The necropolis of Cerro do Ouro (Ourique): thoughts on the urn burials in the tumular necropoleis of the Lower Alentejo

Abstract

Despite having been mentioned for a long time in bibliography regarding the Iron Age of southern Portugal in general, and the Ourique area in particular, little is known about the necropolis of Cerro do Ouro (Ourique). The study of the material from this site deposited in the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia confirms the presence in this funerary site of an urn burial with peculiar characteristics which point towards a southern influence hailing from the coastal areas. This burial allows a reassessment of the cultural dynamics underlying the diffusion of urn burials around the mid-1st millennium B.C.E. and their position in the chrono-cultural sequence of the tumular necropoleis of the Ourique region of Lower Alentejo.