‘The inner ditch has six lobes and an entrance facing the summer solstice. With a maximum diameter of 20m and an area of 283 m2, it has an average width of 2.2m and an average depth of 1.1m. The outer ditch doubles the number of lobes (12) and has a maximum diameter of 50m, an area of 2036m2 and an entrance facing north. Its average width is 1.8 metres, and its average depth is 1 metre.
The excavations mainly collected fragments of handmade ceramics and animal remains (pigs, sheep, cattle, deer, horses and rabbits), documenting the consumption of domestic and hunted wild animals. Objects of a sacred character (idols) and personal adornment are also present. Other artefacts, such as axes, polished and chipped stone tools or loom weights, are relatively scarce.
Santa Vitória was the first ditched enclosure to be identified and excavated in Portugal. Today, it is another representative of the group of sinuous and patterned ditched enclosures typical of the Guadiana basin, along with Rouca 7, Xancra, Folha do Ouro, Borralhos, Monte da Laje or Outeiro Alto (all of which are part of these routes). The incorporation of cosmological prescriptions into its architecture is evident. It is the case with the entrance to the inner enclosure aligned with the summer solstice and the size of the lobes themselves, which coincides with the opening of the angle formed by the two solstices regarding the centre of the enclosure. The very regularity of the ditch design is not discernible at ground level (hence the observation tower), suggesting that this pattern was to be seen from above by some entity. In this case, it mattered to see and be seen, hence its location on a hill with ample visibility in the landscape.’

One aspect common to several ditched enclosures, well documented in Santa Vitória, is the constant partial re-excavation of the ditch fills. Partially or already filled, the deposits were re-excavated in sections, and these new ‘ditches within ditches’ were then intentionally filled with clusters of stones, mixed with some archaeological materials and building clay or simply with the deposition of archaeological materials (usually pottery and fauna). This process suggests the existence of temporary stone constructions (possibly huts around the enclosure) that were dismantled and deposited in these ditch reopenings in a process that accompanied the periodic and temporary assembly of people in Santa Vitória. It was likely a place where local communities gathered for ceremonies involving the consumption of animals in feasts (commensality), occurring cyclically at pivotal times of the year, such as the summer solstice, and where the construction, dismantling and amortisation of structures was part of the ritual.

Archaeological excavation work carried out in the 1980s and 1990s and between 2018 and 2021, when magnetometry geophysical surveys were also performed.

Valera, A.C.; Basílio, A.C. eds. (2023) – Santa Vitória (Campo Maior, Portalegre. O “primeiro” recinto de fossos. Era Monográfica 7. Lisboa. NIA-ERA.