Sa Naveta des Tudons, it is certainly one of the most famous and most visited of Menorca, since this type of monument can only be found on this island.
Its exceptional state of preservation, construction wrapped in a magical aurea, which gives it unmatched beauty, making it much more famous than the very taulas, which are well spectacular, but Sa Naveta des Tudons is considered the jewel of the European prehistoric Bronze age.
The construction date has not been spared the controversy but it looks to be back at the end of the pre-Talayotic (half of the Bronze Age) or early era Talayotic (late bronze age) between 1400 and 800 BC Data are available calibrated radiocarbon 976, 965, 957, 935, 914, 911, 893, 882, 848, 827 i 822 BC of human remains taken from the inside, although the type of construction shows signs it was built between 1400 and 1000 BC In any case we can state that was used as a burial place between 900 and 800 BC centuries before the emergence of culture Talayotic.
Sa Naveta des Tudons is the best preserved and most monumental evolved navetas burial. It was the culmination of a process that began in the caves.
It is built with cyclopean technique, this technique differs from the technique megalithic dolmens proper that, in these, the interior is made of large flat slabs placed vertically (megaliths), the cyclopean technique inside is made of stones intermediate size, embedded in dry, without the aid of mortar.
Today it is believed that could be an evolution of dolmens or megalithic tombs, because they have some features in common with them. However, their construction techniques and incorporates important advances, the blocks are very well crafted and are much more regular than those used in other constructions as talayots later.
The features that the first shuttle was inherited from the dolmens perforated slab to provide access to the burial chamber. It consists of a slab cut access from the entrance corridor, but you have had a hole, usually rectangular, large enough to allow entry of people. In some dolmens, and in the oldest navetas, a recess can be seen practicing on the sides of the hole, designed to fit flat slab that serves another end. This perforated slab representing the separation between the world of the living and the dead and possibly only accessible by certain people inside, “started” the funeral rites.
Another feature of the oldest navetas plant was oval or almost circular, so that even more like the dolmens, which were surrounded by a stone circle or ellipse (the peristálito). Navetas later, the des Tudons among them seem to have evolved into the shape of a ship, known by everyone.
Similarly, the inner chamber began as oval apse evolved form, or very elongated horseshoe. Although there navetas old style (called intermediate type for his mediation between the dolmen and the shuttle “pure”) which are kept in a state good enough to know if they had a second floor, most likely not the case and that the upstairs was another feature added in the later navetas.
Sa Naveta des Tudons, clearly shaped apse, U-shaped, elongated with flat front where we found the gateway of small dimensions facing west. The building has two floors, and has lost the perforated slab, which has been replaced by a normal input, built with various components: the upper side jambs and lintel, by way of TNT.
The part of the apse was badly damaged and it was restored during the second excavation taken during the 1950 and 1960 by Maria Luisa Serra. The slabs that separate the upper floor of the lower chamber had collapsed which meant that all the material is mixed in the lower chamber. But the discovery that double-decker shuttle had led the archaeologist to do some tasting at the top of the shuttle Southern Rafal Rubí, which revealed that the top floor could be common in navetas evolved.
The excavations uncovered remains in apparent disorder of some 100 people, which confirmed that it was a mass grave of the Bronze Age. The arrangement of these bones grouped by type in question, this indicates a complex burial ritual. Among the remains recovered are bronze objects (like a bracelet around an arm bone), some weapons, pots, ceramic vases, etc. Talayotic typical of the time. But it also found a bone triangle button, which may be evidence of the existence of the shuttle in earlier times to talaiotic.
But everything suggests that Sa Naveta des Tudons, was a secondary burial, ie, an ossuary. Perhaps individuals were buried somewhere near where once the body had decomposed, the bones would be placed in the shuttle. It has found a cave with two niches, a hypogeous and three “capades de moro”, in the vicinity, which could be associated with this process.
Although it seems navetas were built before the arrival of the culture remained Talayotic probably used in full talaiotic. Thus, archaeological excavations have been made, few remains were found at stages Pretalayotic, and much remains, grave goods, and burial of Talayotic full time.
When we entered Naveta des Tudons Sa, we get first a lobby that gives us access to the lower chamber, where we found a stone prepared as a bank or altar, cracks and holes let in a dim light on the sides, over our heads, large slabs make up the floor upstairs.
Currently, the shuttle has closed the entrance to prevent spoilage, and has allowed up to the roof for safety reasons.
Other navetas burial in good condition are the two Biniac, both of Rafal Rubí, in the municipality of Alaior.
