Cornia Nou
| Cornia Nou Poblat talaiotic de Cornia Nou | |||
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.JPG) View from the south of the western talayot of Cornia Nou. |
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Location in Menorca |
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| Coordinates | 39 ° 52 '53 " N , 4 ° 14' 1" E | ||
| place | Maó , Balearic Islands , Spain | ||
| Emergence | around 1000 BC Chr. | ||
| height | 76 m | ||
Cornia Nou (also Curnià Nou ; full name Poblat talaiòtic de Cornia Nou , "Talayotic settlement of Cornia Nou") is an archaeological site on the Spanish Balearic island of Menorca . The settlement, which is assigned to the Talayot culture , is located in the municipality of Maó in the east of the island.
location
The archeological site of Cornia Nou is located 2.5 km west-southwest of central Maó and about 150 m north of the Me-12 road to Sant Climent . It can only be reached via a narrow road that leads from Cami Vell de Sant Climent to the confluence of Carrer de Bajoli with Avinguda des Cap de Cavalleria in the industrial area ( Polígon industrial ) in western Maó, from where the route to the site is signposted . The talayotic settlement of Sa Cudia Cremada is approx. 800 m east, the Talayot de Torelló approx. 1,100 m west.
The site is located on private property and may only be entered on Saturdays from 10 a.m. Display boards give the visitor more information.
description
overview
The site, where excavations for the Museu de Menorca have been carried out since 2007 , consists of two separate parts. In the west stands one of the largest talayots on the island, a tower-like structure in the shape of a truncated cone , which was built without mortar from large stones piled on top of one another. Talayots are only found in Mallorca and Menorca. They originated around 850 BC. In the early Iron Age and were around 550 BC. Chr. Abandoned again. The excavations have uncovered some outbuildings that border the talayot to the south and west. About 80 meters to the east there is a second, much smaller talayot with an inner corridor, which is seen as the entrance gate to a hill partially surrounded by a Cyclopean wall. The original core of the settlement could have been here on an area of 4000 m².
The western talayot and its outbuildings
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The east side of the talayot with an opening (left picture) that leads to a staircase inside (right picture).
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The most striking element of the complex is the western talayot. It has a circular floor plan with a diameter of 26 meters and is 10 meters high. The structure consists of large, roughly hewn stones that were laid in horizontal layers of concentric circles. Its original height is not known as stone blocks were still being removed from its top in the 1940s. Narrow, steep stairs lead into the interior of the talayot from the east and west. It is believed that they led to its upper platform. However, due to collapses in the past, they end up blind today. In contrast, an impressive 2.20 m wide flight of steps, which cuts into the outside of the building's wall, still leads from the roof of a building adjoining to the south to the talayot.
The southern building was fully excavated between 2008 and 2012. The building, bordered by a double-walled wall, has a slightly inwardly curved 13-meter-wide facade . A central entrance gate with a large monolith as a lintel leads inside to a corridor . This has a stove in the back. A western room is divided into four smaller chambers. A smaller eastern room has a paving. The corridor ends in a part of the building that has been filled with stones - with the exception of a narrow corridor that leads to the roof. From here you can reach the top of the talayot via the flight of stairs. Inside the southern building, a large number of tools such as grinding stones , pestles , punches , awls and bone spatulas have been found that have been used in food processing and in the production of various consumer goods. In addition, there were bones from domesticated animals such as goats , sheep , pigs and cattle , but also from red deer , as well as remains of charred grain near the hearth structure . The latter probably occurred when the grain was roasted to make it easier to peel . Shards of Talayotic, Carthaginian, Roman, Iberian and Islamic ceramics were also found . The researchers concluded that in Talayotic times the building was used to centralize the processing, storage and distribution of products. The community that lived here showed social complexity and perhaps an incipient social stratification.
When the southern building was excavated, various construction phases could be identified. Attempts were made to create a chronology of these construction measures with the help of radiocarbon dating. One result was that the talayot was already at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Must have been built centuries earlier than others. The talayot and the southern building were built in the 6th century BC. Abandoned BC, although some structures on the eastern exterior were also used in Roman times .
- The southern building
Entrance gate with a view of the corridor
Hearth
View from the western room into the corridor
Corridor leading to the roof
Since the completion of the archaeological work on the southern building, the excavations have concentrated on a similar building leaning against the talayot to the west with a monumental surrounding wall. Its facade is 8.90 meters wide. The interior is divided into two roughly equal rooms by a wall. In the central part of the west facade, two portals open into these rooms. The rooms were once connected by an opening in the partition wall, which was closed in prehistoric times. The excavation of the southern of the two rooms in 2016 uncovered two more portals, one through the outer wall to the south - this was also closed before the building was abandoned - and one to the talayot. In the room there is a two meter high polylithic column made of five stones. The top one could already be the capstone. Since the surrounding wall is higher, this could indicate the former existence of a mezzanine. Millstones, pestles and other tools were found on the floor, as in the south building.
The eastern talayot
The eastern talayot is significantly smaller than the western one. Its diameter is only 12 meters. It is traversed from north to south by a covered corridor up to 4 meters high and 1.60 meters wide. The talayot leans against the remains of an older wall that originally delimited an area on the hill behind it. It could have formed a monumental access to this area. In the western wing of the talayot there is a chamber with a loophole-like wall opening to the corridor. This part of the site was examined between 2007 and 2008 and testifies to the renewed use of the settlement in the 4th – 3rd centuries. Century BC At the foot of the talayot there are two cisterns dug into the rock with a series of water collection channels. The larger one could hold 16, the smaller 4 cubic meters of water. When in the last centuries BC they They were used as waste pits until the Middle Ages . Large amounts of pottery show that the settlement was still inhabited during the Islamic period, which lasted from 903 to 1287.
There are also several artificial burial caves ( hypogea ) from the first phase of use on the site of the site .
- The eastern talayot
Layout
View from the south
View into the corridor from the north
Two cisterns on the talayot
Monument protection
The talayotic settlement of Cornia Nou has been protected as a cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) since 1966 . The registration number with the Spanish Ministry of Culture is RI-51-0003546.
Nomination for World Heritage List
Cornia Nou is one of the 32 archaeological sites that Spain officially proposed on January 14, 2016 as " Talayotic Culture of Menorca " for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List . The World Heritage Committee postponed the application at its 41st meeting in July 2017 and requested improvements.
literature
- Mark Van Strydonck: From Myotragus to Metellus . A journey into the prehistory and early history of Mallorca and Menorca. LIBRUM, Hochwald 2014, ISBN 978-3-9524038-8-4 , p. 73–75 (Dutch: Monumentaal en mysterieus - Reis door de prehistorie van Mallorca en Menorca . Leuwen 2002. Translated by Jürgen K. Schmitt).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Cornia Nou talayotic settlement on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on October 22, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d Information board at the site, as seen on September 26, 2016
- ↑ a b c Lluís Plantalamor Massanet, Joaquim Pons Machado, Antoni Ferrer Rotger: Resultats preliminars de les excavacions al talaiot est de Cornia Nou (Maó) . In: J. Gual (ed.): III Jornades d'Arqueòlegs de les Balears (Maó, October 3rd and 4th, 2008). Maó, Consell Insular de Menorca, Llibres del Patrimoni Històric i Cultural . Volume 4, 2011, pp. 131-138 (Catalan)
- ↑ Montserrat Anglada, Antoni Ferrer, Lluís Plantalamor, Damià Ramis, Mark Van Strydonck: Les comunitats humanes a Menorca durant l'edat del bronze: el jaciment de Cornia Nou (PDF; 2.1 MB). In: Quad. Preh. Arq. Cast. Volume 29, 2011, pp. 27-46 (Catalan).
- ↑ Montserrat Anglada, Antoni Ferrer, Lluís Plantalamor, Damià Ramis, Mark Van Strydonck, Guy De Mulder: Chronological Framework for the Early Talayotic Period in Menorca: The Settlement of Cornia Nou . In: Radiocarbon . Volume 56, No. 2, 2014, pp. 411–424 (English)
- ↑ Montserrat Anglada, Lluís Plantalamor, Damià Ramis: Cornia Nou. L'edifici oest del conjunt arqueològic pren forma . In: ÀMBIT . tape 47 , 2017, p. 10–13 (Catalan, cime.es [PDF; 12.2 MB ]).
- ↑ Ferran Lagarda i Mata: Cornia 2 (Talayots) on the website www.arqueoguia.com (English), accessed on October 26, 2017.
- ^ Antoni Nicolau Martí, Elena Sintes Olives, Ricard Pla Boada, Albert Àlvarez Marsal: Talayotic Minorca . The prehistory of the island. Triangle Books, Sant Lluís 2015, ISBN 978-84-8478-640-5 , pp. 108-111 (English).
- ↑ Talayotic Culture of Minorca , on the Spanish tentative list at UNESCO (English), accessed on October 28, 2017.
- ↑ World Heritage Committee (Ed.): List of nominations received by February 1, 2016 and for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session (2017) . (English, unesco.org [PDF; 427 kB ]).
- ↑ World Heritage Committee (Ed.): Decisions adopted during the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee (Krakow, 2017) . (English, unesco.org [PDF; 4.5 MB ]).
