Sepulcre de Son Olivaret: Archaeological finds in Menorca

The Sepulcre de Son Olivaret, a Bé d'Interès Cultural, is part of the Bateria militar de Son Olivaret, located southwest of Ciutadella, Menorca. It is a collective funerary construction, corresponding to the typology of protonavettes or sepulchres with a triple paramet, and preserves the entire base of the monument. Archaeological excavations located an interesting funerary assemblage composed of human remains, ceramics, and objects made of bone, metal, and stone.

Numerous fragments of prehistoric Menorca ceramics were also found outside the sepulcre. Inside, nearly a hundred individuals were recovered, deposited during a long period. While some carbons were dated to 2000 BC, the oldest human remains correspond to the period starting in 1600 BC. The site was in use during the rest of the Bronze age until 800-600 BC, and was even reused during the final Talaiotic or post-Talaiotic period between 350 and 150 BC.

Dental studies identified a minimum of 91 individuals, including 64 from the Talaiotic period and 27 from the pre-Talaiotic period. Among the Talaiotics, there were 58 over seven years old and 6 younger than this age. For the pre-Talaiotic individuals, 24 were over seven years old and 3 were younger. The study also detected two pathologies: caries, with a low percentage of 3.5%, and hypoplasia, which indicates the population did not normally suffer from development problems.

The monument was excavated between the summers of 2003 and 2005 by a team from the Museu de Menorca, led by Lluís Plantalamor Massanet along with Sílvia Villalonga and Josep Marquès.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons