‘Its maximum length is around 190m, and the areas delimited by the ditches are between 434m2 and 11489m2 for the three interior ditches (the layout of the external one is less noticeable). The external ditch, where a large outcrop (SW) gives the hill its name and where the houses are, appears to inflect inwards, not closing completely. An alignment of entrances is oriented at 120º, which is identical to the Outeiro Alto 2 (Serpa) enclosure, that is, aligned with the winter solstice. A hand pottery, a flint blade segment and some strikers were at the surface.
The magnetogram also shows elongated anomalies in the SO-NE direction that correspond to geological veins and, due to their magnetism, disturb the image obtained in the magnetogram.
Located at the edge of a flattened area, it covers part of the slope towards a stream and has limited visibility over the landscape, which stretches mainly to the West.
It is another example of the ceremonial enclosures with patterned winding ditches typical of the Guadiana basin (with parallels in the neighbouring Borralhos, Folha do Ouro and Outeiro Alto or in the more distant Santa Vitória or Rouca 7).’

Monte da Laje is a few kilometres from other enclosures with identical features, such as patterned winding ditches, circular and concentric architectural designs and entrances aligned with celestial events. The particularity here is the proximity between these enclosures, which does not necessarily amount to contemporaneity as only one of these sites (Outeiro Alto) has been dated in absolute terms (by radiocarbon) so far. They could be short-lived enclosures that succeed each other over time. However, the dated Alentejo ditched enclosures with this patterned design fall within the late 3rd millennium BC (notably between 2500 and 2250), which adds chronological proximity to the spatial proximity between these ceremonial sites in the municipality of Serpa. This situation is difficult to understand without extensive excavations in these places; it perhaps reflects social competition between different local groups, who, on the one hand, build their respective ceremonial enclosures and, on the other, follow the same prescriptions, resulting in the patterning of the architectural design of the enclosures.

Surface prospecting and geophysical prospecting by magnetometry.

Still to be published.