3,000 YEAR-OLD BULL ON DISPLAY AT EDIA
Beja, 27 April 2012
From today until 29 June, a bull dating back to the 7th or 6th century BC will be on
display at the gallery of EDIA - Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infra-estruturas do
Alqueva, S.A. in Beja. It was recovered at one of the 1,300 or so digs promoted by
the company so far.
It is a ceramic sculpture of a bull lying down with its hind quarters leaning lightly
on its left leg. The piece is 23 cm high, 17 cm wide and 45 cm long.
Because of its rarity, particular scientific importance and iconographic value,
EDIA decided that it should be the central feature of a public exhibition.
The bull was recovered from the Cinco Reis 8 archaeological site that was worked
on during the construction of the Pisão-Beja connection in the primary Alqueva
irrigation subsystem.
The site is a burial ground from the first Iron Age consisting of enclosures bordered
by rectangular ditches and containing individual graves.
The impact-mitigating archaeological work that EDIA has been organising during
the installation of the Alqueva Multi-purpose Undertaking has uncovered places
occupied at many different times (from prehistory to modern times) and of various
types (burial grounds, dwellings, settlements, etc).
These discoveries have thrown new light on the past and contributed to furthering
scientific knowledge.