It is located in the parish of Roliça, Municipality of Bombarral, District of Leiria, Central Portugal
Roliça is a small village close to Bombarral, in the Central region of Portugal, famous for the Battle of Roliça that took place in this territory and marked the beginning of the end of Napoleonic rule in the Iberian Peninsula.
The various archaeological remains demonstrate that around 50,000 Neanderthals settled here.
Roman civilization also left its mark, especially in agricultural knowledge, which Roliça has wisely maintained over the years due to the fertility of these great soils and the proximity to the ocean.
Around Roliça there are small typical villages, mainly rural, with landscapes that are worth knowing, such as Baraçais, Azambujeira dos Carros, Columbeira, São Mamede, Boavista or Delgada.
The Lapa do Suão Cave is also located in Vale do Roto, it was discovered around 1880, by Carlos Ribeiro, the first excavator.
A cave discovered in 1880, but only explored in 1963, and traces from the Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age were discovered and most of the finds are currently in the Bombarral Municipal Museum.
In this cave it is possible to see occupations from the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic, which provide legacies such as polished stone axes, an anthropomorphic figurine made of terracotta.
But charred bones, ceramic vessels and burial materials attributed to the Bronze Age were also found.
Human occupation of this cave developed over thousands of years, in addition to traces from the Upper Paleolithic, a period attested by archaeofauna and lithic industry, there are more recent levels from the Neolithic, providing important remains: decorated plaque idols and small zoomorphic figurines of rabbits.
The cave also received a secondary deposit of human bones, a tomb level (ossuary) with evidence of carbonization of bone material with a chronology probably coinciding with Recent Prehistory (Neolithic and Chalcolithic).
A significant amount of exhumed lithic material and ceramic forms can be attributed to the Copper Age, without forgetting evidence of a Bronze Age occupation, marked by the discovery of a cup decorated inside with burnished ornaments, forming a floral motif.
The various archaeological remains demonstrate that around 50,000 Neanderthals settled here.
Roman civilization also left its mark, especially in agricultural knowledge, which Roliça has wisely maintained over the years due to the fertility of these great soils and the proximity to the ocean.
Around Roliça there are small typical villages, mainly rural, with landscapes that are worth knowing, such as Baraçais, Azambujeira dos Carros, Columbeira, São Mamede, Boavista or Delgada.
The Lapa do Suão Cave is also located in Vale do Roto, it was discovered around 1880, by Carlos Ribeiro, the first excavator.
A cave discovered in 1880, but only explored in 1963, and traces from the Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age were discovered and most of the finds are currently in the Bombarral Municipal Museum.
In this cave it is possible to see occupations from the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic, which provide legacies such as polished stone axes, an anthropomorphic figurine made of terracotta.
But charred bones, ceramic vessels and burial materials attributed to the Bronze Age were also found.
Human occupation of this cave developed over thousands of years, in addition to traces from the Upper Paleolithic, a period attested by archaeofauna and lithic industry, there are more recent levels from the Neolithic, providing important remains: decorated plaque idols and small zoomorphic figurines of rabbits.
The cave also received a secondary deposit of human bones, a tomb level (ossuary) with evidence of carbonization of bone material with a chronology probably coinciding with Recent Prehistory (Neolithic and Chalcolithic).
A significant amount of exhumed lithic material and ceramic forms can be attributed to the Copper Age, without forgetting evidence of a Bronze Age occupation, marked by the discovery of a cup decorated inside with burnished ornaments, forming a floral motif.
