Torretrencada
| Torretrencada Poblat Talaiòtic de Torretrencada | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Taula |
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Location in Menorca |
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| Coordinates | 39 ° 59 '23.4 " N , 3 ° 55' 32.1" E | ||
| place | Ciutadella , Balearic Islands , Spain | ||
| Emergence | 1000 to 700 BC Chr. | ||
| height | 118 m | ||
Torretrencada (also Torre Trencada , full name Poblat Talaiòtic de Torretrencada , "Talayotic settlement of Torretrencada") 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.
location
The site is about one kilometer south of Torrellafuda and less than two kilometers south of the island road Me-1, from where the approach is signposted. A car park is available for visitors 400 m south of the site . From here, the site of the former talayotic settlement is freely accessible. Display boards give the visitor more information about the site.
description
Torretrencada has the characteristic buildings of a Menorcan talayotic settlement: the talayot , the taula sanctuary , round houses, a hypostylon and hypogea , but often in a worse condition than at other sites such as Torre d'en Galmés , Talatí de Dalt or Trepucó . Many structures were later changed or destroyed.
The taula
The taula shrines found only on Menorca originated in the post-Talayotic period from around 550 BC. These are walled horseshoe-shaped areas with a concave, slightly inwardly curved facade , in the center of which there is a monument made of two monoliths in the shape of the letter "T". The building served cultic purposes that were associated with burnt sacrifices . In Torretrencada, although most of the enclosure of the sanctuary has been destroyed, the taula itself has been preserved. It has a unique peculiarity: To stabilize it, there is a pillar with a capital on the back , which helps to support the capstone.
The stones of the taula are badly eroded . The supporting monolith is broken horizontally just below its center. It is 2.70 to 2.75 m high, 1.90 to 2.00 m wide and between 42 and 60 cm thick. Its size corresponds roughly to that of the Taula of Binimassó . The capstone has the shape of a cuboid with the dimensions 3.10 m × 1.65 m × 0.45 m. The supporting pillar is 2.50 m high, 60 cm wide and 30 cm deep. It has a 20 cm high, 80 cm wide and 38 cm deep capital.
In the late 1950s, excavations in front of the Taula unearthed ash deposits. In a further excavation in the rear western area of the cult site, three layers of soil could be distinguished, which contained the remains of the rituals performed here. In the top layer, fragments of Roman pottery were found, in the second post-Talayotic pottery, and the bottom layer consisted of ashes with ceramic remains.
The talayot
About 300 of these tower-like structures have been found on Menorca, the function of which has not yet been fully clarified. Among other things, they could have been used to monitor the surrounding pasture land and to communicate between the settlements. From the talayot of Torretrencada one could see the sea and up to the talayot of Llucassaldent, 17.8 km away. It could have been an important hub in Menorca's communications network.
Today the talayot of Torretrencada is overgrown by thick bushes. Its base is hidden behind a modern dry stone wall, only the upper rows of stones of the building can be seen.
The hypostylon
Hypostyloi can be found in Menorca both in settlements, where they were often grown on the outer wall of round houses, and individually in the open field. The roof of these structures is supported by polylithic columns (layered from several stone blocks). It is assumed that these are former stables or storage rooms. The hypostylon of Torretrencada consists of a cavity ten meters long carved into the ground and covered with several stone slabs. The structure is supported by a single polylithic column. The function of this hypostylon seems to have been that of a cistern , because it is filled with water all year round, the mirror of which is 60 to 70 cm above the ground in its center.
Others
There are three hypogeae, artificial caves that served as burial sites on the site of the site . They have been changed a lot in later centuries. A modern cistern with a well could be the extension of another prehistoric hypogeum. In the south of the site there is a water reservoir, similar to the Hypostylon, but which was used as a quarry in the past, so that only a small part of the roof has been preserved. Directly in front of it are some anthropomorphic tombs carved into the rock, which date from the Middle Ages and prove that Torretrencada was inhabited long after the Roman invasion. There are only a few remains of post-Talayotic round houses.
Some surface finds, such as two bronze figures of Jupiter , are now in private collections. In addition, fragments of Talayotic, Iberian, Carthaginian, Roman, Islamic and medieval ceramics have been identified.
Monument protection
Torretrencada is registered in the Spanish Database of Cultural Assets ( Bienes de Interés Cultural ) under number RI-55-0000747 as an archaeological site ( Zona Arqueológica ).
The prehistoric settlement 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.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ferran Lagarda i Mata: Torretrencada (Taulas) on the website www.arqueoguia.com (English), accessed on November 17, 2015.
- ^ A b 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. 260 (English).
- ↑ Corinna Kortemeier: Reconstruction of the prehistoric settlement and landscape development on Menorca (Balearic Islands / Spain) (PDF; 11.4 MB), dissertation, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , Kiel 2014, p. 98.
- ^ Corinna Kortemeier: Reconstruction of the prehistoric settlement and landscape development on Menorca (Balearic Islands / Spain) (PDF; 11.4 MB), dissertation, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , Kiel 2014, p. 127.
- ↑ Information board at the site, seen on October 9, 2015.
- ↑ Torretrencada talayotic settlement on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on November 18, 2015.
- ↑ Cultural heritage database at the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (note: search for “Torretrencada”), accessed on November 18, 2015
- ↑ 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 ]).
