Latest Fieldnotes

Access A walk of 1.5-2km along pretty good gravel & grass tracks. Not steep at any point (except climbing up to what I’ve called Sant Agusti ‘Bonus’ Talaiot, but undulating and rough underfoot in a few places – especially at the site itself!

Detailed directions, as long/lat co-ordinates are best guess

I headed west along the road from Mao to Ciutadella, and took the main left turn towards Sant Tomas. I passed through Es Migjorn Gran and about halfway from there to the little roundabout entering Sant Tomas, there is a dirt verge-cum-layby on the right. I know it’s roughly halfway because I went right past to make sure it was the right place!

This parking place is effectively on a triangular ‘island’ between 2 arms (the second of which was pretty difficult to spot in the vegetation) of a farm lane leading to Sant Agusti Vell.

Setting off on foot up the farm drive (’no vehicles’ sign), I immediately noticed what looked like an overgrown talaiot to the right, on a fairly steep hill. I figured it was probably way too soon for the ‘main’ Sant Agusti stuff, but had to have a stomp up to have a look. Apart from anything else, I didn’t trust the tourist map I had! See Sant Agusti ‘Bonus’ Talaiot – I couldn’t find a real name for it....

From this talaiot, roughly to the south/SSW I could see a couple of very clear talaiots on the horizon a km or 2 away. Target located! (There was yet another really trashed talaiot to the north too!)

So I headed back to the farm track and continued along the blessedly smooth track, but by the time I reached the farm buildings I hadn’t spotted an definite path to get to where the site appeared to be.

Just as I reached the first byre, there was a farmgate on the right, with a nice herd of cattle in close attendance. There looked to be a faint grassy track beyond the gate, heading in the right direction. Once I rounded the west side of the farm buildings, the talaiots were clearly visible.

After about 10-15 minutes, the talaiots were very close, but somewhat obscured by shrubby bushes between them and the path. Here I got a sign that the site’s definitely supposed to be accessible to the public, as it has the familiar ‘official’ Menorca monument litterbin. Approaching the talaiots, I even spotted an info board!

Visited 3 June 2005
Two talaiots in pretty good condition stand in a poblat which is quite scattered and large, but close to them is largely a rolling sea of rubble with remnants of walls poking out. Between the talaiots I could see an oval enclosure with several fairly tall uprights – I took this to be the remnants of a taula-less taula sanctuary.

I’ve since discovered comments on the rather ‘quaint’ (frames!) but useful ‘The Archaeology of Minorca’ website, that this makes sense, and apparently another enclosure is taken to be a second taula(less) sanctuary.

I picked my wobbling way around the edge of the rubble sea to the south of the talaiots, by a (probably) more modern wall, spotting a series of cisterns as I went.

But then, peeping over the wall…the unmistakeable ‘T’ of a complete Taula!!!! How could this not be mentioned in the info we had? I resisted the temptation of elation and having seen several other taulas during the week, I adopted a cynical view – it didn’t seem to be in the ‘right’ place in relation to the other remains & the taula itself didn’t quite look right.

Getting a foothold in the wall where it passes closest to the ‘T’ of the ‘taula’, I peered over. The taula seemed suspiciously close to one ‘corner’ of the only very vaguely oval enclosure. The enclosure seemed unusually ‘open’, not particularly oval and rather ‘plain’ for a taula sanctuary. Not sure it’s the ‘real deal’.

As mentioned above, however, there is meant to be another taula sanctuary here, without a ‘T’. I suppose this could be it, but with a ‘modern’ T....

Also in its ‘favour’, the ‘T’ at Na Comerma is also very much in a ‘corner’ of its enclosure yet seems to be accepted as ‘real’. But the enclosure at Na Comerma is so full of rubble that it’s difficult to tell what’s going on. Overall though, Na Comerma still manages to feel more like other taula sanctuaries than this one does.

And the final thing that makes me think I may be wrong to doubt its authenticity is that according to a taula ‘reconstruction’ diagram I’ve seen, (at least some) taula sanctuaries may have had many smaller ‘T’s on pillars round the edges of the sanctuary. And there is possible evidence of that here.

Have a look & decide for yourself!

The talaiots
The talaiots both seemed relatively small compared with, say, Trepuco or Talati de Dalt.

And to be honest, after a week in Menorca, the one to the west was ‘just another quite nice talaiot’, once I’d established that it wasn’t the one that you can get inside. (It does have what look like a couple of small blocked entrances though.)

But the other is a mindblast! This was the eastern one – nearest the path I described arriving by. From the outside it’s the same, but once you find the actual entrance…(round the ‘side’, facing the ‘dodgy’ taula)…and look in – WOW!!! Suddenly vague thoughts of the vaulting of Orcadian tombs like the Fairy Knowe come stealing in…. (Though without the ultra-classy Orcadian flag stonework and it wasn’t built as a tomb!) It also reminded me a bit of a less claustrophobic Grain Souterrain.

Assuming that talaiots were indeed lookout towers, presumably the inside was used as a shelter for the lookouts or was where they lived. I’ve read that most or many talaiots had an entrance and/or ‘room’ either at the bottom or near the top, but I don’t think I’ve read anything that said anything about the use of the inside.

Well worth the walk!!!

If you have copy of The Megalithic European and turn to pages 320 and 321, you’ll see a double page spread on a site called Torre Llisa Vell. Don’t be misled! What Julian is actually describing in this spread is the nearby So Na Caçana. So get yourself a pen, and retitle the page now!

In fact, the ‘real’ Torre Llisa Vell isn’t included in TME. Which is a shame, as it’s an all-singing, all-dancing taula sanctuary with talaiot. It is just a couple of fields away from So Na Caçana.

To find it, continue up the road from So Na Caçana towards Alaoir for about 1km at the most, until you reach a minor crossroads. Turn left here and drive 300ms until you see a gate on the left to a farm called Torre Llisa Vell. Walk down this lane for 100ms and ask the friendly old man at the farmhouse on the right for permission and directions. He doesn’t speak English, but Moth got the gist.

By now you will have already sussed that the great tree-covered lump on your left is an overgrown talaoit and if you look carefully, you’ll see the crest of what looks like a naveta beneath it on the northern side. Walk about 10 ms past the farmhouse and then turn left. After only a few metres the track enters an open field, but to the left is another short track only a few metres long. At the end and you’ll see a gate and a break in the on the right. Go up towards the gate and through the break in the wall. Can’t you already smell it? Walk 25 metres through long grass and a few trees until to th left, you see a huge wall with an archway. You’ll find the taula through that archway.

The wall enclosing the taula sanctuary is very complete indeed – I have no idea if it has been restored or not, it certainly didn’t look like it to me. It conforms to the standard ground plan of a horseshoe-shaped area with a slightly concave front entrance wall. In the case of Torre Llisa Vell the entrance is a beautiful corbelled arch through the wall which is an amazing 4ms thick. True!

Given that the entire sanctuary measures only – what? – 12ms in total, these walls seem totally out of proportion. They are also maybe 3ms high, so whatever went on within the sanctuary was not for general viewing. I also noted that the entrance passageway through the wall wouldn’t have allowed the entry of a fully grown bull.

At least not a modern bull. P’raps they were smaller then, or they only sacrificed calves?

The T itself is a chunky beast and completely dominates the internal space. The stone forming the top of the T being thicker, heavier and wider in proportion with the vertical stone than at any other taula we saw.

From the top of the wall, you could see the poblat of So Na Caçana lying directly south, just about 400-500ms away.

This is a truly resplendent monument! We were both completely blown away and so sorry that Julian missed it.

Very close to our villa in Calan Porter was the poblat of So Na Caçana. Julian incorrectly calls it Torre Llisa Vell, which, to be fair is nearby. So go to pages 320 and 321 in your copy of TME, cross out the title and replace with So Na Caçana. Here, beneath the gargantuan talaiot lie not one but two taula sanctuaries.

Sadly both Ts are wrecked but there is still plenty to admire: the tall pillars surrounding the sacred spaces and the niches in the walls. I wondered what magical objects were once placed in these – skulls or horns, jars of oil or bull’s blood, perhaps?

Torre Blanca, also known as Sa Torreta de Tramuntana, is an unusual monument as it lies in the northern half of the island, above Mahon towards Es Grau. It lies on an outcrop of limestone at the point where the geology seems to change to something more slate-like.

We’d see it on a couple of basic maps and thought we’d have a crack at finding it, despite having absurdly inadequate directions, having the kids with us, it being midday and very hot, and haing to go a long way from our favourite beach….

Our initial attempt took us up to the Favortx lighthouse in the national park, too far north. Our second attempt was more successful. Follow the main road north for about 5.3 kms after the roundabout leaving the Mahon ringroad. Then turn right by a small white building with orange painted detail and then immediately fork right. This leads us down a long narrow lane which eventually turns sharp right. Here a gate finally barred us from going any further. Privado. We parked, knowing we were close. Moth went stomping off for a look around.

A car pulled up. A man opened the gate and drove through. As he closed it I asked ‘Torre Blanca?’ He replied in Spanish which I didn’t understand. He pointed and twiddled his fingers implying that we walk in the direction he was pointing. ‘Gracias.’ Not having a clue how far, we set off into the midday heat. Moth caught up having also asked the man for directions. After a pleasantly warm walk perhaps 1-1.5kms uphill we reached the farm, vaulted over the gate and asked a farm labourer who pointed behind the barn. Suddenly it was there. What a result!!!

From the top of the talaiot the views stretch over the tiny fields towards a bay and down the coast as far as Mahon, rocky land tumbling into the sea. Magic.

And the taula! Wooo! Great taula! Dinky and entirely self supporting, thanks to the vertical ridge at the back as at Torralba, it has that cheese-like colouring on the front I so admired at Trepuco. We liked it here muchos.

El Toro is Menorca’s sacred mountain and can be seen lurking or dominating the horizon from almost every point on the island of Menorca. It is the highest mountain on the island, measuring 358ms above sea level. Certainly we could see it from just about every talaiot tower we visited. It had to be visited. Everyone traveller to Menorca should see it, and probably does.

Bristling with ugly communications towers, it is now inhabited by nuns who run a convent up there with café and tat-shop because somebody once had a vision of the Holy Virgin up there. Frankly, I’m not surprised. Imagine climbing that after no breakfast and little water in the midday heat. Reckon I’d start seeing things, too! Thankfully visitors can now drive to the summit in air conditioned vehicles to enjoy the astonishing views of a beautiful and largely sparsely populated island.

My children tittered with glee as I read out the inscription beneath an 18th century statue of a local monk who was ‘interred beneath the altar in the church’. “In holy shit, perhaps?” Cleo mused. (Interred/in turd… geddit?)

The lane between Alaoir and Cala’n Porter where we were staying was a tortuous one we had to travel many, many times... There’re some great sites down here though. Torralba d’en Salort (see pages 316 to 318 of TME) lay at the top of this lane and having seen the top of the taula sticking up already I was itching to see the place.

All the regular poblat features here: caves, talaiot, cisterns, houses and also a wonderful quarry area.

The place was crawling with caterpillars though so I had to move with extreme caution. Cleo and Rupes liked this one as there were tons to explore and had informative signs to help them understand what they were seeing. As ever, the main attraction for me was the taula itself.

To aid stability, this taula has a ridge carved up the back and is thicker than Trepuco’s wafer thin cheese slice. I chose a caterpillar-free area to sit in and made a sketch.

Torrellonet (see page 322 of TME) is one of many talaiot towers on Menorca. They occupy positions of height or view and almost everywhere you look on Menorca, you can see one of these on the horizon.

Torrellonet is a really nice example of a talaiot as it is still tall with intact walls, is uncovered by vegetation, is easy to climb and has great views of the runway, so you can watch the aircraft coming and going. Fab. Ancient and modern engineering simultaneously.

From here we could see Talati de Dalt talaiot and others rising through the trees as well as the remains of a prehistoric house two field away.

There are two navetas at Rafal Rubi.

Both are in magnificent condition and have huge cool chambers with whopping great slabs in the ceiling.

Time to tackle some navetas. Structures less like boats, after which they are named, I cannot imagine. ‘Pyramids’ is what Rupert called them. I like that, because they are burial chambers, stand above ground level, slope inwards like pyramids and are made of large dressed blocks.

There are four close together just off the main road, all signposted and dead easy to find. (see page 307, 308 and 309 of TME).

Naveta de Biniac Argentina Occidental is a bit trashed, the roof has gone and its chamber is open. Still well worth a look.

Time to tackle some navetas. Structures less like boats, after which they are named, I cannot imagine. ‘Pyramids’ is what Rupert called them. I like that, because they are burial chambers, stand above ground level, slope inwards like pyramids and are made of large dressed blocks.

There are four close together just off the main road, all signposted and dead easy to find. (see page 307, 308 and 309 of TME).

Naveta de Biniac Argentina Oriental is reather trashed but has some really lovely steps built into the side of it which are well worth checking out.

Naveta d’es Tudons (see pages 304 and 305 of TME) is just off the main road at the western end of the island and judging by the huge car park with spaces for buses, frequently visited by coach parties.

Fortunately, we had it pretty much to ourselves. ‘Naveta’ means ‘boat’ and some archaeologist has interpreted the large burial chambers on the island as boat-shaped and given them this name. I can’t see it myself. They are more burial chamber-shaped to my mind. Anyway, Es Tudons has been restored according to this boat theory so you have to visit this one with a pinch of salt.

It is an impressive pyramidal type structure and beautifully cool inside its double-decker chamber. We liked it a lot, despite it being a bit overly restored.

Talati de Dalt is a gorgeous poblat quite close to the airport with loads of stuff to see – all the usual poblat features: caves, talaiot, cisterns, houses, etc. The houses here were really excellent with lots of rock cut details. This time, VERY Skara Brae. We climbed the talaiot and watched the planes come and go.

It was alive with birds here too; tons of finches, swifts, swallows and hoopoes. I found this site very, very peaceful, and sat and made a study of the taula which has its very own flying buttress.

After a busy day snorkelling at Binidali beach we took an early evening excursion out to see Trepuco (see pages 326 and 327 of TME) poblat on the southern outskirts of Mahón, Menorca’s capital where mayonnaise may have been invented in 1756 to commemorate a victory over the English who were holding a castle in Mahón – hence ‘mahonnaise’.... I digress.

The site at Trepuco is dominated by two gargantuan monuments – the mammoth talaiot tower and most sublime taula sanctuary. The talaiot was probably the biggest I saw on the island, about 8 metres tall and at least 12 metres in diameter, possibly more. I was a bit spooked when Moth started climbing it, but he took it slowly and was rewarded with great views. But the taula captivated me completely.

Glowing yellow in the evening sunlight and thin like rice paper, the great stone is carved on the front as if Canadian cheddar cut with a serrated knife. On top of this impossibly thin slab of something you’d put in yer butty, a bloody great grey horned block is somehow held aloft. I was in awe.

I should also mention the setting of this ancient cheesy wonder as it follows an approximate pattern of most taula sanctuaries.

The T stone usually stands roughly centrally in a horseshoe-shaped enclosed wall, built using giant stones. Many of these are tall pillars which appear to mark out chambers or spaces. The front, or approach end, always the only way in, is usually a very shallow concave forecourt with a clear entry point. Whatever happened in these ritual places, they were not public affairs. The space is intimate and the walls originally too tall to see over. These taula sanctuaries usually stand within just a few metres of a talaiot. And from the top of most talaiots you can see El Toro, Menorca’s centrally-placed sacred hill (now hijacked by Jesus, his mum and some nuns.)

All this is the case at Trepuco. We stayed here for some time so I could make some studies. It was sublime.

Not far from Naveta d’es Tudons is the poblat of Torre Trencada (see pages 323, 324 and 325 of TME) which was the first Menorcan prehistoric talaiotic settlement I had seen and my first taula. (We were to see many more!)

At Torre Trencada, as at most other bronze age poblats, you get your usual shopping list of:
- a talaiot (tower) or two which dominates the site, rather like a watchtower or uninhabitable broch
- some wrecked houses
- a wall surrounding the settlement
- a cave, usually enhanced megalithically in some way
- some kind of water storage feature, well or cistern
- a taula sanctuary, the ritual heart of the site
Torre Trencada is delightfully unrestored with shady olive trees growing up through the stones.

It was rough, unkempt and a haven for birds and butterflies. Rupert also saw a snake. We wished we’d had some food as someone had built a rather lovely megalithic picnic table in the shade of some olives.

As this was my first taula monument I was deeply impressed, although I would later discover the sanctuary it once stood in was pretty much gone entirely, leaving only the great T behind.

Torre Llafuda (see page 319 of TME) is a delightful poblat with all the usual features (talaiot, taula, caves, etc, but it’s in a helluva state. Badly wrecked with rubble all around the place, the taula sanctuary is hidden in a dip beneath some trees. It has two small but complete taulas still up, though one of them was supported by an ugly pillar of rubble.

You could get right close up to the neatest taula and admire the fantastic stone mortice and tenon joint used to keep the top of the T up.

As we stood on top of the wrecked talaiot we saw an Egyptian vulture, which was nice.

We could see Torre d’en Gaumes from the front porch of our villa, its three talaiot towers rising up on the horizon just about 2kms away. However, such is the state of Menorcan roads we had to drive miles to get to it. This is government operated site and has had money put in to it – areas roped off, nice concrete paths, wooden walkways, even toilets. This is a rare one for which you pay an entry fee. However, the young woman working in the ticket collection booth was very helpful and gave me a poster (featuring taulas, of course) which I admired on the wall for free. This woman, who had an unpronounceable name, would later help us find two amazing monuments within 500ms of Gaumes.

Gaumes is a very complex poblat monument which we didn’t have time enough to unravel. It comprises all the usual features and them some more. Although it didn’t have an intact taula to thrill me, it did have one or two other features which blew me away.

The first was to do with the taula. The capstone has at some point in antiquity been removed and inverted. The carved socket which the upright once slotted into now lies skywards like a watertrough or font.

The second was a fabulous system of water storage cisterns, great holes cut into the rock.

On such a dry island, fresh water must have been a premium commodity and the inhabitants at Gaumes collected and stored their water with particular flair. There were six or more tanks.

Thirdly, in one of the houses the roof structure was up. A roughly round space had a pillar in the middle from which long flat stones balanced and radiated out to the pillars in the walls like the spokes of a wheel.

Fourthly, a few intact ‘doorframes’. Moth said that for him, it somehow made the houses much more real.

Finally, the views, the views! Cor! From up here you can see perhaps half of the southern part of the island.

We wanted to try a beach over to the south west of the island, and see Son Catlar poblat (see pages 310 and 311 of TME) which was on the way.

Extensive and impressive though this complex is, it failed to light my fire in any way whatsoever. It was just too big and too ruined for me to make sense of.

Rupert summed it up in his diary. He wrote: ‘… a huge prehistoric village but it looked like a big pile of rocks, the only good thing was the wall, and even that was boring...’ Gah! Eleven-year-olds are notorious hard to please.

As the evening cooled off, we took the car down the long dusty track down to Calascoves, (see page 306 of TME) a bucolic rocky inlet of turquoise waters not far from where we were staying.

Carved into the rock faces in the cliffs, overlooking the crystal sea, are dozens and dozens of caves, probably hewn initially from existing fissures and naturally occurring caves and enhanced for tomb purposes. Some are up at quite a dizzying height. Made me wonder how the hell the masons got up there to do their work. The sea was alive with fish and crabs and things, boding well for future snorkelling.

At north west end of the island lies the wonderful Cala Morell caves complex (see pages 302 and 303 of TME).

Dozens of spacious rock cut chambers line a limestone ravine apparently used originally as tombs and maybe later as dwellings.

The craftsmanship involved in cutting the rock was extraordinary. Internal pillars, decorated doorways (similar to those I saw in Turkey and Cyprus) and raised platforms vied for our attention with drainage systems, water storage features and sockets for carpentry.

Brilliant!

Biniparraxtet (see page 301 of TME) is actually at the airport. It was moved from its original site to make way for a runway extension and has been lovingly restored.

Its cupboards, chambers, kennels and water storage features reminded Moth and me of Skara Brae. Although my son Rupert claims to find big old rocks ‘boring’, so many has he now seen that he was able to read this monument’s features without even having to look at the information board.

This is a really good site and well worth stopping off to see.

Ses Roques Lisses, which means ‘the smooth flat rocks’, is an open chamber formed by huge flat slabs of limestone, making roughly a double square 2ms x4ms. In common with the navetas and other Mediterranean sites, the entry stone has a doorway hole cut into it, just big enough for someone to squeeze through.

The slabs sit on their own platform of rubble kept in by a wall. It was once covered entirely with stones, like a cairn, I suppose.

We would NEVER have found this without expert help from the archaeology student/ticket collector at Torre d’en Gaumes who took us straight to it, clambering over stone walls and across a least two paddocks. She was thrilled to have met people like her with so much enthusiasm for the really old stuff – for Ses Roques Lisses predates the taulas and poblats by many, many centuries.

Lying almost lost and crumbling badly just 50ms away from Ses Roques Lisses is the remarkable Na Comerma taula sanctuary. It should NOT be confused with what Julian calls Sa Comerma de sa Garita on page 315 of TME. What Julian is referring to seems to us be part of the complex at Gaumes, whereas Na Comerma (or Sa Comerma) is a site away from Gaumes, independent in its own right.

It felt as if I’d been let in on local secret. I guess it is hardly ever visited. It would have been impossible to find without local knowledge and/or an extraordinarily detailed map. Though sizeable, so hidden by trees is it, that we didn’t see it until we were virtually upon it.

From a terrible higgledy-piggledy mess of masonry rises a tiny taula which by some miracle still has its topstone.

Its upstone is half buried in rubble. You could make out part of a wall which once enclosed the sanctuary, perhaps once as thick as the one at Torre Llisa Vell (see previous weblog.)

In addition, there were beautiful ruins of what I read to be houses, with flat dressed cross-beams still mounted on top of their supports.

Absolute magic.

And the day was made complete when we spotted a tortoise. We’d seen a few small ones playing ‘chicken’ on the roads, but this one was safe from becoming roadkill. They are a protected species now, their numbers having been cruelly depleted for the pet trade up until the late 20th century. Like this monument, they feel like ancient survivors.

Access Hard work! Steep climb, fairly rough & a little precarious in places. As the talaiot and the way to get to it is overgrown, I got lots of scratches – I was wearing shorts.... For full directions, see Sant Agusti Vell.

Visited 3 June 2005
The talaiot was a little ‘knocked about’ but I got some great views from its top, boosted by its hilltop location.

Views were especially good of some caves across a valley to the west(ish). I’ve so far been unable to find out anything specific about them, but to my eye they looked like a pretty typical Menorcan cave settlement and this area seems to be riuddled with them....

There is also what appears to be an entrance to a likely cave in the outcrop underneath the talaiot!

Roughly to the south/SSW I could see a couple of very clear talaiots on the horizon a km or 2 away. This was Sant Agusti Vell itself.

(There was yet another really trashed talaiot to the north too!)

Approximate long/lat coordinates only, as we were taken (in the end) to the site & Ses Roques Lisses by someone who knew where they were!

Access: A walk of a few hundred metres after parking in a ‘back entrance’ to Torre d’en Gaumes a few hundred metres south of the main entrance.

See Ses Roques Lisses. From there, we walked roughly south or SSW for another few hundred metres. Hidden on the far side of a fair-sized clump of tangly trees, you may be lucky enough to find the monument(s). Very sorry to not be able to be more helpful!

Visited 3 June 2005
Having asked for directions from the friendly ticket seller at Torre d’en Gaumes, I’d spent a good couple of hours looking for this site and Ses Roques Lisses during the afternoon, with no joy. Perhaps I was unlucky, but I don’t think either site is easy to find!

Fortunately, when I told her I hadn’t found them, the lovely ticket seller said she’d take me & Jane to them if we came back at closing time.

The site is a Taula sanctuary with a strange squat ‘T’ tucked in the corner. This may be another illustration of a taula ‘reconstruction’ diagram I’ve seen, showing that (at least some) taula sanctuaries may have had several smaller ‘T’s on pillars round the edges of the sanctuary.

It is also adjacent to a hypostyle-type arrangement of pillars and lintels.

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 155.

Access: Entry charge. Carpark & good paths all around the complex. In places, the paths are concreted, but on steeper parts feature shallow steps.

The southern section (furthest from the carpark) is so ‘busy’ that you can’t reach all the buildings on the paths. It’s also a walk of a few km to cover the whole site.

To reach the site, take the 721 towards Alaior. Just to the west of Alaior, head south towards Son Bou (Julian says it’s signposted from here). After around 3km, take a turn to the left and you can’t miss it!

Visited 1 June 2005
A showcase site & stunning complex!!! I’d advise visiting early or late, as I bet it’s pretty busy with tourists most days, but I think it closes around 6 or 7pm.