ABSTRACT
As research stands at present, the earliest human settlement of the Balearics forms a topic with many unresolved issues. Nonetheless, important contributions have been made in recent years, enabling us to focus more closely on the settlement process of the first prehistoric groups in a virgin archipelago, and to improve our understanding of the cultural identity of these early colonisers. All the indicators suggest that Mallorca and Menorca were still unoccupied in the fourth millennium Cal , while the earliest clear evidence for human presence dates – somewhat imprecisely – to the second half of the third millennium Cal . ˆus there is a period of uncertainty related to the earliest human arrival in the archipelago, which covers nearly all the third millennium Cal . Currently, the earliest reliable chronological and archaeological evidence for human presence in Mallorca (and thus the Balearic archipelago) may be dated to approximately 2300-2000 Cal (Ramis et al. 2002). ˆe material culture of the late third/early second millennia Cal in the Balearics
is considered the product of successive introductions during that time period. ˆis study offers an alternative explanation, and suggests that most of the cultural elements of the Balearics’ earliest prehistory were introduced roughly simultaneously in the first stage of human occupation of the archipelago. Later, the local evolution of these materials represents the development of an already indigenous culture. A very general view of the early prehistory of the Balearic Islands is provided through the analysis of the most significant elements of its materiality. ˆe Balearic Islands form a heterogeneous landscape composed of two clearly
defined archipelagoes, the Gymnesian (Mallorca and Menorca) and Pityusan Islands (Ibiza and Formentera). ˆis study mainly addresses Mallorcan and Menorcan
material evidence and, in particular, early architectonic manifestations. Cyclopean architecture (sensu Rosselló-Bordoy 1965) is a characteristic feature of late prehistory in the western Mediterranean islands. Different manifestations can be found in Corsica, Sardinia, Malta and the Balearics during the Bronze and Iron Ages, all with an apparently local origin. A trend among insular cultures towards a distinctive elaboration of certain traits – material and mental – has been suggested by several authors (e.g. Evans 1977; Coll 1997; Robb 2001; Knapp 2009), but the precise social and cultural developments that lay behind different cyclopean structures in the western Mediterranean remain unclear. In the Balearics, the first manifestation of cyclopean architecture is the habita-
tional structure known as the naveta (different from the burial naveta, which exists only in Menorca and is a later development). ˆe naveta (Figure 4.1) consists of a naviform construction with a horseshoe-shaped plan (e.g. Rosselló-Bordoy 1964-5; Plantalamor 1991; Pons 1999; Salvà 2001). ˆe walls, double-faced and constructed of large dry blocks and inner filling, are about 2 m wide. ˆe complete length of the more monumental examples reaches about 20 m. ˆe inner breadth of the chamber is typically about 3 m. Although the megalithic burial tradition in the archipelago dates back to the late third millennium Cal , the origin of cyclopean domestic architecture is currently placed around the mid-second millennium Cal (Lull et al. 1999; Calvo and Guerrero 2002; Waldren 2002; Micó 2005; 2006). Nevertheless, the recent excavation of one these structures – S’Arenalet de Son Colom – has produced
a culturally homogenous assemblage of the late third millennium Cal (Ramis et al. 2007). Given the singularity of this site in the context of the Balearic record, a general description of the excavation is included below.
