Heritage - Castros | Cadaval Cativa

Strategically situated on the eastern side of the Serra de Montejunto, above the village of São Salvador, it has two lines of fortifications and was discovered by Hipólito Cabaço in the 1940s. From 1989 to 1991, archaeological excavations were carried out at this hillfort.

Some artefacts were collected from a period of occupation during the proto-Roman Iron Age, however others, such as certain ceramics, a millstone, a fibula and amphorae are proof of definite Roman occupation from the 2^nd century BC until the 1^st century AD.

New excavations were carried out in 1996 and 1997. A combustion structure was discovered that may have served as a cooper melting furnace between the end of the 1^st century BC and the mid- 1^st century AD. There are abundant fragments of ceramics of regional manufacture, accompanied by others from Roman wine amphorae, which came from the western Mediterranean.