So na Caçana
| So na Caçana | |||
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.jpg) Western Taula sanctuary of So na Caçana |
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Location in Menorca |
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| Coordinates | 39 ° 53 '7 " N , 4 ° 9' 38" E | ||
| place | Alaior , Menorca , Balearic Islands , Spain | ||
| Emergence | from 2000 BC Chr. | ||
| Dimensions | 180 m | ||
| height | 105 m | ||
So na Caçana is an archaeological site in the municipality of Alaior on the Spanish Balearic island of Menorca . The taula sanctuaries found here are assigned to the Iron Age talayot culture . It is the only site in Menorca where more than one such sanctuary has been discovered. Whether it was a settlement or a religious center that was used by several settlements is controversial.
location
The site is located at the southern end of the Cami de Torralba, 500 m before its confluence with the Me-12 and about six kilometers from the village of Alaior. The talayotic settlement of Torralba d'en Salord is three kilometers north. The Taula of Torrellisar Vell is only 550 m away . So na Caçana is located at the beginning of the Barranc de Biniedrís gorge , at the mouth of which the Cales Coves necropolis is located. A parking lot is available for visitors. An entrance fee is charged from mid-March to mid-November. Display boards give the visitor more information about the site.
description
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General
The site is located on an area of 180 m × 90 m, i.e. around 1.6 hectares. The Museu de Menorca excavated part of the complex between 1982 and 1987 under the direction of Lluís Plantalamor. So na Caçana could have been a talayotic settlement with its typical elements such as hypogea , talayots , taula sanctuaries and round houses ( cercles ) as dwellings. The discovery of at least two sanctuaries, deviations in the architecture of the talayots and the small number of residential houses can also mean that this was a religious site of central importance. After the sanctuaries lost their function around 200 AD, many of the buildings were rebuilt and inhabited. A small cemetery from Islamic times (903–1287) was found in 2013 near the car park. In the summer of 2016, under the direction of Julia García from the University of Navarra , excavations were carried out again and the sanctuary was dated to the second century BC. Dated.
Excavated structures
The tallest building in the megalithic complex is a tower-like structure that has a 20 m × 21 m rectangular floor plan with rounded corners. It is similar to the mostly round, but sometimes horseshoe-shaped talayots that are widespread in Menorca . Other peculiarities are that the tower is not free-standing and that it is probably not built solid, but contains a chamber, as electromagnetic soundings have shown. The building may have been around before the 10th century BC. Was built.
To the south of the tower there is an access-free, double-walled round building made of small stones, which is about three meters in diameter. Its function is not fully understood. Traces of fire inside suggest a fireplace. It could have been that part of a workshop that dates back to 750 BC. And again in Roman times from 123 BC. Was used.
A post-Talayotic round house adjoins it to the south. It contains a central hearth and several cisterns . One of them served as an underground burial place (hypogeum) before the house was built . The Cercle was built on the remains of an older building from 1200 to 800 BC. Built in BC. Its interior was redesigned in Roman times.
On the southwest side of the tower is the western Taula sanctuary. Its facade consists of upright stone slabs resting on plinths , which are crowned by several rows of roughly cuboid stones. Of the actual taula, a T-shaped monument consisting of two large stones, only the supporting stone remains, which is supported on its back by a second monolith . It is 2.82 m high, 1.16 m wide and 30 cm thick. To the right behind the entrance is a cylindrical stone, where excavations have unearthed large amounts of ash and coal. In the well-preserved inner wall of the sanctuary, the six rectangular niches for receiving offerings are remarkable . The pilasters on the inner walls suggest that the building was previously roofed. To the left of the entrance to the sanctuary, there is a constellation of three bricks, which some archaeologists have interpreted as a sign of the Punic goddess Tanit .
- Western sanctuary
facade
detail
Niches and pillars inside
Taula with missing capital
Taula with rear support
cylindrical stone
A second sanctuary is about 30 m to the southeast. Its original shape has been changed several times in later times through extensions and renovations. One of the rooms at the rear has a tiled stone floor from the Roman era. Only a 1.53 m wide and 46 cm thick section of the main stone of the taula remains. The original altitude is unknown. The capital stone fell. It is 2.25 to 2.46 m long, 0.91 to 1.19 m wide and 38 to 39 cm thick.
In the middle of the site there is a hypogeum with a shaft-like entrance, which is by far the oldest structure preserved here.
Further structures
In the west of the complex there are some not yet excavated structures. A second, smaller talayot with a horseshoe-shaped cross-section on the foot and round on the upper floors has an inner chamber. Adjacent to it are two buildings, one of which is a round house, the second probably a third sanctuary.
- Structures not excavated
small talayot
Pillar of a round house
probably a third sanctuary
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Monument protection
So na Caçana is protected as an archaeological monument ( Monument arqueològic ). The current registration number at the Spanish Ministry of Culture is RI-51-0003208. It is one of the 32 archaeological sites that Spain officially proposed on January 14, 2016 as " Talayotic Culture of Menorca " for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List . The World Heritage Committee postponed the application at its 41st meeting in July 2017 and requested improvements.
literature
- Lluís Plantalamor: El Santuario de So na Caçana y las relaciones con el Mediterráneo Central y Occidental a La Sardegna nel Mediterraneo tra el secondo e il primo milenio aC Atti del II Convegno di Studi Un millennio di relazioni fra la Sardegna ei Paesi del Mediterraneo , -Cagliari, November 27-30, 1986, Cagliari 1987, pp. 533-546.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lluís Plantalamor: Ubicació topográfica de les taules i els santuaris menorquins. El seu significat econòmic i social (PDF; 757 kB). In: Meloussa , 4, 1997, pp. 15-34.
- ↑ Tomàs Vibot: Archaeological Tour through Menorca , El Gall Editor, Pollença 2006, ISBN 978-84-96608-30-6 , p. 37.
- ↑ a b c d 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. 176-183 (English).
- ↑ a b The Talaiotic Sanctuaries of So na Caçana ( Memento of June 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), TANYT Asociación Cultural.
- ↑ a b So na Caçana sanctuaries on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on June 30, 2016.
- ↑ La excavación confirma que el yacimiento de So Na Caçana es del siglo II a. C. on the menorca.info website on September 12, 2016, accessed on September 19, 2016 (Spanish).
- ^ Archaeologists return to prehistoric sanctuaries on the island of Menorca, Spain . In: Popular Archeology 20, 2015 (English).
- ↑ Ferran Lagarda i Mata: So Na Caçana (Monument 5) on the website www.arqueoguia.com (English), accessed on July 1, 2016.
- ↑ Ferran Lagarda i Mata: So Na Caçana (Monument 2) on the website www.arqueoguia.com (English), accessed on July 2, 2016.
- ↑ 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 ]).
