Completed project that offered data about Torralba d'en Salort and the rest of the Talayotic settlements.
Location:Talayotic settlement of Torralba d’en Salort
Project managers:Cristina BRAVO, Irene RIUDAVETS, Gerard REMOLINS
Team:
- Technical archaeologists:
Antoni Ferrer
Maria José León
Adrián Castro
Roman pottery: Cristina Bravo, Joan de Nicolas
Indigenous and protohistoric imported materials: Irene Riudavets, Maria José León and Antoni Ferrer
Plans, graphic documentation and software: Sr. Gerard Remolins
Pottery illustration: Cristina Bravo, Irene RIUDAVETS
Lithic materials and pottery drawing: Antoni Ferrer
Archaeozoology: Alejandro Valenzuela
Physical anthropology: Elena Sintes
Restoration and conservation of materials and structures: Bernat Burgaya, Margalida Munar
Radiocarbon dating: Mark Van Strydonck
Scientific objectives:After three decades without any archaeological research project conducted on site, this project had the aim of continuing studying the settlement of Torralba d’en Salort, which will offer valuable information about the site and, by extension, the rest of Talayotic settlements. Also, since Torralba d’en Salort is included in the “Talayotic Menorca” World Heritage nomination, the team considered necessary to carry out archaeological research to enhance the knowledge about the site and to improve the visitor’s experience.
The first campaign in Torralba took place at the end of 2018 and focused on the area just outside the façade of the settlement’s sanctuary: its taula enclosure. Whereas the inside of the taula sanctuary was excavated in the 70s and 80s of the past century, being the most distinguished monument at the site, excavating its external area is also a very important task in order to understand how this space was used in Talayotic times. The mains aims were:
- To foster the knowledge about the people who lived in Torralba and the rest of Menorca during the Talayotic period.
- To obtain data that allow us to determine the chronology and function of the excavated areas and to understand the changes in them, which would reflect changes on the society who lived there.
- To understand the relation between those monuments at the site which are already excavated (taula enclosure and small talayot) and determine the changes that occurred during the construction of the taula enclosure, which took place after the talayot’s.
- Evaluate the presence of materials related to the practices carried out inside the taula enclosure, which could have been placed or thrown outside and, if that is the case, find an explanation for this external location.
- To enhance the spatial importance of the taula enclosure through the excavation of the area outside its façade. This also includes the removal of all modern elements built or placed outside the façade, which create a visual obstacle that makes a proper interpretation of the area very difficult.
- Improve the visitor’s experience in terms of the site’s accessibility.
Results obtained:During the 2018 excavation campaign the team worked outside of the taula sanctuary’s façade with the aim of getting more information about the uses of the immediate surroundings of the building, and also of returning the sanctuary to its original view from the outside, without the additional elements that were blocking its view. Also, by removing these modern elements, access to the sanctuary improved.
Thus, two main tasks were carried out:
- Removal of a stretch of modern dry-stone wall located outside the façade of the taula sanctuary.
- Excavation of the area outside the façade once the modern wall was removed.
After the removal of the modern dry-stone wall (only the 18-meter section that was hiding the taula enclosure’s façade), the excavation of the area right outside the sanctuary’s façade was conducted, which made it possible to document unprecedented elements in these spaces, since it is the first time that an excavation has been carried out focused on the immediate area outside of a taula enclosure. These elements are an original paved way that leads to the enclosure’s entrance, a hearth attached to the facade and a monolith right next to it which also rests on the facade.
Another unexpected discovery were the two silos on each side of the facade. These two elements were the main focus of the 2019 campaign, when they were excavated and fully documented. These would have been two cisterns for the collection of water that would have been in use before the construction of the taula enclosure, according to the materials found inside both of them.
Regarding the archaeological material recovered in front of the façade, the large quantity of amphora remains stands out, especially those of Ebusitan and Greco-Italian origin from southern Italy, along with remains of fauna. Additionally, in one of the silos the team found ceramics exclusively of local origin, suggesting that it was sealed and, therefore, lost its original use as a cistern before the arrival of imported materials at some point in the Early Talayotic period.
Once the intervention focused on the taula enclosure was completed, the project expanded. The 2020 campaign focused on carrying out an initial planimetry of the large talayot and the southern part of the area that surrounds it. And in 2021 the team removed the surface layer of the upper platform of the talayot.
At the same time, the team also carried out an intervention in 2020 in the funerary hypogeum known as the cistern cave: the original entrance was located, opened and the access was adapted so that it could be visited.
Supporting entities:Associació Menorca, Arqueologia i Cultura (before: Associació d’Amics de Torralba)
NURARQ SC
Fundació Illes Balears