No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Wooden beams from Talayot 1 of Sant Agustí Vell (Menorca): Taxonomical identification and radiocarbon dating
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2026
Abstract
A truncated conical-shaped building constructed using the cyclopean technique, called Talayot 1 or East Talayot, is conserved in the Talayotic settlement of Sant Agustí Vell. The monument has an internal chamber with two polylithic columns and a pilaster that helps holding up a roof made of large stone slabs, below which three well-conserved wooden beams can be seen, as well as the remains of two other beams, only one end of each is conserved. The study of a sample of each of these beams extracted from the outer rings of the trunks enable us to determine that all the beams come from the Olea europea L. (olive tree) species. The radiocarbon dating of the samples suggest that the trees from which the trunks come were felled between 1259–1123 cal BC. It was the first time that construction elements of a Menorcan talayot could be dated.
Information
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of University of Arizona
References
Anglada, M, Ferrer, A, Plantalamor, L, Ramis, D, Van Strydonck, M and De Mulder, G (2014) Chronological framework for the early Talayotic Period in Menorca: The settlement of Cornia Nou. Radiocarbon 56(2), 411–424.Google Scholar
Boudin, M, Van Strydonck, M, Van den Brande, T, Synal, HA and Wacker, L (2015) RICH – A new AMS facility at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels, Belgium. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 361, 120–123.Google Scholar
Boudin, M, Bonafini, M, Van den Brande, T and Van Strydonck, M (2019) AGE: A new graphitisation apparatus for the 14C-dating laboratory. Bulletin Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage 2016–2018(35), 197–201.Google Scholar
Fernández-Miranda, M (2009) El Poblado de Torralba d’en Salort (Alaior, Menorca). Mahon: Fundació Illes Balears.Google Scholar
Gelabert, M, Hernández-Gasch, J and Puig, A (2018) Updating knowledge: Architecture, use and chronology of the Late Bronze Age stepped monuments in Mallorca. Trabajos de Prehistoria 75(1), 128–145.Google Scholar
Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C and Risch, R (1999) Ideología y Sociedad en la Prehistoria de Menorca. La Cova des Càrritx, La Cova des Mussol. Barcelona: Consell Insular de Menorca.Google Scholar
Mestres, JS and De Nicolás, JC (1999) Contribución de la datación por radiocarbono al establecimiento de la cronología absoluta de la prehistoria menorquina. Caesaraugusta 73, 327–342.Google Scholar
Micó, R (2005) Cronología Absoluta y Periodización de la Prehistoria de las Islas Baleares. British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 1373. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Micó, R (2006) Radiocarbon dating and Balearic prehistory: Reviewing the periodization of the prehistoric sequence. Radiocarbon 48(3), 421–434.Google Scholar
Pérez-Jordà, G, Peña-Chocarro, L, Picornell-Gelabert, L and Carrión Marco, Y (2017) Agriculture between the third and first millennium BC in the Balearic Islands: The archaeobotanical data. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. doi: 10.1007/s00334-017-0618-y.Google Scholar
Picornell-Gelabert, Ll (2012) Paisaje vegetal y comunidades prehistóricas y protohistóricas en Mallorca y Menorca (Illes Balears): Una aproximación desde la antracología. PhD, Universitat de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Picornell-Gelabert, Ll and Carrión Marco, Y (2017) Landscape and firewood procurement at the prehistoric and protohistoric site of Ses Païsses (island of Mallorca, Western Mediterranean). Quaternary International 458, 56–74. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2017.03.018.Google Scholar
Picornell-Gelabert, Ll and Servera-Vives, G (2017) Landscape practices and everyday life in domestic spaces in Bronze Age Mallorca (Balearic Islands): Perspectives for and archaeology of fuel and firewood. Quaternary International 431, 73–89. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.12.058.Google Scholar
Picornell-Gelabert, L and Dufraisse, A (2021) Wood for building: Woodland exploitation for timber procurement in the prehistoric and protohistoric Balearic Islands (Mallorca and Menorca; Western Mediterranean). Environmental Archaeology 26(2), 251–266. doi: 10.1080/14614103.2018.1521086.Google Scholar
Piqué, R (1999a) Análisis de las maderas y carbones del yacimiento de la Cova des Mussol. In Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C and Risch, R (eds), Ideología y Sociedad en la Prehistoria de Menorca: La Cova des Càrrtix y la Cova des Mussol. Maó: Consell Insular de Menorca/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 427–437.Google Scholar
Piqué, R (1999b) La gestión de los recursos leñosos en la Cova des Càrritx. In Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C and Risch, R (eds), Ideología y Sociedad en la Prehistoria de Menorca: La Cova des Càrrtix y la Cova des Mussol. Maó: Consell Insular de Menorca/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 489–520.Google Scholar
Plantalamor, L (1991) L’arquitectura Prehistòrica i Protohistòrica de Menorca i el Seu Marc Cultural. Conselleria d’Educació i Cultura del Govern Balear, Maó.Google Scholar
Plantalamor, L (1996) Análisis evolutivo del Conjunto de Sant Agustí Vell (Es Migjorn-Menorca). Complutum Extra 6(1), 179–189.Google Scholar
Ramis, D and Salas, M (2014) Chronology of the S’Hospitalet Vell naveta village: An example of Bronze Age settlement in the Balearic Islands. Radiocarbon 56, 375–385.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Austin, WEN, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Butzin, M, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Muscheler, R, Palmer, JG, Pearson, C, van der Plicht, J, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Turney, CSM, Wacker, L, Adolphi, F, Büntgen, U, Capano, M, Fahrni, SM, Fogtmann-Schulz, A, Friedrich, R, Köhler, P, Kudsk, S, Miyake, F, Olsen, J, Reinig, F, Sakamoto, M, Sookdeo, A and Talamo, S (2020) The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon age calibration curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon 62(4), 725–757.Google Scholar
Schweingruber, F (1990) Anatomie Europäischer Hölzer ein Atlas zur Bestimmung Europäischer Baum-, Strauch- und Zwergstrauchhölzer Anatomy of European Woods an Atlas for the Identification of European Trees Shrubs and Dwarf Shrubs. Stuttgart: Verlag Paul Haupt.Google Scholar
Solé, A, Picornell, L, Allué, E et al. (2016) How did the dead turn up to the burial? A technological and experimental approach to the late Bronze Age wooden biers from Cova des Pas (Minorca, Balearic Islands). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 8, 849–865. doi: 10.1007/s12520-015-0258-z.Google Scholar
Terral, JF and Arnold-Simard, G (1996) Beginnings of olive cultivation in Eastern Spain in relation to Holocene bioclimatic changes. Quaternary Research 46, 176–185.Google Scholar
Van Strydonck, M, De Mulder, G and Borms, H (2015) Radiocarbon dating of dry stone walls: The case of Talayot B of Torralba d’en Salord (Menorca, Spain). In Andreu, C, Ferrando, C and Pons, O (eds), L’entreteixt del Temps. Miscellània d’estudis en Homatge a Lluís Plantalamor Massanet. Palma: Govern de les Illes Balears, 445–453.Google Scholar
Vernet, JL, Ogerau, P, Figueiral, I, Machado, C and Uzquiano, P (2001) Guide d’identification des Charbons de Bois Préhistoriques et Récents. Sud-Ouest de l’Europe. France, Péninsule Ibérique et Îles Canaries. Paris: Editions du CNRS.Google Scholar
Wojcieszak, M, Van den Brande, T, Ligovich, G and Boudin, M (2020) Pretreatment protocols performed at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH) prior to AMS 14C measurements. Radiocarbon 62(5), e14–e24. doi: 10.1017/rdc.2020.64.Google Scholar