The Consell Insular de Menorca and Maó City Council have finalised a partnership agreement to restore and adapt the Santa Anna hypogeum, a collective tomb dug into the subsoil in the municipality of Maó. Declared a Site of Cultural Interest under the 1985 legislation, it recently revealed a number of
engravings of great archaeological value which require restoration, preparation and signage work at the monument to allow visitor access.
This morning, the vice-president and conseller of Cultural Affairs, Miquel Àngel Maria, and the deputy mayor and executive councillor for Cultural Affairs of Maó City Council, Conxa Juanola, visited the site together with the Head of the Historical Heritage Service, Simón Gornés.
Following an inspection of the finding by technical staff from the CIM, it was felt important to control and protect access to the interior of this hypogeum, leading to the installation of protective railings to prevent unauthorised access. The entrance, which has suffered the detachment of some material, will also be consolidated.
The CIM is responsible for restoring and refurbishing the internal and external structure of the monument, while its owner, Maó City Council, has responsibility for clearing and preparing the access route, which is currently blocked by overgrowth.
The Santa Anna engravings
The engravings discovered at Santa Anna are of great archaeological interest. Researchers Joan de Nicolas, Miquel Carreras and Vicente Ibanez Orts, in collaboration with Pere Arnau and another archaeologist, Mónica Zubillaga, have positioned the space between
Punic culture and the Roman era, making it particularly significant.
The depictions can be divided into three groups:
- Complete bulls, whose physiognomy suggests they are of ancient origin (5th-4th-3rd century BC), given the form of the horns and body, and the artistic style of depiction.
- A second group of depictions of Tanit, goddess of fertility in the Punic era, found in the cave within the temples, or as isolated figures.
- And a third group of Punic engravings, in the form of betyls (long stones interpreted as a representation of divinity), directly connected with the funereal world. There are also just a few depictions of the Roman type.