Archaeologist Sonia Carbonell has just published
Arquitectura funeraria postalayótica. Las necrópolis de cuevas artificiales de Menorca, a monograph that delves into one of the most distinctive elements of Menorca’s archaeological landscape: the rock-cut tombs used during the first millennium BCE.
The book focuses on the funerary practices of the Post-Talayotic period (ca. 550–123 BCE), during which artificial caves, also known as hypogea, became the predominant form of burial. These structures, notable for their formal diversity and complex internal compartmentalization, reflect architectural patterns also found in other social and ritual contexts of the time, such as domestic circles and taula sanctuaries.
Through a comparative perspective that includes various contemporary island territories, the author places the Menorcan funerary phenomenon within a broader Mediterranean regional context. She then focuses on Menorca to analyze in depth the planning, construction, and function of these tombs, as well as their integration into the surrounding landscape. This approach advances our understanding of the social structure and socioeconomic changes within Post-Talayotic communities, through an architectural reading of their burial spaces.
This monograph consolidates the research line Carbonell has developed since her doctoral thesis —dedicated to the necropolises of the Final Talayotic period— and through her direct involvement in the excavations of
Cave 45 at Calescoves, part of a broader project on ritual and funerary practices at this key site in the island’s southwest.
As part of her earlier work, the archaeologist had already proposed a
new interpretive hypothesis about Final Talayotic society, emphasizing the relationship between funerary spaces and their territorial distribution. According to Carbonell, the spatial organization of necropolises —especially at Calescoves and Biniedrís— reflects a complex and hierarchical social structure, likely linked to forms of territorial control and ritual practices. This perspective offers a new interpretation of the social transformations that preceded the Roman conquest and opens the door to future research within the Talayotic Menorca framework.
This new work offers an innovative and rigorous perspective that deepens our understanding of the architectural and social complexity of the island’s rock-cut tomb necropolises, reinforcing the heritage value of Talayotic Menorca as a unique cultural landscape in the western Mediterranean.