The exhibition Bones of our trade, animals of our history. Lagar Velho told through its animals is on display at the Leiria Museum, Avenida Heróis de Angola, and CIA - Leiria Environmental ...

This story begins at Lagar Velho, a rockshelter located in the Lapedo Valley, next to a tributary of the River Lis, a few kilometres north-east of the city of Leiria. This area is situated at the ...

The Lapedo Valley, where the Lagar Velho rockshelter is situated, resembles a deep scar carved into the landscape. With its vertical walls and countless rockshelters used by humans and animals over ...

The oldest human occupation recorded so far at Lagar Velho happened 29,000 years ago, when a group of hunter-gatherers used a recess in the back wall of the rockshelter to bury a child who died ...

The human groups that temporarily settled in Lagar Velho over the course of several millennia probably also left remains in other places, in other regions of the present-day Portuguese territory. ...

According to studies of the pollen preserved in sediments and other residues recovered from the Lagar Velho occupation levels, the landscape of the Lapedo Valley and surrounding areas was different ...

During the Palaeolithic occupation of the rockshelter, the planet was experiencing one of the coldest periods of its climatic history, the Last Glacial Maximum. The Lapedo Valley, due to its ...

Materials are recovered by means of archaeological excavation, using methods, equipment and instruments sometimes quite sophisticated.
The excavation process is very slow and inherently ...

All the elements of the archaeological record are studied by researchers from different areas of expertise. Human and animal bones, stones and other raw materials transformed into domestic utensils ...

Abundant and diverse remains have been recovered from the Lagar Velho rockshelter. These remains reveal the daily life of the human communities that explored the Lapedo Valley and surrounding areas ...

The child burial still is Lagar Velho's most emblematic event. Late 2023 marked the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the site and the skeleton of the Lapedo Child, nowadays an Asset of National ...

Hunting was one of the most recurring activities of the Upper Palaeolithic human communities who periodically frequented Lagar Velho, and possibly the activity that involved the highest investment of ...

Besides deer, the remains of other wild animals have also been documented in the different occupation surfaces of the rockshelter. These Palaeolithic groups lived long before the domestication of ...

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), also known as ossifrage (the 'bone-breaker'), was a frequent inhabitant of the Lagar Velho rockshelter. Its presence is evidenced by thousands of ...

The karst and sheltered environment of the Lapedo Valley also provided a haven for the smaller creatures. Water rats, common wood mice, red-toothed and white-toothed shrews are some of the fifteen or ...

Taking advantage of the remains left by the human groups once their stay at Lagar Velho was over, the carnivores took over the rockshelter for the final feast! Red fox (Vulpes vulpes), Iberian ...

The red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), Iberian mole (Talpa occidentalis) and European hedgehog (Erinaceus europeus) are other small animals also documented at Lagar Velho. Their presence ...

Birdlife also left traces of its presence at the shelter. The partridge (Alectoris sp.), the common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and the jackdaw ...

Hunting wasn't the only livelihood of the communities that periodically settled at Lagar Velho. These Palaeolithic groups also fished in the nearby stream. Remains of salmonids, such as salmon and ...

Human groups have been using and transforming shells for personal use and other everyday needs since very early on.
The only species documented at Lagar Velho so far is the flat periwinkle ...

The cold, dry climate that characterised the last glacial period resulted in a drop in sea level, the advancement of the coastline and an increase of the territories exploited by Upper Palaeolithic ...

Nowadays we consume domesticated species, born in the supermarket... It wasn't always like this. Actually, the exact opposite has been the case for a large part of human history. Humans survived by ...

Sadly, the diversity of species represented at Lagar Velho is unparalleled today. Several are threatened, endangered or already extinct in certain geographical areas of the planet, as the many red ...