Anta de Agualva

About

The Anta de Agualva, also known as the Anta do Carrascal, is a megalithic dolmen situated in an urban area of Agualva-Cacém in the municipality of Sintra, in the Lisbon District of Portugal. First identified by Carlos Ribeiro in 1875, the dolmen has recently been restored and can be easily visited. The dolmen is believed to have been made up of a polygonal chamber measuring 3.7 × 3.8 meters and formed by seven vertical stones (orthostats), together with an access corridor.

Three large blocks have also been identified that may be fragments of the stone that covered the tomb. A few archaeological fragments were found at the site and they are now deposited in Lisbon's Geological Museum but many more were believed to have been taken prior to Ribeiro's excavations. The artifacts collected, as well as more recent radiocarbon dating, suggest that the chamber was used in the Late Neolithic period between the middle and end of the 4th millennium BC.

Later, in the second half of the 3rd millennium or in the second millennium, additional funerary deposits may have been made in the access corridor. The Anta de Agualva was first identified in 1875 by military engineer and geologist Carlos Ribeiro...