Sarcophagi from Punta

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The bull-shaped wooden sarcophagi of Punta ( Spanish Sarcófagos tauromorfos de la Punta ) were discovered in 1969 by the cave explorers Toni Marquet and José Antonio Encinas, about 3 kilometers from Bóquer, north of Pollença in the north of the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca, not far from the necropolis of Cala Sant Vicenç .

The sarcophagi found in parts had a deer-like shape with holes for the horns on the head, while the body acted as a coffin (Victor M. Guerrero speaks of a coffin for small children) and continued the tradition of tree coffins . This type of burial, with parallels in the Sa Cometa des Morts cave and in the Son Boronat cave near Calvià, corresponds to the last phase of the Talayot ​​culture (around 440 BC), in which the bull represented the figure of Baal-Hammon , of a Semitic God. Persons buried with such special honors were certainly members of the aristocracy.

literature

  • Victor M. Guerrero: Los sarcófagos tauromorfos de "La Punta". A caso de aculturación indígena en la protohistoria de Mallorca. 1987
  • Victor M. Guerrero, EA Sanders: El yacimiento funerario de Son Boronat (Calvià-Mallorca) - The animals found in the cave of Son Boronat (Calvià). 1979
  • Margarita Bru Romo: The Myth of the Bull: Archeology and Tradition In: Journal of Mediterranean Studies, Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta Vol. 1, No. 2, 1991 pp. 306-312