European Kingdoms

Vila Nova de Sao Pedro Culture (Chalcolithic / Bronze Age) (Iberia)
c.2600 - 1300 BC

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The system which has evolved to catalogue the various archaeological expressions of human progress is one which involves cultures. The task of cataloguing the vast range of human cultures which emerged from Africa and the Near East right up until human expansion reached the Americas is covered in the related feature (see link, right).

Early Iberia formed the south-western peninsula of Europe and comprises the modern countries of Portugal and Spain, plus the principality of Andorra and the British crown colony of Gibraltar. The peninsula's role in human development played a notable role in the first millennium BC, even before the coming of imperial ambitions which reached its southern and eastern shores.

The three thousand year-old Iberian Neolithic experienced some difficulties towards the end of the fourth millennium BC, seemingly as part of a wider climate-related transition which also affected Sumer. The early Chalcolithic (Copper Age) became dominant, leading directly into the Iberian Bronze Age around 2800 BC.

The Vila Nova de Sao Pedro culture in Iberia is frequently abbreviated to VNSP for succinctness. For a long period of its existence this culture appears to have to have kept itself apart from the spread of bronze metallurgy. Instead it remained, in effect, a Chalcolithic culture for far longer than its neighbours. This was just like the Los Millares civilisation in south-eastern Iberia with which it traded and shared ideas while the Argaric culture dominated south-eastern Iberia.

The type site is a castro (a fortified settlement, albeit one which pre-dates the Iberian Iron Age Castro culture). The castro of Vila Nova de Séo Pedro is a Chalcolithic archaeological site in the civil parish of Vila Nova de Séo Pedro, within the municipality of Azambuja in the Portuguese Estremadura area of Lezíria do Tejo. Thousands of arrowheads have been discovered within this fortified settlement, and even more so in the long-lived castro of Zambujal, near the municipality of Torres Vedras.

The primary VNSP site is located on a small rural hilltop which is dominated by the ruins of a medieval castle, and is intersected to the north, east, and west by the Ribeira de Alcoentre, Ribeira do Carrascal, and Ribeira do Massuca respectively. The settlement was built in two main phases, with the first being an open settlement which is part of the VNSP I sub-classification.

Archaeological finds are constantly being made, and archaeological cultures are frequently being updated with new information. Get in touch here if this page also requires updating.

(Information by Trish Wilson & Peter Kessler, with additional information by Edward Dawson, from The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, David W Anthony, from The Archaeology of Bronze Age Iberia, Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez, Sandra Montón-Subías, & Margarita Sánchez Romero (Routledge, 2019), from Atlantic Seaways, Barry Cunliffe, from Iberia, the Atlantic Bronze Age and the Mediterranean, Brendan O'Connor, from Bronze Age Iberia, Vicente Lull, Rafael Mico, Cristina Rihuete Herrada, & Roberto Risch, from Contacto cultural entre el Mediterráneo y el Atlántico (siglos XII-VIII ane), S Celestino, N Rafel, & X-L Armada (Eds, Consejo superior de Investigaciones Cientificas Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma, in Spanish), from Vida y muerte de una espada atlántica del Bronce Final en Europa: Reconstrucción de los procesos de fabricación, uso y destrucción, Bénédicte Quilliec (in Spanish), from Les ors de l'Europe atlantique à l'âge du bronze, Barbara Regine Armbruster (in French), and from External Links: Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa (in Spanish), and Celtiberia.net (in Spanish), and Lista de pueblos prerromanos de Iberia (in Spanish, Hispanoteca.eu), and Euskomedia (in Spanish).)

c.2600 BC

The Chalcolithic Vila Nova de Sao Pedro culture (or VNSP) emerges in southern Portugal. Its people have been building fortifications for the previous century as a lead-up to the full emergence of this lengthy cultural period.

The Chalcolithic settlement site of Vila Nova de Séo Pedro has been the subject of renewed fieldwork since 2017 which has seen the removal of six tons of shrubs to reveal a complex of stone features which have not previously been documented

The Bell Beaker horizon has already first appeared in eastern and south-eastern Iberia to signal a clear change from late Iberian Neolithic and early Chalcolithic cultural expressions, but the 'VNSP I' period maintains those Chalcolithic expressions for far longer than most other parts of Iberia.

c.2200 BC

The culture's 'VNSP II' phase begins with a change in trade goods, soon after the termination of the Campaniform Chalcolithic. People begin to use beautifully-decorated, red-tinged pottery which is more delicate then later ceramics. The suggestion is of contact with a superior cultural stock such as the late Bell Beaker or early Argaric. However, from this point settlements are heavily fortified.

c.1800 BC

Argaric society is undergoing a sea-change. With the culture now absorbing the Chalcolithic Los Millares civilisation on its southern flank and the Vila Nova de Sao Pedro culture being tipped into decline, the tombs of the dominant elite contain long swords for males and diadems for females.

Bronze technology in Iberia was championed by the Los Millares civilisation of the Mediterranean south coast, but it was later cultures which progressed to cover much of the peninsula (click or tap on map to view full sized)