Biniac Naveta (West)
| Biniac Naveta (West) Naveta de Biniac Occidental | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 View of the entrance of the Naveta |
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Location in Menorca |
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| Coordinates | |||
| place | Alaior , Menorca , Balearic Islands , Spain | ||
| Emergence | 1400 to 1000 BC Chr. | ||
| Dimensions | 8 m | ||
| height | 110 m | ||
The western Naveta of Biniac ( Catalan Naveta de Biniac Occidental ) is a prehistoric tomb in the municipality of Alaior on the Balearic island of Menorca .
location
The Naveta is in the northwest of the town of l'Argentina, only about 100 m from the island's main road Me-1. Of the ten structures of this type between Alaior and Maó , it is the northernmost. Closest to it are the Naveta of Llumena Fasser 350 m west and the Eastern Naveta of Biniac about 700 m southeast. The well-known Navetas of Rafal Rubí are almost two kilometers southeast. At the archaeological site, which is freely accessible at all times, there is an information board of the Island Council of Menorca (Consell Insular de Menorca).
description
The western naveta of Biniac has an almost circular floor plan and originally a hemispherical shape. Their diameter is about eight meters. The naveta was built from large stones in a Cyclops construction, but only the lower three rows of stones have been preserved. The south-facing entrance leads into a narrow, only 80 cm high and 1.70 m long corridor, the top plate of which has been preserved. The end of the corridor is formed by a perforated monolith , through whose rectangular opening, measuring 53 cm by 60 cm, the burial chamber can be reached. A recess around the opening indicates that it was closed with a stone slab or wooden door. The oblong-oval burial chamber is 4.45 m long and up to 2.10 m wide in the middle.
Navetas are megalithic tombs that only occur in Menorca. They are typical buildings of the Bronze Age , but were still used at the beginning of the Iron Age . It is named after the fact that its shape - as in Rafal Rubí - is reminiscent of the hull of an overturned ship ( Nau in Catalan ). Each naveta served a family group as a collective burial site . The dead were placed in the burial chamber without covering them with earth.
Excavation history
The Naveta was discovered and excavated in 1915 by Antonio Vives Escudero (1859-1925) and J. Flaquer Fabregues, a notary from Alaior. Olive trees had destroyed the upper part of the structure with their roots. The results of this excavation have not been published, but it is known that bones of at least 40 people have been found. Of grave goods bracelets and bronze pins, a bony awl and an iron ring was found. There were also various ceramic vessels that might have contained offerings.
In 1975 the Museu de Menorca decided to dig again. Lluís Plantalamor Massanet (* 1949) still found a large number of human bones in the chamber. The finds also included various buttons made from bones that had belonged to the clothing of the deceased, a bone needle and ceramic shards. By radiocarbon analysis a human bone on the time from 930 to 814 was v. Dated.
Monument protection
The Naveta is now registered with the Spanish Ministry of Culture under the number RI-51-0003123 as an archaeological monument (Monument arqueològic) . 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.
Dimensions
Source: Gornés (2016)
- External length: 8.10 m
- Width outside: 8.15 m
- Height outside: approx. 2 m
- Total area: 51.64 m²
- Corridor length: 1.70 m
- Width of the corridor: 0.80 m
- Corridor height: 0.80 m
- Corridor area: 1.00 m²
- Chamber length: 4.45 m
- Width of the chamber: 2.10 m
- Average height of the chamber: 1.80 m
- Chamber surface: 8.05 m²
See also
literature
- Lluís Plantalamor Massanet, Antoni López Pons: La naveta occidental de Biniac-Argentina (Alayor, Menorca) . In: Noticiario arqueológico hispánico . tape 15 , 1983, pp. 359-382 (Spanish).
- 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. 196-199 (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Information board on the Naveta
- ↑ José Simón Gornés Hachero: Sociedad y cambio en Menorca: sistematización de los contextos arqueológicos de las navetas funerarias entre el 1400 y el 850 CAL ANE , Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, dissertation, 2016, p. 63 (Spanish).
- ↑ Cultural heritage database at the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (note: search for “La Argentina (occidental)”), accessed on January 3, 2017
- ↑ 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 ]).
- ↑ José Simón Gornés Hachero: Sociedad y cambio en Menorca: sistematización de los contextos arqueológicos de las navetas funerarias entre el 1400 y el 850 CAL ANE , Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Dissertation, 2016, Appendix 1 (PDF; 13.0 MB), P. 200 (Spanish).
