Days Off in Portugal

Days Off in Portugal

Some of us had the opportunity to visit Portugal this season. We offer a few shots of the two places we went, Lisbon, and an archaeological site called Lagar Velho. You can click on any of the small photos to bring up a larger version with more details.

Here's an overview of part of Lisbon (to the right), taken from the top of the Vasco da Gama monument near the water. Lisbon is spread out over many small hills and has an attractive rolling appearance.

Above and to the left, you see part of an ancient church in Lisbon. The interior combines two different styles of architecture, and as with many churches of this period, has a high lofty interior ceiling. To the right above is the Torre da Belem, a lovely tower that is now surrounded by water at high tide. You can climb around in most of the rooms and go to the top for a nice view of Lisbon. You can even sit in the spots that the lookouts used.

The archaeological site of Lagar Velho is quite interesting because of a prehistoric burial found there. It dates to part of what archaeologists call the Upper Paleolithic period, in this case, to around 25,000 years ago. The child is thought by some researchers to show a biological heritage from both Neandertals and early modern humans.

A few thousand years after the burial of the child, the rockshelter was occupied by other groups of people. They left remains of hearths (fireplaces) and discarded meals (animal bones and some stone tools). You can see the hearth in the photo (top right). It consists of a circular cluster of stones and charcoal rich sediment. In the photo to the bottom right is an excavation surface with quite dense animal bone and cobbles.