Evidences of the Early Iron Age occupation of Coimbra (Portugal) and the foundational myth of the place

Abstract

This work focuses on the first, and for now the only, known context of the Early Iron Age of Coimbra. The discovery concerns an archaeological survey carried out in 2008 at D. Dinis square where a modest stratigraphic deposit containing ceramic sherds as well as human and faunal remains was identified. Although few and isolated, the contents of the deposit raise questions regarding the nature of the finding which is suggestive of a foundational deposit of human remains. Above all, these new data are important in that they confirm an Early Iron Age occupation in the city. Coimbra at last joins the highlighted references from the Orientalizing period of the Lower Mondego.