AMICS DEL MUSEU DE MENORCA
Location:Torre d’en Galmés talayotic settlement.
Project managers:
Team:
Borja Corral
Carlos de Salort
Francesc Isbert
Cecília Ligero
Excavation team: Joaquim Pons (IME-UAB), Ana Oliveira (UCM), Rita Ferrando, Sofia Zamrik
Archaeozoology: Alex Valenzuela (UB)
Physical anthropology: Elena Sintes
Topography: Miguel Jiménez (TANIT SL)
Radiocarbon and isotopy analysis: Mark Van Strydonck (KIK-IRPA)
Pollen analysis: Yolanda Yergo (UB)
Phytoliths and spheroliths analysis: Marta Portillo (UB)
Geoarchaeology: Amalia Pérez-Juez and Paul Goldberg (BU)
Organic remains on pottery: Alejandra Garcia (UGR)
Scientific objectives:
For over twenty years, Amics del Museu de Menorca (Friends of the Museum of Menorca) has researched the Iron Age dwellings (800-123 BCE) of Menorca.
Archaeological excavations at the front courtyards of Circles 7 and 6 (2011-2019) aim at shedding light on the investigation of the chronology, architecture, culture and, most of all, use of the annexed spaces.
The ongoing excavation project, which focuses on the group of houses that lay near the central talayot at Torre d’en Galmés (and which is allegedly the settlement’s oldest area), aims at documenting the dwellings that were built before 400 BCE, which are still unknown on Menorca.
The volunteering programmes organised by the association to clear the site during wintertime allow the team not only to map the site in the middle-long run, but also to define occupational patterns within the settlement.
The post-excavation tasks include the review of finds and the data recovered from the dwelling spaces from the site, with the aim of compiling a thorough database, paying special attention to ceramic containers and faunal remains. This will allow the team to collect relevant information about the society and economy of the prehistoric native population of Menorca.
Fieldwork is always followed by restoration-conservation works of the excavated structures and the recovered finds. The objective is to improve the site’s general state of preservation and enhance the importance of the results obtained from an archaeological project.
Since 1995 the research tasks done by Amics del Museu de Menorca have aimed at channelling the curiosity of those interested in the archaeological heritage of the island. In this respect, the excavations held at Torre d’en Galmés are conceived as a means to train prospective professionals through hands-on experience in fieldwork and post-excavation tasks in the laboratory.
Results obtained:Between 2005 and 2013 the excavation of Circle 7 shed light on the distribution and the chronology of the Late Talayotic houses. During this project, the team located a large number of well-preserved finds (tools, pottery, ornaments…) and the human remains of six individuals belonging to the same group. All the data points at a sudden abandonment of this house at the end of the 3rd century BCE.
In recent years, thanks to the excavation and restoration tasks at the front courtyards at Circle 6 and Circle 7, the team has defined chronological and functional aspects of structures that were not known up to this date in Balearic Archaeology. Construction systems and remodels dating back to the Roman period have been analysed.
Also, they have gathered information about the formation processes of archaeological levels due to animal sheltering, rubbish accumulation and changes in the use of these houses in Roman times.
Supporting entities:
Amics del Museu de Menorca
Consell Insular de Menorca
Ajuntament d’Alaior