Castelo da Lousa

The Castelo da Lousa is the lost in Alqueva ruins of a Roman fortified homestead in the village of Luz, Mourão Circle, District of Évora (Alentejo ), Portugal.

Location

The facility is located on a rocky plateau above the left bank of the Rio Guadiana, about 2.5 km north of the village of Luz and 6 km west-northwest of Mourão. The heavily indented hills is near the river from shale formations is highly fissured by erosion. Cuts of streams and gullies in the homecooked had the consequence that the terrace of the Castle is accessible only from the south and hidden from the river side facing away from something.

History of Research

The Castelo da Lousa was first investigated 1963-1967 by A. do Paço and J. Bacao Leal. Because of the threat of inundation by the dam project led the Madrid Department of the German Archaeological Institute in 1984 by surveying the walls preserved.

In 2000 Lousa was carried out by a German company a geophysical survey in the area of Castelo da.

Plant

The core building blocks of the system from the rocky spur at its narrowest, is only about 18 m wide spot. To the rectangular building clustered on a lower terrace various outbuildings, the purpose of which is sought in agriculture. These terraces were artificially enhanced for the most part by masonry. The material used consisted of the shales of the region, which could be piled up by his good cleavage in such a way that you hardly needed mortar.

On the one hand strongly fundamentierte retaining walls have been performed for the edification of the main edifice, on the other hand had to be removed a part of the rock, in order to implement the plan into reality. The masonry was preserved in the northwest corner, measured from the Bausohle for demolition crown, 6 m high. The outer walls of the main edifice, enclosed an area of ​​19.23 × 16.8 m and were about 2 m thick. The floor plan arrangement based on an axially - symmetrical design, which in turn was a Roman by foot ( 29.6 cm) calculated based grid.

Upon entering a vestibule one was in a courtyard in the middle where a cistern has received. From here, you could get into all of the basement rooms in the outer walls thereof be isolated nor have received slit windows, but they were used by Wahl's opinion rather for light and ventilation, because as loopholes. A staircase has received at one of these walls, occupying the Mehrgeschossigkeit such buildings. Probably there were mostly two-story buildings, the superstructure was placed half-timber, as here demonstrated parts of the Versturzes. The cistern in the courtyard of Castelo da Lousa proves that this building was probably covered with an inwardly shed roof, which no attack option offered internally and externally guaranteed the collection of rainwater.

Finds

The dating of the system is based on four excavated coins, the 130 in the time - 22 dated BC, the strong presence of so-called Campana goods ( Campana B) and sigillata forms that are similar to the early pieces from the Rhine. The use of ceramic has in the middle of the 1st century BC This results in a settlement period of the square of 70/60 BC to the birth of Christ, which is associated with the dating of other fortified homesteads of the Iberian Peninsula.

The finds are in the Museu Regional de Évora.

Interpretation

Due to the topography results in the strong defensive character of the place, the particular choice of a location. Therefore, it is unlikely, as originally suspected, have served as a guard and signal station. The fact that this complex of buildings away from larger settlements or roads ( the Río Guadiana here is not navigable ) was, as well as the arrangement of the building with a defensive core building and more added in loose construction outbuildings rather leave them to think about the function of a farm, the had to have a defensive character for various reasons. These investments were suitable only for passive close defense from predatory raids. An interpretation as a guard or signal station, which would arise only because of the size separates, also because of the close grouping of these buildings east of Castro Verde from. Also missing from the Fund Inventory receipts for military completely, finds of spindle whorls and loom weights from many " fortelezas " indicate that farms that supplied in this seclusion itself. However, agriculture is in this little fertile area except for their own use out of the question, so that the main source of income is likely to have been the cattle breeding.

Types of such fortified farms there are in the Mediterranean region, above all in the Greek -influenced areas in North Africa to the Byzantine- Islamic time in and on the Iberian peninsula again in late antiquity. The region in which these farms were in Lusitania, was in the 1st century as notorious for banditry, which compelled the Romans repeatedly countermeasures. Varro mentions that the management of many estates in the border area was unprofitable to the Lusitanians, propter latrocinia vicinorum. Strabo represents the Lusitanians and especially the hill tribes as barely civilized barbarians, and portrays them because of their warlike nature and plunder as a classic bandits. Also we are in the 1st century BC, in a time in which there was on the peninsula -free parts of the country that did not belong to the Roman Empire.