The Convento do Carmo hypogeum (Torres Novas) and the thesis of O. da Veiga Ferreira on the Bell Beaker of Estremadura

Abstract

In a tribute to O. da Veiga Ferreira that took place at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (December 11^th, 2017), the recently-obtained data from the Bell Beaker hypogeum of Convento do Carmo (Torres Novas) was presented as it allows this author’s thesis to be resumed and re-discussed in new grounds. Indeed, two main topics of his thesis seem to obtain unexpected support from the Convento do Carmo evidence: the hypothesis according to which Bell Beaker societies were structured according to principles of matriarchate, and the genetic differentiation between Iberian populations and their coeval counterparts of central Europe. The aim of this contribution is to present a brief outline of the main results from current research at the mentioned hypogeum that give support to the above hypotheses. The geographic scales of interaction connecting Portuguese Estremadura with the rest of the peninsula and the Western Mediterranean in Bell Beaker times are also pointed out.