Cristina Rihuete is a lecturer in Prehistory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She studied archaeology at the University of Barcelona and a postgraduate degree in Chicago, specialising in physical anthropology with her thesis on the Es Càrritx Cave.
Together with Vicente Lull, Roberto Risch and Rafael Micó, they form the research group ASOME-Mediterranean Social Archaeoecology, whose main goal is the reconstruction of the social, economic and ecological dynamics of the societies that inhabited the western Mediterranean basin during the Late Prehistoric period, between the 3rd and 1st millennium BC. Their research has focused mainly on the Balearic Islands and the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Among the sites investigated are the Talayotic settlement of Son Fornés (Mallorca), the Talayotic caves of Es Càrritx, Es Musol and Es Forat de ses Aritges (Menorca), the funerary naveta of Ses Arenes de Baix (Menorca), and the Argaric settlements and cemeteries of Gatas and Fuente Álamo (Almería) and La Bastida, Tira del Lienzo, Cerro del Morrón and La Almoloya (Murcia).
Was it always clear to you that you wanted to be an archaeologist? How did your passion for this discipline arise?
In my family, as in so many others at the time, no one had gone to university. My mother did everything she could to put an end to that, instilling in us a passion for knowledge and discovery. And archaeology is that in its purest form. It was the pyramids of Egypt that got me hooked when they appeared on the school syllabus.
How did the connection with Menorca's Talayotic culture come about?
My links with Son Fornés since the late 1980s led me to become interested in Menorca's prehistory, which is so similar to and, at the same time, so different from that of Mallorca.
You were part of the team that carried out the excavations at Es Càrritx Cave after its discovery, and you did your doctoral thesis on this burial cave. How do you remember those moments?
The work in Es Càrritx Cave was a fabulous challenge for our team. It is very rare to find a funerary deposit that is practically intact, with such exceptional archaeological objects that are so wonderfully preserved. It forced us to design an excavation methodology to match the uniqueness of the cave and also to try new ways of analysing and conserving the archaeological materials in collaboration with specialists from disciplines as diverse as geology, biochemistry and genetics. The four years I lived in Ciutadella were of a formidable intensity. A quarter of a century has passed, but the memories of that time are still electrifying.
Although it was discovered in 1995, Es Càrritx is very topical with your latest study, which has resulted in the first direct human proof of the use of psychoactive substances in Europe. What was the process of this study like? How long has it been going on?
Es Càrritx gained international fame for the deposit of human hair preserved in one of its most hidden rooms, together with the instruments used in a complex funerary ritual based on the combing, dyeing and cutting of tresses that were kept in fascinating little boxes made of wood, bone and horn. We learned many things from this deposit, but many others remain an enigma, such as the number of people to whom the locks belong to, their sex and age, or the very substance with which the dye was made.
We owe the possibility of using the hair to investigate drug use to Elisa Guerra Doce, from the University of Valladolid, who is an authority on the subject. It was in 2015 when she proposed that we try on the hair from Es Càrritx the procedures that Hermann Niemeyer, from the University of Chile, had successfully tested on samples from Andean archaeology. The time that has elapsed shows the difficulty and complexity of the study, as in addition to identifying specific alkaloids, it was necessary to ensure that the analyses could be replicated.
What led you to think that it might be the hair of a shaman?
The hypothesis is based on several lines of evidence. On the one hand, two of the three substances identified are potent hallucinogens that act on the central nervous system, altering perception, mood, cognition and behaviour. We also know that their consumption was continuous and, given the toxicity of these substances, we can imagine a very specialised knowledge in the deliberate induction of altered states of consciousness, which is a characteristic of shamanism. In Menorca we have evidence of the ritual use of caves whose access could be extremely dangerous, such as the Es Mussol Cave, and which denote divinatory or propitiatory ceremonies involving figurines with a hybrid form, half human, half animal, that we can also relate to shamanic practices.
Finally, the small box from the Es Càrritx Cave that contained the hair we analysed was decorated with concentric circles, also typical of other archaeological groups from different periods, and which are usually interpreted as a symbol of the dilation of the pupils produced by ingesting substances that allow us to "open the eye", to open perception or inner knowledge, and which, once again, we can relate to shamanism.
Do you have any hypothesis as to why the Talayotic people hid their hair after painting and cutting it?
We believe that the concealment of the elements of this peculiar funerary ritual is due to a profound crisis in the belief systems of Menorcan society that coincided with the cessation of ancestral funerary ceremonies.
What other lines of study about the Talayotics does your research open up?
We hope that this type of analysis can be replicated in other research projects that, after Es Càrritx, have also recovered hair, such as the Es Pas Cave and, more recently, the Biniedrís Cave, where it has been possible to determine that the locks were dyed with ochre. The diversity of contexts and, where appropriate, chronologies, could enrich the perspectives opened up by this line of research.
As a researcher, which archaeological projects in Menorca do you follow most closely?
In terms of scale, complexity and historical justice to Menorcan cyclopeism, I would undoubtedly highlight Cornia Nou and the work in the different circles of Torre d'en Galmés. Also worthy of special attention is the recent research in Cala Morell, which we owe to the originality and good work of the Entre Illes project, as well as the interesting perspectives opened up by the campaigns carried out in Sa Cudia Cremada.
At the beginning of this month we received the news that ICOMOS had endorsed the candidacy of Talayotic Menorca, clearing the path for its declaration as a World Heritage Site. What challenges do you think lie ahead for Menorca, beyond achieving this recognition?
The same challenge we have as a society: to preserve the legacy of the people who came before us so that future generations can continue to learn from it. Our species has an unlimited treasure that lies in the ability to create and to know ourselves, to live several lives thanks to our ability to know and pass on knowledge. This is wealth and inheritance of the good kind. And not only intangible, but also material. Seen in this light, the real challenge lies in ensuring that the benefits of collective treasures are equally collective.