The "Ferradeira Horizon" - will it still be worth it?

Abstract

In the early 1970s, Schubart defined and characterised an archaeographic entity, the “Horizonte de Ferradeira”, in which he intended to aggregate the scarce archaeological reality known, at the time, for the period between the Full Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age in the Southern Portuguese territory. The evolution that subsequently occurred in archaeological knowledge throughout this period, both in its cultural aspects and in the chronological domain, which are succinctly summarised in this work, lead us to question the validity and current operability of the “Horizon”. Taking into account this desideratum, which is described, and since the archaeological evidence indicates that there are no Beaker sites, but rather funerary and non‑funerary contexts with Beakers, the archaeological model in question, as an aggregator and definer of the reality corresponding to the Late Chalcolithic of the Portuguese South, will have no reason to exist and, therefore, will currently be devoid of any usefulness.