Alguns aspectos do povoamento tardo antigo e alto medieval do curso superior do Rio Paiva: as sepulturas escavadas na rocha

Abstract

The Upper Paiva valley is mainly an upland complex rising up to 1000 m, here and there cut by the river Paiva and its tributary streams that configure valleys around 600 to 300 m high. The resources are scanty and the landscape is marked by the nudity of the granite rock and the green spots of pinelands, where the tilled fields search for the fertile lands and are organized around settlements. With the aim to study the settlement pattern – and its evolution from roman times to early middle ages – was made an inventory using extensive archaeological methods. In this text is analysed only the data of rock carved graves and how these monuments can be related to coeval settlement (from 7th century on). The support for this work is a sample of eighty nine rock carved graves, distributed by thirty three different sites. After an introduction, to the region and methodology, it’s made a presentation of the gathered data: typology, situation of the tombs, orientation and setting. Than the results are discussed and confronted to other region’s studies. One of the conclusions drawn is that the Upper Paiva presents some singularities that may be related to it’s peripheral character, while other traits approach it to the rest of the known groups of rock carved graves. In what settlement is concerned, by admitting the possibility of relation between these funerary vestiges and early medieval peopling, is revealed a dispersed pattern, in part coincident with the known reality for the previous period. The data points to the making of the rock cut tombs at the margin of a parochial organisation, that is, a situation of absent or remote parish leading to an informal organisation of the cult to the dead.