The first crómlech found in Castilla y León

The Crómlech de Cantos Blancos is an archaeological site in Bernardos, Segovia, Castilla y León. Its discovery occurred during an archaeological survey in the autumn of 2020. This is the first crómlech found in the community of Castilla y León and constitutes, along with other findings in the municipality, a conjunto megalítico de primer orden. Cantos Blancos consists of a planned arrangement of quartz menhirs forming alignments and enclosures with shapes such as quadrangular, rectangular, circular, and oval. It was built by neolithic societies around the fifth millennium.

It is located on the shoulder of the Eresma Valley and at the confluence with the Arroyo de Santa Inés, in Bernardos. When it was erected, it was part of a conjunto megalítico de primer orden. At the foot of some menhirs, a set of identical archaeological materials to those found at the nearby dolmen of Santa Inés have been recovered: handmade ceramic fragments, as well as other objects carved in pizarra. The placement of Cantos Blancos at the shoulder of the Eresma Valley - the autopista de la prehistoria - and at the confluence with another water source - the arroyo of Santa Inés - does not seem accidental.

Some menhirs at Cantos Blancos are oriented towards Peñalara, the pico más señero of the Sierra de Guadarrama. Cantos Blancos results from a series of different construction phases carried out over time by the neolithic communities that lived in the area. During the period following the Neolithic, there are indications that some monuments of this type, such as the crómlech of Los Almendros in Évora, were deliberately destroyed by knocking over the menhirs.

The interpretation is that with new technological and social changes, there were ideological clashes with the original meaning of the crómlech. In the case of Cantos Blancos, it is observed that the majority of the menhirs have fallen onto one of their sides.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons