home gods”, from sowing, harvesting andmating animals according to moon phaces or in the morning dew, fromburning candles on certain stones, fountains and crossroads, from marryingon Fridays, from protecting oneselves from the thunder using bay leaves,from pouring wine into fire, from putting bread into fountains, from singingcalendas, from believing in prophecies, from reciting prayers to Minerva whilespinning, from positioning the New Year into January and from believing thatthe rest of the year would be similar than its first day, taking care of enteringthe doors right leg first, from counting the “days of idols”, from making magicusing plants and from travelling on “favourable days”. He is also listing manyRoman gods and goddesses and announcing them all to be demons. ((SãoMartin (Martin de Braga) 572.))

640-650 (Belgium) The bishop of Flanders, saint Eligius (Eloy) forbids inhis sermon the newly converted Christians from following their old customs,and gives a long list of them: The bishop forbids people from pretending to bedeers or other animals in January, from “playacting stupid farces”, from

feasting and from singin the songs of devil. On midsummer he forbids peoplefrom dancing, singing, racing, from singing in the choirs of devil and fromcalling the devil with such names as Minerva, Neptuno, pluto or evil spirit. Heforbids anyone from celebrating the day of Jupiter and from ceasing theirwork to celebrate mice’s or lizards’s or anybody else’s day. He forbids peoplefrom burning candles in pagan temples, on treeroots, on the fountains andcrossroads, from keeping count on favourable days, from profetizing onbirdsong, from hanging amulets on the necks or people or animals, frompretending to be an animal inside hollow trees or in a pit, from making loudsounds during the lunar eclipses, from talkin to sun and moon or from cursingor swearing to their name. He forbids people from celebrating midsummer asa feast of summer solstice and from believing in fortune, misfortune, destinyor horoscopes. (Braga 1885[1994].)

658 AD (Bretagne) Edict given by the church council: "..and on remoteplaces and on woodlands there stands certain stones, which people are oftenworshipping. We urge that they all should be demolished and hidden.”(Warner 2004.)

681 AD (Spain) The church counsil of Toledo forbids the idol-worshipping (Goméz et al. 2008).

743 AD (Belgium) The synod of Leptines (Lessines) lists the forbiddencults.Forbidden is for example the worshipping of trees and holy fountains, certainburial singing traditions, tambourine playing in February, profesy from flyingof the birds or from faeces, spit or fire, being afraid of lunar eclipse, andshouting `Vince Luna!’ (Braga 1885[1994].)

1534 AD (Portugal) The archbishop of Évora forbids people fromhanging teeth or milk teeth or any parts of dead people on their necks orcarrying them along, from ”having altar stones” or turning and libating stonesin hope of rain and from using ”magical words” (Braga 1885[1994]).

1563 AD (Portugal) The bishopric of Lamego announces that it ”asksand supports” that the holy prosessions would not go to the hills or to thestones, but only to church (Braga 1885[1994]).

1639 AD (Portugal) The archbishop of Braga forbids people fromkeeping count on moon phases and counting favourable days for travelling,negotiating or accepting a new post etc.(Braga 1885[1994]).

1639 AD (Portugal) The bishopric of Lamego forbids people fromcollecting herbs in midsummer night and from fetching water from thefountains before the sunrise, or from bathing animals or people in the watersof beforementioned fountains (Braga 1885[1994]).

1672 AD (France) The bishop of Nantes urges people to destroy the oldcromlechs (Bonwick 1894).