TWh – On August 31, 2022, LiveScience.com reported that archaeologists have found a large megalithic ceremonial complex, La Torre-La Janera. Located in southwestern Spain, it dates to the Neolithic. Initial reports indicate it may be one of the largest megalithic sites in Europe.
Megaliths in Europe have many different forms. Some megaliths form stone circles. Others formed linear rows and still others are tombs. Most European megalithic complexes contain only one stone structure. Distinctively, La Torre-La Janera has many different types of stone structures.
Standing stone at La Torre-La Janera – Image credit: José Antonio Linares-Catela, Coronada Mora Molina, Adara López López,Teodosio Donaire Romero, Juan Carlos Vera-Rodríguez y Primitiva Bueno Ramírez – (2022). CC BY 4.0
Archaeologists have known about standing stones on this site since 2018. The farmer who owns the land wanted to develop the site as an avocado farm. Before the farmer could do so, a land survey had to occur to determine its possible historical significance. ArtNews.com reported that the land survey had identified the ceremonial complex. Some of its stones still lie buried beneath the earth. Further studies in 2020 and 2021 revealed the size and structural variety of the site.
The site
La Torre-La Janera is located about close to Huelva, Spain near the Portuguese border on a hill. The hill lies close to where the Guadiana River flows into the Atlantic and has a commanding view of the area.
La Torre-La Janera covers 1,500 acres (607 hectares). Its builders placed it on the sides and top of a small hill. Archaeologists have found 526 standing stones at the site. The different types of stones ranged in height from three to ten feet (0.91 to 3 meters). Its larger stones stand alone, and the smaller stones form enclosures, mounds, rows of stones, stone circles, and tombs.
In Europe, these standing stones are called menhirs and stone circles, cromlechs. Archaeologists call standing stones with a large slab “roof” a “dolmen.” They think ancient people used these dolmens as tombs. Coffin-shaped stone structures are referred to as “cists.” Archaeologists believe those cists to be for the storage of human remains.
La Torre-La Janera, however, has yet to yield human remains. Archaeologist, José Antonio Linares-Catela, said that they have not yet excavated all tombs. He suggested that the acidic soil might have dissolved the skeletal remains.
The variety of megalithic structures
Some stones had a territorial function, others a ritual function. Aligned stones probably had an astronomical function. A few stones form tombs.
Linares-Catela, told LiveScience, “This pattern is not common in the Iberian Peninsula and is truly unique.”
Few other Iberian sites have the diversity of megalithic structures found at La Torre-La Janera. Linares-Catela is part of the team of archaeologists studying the site. He said the stone structures had varied functions. Linares-Catela described La Torre-La Janera as a “megalithic sanctuary of tribute, worship, and memory to the ancestors of long ago.”
Astronomical Alignments
Many of the European megaliths are aligned with the sunrise on the winter solstice. At La Torre-La Janera, the linear rows and the cromlechs are aligned with the sun. The dolmens generally are aligned with both the solstices and equinoxes.
The people who built La Torre-La Janera placed many of its menhirs in 26 alignments. Those menhirs and two cromlechs sit on hilltops, a position that would allow for clear views of the sunrises on the equinoxes and solstices.
The Guardian spoke with professor and co-director of the project, Primitiva Bueno. She discussed the variety of megalithic structures at the site.
Primitiva Bueno said, “Finding alignments and dolmens on one site is not very common. Here you find everything all together – alignments, cromlechs, and dolmens – and that is very striking.”
No one knows a reliable way to assign a precise date for the construction of megaliths. Tree-ring dating has no relevance for stone structures. Sometimes pottery shards found at the site can be linked to a known specific culture and time period, and radiocarbon dating requires organic material.
Generally, tombs provide the most credible source for organic material in megalithic complexes. Not all tombs will still have skeletal material, as some remains may have dissolved.
If skeletal material is found in any of the tombs, archaeologists can radio-carbon date those remains. From those remains, then an estimate of a rough time period for the death of the inhabitant of the tomb can be determined. Currently, no human remains have been found at La Torre-La Janera, so precise dating of this site beyond the Neolithic remains impossible at this point.
Northwest France as the possible origin of European Megaliths
The Smithsonian Magazine estimated the total number of stones in all European megalithic sites to be around 35,000. They range in location from the Baltic Coast of Sweden to the Mediterranean, and date from the Neolithic to the Copper Ages.
Carnac in Brittany, France has the largest megalithic complex in Europe. It has 10,000 menhirs “aligned in rows.” Stonehenge in southwest England has the most fame.
Stones at Carnac in Brittany France that date from 3300 BCE to possibly as old as 4500 BCE – Image credit: Karsten Wentink – CC BY-SA 4.0
Archaeologist Bettina Schulz Paulsson re-examined radio-carbon dates from European megaliths. Out of all European megaliths, only 2,410 had any material for radiocarbon dating. Human remains found in chambers formed the basis of that radiocarbon dating.
Her analysis concluded that people in northwestern France first began to build these megaliths after 4500 B.C.E. Maritime routes spread that style across Europe. While the style spread, different regional styles also developed.
Paulsson provided the following chronology. Sometime around 4500 B.C.E., people began to build megaliths in northwestern France. From 4500 to 4001 B.C.E, megalithic buildings spread to coastal areas of modern France, Portugal, Spain, and the Mediterranean. From 4000 to 3500 B.C.E., people built passage graves on the Atlantic Coasts of modern Britain, France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. From 3499 to 3000 B.C.E, megalithic structures began to appear in coastal Germany and Scandinavia.
The monument complexes have markings on some of the stones. Differences in those markings could indicate if different cultures built the European megaliths. If those markings had stylistic similarities, it could suggest a common Neolithic coastal culture.
Paulsson theorized that maritime travel spread the building of megaliths. Interestingly, those markings depict boats in only one location. That place is the proposed origin point, northern France.
Note: The presence of similar megalithic complexes along Europe’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts suggests sustained contact and exchange between peoples. This cultural exchange would require boats capable of sailing the Atlantic during the Neolithic. If the contact were via land, the megalith complexes would occur more often inland. Coastal-hugging maritime travel would probably have been more common than ocean-going sailing. However, sailing to Britain and Ireland would have involved more than coastal travel. If Paulsson’s conclusions are sustained, it paints a different picture of the Neolithic in Europe.
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