Son Fornés
| Son Fornés | |||
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 Aerial view of the archaeological site |
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Location in Mallorca |
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| Coordinates | 39 ° 35 '3 " N , 2 ° 58' 3" E | ||
| place | Montuïri , Mallorca , Balearic Islands , Spain | ||
| Emergence | around 900 BC Chr. | ||
Son Fornés is next to " Ses Païsses " and " Capocorb Vell " one of the most important and best preserved talayotic settlements in Mallorca . There are settlements, some of which were built from megalithic blocks of stone, dating from 1300 BC. BC and 500 BC Originated in the Balearic Islands .
The archaeological excavation site of Son Fornés is located about 2.5 kilometers northwest of the town of Montuïri on the road to Pina. The area of the previously uncovered area is around three hectares, but more than twice as much is still underground.
history
The creation of Son Fornés goes into the main phase of the Talayotic around the year 900 BC. Dated. During the post-Talayotic period, from 550 to 250 BC BC, a new construction phase was added, which included the existing building mass. Even during the Classical Era from approx. 250 BC. When Mallorca was already under Punic influence and served as a military base for the Carthaginians , until 100 AD, around 200 years after the island was conquered by the Romans , construction continued on Son Fornés.
Only shortly before the fall of the Western Roman Empire towards the end of the 5th century AD did the signs of settlement disappear. Until the discovery of the Son Fornés site in 1975, the remains of the settlement were completely covered with earth.
description
So far, the remains of at least three round talayots with adjoining residential huts have been exposed. These are enclosed by a wall, which gives the whole thing an urban character. The wall was assembled from large limestone blocks without mortar . A method that is still widespread in the Balearic Islands today under the name "Paret seca". It is believed that around 400 to 500 people lived in Son Fornés during the Talayotic period. Since most of the site is still hidden in the ground, surprises are possible during future excavations.
Talayot No. 1
With a diameter of 17 meters and a height of 3.5 meters, the Talayot No. 1 is considered the largest and best preserved talayot in Mallorca. Its five-meter-thick outer wall is built using two-shell technology from two round walls, the space between which is filled with loose stones. Individual stone blocks can weigh up to nine tons. Calculations have shown that a total of around 2000 tons of stone were used for the construction.
The 31.5 m² interior can be reached on the eastern side through a five meter long low corridor. Remnants of hinges have been found here, suggesting that it was locked by a wooden door. In the interior there is the preserved central column, which once served as a support for the ceiling. Among the notable things inside are two fireplaces and a low semicircular wall, as well as a small square chamber that is set into the wall. Their meaning is unclear.
On the basis of the remains found, it is assumed that the roof consisted of radially laid beams that were covered with a network of branches. Then the area was sealed with clay and covered with small stone slabs. Talayot No. 1 was filled with the remains of cattle, goats and pigs when it was excavated.
Talayot No. 2
Talayot No. 2 is significantly smaller with a diameter of twelve meters. Like Talayot No. 1, it had a roof terrace. Only from this one reached the nine-square-meter interior via a staircase along the round inner wall.
The talayot is a specialty among the previously known talayots of Mallorca, because the ceramics found inside differ so clearly from the common pottery at the time that it is assumed that this talayot is a kind of meeting room. Probably only a limited number of people came together here, perhaps the village leaders, to hold ritual or political meetings.
Talayot No. 3
Talayot No. 3 is almost in line with the other two talayots and was connected to them by a two-meter-wide wall that closed off the settlement from the outside. With a diameter of 12.5 meters, it is about the size of Talayot No. 2, but its interior space is seven square meters larger than Talayot No. 1 due to the thinner outer wall. Its entrance is, like this one, on the east side, However, it is much wider than Talayot No. 1. Little has been preserved from the interior, as Talayot No. 3 was also used in later times.
Sanctuaries
In Son Fornés there were two sanctuaries that are right next to each other. Sanctuary No. 2, which was later excavated, joins Sanctuary No. 1 to the northeast.
Sanctuary No. 1 has an apsidal floor plan with a slightly inwardly curved facade . The external dimensions are 7.80 meters (from the apse to the facade) and 8.80 meters (width of the facade). The double walls have an average thickness of 1.20 meters. The area of the interior is 30.66 m². The only access is in the middle of the facade. The base of a central column has been preserved inside the building. Benches about 0.40 meters wide run along the inner wall of the facade and the adjacent part of the side walls. Two structures made of fired clay slabs were found bounded by stones placed in a semicircle. Ash finds prove that they are fireplaces.
Sanctuary No. 2 is a rectangular building with rounded corners and double walls. It is 7.80 meters long and 7.10 meters wide. The interior has an area of 19 m². The central element is a central, upright monolith 1.70 meters high, 0.60 meters wide and 0.24 meters thick, which, with its flat stone slab, creates a monumental seat with a view of the entrance. In the two corners of the facade there is a 0.92 meter large water basin and a fireplace.
Residential houses
The residents of Son Fornés lived here as in other Talayotic villages in small houses that were built together like row houses between the talayot and the surrounding wall. Five of these houses, which were discovered in 1988, consist of a rectangular outer wall which, in addition to the central column to support the roof, contained one to three rooms of around 30 to 45 m² inside. Each house had a fireplace and a cistern carved into the rock or a larger ceramic vessel for water supply.
Around six to ten people lived in each house, probably entire families. The uniform furnishing shows no social inequalities and no division of labor between the house communities. The largest talayotic house (HT5) had three rooms with a floor area of 45 m². The interior was accessible by stairs. In the “kitchen”, a large stone slab was used to prepare food. A diverse inventory of vessels, bowls and pots was found here.
Six houses or rooms date from the Talayotic period. Three (HT1, HT4 and HT7) were built on the east side of Talayot No. 2, one on its south side (HT2) and one on the southeast side of Talayot No. 2 (HT6). Two of the houses connected to house HT2 in a south-easterly direction (HT3 and HT5). The talayotic houses were destroyed by a large-scale fire. In the post-Talayotic period, after the rubble had been cleared away or leveled, new, scattered buildings were built. The foundation walls of around twenty rooms, which were used as warehouses and workshops, have been preserved from Roman times.
museum
The “Fundación Son Fornés” has a small museum in the historic “Molí d'en Fraret” mill in nearby Montuïri. Finds from Son Fornés, panels with historical classifications and depictions of life there during the roughly 1,500-year settlement are shown.
literature
- Javier Aramburu et al. a .: Guía Arquelógica de Mallorca. La Foradada, 1994, ISBN 84-7651-227-9 .
- Vicente Lull et al. a .: La prehistòria de las Islas Baleares y el yacimiento arqueológico de Son Fornés. Fundació Son Fornés, Montuíri 2001.
- Blanca Fayas Rico, Enrique García Riaza: Las ánforas de Son Fornés. Su estudio tipológico y contextualización histórica . Departament de Ciencies Históriques i Teoria de les Arts, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca September 2010 ( ibdigital.uib.es [PDF; 9.1 MB ]).
- Vicente Lull, Rafael Micó, Cristina Rihuete Herrada and Robert Risch: Tower of Son Fornés . In: Archeology in Germany . No. 2 , 2007, p. 56–61 ( sonfornes.mallorca.museum [PDF; 961 kB ]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vicente Lull, Rafael Micó, Cristina Rihuete Herrada, Roberto Risch: 13ª Campanya d'excavacions sistemàtiques al Jaciment Arqueològic de Son Fornés (Montuïri, Mallorca), 2008 Memòria del Patrimoni Cultural, B.3. Arqueologia de Subsòl. Excavacions Programades 2003. Consell de Mallorca, Departament de Cultura i Patrimoni, Palma de Mallorca 2009, ISBN 978-84-693-1181-3 ( sonfornes.mallorca.museum ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. PDF; 6.65 MB).
- ↑ Paula M. Amengual, Albert Forés Gómez, Lara Gelabert Batllori, Sylvia Gili, Jordi Hernández-Gasch, Vicente Lull, Rafael Micó, Cristina Rihuete, Roberto Risch: 14ª Campanya d'excavacions a Son Fornés (Montuïri, any 2011): el Santuari 2 . In: Mateu Riera Rullan, Jaume Cardell (ed.): V Jornades d'Arqueologia de les Illes Balears . Documenta Balear, 2012, ISBN 978-84-15432-76-0 , pp. 101-107 ( academia.edu ).
Web links
- Museu arqueològic de Son Fornés. Retrieved December 4, 2015 .
- Son Fornés. ArqueoMallorca, accessed December 4, 2015 .
- Son Fornés. Un poblado muy revelador. talayots.es, accessed December 6, 2015 (Spanish).