Doctoral research student

Artur Ribeiro (Portugal, 1980)

M.A. in Archaeology

aribeiro@gshdl.uni-kiel.de

Complexity and Change of Bronze Age Societies and Landscapes in Southwest Iberia: a microhistorical approach.

During 2008 and 2009 I was involved in a series of projects in Southwest Iberia as a Site Director, promoted by Empresa de Desenvolvimento de Infra-Estruturas do Alqueva, which revealed a set of previously unknown settlement types and practices ascribed chronologically to the Bronze Age. This settlement type, dated by C14 from 1600 B.C. to 1300 B.C. is characterized by an intense occupation of open air sites and landscapes marked negative structures cut into chalk. It also revealed a very different aspect of Bronze Age funerary ritual composed of elaborate individual hypogea with very rich grave goods that include pottery, lithics, and bronze knives and daggers. My dissertation proposes a new methodology and theoretical approach, an approach that links and tries to synthezise scientific analysis and narratological endeavours. In summary, I plan to analyse the Bronze Age sites of Southern Alentejo through formation processes, while simultaneously, applying a historical view to these processes. Once these processes have been properly determined, one can understand the differentiation between natural deposition and artificial deposition. It is also important to view this Bronze Age culture within a narratological framework since my aim is not only to understand the culture as a static description but also as an event that has a beginning, middle and end. And finally, with this approach, I hope to produce alternative knowledge in our current understanding of the emergence of complexity and of the ritual practices of Bronze Age Iberia.

Since February 2013
Member of the Graduate School "Human Development in Landscapes" at Kiel University.

November 2012
Masters of Arts in Archaeology from University College London. Thesis: The Bronze Age pits of Southern Alentejo. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sue Hamilton.

September 2005
Degree in Archaeology and History from the University of Lisbon.

May 2008 – September 2011
Employed as an archaeologist by Era-Arqueologia to work on 38 archaeological sites and as a site director on 11 archaeological sites, in the Algarve, Alentejo, Trás-os Montes, and Lisbon regions.

September 2008 – January 2009
Employed as an archaeologist by Palimpsesto Arqueologia services to work on one archaeological site and as a site director on one archaeological site in the Alentejo region.

February 2008 – April 2008
Employed as an archaeologist by Archaeological Development services to work on one archaeological site in Northern Ireland.

August 2007 – February 2008
Employed as an archaeologist by Headland Archaeology to work on three archaeological sites.

April 2007 – August 2007
Employed as an archaeologist by Archaeological Consultancy Services to work on two archaeological sites.

January 2007 – April 2007
Employed as an archaeologist by Irish Archaeological Consultancy to work on 3 archaeological sites.

July 2003 – December 2006
Employed as an archaeologist by Era-Arqueologia to work on 16 archaeological sites and as a site director on 4 archaeological sites, in the Algarve, Alentejo, and Lisbon regions.

September 2006
Employed as a Site Director by Omniknos Arqueologia to work on one archaeological site in the Beira Alta region.