Children of the Estuary: Mesolithic Burials at Cabeço da Amoreira

The estuaries of the Tagus and Sado rivers in Portugal once formed a fertile refuge for the last hunter-gatherer-fisher groups of western Europe. Between 8,000 and 7,100 years ago, these brackish landscapes sustained communities who thrived on fish, shellfish, and game at a moment of great environmental change. Now, recent excavations¹ at one of their key settlements, Cabeço da Amoreira, are offering a rare glimpse into how these groups buried their children.

Burial of CAM 2023–7 showing the lateral view (right) revealing the small depression and thin gray sand layer where the child was placed, along with surrounding shell and clay layers. Credit: Coutinho-Nogueira et al. 2015

The site, first uncovered in 1864, has long been central to debates about the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Iberia. But until systematic excavations began again in the 2000s, much of the evidence remained poorly understood. New research by Dany Coutinho-Nogueira and colleagues focuses on three recently uncovered non-adult burials, revealing both patterns and anomalies in Mesolithic funerary behavior.