Project


PramCV is a research project in archaeology which aims to study the early medieval peasant communities that lived in the territory of Castelo de Vide, a Portuguese village in the northern Alentejo region.

 

In order to establish a timeframe for our research, we determined the period of time between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Kingdom of Portugal - 5th to 12th centuries - to which we refer when using the expression “early medieval period”.  These are more than simple symbolic milestones in the Iberian Peninsula’s history; in fact, this period is marked by a succession of political, administrative, economic and ideological transformations which had serious consequences in the evolution of the rural landscape and its communities. 

 

Since early medieval peasant societies would hardly produce any written documents, their story reaches us in the form of material remains hidden in todays modern landscape and archaeology plays a major role in reconstructing this rustic past.


Even though this project is being developed in a specific area, our goals must be understood at a wider scale. By sharing our results with those of similar research projects, we will actively take part in the international dialog aiming to understand early medieval rural societies in Western Europe.




Another of the PramCV’s core targets is the social outreach. We will make our results available and accessible to the general public and involve the local community in all our activities.

 

This investment in the archaeology of Castelo the Vide’s territory is also going to impact its cultural tourism. With activities such as lectures, conferences, exhibitions and guided tours, we will help to increase the village’s cultural offer and support its existing heritage.



PramCV is a four-year project in archaeology approved by the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC), the organism responsible for managing the cultural heritage in mainland Portugal. For more information about the legal framework applied to these projects the Circular N.º 1/2012 is available online.