Montefí
| Montefí Poblat Talaiòtic de Montefí | |||
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 The three talayots of Montefí |
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Location in Menorca |
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| Coordinates | 40 ° 0 '20.4 " N , 3 ° 51' 49.6" E | ||
| place | Ciutadella , Balearic Islands , Spain | ||
| Emergence | 1000 to 700 BC Chr. | ||
| Dimensions | 450 m | ||
| height | 41 m | ||
Montefí (full name Poblat Talaiòtic de Montefí , "Talayotic settlement of Montefí") is an archaeological site on the Spanish Balearic island of Menorca . The settlement, which is assigned to the Iron Age talayot culture , is located in the municipality of Ciutadella in the west of the island.
history
The settlement emerged at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. In its heyday it was one of the largest in western Menorca. It was until the Roman period, 123 BC. Began, inhabited and then fell into disrepair. In 1888 the French archaeologist Émile Cartailhac visited the Balearic Islands and described the site, which was then called "L'Hostal", in 1892 in his book Monuments primitifs des iles Baléars . At that time there were four talayots , 12 underground burial sites ( hypogea ) and the remains of many round houses from the post-Talayotic period. After that, the area was leveled and many hypogea were filled in so that the area could be used for agriculture. What was left were the talayots and some of the hypogea, which were used as cisterns , sheds, or shelters for livestock. One of the talayots fell victim to the construction of the ME-1 island highway between Maó and Ciutadelle. In 2000 and again in 2005/2006 during the construction of the southern Ciutadellas ring road, there were some excavations on the site, which the Island Council ( Consell Insular ) acquired in 2008 with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund . In 2014 the northern talayot was reconstructed. At the same time, a visitor parking lot was created. Some display boards provide information on the most important structures. The site is freely accessible.
Montefí 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.
The Montefí settlement is protected as a cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) under registration number RI-51-0003307.
description
The talayots
Talayots are tower-like structures made using cyclopentine technology, which were built in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. BC on Menorca and Mallorca . There are 300 of these monuments in Menorca alone. Their function is not fully understood. Among other things, they could have been used for communication between the settlements and for monitoring the surrounding pasture land. They vary greatly in size and design. In Montefí there are still three talayots, which are clearly different from each other.
The southwest talayot can be seen as a prototype of a Menorcan talayot. It has the shape of a truncated cone with a circular floor plan about 20 m in diameter. It is made of large stones without mortar, has no room at ground level, but a chamber at its top. In the southeast, a modern, small stable made of dry stone leans against the talayot.
The northern talayot has a horseshoe-shaped floor plan with a flat facade facing south . The remains of a room have been preserved on its top. The erection of a geodetic surveying pillar that was removed during the reconstruction in 2014 left severe damage here.
The southeast talayot is the smallest and worst preserved of the three. It has a circular cross-section, but is of an unusual design because it contains a corridor running around a massive core halfway up. This was entered via a corridor from the west, which however collapsed.
The hypogea
Montefí is the talayotic settlement on Menorca with the most underground burial places in artificial caves. Around 1900, twelve such hypogea were known. After the wanton destruction of the 20th century, there are only six left.
The largest hypogeum is located 200 m east of the southeast talayot. It has an access corridor 3.60 m long and 1.10 m wide, which is still partially covered by its original roof. The interior has a complex structure and is divided into six separate areas. Due to the design, it is assumed that the building dates from the post-Talayotic period.
Others
Surface finds of Talayotic, Carthaginian and Roman pottery have been made throughout the site .
During the construction work on the Ciutadellas ring road in 2005/2006, an area with numerous structures carved into the rock was discovered under the Camino Vell on the southern edge of the site. 17 underground storage facilities ( sitjots ), 8 cisterns and several channels and holes were identified, some of which were covered with stone slabs. In a hypogeum from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC Two skeletons from the Roman era were found.
Directly to the east of the car park there is a hill enclosed by a modern dry stone wall. It presumably contains prehistoric structures, perhaps another talayot or the previously undiscovered Taula district , the central cult site of post-Talayotic settlements.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Montefí talayotic settlement on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on November 23, 2015.
- ↑ El yacimiento de Montefí, en Ciutadella, ya es propiedad del Consell Insular de Menorca , Es Diari, October 26, 2008, accessed on November 23, 2015 (Spanish).
- ↑ Las obras de restauración del poblado talayótico de Montefí (Menorca) cuentan con 120,901 euros y durarán seis meses , Europa Press , July 15, 2014, accessed on November 21, 2015 (Spanish).
- ↑ 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 ]).
- ↑ a b c d e 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. 268-273 (English).
