Bronze Age megalithic necropolis at Cape Trafalgar in Spain dated to the early 2nd millennium BC
Excavations of two collective tombs at Trafalgar, Cádiz, dated them to the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC, possibly among the latest megaliths in Iberia.
Archaeologists led by Eduardo Vijande-Vila of the University of Cádiz have described a Bronze Age megalithic necropolis at the Trafalgar tombolo in Barbate, Cádiz, on Spain's southern coast. The site was excavated in 2021–2022, and the study covers two megalithic tombs with the remains of multiple individuals, as reported in PLoS ONE plos.org
PLoS ONEplos.orgOpen source ↗. Bayesian statistical models confirm that the necropolis was used during the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC; radiocarbon dating covered 16 individuals.
Dating: new build or reuse
In the 2nd millennium BC, megalithic tombs from earlier periods were typically reused, and elsewhere in Iberia Bronze Age communities sometimes buried their dead in Copper Age monuments. Establishing when a tomb was used does not show when it was built. At Trafalgar the authors found no archaeological evidence of earlier occupation in the surrounding area.
On this basis they propose that the necropolis may have been built ex novo in the early 2nd millennium BC, which would make it one of the latest megalithic necropolises of the Iberian Peninsula. This remains a hypothesis: additional dating methods are needed to determine when the monuments were originally constructed.
Grave goods and the sea
The tombs contained high-value grave goods: gold, silver and ivory objects, including gold and copper earrings, silver beads and an ivory comb plos.org
PLoS ONEplos.orgOpen source ↗. Together with the location at Cape Trafalgar, a prominent geographical landmark, the authors suggest that the sea was important to these communities both economically, as trade routes, and ideologically, as a funerary landscape.
The team used a 3D scanner and photogrammetry for the architectural analysis of the tombs and to create digital models for knowledge transfer, since the site is challenging in terms of public value and recognition. According to the researchers, further tombs may remain undiscovered, but strong coastal winds and shifting sands could bury the site under dunes again.
