Torre d'en Galmés
| Torre d'en Galmés Poblat talaiotic de Torre d'en Galmés | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Distant view |
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Location in Menorca |
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| Coordinates | 39 ° 54 '8.9 " N , 4 ° 6' 53.6" E | ||
| place | Alaior , Balearic Islands , Spain | ||
| height | 110 m | ||
Torre d'en Galmés ( Menorcan Torre d'en Gaumés ) was a settlement of the Talayotic culture in the south of the Spanish Balearic island of Menorca . The place is one of the largest archaeological sites in the Balearic Islands. The time of the maximum expansion of the settlement was around the year 1400 BC. Chr.
location
Torre den Galmés is 3.5 km south of Alaior on a hill from which you can overlook a large part of the island . In prehistoric times one could see a number of other Talayotic settlements from here, among which Torre des Galmés presumably held a prominent position. A little further south are Ses Roques Llises and Na Comerma de Sa Garita .
The prehistory of Menorca
The prehistory of Menorca is roughly divided into the pretalayotic and talayotic periods. The pretalayotic ends 1400 BC. BC (some date the end to 1200 BC). In the settlements there were stone huts, which are called Naviformes because of their design . Some of the dead were buried in natural caves in the rock walls of the Menorcan gorges or in artificial caves or megalithic structures carved into the rock . Most recently, structures were used as tombs, which had the shape of an upturned ship's hull and are called " navetas ".
There were a number of planned settlements in Talayotic times. One can recognize an area with talayots and taulen and one with round buildings. The necropolises were carved into the rock walls of the cliffs or into those of ravines. The Talayotic period ended in 123 BC. With the conquest by the Romans. For several centuries the settlements and tombs were still in use, but their structure and equipment were changed.
Description of the site
The settlement
The generous settlement core spread to the south over time. Either the settlement is delimited by stone walls, or house walls fulfill this task. The area of the three large talayots and the taula is the central part of the settlement. Presumably all stone buildings had a cult function. The horseshoe-shaped area of the taula was undoubtedly used for religious purposes, as demonstrated by the excavation at Torralba d'en Salord .
The talayots
Talayots are the characteristic structures of the prehistoric cultures on Menorca and Mallorca . They can be round or square. The Menorcan talayot usually resembles a massive tower with a stone ramp. Although you can find talayots with interior space on Menorca (e.g. in Sant Agustí Vell ), which is almost always the case on Mallorca, the Menorcan use area was on the upper platform. Which is now generally destroyed. The talayots are found in places from which one has the best view of the surrounding area. That is why the Menorquins called them "Atalaia" (watchtower).
The taula
Taulas are only found in Menorca. Today “Taula” not only refers to the stone table, but also to the horseshoe-shaped area in which it is located. In the middle there is a large, upright stone with a horizontally overhanging capital . The whole thing looks like a huge table, which is why the vernacular gave the object the name Taula, which became a scientific term. The capital stone of the Taula of Torre d'en Galmés fell down and lies between the entrance of the Taula area and the pillar. In historical times it was hollowed out to a water trough. The area of the taula itself is very well preserved. Another element of the taula can be clearly seen here - large, astonishingly smooth rock slabs that form the apse .
The hypostyle hall
In the south of the settlement there is the " Hypostylos ", which means "hall of columns ", attached to the circular buildings . Rooms with an unclear function got this name because of the building material that characterizes them. They have a roof of flat smooth stones, which is supported on mono- or polylithic columns. Hypostyloi are isolated or in talayotic settlements. The columns are shaped in the old Mediterranean style, they are wider at the top than at the bottom. In the meantime, considerations have been made as to whether the Taulas are not greatly enlarged hypostyloi.
The round houses
The prototype of the buildings of the Talayotic era is a round building with double walls, whereby the stones of the outer wall are larger than those of the inner wall. Inside, the houses were divided by radially arranged walls that converged in a central courtyard that contained the fireplace and a cistern carved into the rocky ground . Houses 2 and 3 attached to one another have been excavated in Torre d'en Galmés. Structural changes from the Roman era can be seen on the interior walls. The stones there are smaller and roughly rectangular. A natural cave and a gently sloping rock floor were used to build house 1, which means that some of the inner walls reach a considerable height.
Water storage
A rainwater collection system in the southern part of the settlement is particularly worth seeing . These are channels carved into the rock floor, through which rainwater can flow into large cisterns carved into the ground . As the water flowed down the hill and was dirty, hollows filled with small stones were dug between gutters and containers, which probably served as filters. A cave that was used as a burial site in the pre-Talayotic period also served as a cistern.
Research history
The megalithic settlement of Torre d'en Galmés has been known for centuries, but major excavations were only started in the 1940s by Joan Flaquer i Fàbregues (1877–1963), a notary from Alaior . He concentrated his work on the area of the Taula and the Hypostylos Hall in the extreme south of the facility.
There were no further excavation campaigns until 1974 and 1984, after the Ministry of Culture had acquired the land. Several round houses were uncovered under the supervision of the Museu de Menorca and the Museu de Mallorca . In the area of the taula a 15 cm bronze figure of the ancient Egyptian Imhotep was found , which is now exhibited in the Museu de Menorca.
At the invitation of the Minorcan Islands Council ( Consell Insular de Menorca ), which decided in 2000 to create an archaeological park for the public, the Friends of the Museu de Menorca Association has carried out five excavation campaigns in the southern area of the complex since 2001. Archaeologists from Boston University are also active in this section.
Monument protection
The Torre d'en Galmés settlement is protected as a cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) under registration number RI-55-00000686. It is one of the 32 archaeological sites that Spain officially proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List on January 14, 2016 as " Talayotic Culture of Menorca " . The World Heritage Committee postponed the application at its 41st meeting in July 2017 and requested improvements.
literature
- Gustau Juan Benejam, Carmen Lara Astiz, Joaquim Pons Machado: Torre d'en Galmes. The territorial control of Menorca's prehistory . Consell Insular de Menorca 2007. ISBN 978-84-935848-3-2
- L. Plantalamor Massanet: La Casa Prehistorica a Menorca , 2000.
- Consell Insular de Menorca: Archaeological Guide to Menorca .
Web links
- Torre d'en Galmés talayotic settlement on the Menorca Talayótica website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Torre d'en Galmés talayotic settlement on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on October 5, 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 ]).