Workshops
Taught by archaeologists or other heritage experts, using original materials and techniques
Workshop of Manual Pottery
In this workshop you will learn about the theory, practice and archaeological context of hand-made pottery (made without a potter's wheel), culminating in the modeling, decorating and firing of your own prehistoric reproduction.
The importance of ceramics for archaeology and the study of prehistory lies in the fact that they—along with stone—embody the majority of material culture that has survived the millennia. They can provide important information about production techniques, the origin of raw materials, and their various uses.
It is one of the first non-natural materials created by Humanity and results from the combination of clay and non-plastic elements (such as fragments of quartz, bone, shells, or vegetable matter) in a paste that is shaped, dried and then fired at high temperatures (above 650ºC) - a process that causes a chemical change in the shaped paste and transforms it into a much more resistant and waterproof material.
In this workshop, you'll have the opportunity to make your own clay, shape, and decorate one or more prehistoric reproductions that will remain yours after firing. Ceramics typically take about two weeks to dry (after shaping) before they can be fired. After drying, your pieces will be included in one of the soengas we regularly hold at the Interpretive Center.
Come Make Your Own Prehistoric Pottery!
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Location:Centro Interpretativo dos Almendres
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Duration: about 2 hours
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Languages: Portuguese, Spanish or English
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Minimum number of 3 px (or equivalent amount) and maximum number of px: 8 people per workshop
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Opening hours: Morning (10am to 12pm); Afternoon (2pm to 4pm)
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Cost: €30 per person (50% discount for children up to 12 years old)
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NOTE: Each participant can take the pieces they produce with them or collect them a few weeks later at the CIA, after firing them (or receive them by mail at home).
Workshop of Slate Plaques
Come learn and make your own slate plaques!
Although their meaning remains largely enigmatic, these objects considered votive are typically of exceptional beauty and attractiveness and have no apparent practical application. For periods without writing, these are the "documents" available to archaeology, offering clues not only about their economy, technology, and aesthetics, but also about the ideas and beliefs of the societies that created them.
In this context, slate plaques are objects of great artistic and symbolic richness, typical of the Late Neolithic and Copper Age in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Typically rectangular or trapezoidal in polished schist/slate (profusely decorated with geometric and anthropomorphic patterns) and with perforations at the top, presumably worn around the neck as pendants. This aspect has led many archaeologists to suggest that they represent a Neolithic deity, but more recent studies also suggest that the patterns may have served to represent the owner's family lineage.
In this workshop, you'll learn about the archaeological context of slate plaques, as well as how they were worked, polished, and decorated. You'll have the opportunity to decorate your own plaque and also learn about another technology: making rope from plant fibers. This knowledge will enable you to make your own string to use with your plaque.
Location: Almendres Interpretive Center
Duration: about 2 hours
Languages: Portuguese, Spanish or English
Minimum number of 3 px (or equivalent value) and maximum number of px: 8 people per workshop
Opening hours: Morning (10am to 12pm); Afternoon (2pm to 4pm)
Cost: €30 per person (50% discount for children up to 12 years old)
NOTE: Each participant can take with them the pieces they produce.
Armas Pré-históricas
Hunting and conflict are two activities that seem to have accompanied humanity since the dawn of prehistory. Necessity and ingenuity have made the use of the same materials—wood, stone, bone, and fiber—increasingly complex.
Wooden spears and bifaces (multi-purpose tools made of chipped stone) seem to have dominated the arsenal of our most distant ancestors. From the development of the first tools three million years ago until the Upper Paleolithic (about 65,000 years ago), they remained virtually unchanged.
But during this period, in the midst of the Ice Age, one of the most successful and widespread long-range shooting systems in prehistory was developed—the propulsor and the dart. This system allowed late Paleolithic hunters to dominate their ecosystem and hunt the megafauna of the time, such as aurochs, wild horses, woolly rhinos, and mammoths.
However, it was after the end of the last ice age, with the profound ecological changes underway, that the most important weapon of prehistory—the bow—gained traction. The new fauna that emerged after the end of the Ice Age—smaller and faster—made the bow the weapon of choice.
In this workshop, you will learn about the theory and practice of these two prehistoric weapons, with the opportunity to fire both and experiment with different types of projectiles and targets.
Come learn how to shoot the propulsor and the bow!
Location: Almendres Interpretive Center
Duration: about 1 hour
Languages: Portuguese, Spanish or English
Minimum number of 3 px (or equivalent value) and maximum number of px: 8 people per workshop
Opening hours: Morning (between 10am and 1pm); Afternoon (between 2pm and 4pm)
Cost: €10 per person (50% discount for children up to 12 years old)