"Melting the power" The foundry area of Fraga dos Corvos (Macedo de Cavaleiros, North-Eastern Portugal)

Abstract

Fraga dos Corvos is a Bronze Age habitat site recently studied and located in the north-western versant of Serra de Bornes, Eastern Tras-os-Montes (Macedo de Cavaleiros, Braganca, Portugal). The site visually controls the Macedo de Cavaleiros basin. It is in the main traditional passes into and out of this basin that have been found the deposits of halberd copper blades which gave the name to the so called Carrapatas type of the Iberian Early Bronze Age Atlantic halberds. The results of the first four campaigns at Fraga dos Corvos Early/Middle Bronze Age habitat site, namely the excavation of its Huts 4 and 6 foundry area, provide the opportunity to discuss the relations between the socio-economic constraints of metal production and the symbolic of power in northern Portugal emerging Bronze Age societies. We argue that metal production in these societies is an uneconomic process which provides the means for the symbolic expression of status, otherwise difficult in societies with a very conservative and modest economy, close to what Shalins called the “domestic mode of production”. Key-Words: North-eastern Portugal First Bronze Age; Archeometalurgy; Symbolic of Power Resumo: A Fraga dos Corvos e um sitio de habitat recentemente escavado. Localiza-se na vertente norte ocidental da Serra de Bornes, Tras-os-Montes Oriental (Macedo de Cavaleiros, Braganca, Portugal). O sitio detem completo controle visual sobre a Bacia de Macedo de Cavaleiros. E nas principais portelas de acesso e saida desta bacia que foram encontrados os “depositos” de lâminas de alabardas de tipologia atlântica em cobre que se designam como de “Tipo Carrapatas”. Os resultados das primeiras quatro campanhas de escavacao no sitio de habitat da Primeira Idade do Bronze da Fraga dos Corvos, nomeadamente a area de fundicao correspondente as Cabanas 4 e 6, servem de pretexto para discutir as relacoes entre as condicoes socio-economicas da producao metalurgica e a simbolica do poder nas sociedades emergentes da Primeira Idade do Bronze no Norte de Portugal. Defendemos que a producao de metal naquelas sociedades constituia um processo nao-economico que fornecia os meios para a expressao simbolica de estatutos, de outra forma dificilmente expressavel em sociedades com uma economia muito modesta e conservadora, proximas daquilo a que Shalins chamou o “modo de producao domestico”. Palavras-Chave: Primeira Idade do Bronze no Nordeste Portugues; Arqueometalurgia; Simbolica do Poder

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