Archaeologists studying a megalithic necropolis on the southern coast of Spain have found evidence that large collective tombs continued to be used – and may even have been constructed – well into the Bronze Age.
The discovery was made at the Trafalgar necropolis near the Strait of Gibraltar in Cádiz, where two monumental tombs contain the remains of multiple individuals.
According to a study published in PLOS One, radiocarbon dating indicates that both tombs were being used between approximately 1875 and 1625 BC.
The findings place Trafalgar among the latest known examples of megalithic collective burial traditions in the Iberian Peninsula.
A surviving megalithic tradition
During the Bronze Age, funerary customs across much of Iberia underwent significant changes.
Large communal tombs characteristic of earlier periods were increasingly replaced by smaller burial structures intended for individuals or more restricted groups.
The Trafalgar necropolis shows that this transition was not uniform across the peninsula.
Researchers from the University of Cádiz and collaborating institutions obtained radiocarbon dates from 16 individuals buried within the two known tombs.
The results show that both monuments remained active during the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, considerably later than the main period associated with Iberian megalithic burial traditions.
Were the tombs built during the Bronze Age?
One of the main questions concerns when the Trafalgar monuments were originally constructed.
Megalithic tombs built during earlier periods were sometimes reopened and reused centuries later, meaning Bronze Age burials inside a monument do not necessarily date its construction.
At Trafalgar, however, archaeologists have so far found no evidence for earlier occupation or burials associated with the tombs.
This has led the researchers to propose that the necropolis may have been established only shortly before the dated burials, during the early 2nd millennium BC.
If confirmed, the site would represent something more unusual than the late reuse of an ancient monument.
Instead, communities in southern Iberia may still have been constructing new monumental collective burial spaces at a time when such traditions had largely disappeared elsewhere.
Further dating will be needed to establish when the monuments themselves were built.
A necropolis overlooking the sea
The location of the cemetery may also have played an important role in its creation.
Researchers describe Trafalgar as a new funerary space established within a landscape strongly defined by the sea.
The two known tombs contained multiple individuals rather than individual burials, maintaining a collective funerary practice with much deeper roots in Iberian prehistory.
According to the researchers, the absence of earlier archaeological material around the necropolis supports the possibility that the burial landscape was created during the Bronze Age rather than inherited from a much earlier community.
More tombs may remain beneath the dunes
More monuments could be waiting to be found around Trafalgar (and perhaps tell us how long megalithic burial traditions survived in southern Iberia).
Researching the site is very difficult.
Strong winds and shifting sands in the coastal zone constantly change the landscape so that exposed archaeological remains could once again be buried under the dunes.
Conservation work and further excavation will therefore be needed to find out exactly how extensive the necropolis is.
If future research proves that the Trafalgar tombs were built in early 2nd millennium BC it would show that monumental collective tomb building survived in southern Iberia much later than previously thought.
Instead of simply recycling monuments left behind by Copper Age communities some Bronze Age populations were still making new megalithic burial landscapes of their own.
Sources : PLOS
