A scientific article was published this week in Spal. Revista de Historia y Arqueología de la Universidad de Sevilla, describing an archaeo-astronomical event in a Talayotic building in Menorca that had not previously been uncovered. The study was conducted at the shrine of the Western taula in the settlement of So na Caçana (Alaior). During the winter solstice, the sun's rays enter the building through a small window, lighting up a special place within the enclosure. The authors of the article suggest that this event would, for the people of Menorca in the Talayotic era, have represented a hierophany. In other words, that the sun would constitute one of the main divinities of the Talayotic pantheons, and its rays entering the taula enclosure would represent a manifestation of this divine entity.
The authors of the study are Irene Riudavets González (postgraduate student at the Universitat de Barcelona/NURARQ SC/Institut Menorquí d’Estudis), Antoni Ferrer Rotger (Institut Menorquí d’Estudis), Sebastià Barceló Forteza (Department of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology, Universidad de Granada), Gerard Remolins Zamora (Università di Bari/ReGiraRocs SLU), Antoni Cladera Barceló (PhotoPills SL) and Cristina Bravo Asensio (Institut Menorquí d’Estudis/NURARQ SC).
Taula enclosures
Taula enclosures are
religious spaces exclusive to Menorca, which were in use during the late Talayotic period, between 600/500 BC and the 1st century BC. Although the most well-known element of these buildings is the taula itself, a large T-shaped construct comprising two large slabs, these are complex structures, which are always built to the same format.
They have a horseshoe-shaped layout and a slightly concave façade, with the entrance located in its centre. The taula is positioned more or less centrally, facing the door. In the space in front of the taula on the right-hand side, the traces of a hearth are normally found. On the left, a little behind the taula and embedded into the wall of the enclosure, there is typically a pilaster built with a large slab. It is opposite the pilaster that
representations of divinities have been found in some taula enclosures. This is the case at Torre d'en Galmés, where a figurine representing the Egyptian God Imhotep was found, and Torralba d'en Salort, where a figurine of a bull, three horse's hooves and two lamps for burning aromatic substances representing the Punic goddess Tanit were recovered.
So na Caçana
When the Western taula enclosure at So na Caçana was excavated in the 1980s, it was confirmed that there remained no representation of divinities within the enclosure. A flat pilaster could nonetheless be seen to the left of the taula. Its characteristics and location suggest it was equivalent to the position where the divinities were placed in the Torre d'en Galmés and Torralba d'en Salort enclosures. It would make sense, then, to suppose that if the enclosure at any time contained figures of gods, they would have been placed here.
Meanwhile, some authors had some time ago described the existence of a small window in the façade of the Western taula enclosure at Son na Caçana, although no specific hypothesis as to its function had been put forward. This opening measures some 20 cm in height and 15 cm in width, positioned some 2 m above the ground. It is on the left-hand side of the façade, facing the pilaster where we know that representations of divinities were found in some taula enclosures.
“In 2020, during a visit to the site we saw that the orientation and inclination of this opening could be linked to the position of the sun during the winter solstice," mentions Irene Riudavets, the lead researcher of the article. An initial test was conducted with the mobile app Photopills, used to plan photographs of astronomical events, with a positive outcome: they confirmed that around midday on the winter solstice the rays of the sun would enter the building and light up the front part of the pilaster where representations of divinities were positioned.
2020 studies
It nonetheless had to be confirmed that this event also occurred two thousand years ago, since changes in the inclination of the Earth's rotational axis over the millennia could have made a difference between the present day and the Talayotic era. To investigate this, a 3D survey was conducted of the building, using the photogrammetry technique. This digital model of the enclosure was then used to conduct simulations by means of the computer program Stellarium 0.21.2, capable of calculating the location of the stars at any specific time over the course of past millennia.
These approximations served to confirm that the phenomenon also occurred in the Talayotic era. During the weeks prior to the winter solstice, the sun began to enter via the opening in the middle part of the day. As the date of the solstice approached, the rays of light extended deeper into the building. During the shortest days of the year, then, the
sun's rays finally lit up the area positioned in front of the pilaster where representations of divinities would be placed.
"The phenomenon is perfectly observable right now," says Irene Riudavets. "We confirmed this during the winter solstice in 2022, during which we covered this part of the building over with opaque plastic, to recreate the roof which the enclosure would originally have had, so as to generate the required darkness. The ray of light was very clearly visible, as may be seen in the
time-lapse recordings that were taken".
The published work suggests that the ability to position the winter solstice in time would be particularly important for the Talayotic communities of Menorca, since alongside livestock farming, grains provided another subsistence crop in the area. During past eras, the
winter solstice marked the end of the wheat sowing season on the island, and the agricultural cycle in the Talayotic period was similar.
"Studies like this show that since ancient times, humanity has raised its eyes to the sky, admiring its beauty, immensity and utility," according to the astrophysicist Sebastià Barceló Forteza, co-author of the study. This researcher is also the head of the
Es Nostro Cel team, who are on the point of naming a star system after figures from Balearic culture. "All round the world, the heavens have provided a canvas for stories, myths and legends. And the same is true in the Balearic Islands, as we can see in their cultural and archaeological heritage," Barceló adds.