Metallic hoards in wet environments, and their margins, in the bronze age of Portugal: a global perspective

Abstract

Understanding metalwork hoarding and deposition in wet contexts involves multiple problems that can be approached from different perspectives. Besides interpreting its potential meanings (which are certainly diachronically different and determined by regional cultural specificities), the researcher also faces complex methodological issues of a different nature. Such issues have no relation to chronology and are particular to this type of archaeological record. One of the most important arises from the fluid or muddy nature of watery or wet depositional contexts. Those contexts are prone to environmental changes and are frequently affected by bank and shore dynamics, like in the cases of rivers, lakes, etc.

This text discusses watery and wet context (riverbank or shore) metalwork depositions, focusing on a specific period - the Bronze Age - and a specific region - Portuguese territory. The authors only address bronze artefacts, gathering the available information about their identification, characterization and loci of find, alongside a criticai perspective about each one and methodological considerations. The base data here discussed comprises 28 records of finds that could be related to watercourses and their banks. Most of these finds are located in the centre-north of Portugal.