T H E O X F O R D H A N D B O O K OF

THE EUROPEAN
BRONZE AGE

Edited by
HARRY FOKKENS
and
ANTHONY HARDING

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
 CHAPTER 34

T H E BRONZE AGE IN T H E
BALEARIC ISLANDS

VICENTE LULL, RAFAEL MICO,

CRISTINA R I H U E T E HERRADA,
AND ROBERTO RISCH

THE Balearic archipelago consists of four main islands whose biogeographic variability has
conditioned human population since prehistoric times. In antiquity the perception of these
differences caused them to be differentiated as the Pine Islands and the Gymnesian Islands.
The Pine Islands include Ibiza and Formentera, the southernmost and smallest islands, and
those nearest the mainland (Fig. 34.1). Our archaeological knowledge of their prehistoric
occupation is affected by some large gaps, as a result of research being focused traditionally
on the abundant evidence of the Punic period and also perhaps due to a smaller initial
human population.
The Gymnesian Islands include Mallorca and Menorca, the two largest islands, which are
equally important in the current state of knowledge about Balearic prehistory. However, we
should bear in mind the physical factors that differentiate them. Mallorca is by far the larger
island (3,626 km2) with a greater biogeographic diversity. This is partly due to its varied relief,
including the Sierra de Tramuntana, a mountain range that is a prolongation of the Betic
Systems in the Iberian Peninsula. These mountains follow the northern coast in a south-
west-north-east direction, and reach altitudes of up to 1,445 m above sea level (Puig Major).
The abrupt calcareous and dolomitic relief, and high rainfall, contrast with the central
depression of lis Pla and the peripheral coastal plains (Marines). Their more gentle scenery is
only broken by the mountains in the Sierras de Llevant, which run parallel to the eastern
coast, and are no higher than 500 m above sea level. In contrast, the geomorphology of
Menorca, with a surface area of only about 700 km2, is simpler. The northern part of the
island, beaten by the strong Tramuntana wind, combines Palaeozoic and Triassic rocks
(slates and siliceous sandstones), while the southern half consists of calco-arenite sedimen-
tary rocks divided up by a succession of parallel gorges that cut down to the coast. As a whole,
Menorca is practically flat, which makes it invisible from other places, except from certain
points on its neighbour Mallorca. The only small hill that stands out above the rest of the
FIG. 34.1 The Balearic Islands with the principal sites mentioned in the text. 1. Binimaimut,
2. Ca Na Costa, 3. Ca Na Cotxera, 4. Ca Na Vidriera, 5. Cala Blanca, 6. Cala Morell, 7. Cala Sant
Vicenc, 8. Calascoves, 9. Can Martorellet, 10. Can Roig Nou, 11. Canyamel, 12. Cap de Forma,
13. Closos de Can Gaia, 14. Cova de Moleta, 15. Cova des Bouer, 16. Cova des Moro, 17. Coval
Simo, 18. Es Carritx and Es Forat de ses Aritges, 19. Es Figueral de Son Real, 20. Es Mussol, 21.
La Cova, 22. Mongofre Nou, 23. S'Aigua Dol<;a, 24. S'Hospitalet Veil, 25. S'lllot, 26. Ses Arenes
de Baix, 27. Ses Roques Llises, 28. Son Baulo de Dalt, 29. Son Ermita, 30. Son Ferrandell-Olesa,
31. Son Jaumell, 32. Son Mas, 33. Son Matge, 34. Son Mercer de Baix, 35. Son Mestre de Dalt
36. Son Mulet, 37. Son Olivaret, 38. Son Oms, 39. Son Sunyer, 40. Trebaluger, 41. Torralba d'en
Salord, 42. Tudons.
Map: authors (drawing Sylvia Gili)

island is Monte Toro (357 m above sea level), in the centre of Menorca. It is also the furthest
island from the mainland (200 km from the coast of Catalonia).
Our knowledge of the chronology and characteristics of the different prehistoric periods
has changed radically in the last two decades. Until only a short time ago, the so-called
'Talayotic culture' held a central and almost omnipresent position. Its main diagnostic ele-
ments are monumental buildings with a circular or square floor plan (talaiots), built from
large blocks of stone without any kind of mortar. They are very common in Mallorca and
Menorca, but absent from the Pine Islands. It was assumed that these and other Cyclopean
buildings, the houses and tombs with a floor plan in the shape of an upturned boat's keel
(navetas), the sanctuaries, and the taules, were more or less synchronous, belonging to the
same society that arose in the second millennium BC. The archaeological remains older
than the talaiots, which were scarcer and less well known, were included within a heteroge-
neous period called the 'Pre-Talayotic'. One of the most important aspects of research into
the remains from the time before the talaiots included the chronology and peculiarities of
the human colonization of the archipelago. The range of theories about the age of the oldest
population has been wide, from the Epipalaeolithic to the first Metal Age.
The current situation is very different thanks to systematic C14 dating programmes and
the documentation of new stratigraphic sequences. In the first place, the chronology of the
talaiots has been fixed clearly between the ninth and sixth centuries cal BC, and therefore the
society that built them cannot be included in the Bronze Age, but in the early Iron Age,
within European periodization. Secondly, not all the large stone buildings were synchro-
nous. Thus, the navetas were built some centuries before the talaiots, whereas the construc-
tion of such well-known monuments as the taules in Menorca and the sanctuaries in Mallorca
date, at most, from the last centuries before the Roman conquest.
Finally, the question of the first human colonization takes us back to the late third millen-
nium cal BC, in other words, to a time not very different from the start of the Bronze Age in
western Europe. This means that the traditional 'Pre-Talayotic' period lasted for over a mil-
lennium, longer than the Talayotic period, and is practically equivalent to the Bronze Age in
Europe. In addition, recent research has differentiated a series of material assemblages within
this period, so that the concept of 'Pre-Talayotic' itself has become obsolete. With the new
data, the periodization in Mallorca and Menorca, from the first stable populations to the
Talayotic society, has been established as follows:

• Bell Beaker (only Mallorca) (c.2300-2100/2000 cal BC)

• Epi-Bell Beaker-dolmen group (c.2100/2000-1600 cal BC)
• Naviform group (c.1600-1100/1000 cal BC)
• Proto-Talayotic period (c.1100/1000-850 cal BC)

T H E F I R S T P H A S E OF H U M A N P O P U L A T I O N I N
M A L L O R C A A N D M E N O R C A (c.2300-1600 C A L B C )

Bell Beaker Archaeological Group (c.2300-2100/2000 cal BC)

According to the available evidence, Mallorca was the first island in the group to have a
stable population. The most reliable radiocarbon determinations situate this colonization
in the second half of the third millennium, probably about 2400-2300 cal BC. It seems
these human groups lived in caves and rock shelters, some of which were occasionally used
as burial sites (Son Matge rock shelter, Cova des Moro, Cova de Moleta, Coval Simo), or in
small open-air settlements (Son Ferrandell-Olessa, Son Mas, Ca na Cotxera), consisting of
huts where stone was rarely used as a building material. The characteristics of the settle-
ments seem to indicate that they were occupied seasonally, a circumstance that, in turn,
suggests the practice of subsistence strategies such as animal-herding or slash-and-burn
agriculture. The role of fishing and shellfish gathering remains to be determined, although
it was probably not important, according to the basically terrestrial components in the
diet of Balearic populations throughout prehistory, as isotope analyses have shown. As
regards hunting, an ongoing debate discusses the exploitation of Myotragus balearicus, a
caprid endemic to the Gymnesian Islands. Although it is known historically how endemic
species in certain island locations have become rapidly extinct as the direct or indirect
consequence of human colonization, there is no evidence of the human consumption of
Myotragus. In fact, it is not even possible to affirm that humans and goats lived together on
the islands, as the latest dates obtained from bone samples of these animals are no younger
than the first half of the fourth millennium cal BC. This means that it is possible to propose
that their extinction was caused by purely ecological factors, and may have concluded over
a thousand years before the first stable human settlements.
The most characteristic artefacts of the first occupations on Mallorca include ceramic ves-
sels (bowls, carinated pots) decorated with incised designs in the Bell Beaker tradition. In
fact, these objects have been used to define one of the regional styles in the later phases of the
Bell Beaker phenomenon. However, this style may not have been fully autonomous, to judge
by its affinities with the Pyrenean style, characteristic of the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula.
We can also highlight the large ovoid-bodied, flat-based storage vessels, implements such as
knives and sickle elements made from flint blades, and copper metallurgy, which probably
benefited from local outcrops in the north-eastern part of the Sierra de Tramuntana.

Epi-Bell Beaker-Dolmen Archaeological Group

( c . 2 1 0 0 / 2 0 0 0 - 1 6 0 0 cal B C )
In the transition between the third and second millennium BC, the archaeological record
reveals a series of developments. In the first place, the presence of humans spread to Menorca
and the Pine Islands. The settlements followed the same pattern as the first occupations, and
consisted of open-air villages and the occupation of caves and rock shelters. Occasionally, as in
the case of the settlements at Son Ferrandell-Olesa and Son Mas, the particularities of the for-
mation of the deposit make it difficult to detect stratigraphic changes between this period and
the previous occupations. Therefore, the vertical stratigraphic sequences at cave and rock-shel-
ter sites, like Son Matge and Coval Simo, provide valuable information for the characterization
of the material remains of the communities in the early second millennium BC in Mallorca and
Menorca. The most striking artefacts include pottery decorated with incised designs, related in
some way with late Bell Beaker styles, and which is usually described as epi-Bell Beaker'.
However, the clearest and most abundant data comes from funerary contexts. Although the
use of natural caves continued in the early second millennium BC (Can Martorellet, Son
Marroig, Sa Canova d'Ariany, Vernissa, Cova des Bouer), the use of new kinds of tombs is
important. The first types were probably hypogea with a single circular or oval chamber, pro-
vided with a megalithic entrance and facade. The best-known examples are on Menorca (Biniai
1 and 2, Sant Tomas, Cala Morell 11 and 12) and date back to the late third millennium BC, start-
ing a style that lasted until the middle of the second millennium BC. Other simple hypogea,
without a structure of orthostats, well documented in Mallorca (Ca na Vidriera 4, Son Sunyer 7,
Rafal Llinas, Son Mulet), were used briefly at the start of the second millennium BC.
The dolmens are another interesting new development. Their construction started in the
nineteenth century cal BC, and they are found in the south of Menorca and on the Bay of
Alciidia in north-east Mallorca. They usually possess a small rectangular chamber, at most
3.5 x2 m in size, accessed by a short corridor or vestibule (S'Aigua Dolca, Son Baulo de Dalt,
Montple, Binidahnet, Ses Roques Llises). The roof was probably made with a mixture of
mud, small stones, and plant matter. The structure would have been covered by a mound
of stones and earth about 7 or 8 m in diameter.
All these funerary spaces were used for dozens of primary burials deposited successively
over two or three centuries. The human remains have occasionally stayed articulated in an
orderly manner, but in most cases it is difficult to discern any pattern due to the apparent dis-
organization of the materials. The grave goods are usually scarce and are objects of everyday
use, such as pottery (mostly open or slightly closed bowls, sometimes with a sunken base; pots
with an out-turned rim and globular or carenated body; truncated conical vessels with lugs
near the rim; and vessels tending to a cylindrical form with a flat base); copper and bronze
daggers and awls; buttons made from bone or pig tusks of various types (prismatic and pyram-
idal with v-shaped perforations, discoidal or flat rectangular forms with double perforation,
with a circular or oval body and 'tortoise'-type appendices, among others); simple adorn-
ments (pendants made from shells or pig teeth); and grindstones (wristguards).

Extra-Insular Connections and Social Organization during

the Initial Occupation of Mallorca and Menorca
One of the most interesting topics in the prehistory of the Balearics is that of the beginning of
human population. All the evidence suggests that the Balearics were not an attractive place
for the settlement of Neolithic communities, unlike Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Crete, or
Cyprus. The situation changed at the end of the third millennium and in the early second
millennium BC, coinciding with the late Bell Beaker (Chalcolithic) period and the Early
Bronze Age in south-west Europe. A careful examination of the archaeological record in
Mallorca and Menorca suggests that the first communities to settle on the islands came from
north-east Iberia and the shores of the Gulf of Lion (Roussillon and Languedoc). This
hypothesis is supported by the similarities between the Bell Beaker pottery on Mallorca and
the late Beaker style in Catalonia, as well as between undecorated vessels on the islands and
the common types amongst the so-called Begleitkeramik (accompanying pottery') in Bell
Beaker and Early Bronze Age assemblages in north-east Catalonia and Mediterranean
France. Other artefacts, like the prismatic and pyramidal bone buttons, and those related to
the 'tortoise'-type, are common in Catalonia and south-east France. The funerary architec-
ture also points in the same direction. The Balearic dolmens are similar to the generic type of
megalithic tombs in Languedoc. In addition, the affinities are even greater if we take into
account the fact that in the coastal strip of Languedoc and Provence monuments facing west
and south-west predominate, the exclusive orientation of the Balearic examples. This com-
mon factor contrasts with the main trend in neighbouring regions, where the monuments
mostly face south or south-east. Other architectural elements in the Balearics have parallels
at sites in the north-west of the Mediterranean basin. Thus, the access system at Son Baulo de
Dalt and S'Aigua Dolca displays similarities with that of the 'cists with entrance pit' docu-
mented in north-east Catalonia and dated to the final Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age.
Equally, the hypogea with or without megalithic entrances can be related to preceding and
synchronous examples in the Catalan late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age.
In short, several elements coincide in indicating north-east Catalonia and much of
Mediterranean France as the origin of the human groups who occupied Mallorca and
Menorca, and as regions with which the islands continued to maintain contact and exchange
during the first centuries of the second millennium cal BC.
Two questions are posed about the colonization: why? and why now? Several reasons can
be given to explain the delay in the colonization of the Balearics compared with other
Mediterranean islands. The relative distance of Mallorca and Menorca from other inhabited
lands, combined with the absence of suitable raw materials for making polished stone tools,
especially the axes and adzes needed to cut down the dense Balearic vegetation, might explain
the absence of a stable Neolithic occupation of the islands. In addition, the geographical
position away from the main routes for the circulation of obsidian from Sardinia and the
Aeolian Islands would have a bearing on the lack of interest in the Balearics, even though
communities on the shores of the Mediterranean may have been aware of their existence.
However, these limitations were overcome due to the conjunction of several factors. The first
is connected with technological advances in the production of food and implements. By the
late third millennium cal BC metallurgy had developed sufficiently for the exploitation of
cupriferous minerals in Mallorca and Menorca. Recycling and recasting the metal also favoured
productive autonomy, as the first peoples no longer depended on a continuous supply of raw
materials, which would have been the case for harder igneous and metamorphic rocks (such as
the jadeites, corneans, ophites, and amphibolites used extensively on the northern shores of the
western Mediterranean). Thefirstsettlers' command of metallurgy has been shown by the dis-
covery of a Beaker with copper adhering to its inner surface, at the rock shelter of Son Matge.
Furthermore, the development of the so-called 'secondary products revolution' enabled an
increase in productivity and the overall production of food. In practice, this could guarantee
subsistence autonomy even in geographical environments that until then had been regarded as
marginal. In short, by the late third millennium BC the material conditions had been met for
the success of stable settlement on islands relatively far from the mainland.
However, it seems that these conditions were necessary but not sufficient. It is possible
that the catalyst for the colonizing movement was the development of forms of economic
exploitation and social violence in different parts of the mainland during the third millen-
nium and in the early second millennium BC. In the face of tensions caused by this situation,
certain groups from the area of the north-western Mediterranean migrated to lands that had
previously been peripheral or marginal, where they could establish new social relationships,
away from the conflicts experienced in their places of origin. If we take into account the lack
of concern for defence in Balaearic settlements (scarcity of fortifications and preference for
lowland locations), the absence of specialized weapons that became increasingly abundant
in Europe, and on a symbolic level, the predominance of a collective burial rite that pre-
vented shows of individual display, and the absence of gold and silver ornaments, we may
propose that the new settlements stressed peaceful relationships and inhibited the develop-
ment of permanent economic and political asymmetry.

T H E N A V I F O R M G R O U P ( C . I 6 O O - H O O / I O O O CAL BC)

About 1600 cal BC the archaeological record displays a series of new developments. The most
significant element consists of large buildings with an elongated floor plan, Cyclopean stone
walls, an entrance in the short side and a pointed end or apse (the 'naviform' plan), up to 15 m
long and 6 m wide (Closos de Can Gaia, Son Oms, Can Roig Nou, S'Hospitalet Veil, Cala
Blanca, Son Mercer de Baix) (Fig. 34.2). The finds documented inside them (hearths,
benches, querns, bone, metal and stone implements, pottery for consumption and storage,
food remains, and metallurgical production residues) are an indication of many activities
associated with craft production, and only a moderate development of the division of labour
between buildings. The naviform buildings may be individual structures or in groups of two
or more units side by side. These detached or conjoined buildings may be found alone or
grouped in open villages of varying density and size. In the second half of the second millen-
nium BC, it becomes more common to find buildings that differ to a greater or lesser degree
from the naviform pattern, although the custom of stone architecture is never abandoned
(Es Figueral de Son Real, round hut at Torralba d'en Salord).
The naviform buildings extend over the whole of the Balearic Islands for the first time,
although it is also true that there was a preference for low land with easy access to potentially
fertile soil. The introduction of naviform settlements coincided with a reduction in the use of
natural caves, which were only visited occasionally for ritual purposes (Es Carritx, Es

FIG. 34.2 Settlement structures of the 2nd millennium BC. I and 2. Naviform buildings from
Canyamel and Son Oms; 3. Towerlike structure from Trebaliiger.
Drawings: authors, redrawn after various sources.
Mussol). In the course of these subterranean ceremonies, between c.1600-1450 cal BC, frag-
ments of stalactites were broken and piled up, sometimes in association with bones of human
hands and feet; portions of meat and pottery vessels were deposited; and magic rites were
acted out around hearths located tens of metres from the cave entrances. These customs have
been interpreted in terms of chthonic cults that possibly linked the belief in an underground
force, responsible for the renewal of fertility, and with life seen in the world outside.
The funerary contexts are noticeable because of their abundance and variety (Fig. 34.3). In
addition to the occasional continuity of previous types (simple hypogea, dolmens, and
caves), new kinds of structures are found: hypogea with elongated shapes and internal com-
partments (Cala Sant Vicenc, Son Sunyer, Son Jaumell, Son Vivo); round monuments with
thick walls, like tumuli in appearance (only found in Menorca: Ses Arenes de Baix, Son
Olivaret, Alcaidiis, Son Ermita); and natural caves sealed off with Cyclopean stone walls (Es
Carritx, Es Forat de ses Aritges, Son Matge, Coval den Pep Rave, Calascoves LXXVII). All
these monuments received varying numbers of burials over the course of several centuries.
Important new developments are seen in portable artefacts too (Figs. 34.4 and 34.5).
Potters gradually began to add calcite as temper for the production of barrel-shaped storage
jars with thickened rims, or with a globular or ovoid body and out-turned rim. Most of the
kitchen and tableware consisted of globular and carinated pots with out-turned rims, of dif-
ferent sizes, and open or slightly in-turned bowls with flat base. They are mostly u n d e r -
rated, apart from horizontal groups of finger impressions or incisions in certain areas of the
upper part of the vessels.
The finds of moulds for making arm-rings, awls, axes, and knives inside some of the navi-
form structures (S'Hospitalet Veil), and the composition analysis of the metals, has shown
that bronze artefacts were being manufactured on the islands. Their use increased until they
reached their maximum frequency in the early first millennium cal BC. Bone working also
achieved unusual vitality, seen in the abundance of awls, needles, and above all v-perforated
buttons made from segments of the shafts of long bones or from pig tusks.
The occasional presence of querns and cereal grains suggests that agriculture was becom-
ing more important in subsistence strategies. However, the abundance of the remains of
domestic fauna and the first chemical and bio-archaeological studies of human remains
indicate that animals made a substantial contribution to the diet. By contrast, the contribu-
tion of sea food was minimal.
The meticulous study of thousands of human remains in Chamber 1 at Cova des Carritx
(Fig. 34.6) has uncovered aspects of the socioeconomic organization of naviform communi-
ties in the middle and late phases. This funerary space received the bodies of some two hun-
dred individuals of both sexes and all age groups, except foetuses and babies under three
months. Chamber 1 was the tomb of a social unit formed originally by about 14 individuals, a
number that is perfectly compatible with the size of a group that could live in a naviform
house. The make-up of this social unit remained constant over the centuries, due to very low
rates of incremental growth. There were more men than women (ratio of 1.4 to 1); life expect-
ancy was lower for women than men, and there was clear sexual dimorphism in the post-cra-
nial skeleton. As might be expected in a prehistoric society, child mortality was high, and only
two thirds of the individuals reached the age offive.The low frequency of caries and, in con-
trast, the high proportion of plaque on the teeth, indicate that a large part of the diet consisted
of food from land animals, and this interpretation has been supported by trace-element anal-
ysis. Furthermore, in this respect no difference can be seen between men and women. There
 Rock cut tomb with megalithic entrance: Dolmen Tumular Structure:
Biniai Nou Ses Rogues Llises Ses Arenes de Baix

Rock cut tomb with dromos: Cave with megalithic entrtance:

Torre del Ram Son Mestre de Dalt

o = _2m °1=_im
Elongated Naveta: Es Tudons Circular Naveta: Biniac Occidental

FIG. 34.3 The main funerary structures of the second millennium BC.
Source: Gili et al.

was a synergic relationship between anaemia and infections, and a high level of mobility for at
least one sector of the community. This can be correlated with activities such as animal herd-
ing and the exploitation of resources over a wide area, characterized by its rugged relief.
One of the most interesting hypotheses suggests the practice of female infanticide, as a
form of birth control. It is possible that the community which used Es Carritx as a tomb
employed a mechanism for regulating the population which kept the number of women
lower than that of men, and that this infanticide took the form of poorer care and/or differ-
ential food during the first years of life. This hypothesis draws together a series of apparently
unrelated data, such as the smaller number of adult women, the greater frequency of anaemia
FIG. 34.4 Changes in prehistoric pottery production of Mallorca and Menorca.
Source: authors (modified after Lull et al. 1999).

amongst women, and noticeable differences in stature (sexual dimorphism). These differ-
ences would be maintained once maturity had been reached and would not disappear even
when the diet was the same for men and women in adulthood.
The clear homogeneity reached in the production of artefacts occurred without the inter-
vention of any form of politico-economic centralization or hierarchy. Society was organized
in units that were basically autonomous in terms of subsistence production, as can be seen in
the uniformity among the implements found in the houses. The groups who lived in the
FIG. 34.5 Changes in metal production of Mallorca and Menorca.
Source: authors (Lull et al. 1999)-

naviform houses cooperated in the building of the structures, the acquisition of raw materi-
als (metals) and, perhaps, in herding the livestock and working in the fields.
Within a panorama characterized by the absence of political hierarchy, certain individuals
have been identified who enjoyed a 'mediating' social position in the realm of politics and belief
systems. This has been achieved through the analysis of thefindsat Es Mussol, a cave located in
an impressive cliff-face on the north-west coast of Menorca, whose access is extremely danger-
ous. A series of wooden objects, including two carvings in wild olive wood, were discovered in
FIG. 34.6 Digital photogrametric image of the funerary chamber of the cave of Es Carritx
prior to excavation.
Source: authors (Lull et al. 1999; photogrammetry by Sylvia Gili).

a small hidden interior chamber (Fig. 34.7). They each represent the head and neck of two beings,
one of them anthropomorphic and the other zoo-anthropomorphic, whose meaning must lie
within a discourse that combined mythological and metaphysical components. The place was
visited during brief stays and was the scene of secret practices in which a small number of people
took part. Cova des Mussol can be understood as a key stage in the initiation process through
which Menorcan communities 'produced' a specific social category, formed by individuals
responsible for social and politico-ideological mediation. These people would have acted out
their social role in the late Naviform or even perhaps in the Proto-Talayotic phase.

THE PROTO-TALAYOTIC PERIOD

(c.1100/1000-850 CAL BC)

The two centuries on either side of the start of the first millennium cal BC are of key impor-
tance for an understanding of the end of naviform society and the rise of the Talayotic period.
A series of material elements linked with the previous tradition, such as the naviform houses,
began slowly to disappear. Some of the houses were still being occupied, occasionally after
undergoing reorganization ('Naveta 1' at Closos de Can Gaia). However, in other cases, the
settlements were organized in compact urban areas where a variable number of houses, of
different floor plans, were gathered around a large, tall stone building that could have been
ancestral to the talaiots. Es Figueral de Son Real, Cap de Forma, and S'lllot are the best-doc-
umented examples of a trend that in some ways foreshadowed the most common type of
settlement in the Talayotic period.
FIG. 34.7 Anthropomorphic and zoo-anthropomorphic figures made of olive wood found
in the cave of Es Mussol.
Source: authors (Lull et al. 1999; photo: Peter Witte).

In terms of funerary practices, the only trait shared by the communities of Mallorca and
Menorca was the continuation of burials in natural caves sealed off by a Cyclopean wall (Es
Carritx, Son Matge, Mongofre Nou). However, unlike Mallorca, Menorca maintained the
old habit of an abundance and diversity of funerary structures. The late second millennium
and first millennium cal BC are characterized by the emergence of the navetas (Tudons,
Binimaimut, Binipati Nou, La Cova). These are large stone buildings with a circular or apse-
shaped plan, containing an elongated chamber occasionally divided into two levels. The
excavation of the best-known site, Naveta des Tudons, showed that the larger tombs were
used for the burial of hundreds of bodies (Fig. 34.3).
The practice of collective ritual, traditional on the island, is repeated in the hypogea with a
simple floor plan, opening out in the walls of gorges and cliffs (Calascoves III, V, VII, IX, XI,
and XXXV). It is also repeated in some natural caves, which may or may not have been mod-
ified, in similar locations (Cova des Pas).
The grave goods are more numerous and display greater variety than in previous centu-
ries. Buttons made from bone and teeth, and small pottery vessels (s-shaped pots, conical
vessels with a side handle), continued to appear. However, the most notable items are now
bronze ornaments and tools ('pectorals', torques, biconical and cylindrical beads, knives,
spearheads, awls, etcetera), occasional objects of iron (bracelets) or tin (beads), and also
tubular wood or antler containers with a wood or bone lid to hold the hair that had been cut
from certain individuals in the course of burial rites. The deposit inside Chamber 5 in Cova
des Carritx has yielded the most eloquent evidence of this ritual based on the post-mortem
treatment of some people's hair (which was dyed, combed, cut, and deposited), and which
might be linked to a new symbolic importance given to the human head. Although this indi-
vidualized treatment was reserved for a small number of persons, there is no clear proof that
it reflected politico-economic privileges.
Although the difference between Mallorca and Menorca is striking in terms of the variety
of funerary spaces, it is less so if we consider the presence on both islands of a large number
of artefact types (s-profiled pottery, carinated and globular vessels of different sizes, buttons
with v-shaped perforations, 'mirrors', bronze knives and pins, etcetera). This suggests that
the contacts between the communities in the early first millennium BC were still intense.
The use of all these types of tombs, as well as the burial practices that we assume they
shared despite the diversity seen in the structures, came to an end in the late ninth century
or, at the latest, in the early eighth century cal B C It is probable that the time immediately
before the final use of these tombs coincided with the ritual deposition of particularly valua-
ble objects in places of difficult access inside natural caves (Es Carritx, Mussol). They were
symptoms of a society undergoing change, about to abandon ancient traditions and com-
mence the Talayotic period, when the construction of social bonds would be based above all
on the public affirmation of the community (construction oftalaiots, compact settlements),
rather than on the celebration of the past and the ancestors in the framework of funerary
rites held some distance from the settlements.

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