The pre-Talaiotic naveta of Es Tudons

The Naveta d'Es Tudons, or Naveta of Es Tudons, is the largest and best-preserved funerary naveta in Menorca, one of the main tourist attractions of the Balearic Islands. Located on the road from Ciutadella de Menorca to Mahón, the structure served as a collective ossuary between 1200 and 750 BC. Its unique design is inspired by the resemblance to upturned boats, a naming convention first recorded in the early 19th century.

The tomb has two chambers - the lower one was for stashing the disarticulated bones of the dead after the flesh had been removed, while the upper chamber was probably used for the drying of recently placed corpses. While some radiocarbon dating of bones in Menorcan navetas indicate a usage period between 1130 and 820 BC, these pre-Talaiotic constructions are dated using an uncalibrated radiocarbon chronology from 1640 to 1400 BC. In 1959-1960, archaeologist Lluís Pericot García excavated and restored the site, which was registered in the Spanish heritage register in 1931.

Today, you can see some of the recovered objects - bronze bracelets, bone and ceramic buttons - on display at the Museu de Menorca in Mahón. The Naveta d'Es Tudons has a boat-like shape, with the stern as its trapezoidal façade and the bow as its rounded apse. The ground plan is an elongated semicircle, and the tomb originally stood 6 m high. The entrance is a narrow, low doorway at the southwest, leading to an antechamber and the main chambers.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons