Naveta d’Es Tudons: A Pre-Talaiotic Collective Tomb on Menorca
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Bronze Age
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Bronze Age
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Burial
- Remains
- Tomb
On this page11 sections
History
Naveta d’Es Tudons is a megalithic funerary monument on Menorca, in Spain’s Balearic Islands, built by prehistoric communities during the pre-Talaiotic period. Its construction is broadly associated with the second millennium BC, although its exact date remains uncertain. The pre-Talaiotic period was Menorca’s prehistoric phase before the later Talaiotic tradition of monumental stone architecture.
Origins and funerary use
The name combines naveta, a Menorcan word meaning “ship” or “small vessel,” with Es Tudons, the name of the locality, meaning “the woodpigeons.” Navetas are stone buildings found in several dozen examples on Menorca and Mallorca. Some served as dwellings, while others were tombs, and certain funerary examples contained two chambers placed one above the other.
Naveta d’Es Tudons functioned as a collective ossuary, a burial place for human bones after soft tissue had decomposed or been removed, approximately between 1200 and 750 BC. The lower chamber held disarticulated bones, while the upper chamber probably provided a place to dry recently deposited bodies. The monument was abandoned around 750 BC.
Rediscovery and archaeological work
Navetas were described during the early nineteenth century, and the antiquarian Juan Ramis introduced the term naveta in 1818 after comparing their shape with upturned boats. Archaeological excavation came later, particularly during the twentieth century. Excavations led by Lluís Pericot García in 1959 and 1960 revealed the remains of at least 100 individuals. One skull showed evidence of trepanation, a surgical opening made in the skull.
Bronze bracelets and bone and ceramic buttons recovered from the monument are displayed at the Museu de Menorca in Mahón. Oral traditions may have survived partly because isolated navetas were avoided by Menorcans until well into the nineteenth century. One later legend describes two giants competing for a woman, with one building the naveta while the other dug a well. The missing final stone was supposedly thrown into the well in jealousy. Another version tells of two royal heirs, one of whom died while placing the final stone and was buried inside the building, turning an intended home into a tomb.
Protection and heritage status
The monument entered Spain’s cultural-heritage register on 3 June 1931. Restoration included rebuilding two or three missing upper courses, and a modern dry-stone wall was constructed around the building for protection. In March 2018, graffiti damaged 81 stones. Restoration workers directed by the Island Council of Menorca removed the graffiti, and the monument regained its previous appearance.
Naveta d’Es Tudons formed part of the group of 32 prehistoric Menorcan sites included in the Menorca Talaiotic candidature inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023.
Remains
The monument stands on slightly raised ground in a sloping valley in western Menorca, about 5 kilometres from Ciutadella and approximately 200 metres south of the road between Ciutadella and Mahón. Its elongated half-elliptical ground plan gives the building the appearance of an overturned boat. The trapezoidal façade forms the stern, while the rounded apse forms the bow. The structure is oriented from south-southwest to east-northeast, with its entrance centred in the gently sloping façade.
Exterior construction and entrance
Stone walls and boat-shaped form
Naveta d’Es Tudons measures approximately 14.5 metres in length, 6.5 metres in width, and 4.55 metres in height. Its original height may have reached about 6 metres. The façade, side walls, and apse are built from successive horizontal courses of large rectangular or square limestone blocks. The blocks were hammer-dressed and fitted together without mortar. They rest on a foundation course made from still larger blocks set on edge.
Doorway and passage
The narrow, low doorway measures 0.57 by 0.75 metres and includes a rebate for a closing stone slab. The entrance, formerly sealed, leads to a short passage roofed with flat stones. Beyond it lies a 1.3-metre-long antechamber, followed by a second short passage leading to the lower burial chamber.
Burial chambers
Lower chamber
The lower chamber measures 7.45 metres by 2.45 metres. Large horizontal stone slabs form its ceiling, inserted into the side walls. The slabs span about 1.5 metres on average, and the chamber reaches approximately 2.25 metres in height above the floor. This was the chamber used for the disarticulated bones of the collective burials.
Upper chamber
The upper chamber is reached from the top of the antechamber. It is slightly shorter and narrower than the chamber below, measuring 7.10 metres by 1.90 metres, with a ceiling only about 0.85 metres high. Its roof consists of horizontal slabs laid in successive corbelled courses. Corbelled construction creates a roof by placing each stone slightly farther inward than the course beneath it, producing a false vault rather than a true arch. Holes in the slabs probably provided ventilation.
The restored monument retains its rebuilt upper stone courses and is enclosed by the modern dry-stone protective wall. The bronze bracelets and bone and ceramic buttons recovered during excavation are preserved at the Museu de Menorca in Mahón.
