Medieval Burial Pit Unearthed in Portugal

SILVES, PORTUGAL—According to a Portugal Resident report, the remains of a one-year-old child and several animals have been found in a pit in southern Portugal’s town of Silves. The burial has been dated to the late thirteenth century, based upon pottery that was also deposited in the pit. “This was a structure that had been dug in the rocks and filled with rocks, construction materials, and other trivial objects,” said municipal archaeologist Carlos Oliveira. The child’s skeleton was found under the bones of a sheep or a goat, and the nearly complete skeleton of a horse wearing horseshoes. Fragments of leaded iron rings may have been part of the horse's harness. Oliveira said the child was found face down in the pit, as if it had been disposed of in haste. Under the child’s remains, archaeologists also recovered an arrowhead that may have been lodged in the child’s muscles, as well as the bones of a small donkey or young horse, the bones of a cat and a bird, and cattle bones bearing cut marks that indicate they had been used for food. Oliveira thinks the animals and child were killed during one of the many conquests of the town, as it repeatedly changed hands between Christians and Muslims. To read about another child burial, go to "Shackled for Eternity."