Anta Grande Do Comenda Igreja

Our project for the morning, after watching the cork harvest, was to find another anta, the Anta Grande Do Comenda Igreja. With a little help from the Megalithic.co.uk this was not too difficult: locate the GPS point, park by the gate, open and close it (did you lock the car?), walk a kilometer or so across someone's field/woods, spotting numerous megalithic piles, keeping a eye out for bulls, until you see a slight rise among the trees, with megaliths atop it. In the case of this Anta, there was little doubt, since it is relatively unique: a megalithic double-decker.

Megalithic pile a few hundred yards off the "trail"; could be
the real thing; could be just a pile the aeons of generations of
farmers collected there; in this part of Alentaje, they're all
over the place; megalith builders from the Isles would have
been envious of the ease of getting at these rocks and the short
distances to move them

The Anta..Igreja is actually signed

In the Isles, we have seen stone rings surmounted by a dolmen,
but never anything like this: an alle couverte of some size
surmounted by a huge dolmen; all very structured

Entrance to the alle couverte; "covered alley"; passage grave

The surmounting dolmen; huge stones

Lightning struck the capstone and broke it in half; and there
it sits

Another view of the dolmen

View of the mound on which the whole thing sits

Looking into the passage grave; huge capstones; would have
been impressive all by itself

From the entrance to the passage grave to the dolmen

Looking down to the floor of the dolmen

Huge stones

Terrain; pastoral, cork trees

Another view of the two-fer

Parthian shot; one of the most interesting we have seen yet;
oh, same age as all the rest around here (and up north and east),
4, 5, or 6 millennia ago

It's A Corker!

Parts of the Iberian peninsula are cork country: cork is harvested every ten years from cork trees, in commercial forests, and also along road sides. As one drives around, or walks around, one sees trees whose bark has been cut off, for the lower 8 or 10 or more feet, blackened, and painted with a single digit number--the year previously harvested. Rarely, however, does one get to see a crew harvesting the cork, the old-fashioned way. Although I have enjoyed Chateau Screwtop as well as Chateau Plastique, as a traditionalist, I will always prefer cork, and, now, ever more, will appreciate the quality of cork bottled wines. Other things being equal.

Cromlech Do Portela De Mogos

After further research and reconsideration, I decided maybe the Cromlech do Portela de Mogos was on the right side of the highway, not the left. So we drove back, reconsidered again, checked the GPS, and, after two minutes wandering in the cork forest, easily found the cromlech, another of the important ones. We spent the night at another aire de camping cars, further up the road. On the right side.

About all the signage you get from the road; wear boots, carry your guidebook,
phone, GPS, etc. Maybe some water.

Over there...in the trees

Interpretive signage

Escapees

Cromleque Do Vale Maria do Meio

So after the Grand Anta, we were out looking for the Cromlech do Portela de Mogos. Only we, I, got confused, and after wandering for an hour in a cork forest, decided to drive on. A mile down the road was a sign to the Cromleque do Vale Maria do Meio, another important one, so we parked and walked a kilometer to the site. It was another Iberian beauty, reconstructed just a bit, as it was the place where--experimental archaeology!--it took 100 University of Lisbon students to re-erect one of the big stones. Horse-shoe shaped...think: Ohio Stadium! As good as all but a few in the Isles.

Anta Grande Do Zambujeiro

We visited the Anta Grande do Zambujeiro--The Big One--in 2010. It is the largest of dolmens known, so far. Anywhere. In 2010, it was raining, and getting to the anta was a kilometer-long slog on a muddy track. Vicki stayed behind, guarding the camper, while I slogged. See http://roadeveron.blogspot.pt/2010/01/upping-anta.html. The big difference for 2017 is that a) she got to see it, and b) there were bodies to provide scale, perspective. Important for questions of size. Zambujeiro is the biggest. So far as I could see, the site had not changed in these seven years.

The problem with Alentejo is that there are rocks--megaliths-- everywhere, and
everywhere you look, you see something that is or could be or was, a dolmen

After a brief hike, we're there

And in English too

So large, so important, it's under a cover

For scale; only, this is just the little bit

Sexy pose on what might have been the roof of the ante-chamber

Vicki approaching the big bits

Peering inside; these puppies are probably 5
meters high

Roof of the great chamber

Other side

Outlier of some sort, dressed; or maybe just another megalith randomly laying
about in this megalithic wonderland