With a total length of 6.30m, the monument features a polygonal chamber with seven pillars, measuring 3.9×2.8m in diameter, still preserving six pillars in situ. Part of the lid or hat has fallen inside the chamber, taking up almost all of the space. The corridor is small, just 2m long, with two pillars on the north side and one on the south side. The tumulus (dolmen) is virtually in ruins.

The few materials collected in the Leisners excavation correspond to fragments of a sizeable sub-cylindrical vase and a plain casserole. Due to their typology, these containers indicate a late burial, from the end of the 3rd millennium BC, which fits into a funerary practice known in Alentejo as “Horizonte de Ferradeira”. The tendency towards individual burials and the presence of plain cylindrical or tronco-conical containers, bell-shaped but undecorated containers, and copper weapons (daggers and arrowheads) and punches define this practice. These materials can appear in different compositions. Thus, like other dolmens in the Alentejo region, Anta 1 de Vale Carneiro was reused for a burial (likely individual) of the “Ferradeira” type.

Partial archaeological excavation in the chamber in the mid-20th century by German archaeologists Vera Leisner and Georg Leisner.

LEISNER, G.; Leisner, V. (1985) – Antas do Concelho de Reguengos de Monsaraz (1951). Studies and Memories 1. Lisbon. UNIARCH. START.