CÁDIZ, SPAIN—La Brújula Verde reports that radiocarbon dates for human bones found in two monumental stone tombs on Cape Trafalgar indicates they were used for about 200 years between 1875 and 1625 B.C.—centuries after individual graves became more common in the southern Iberian Peninsula. Eduardo Vijande-Vila of the University of Cádiz and his colleagues found that Tomb I consists of an oval chamber cut into the rock that is connected to a passage lined with rock slabs and roofed with capstones. The chamber was sealed with a stone wall, the entrance was sealed with a stone slab, and the whole structure was covered with a mound of stones and sand. Tomb II features a circular chamber roofed with courses of stones. When the original dome collapsed, a central pillar was installed and half of the chamber was filled to stabilize it. Analysis of the bones interred within suggests that Tomb I held the remains of at least 13 people, while Tomb II held the remains of at least seven individuals. The bones were rearranged after the bodies had decomposed, except for the articulated skeleton of one young woman in Tomb I. Radiocarbon dating of her bones indicates that her burial was the last to occur before the chamber was sealed. In all, two gold earrings, three silver beads, a piece of green mica, an ivory comb, and two perforated shells were recovered from Tomb I. Tomb II yielded one earring, one copper arrowhead, and one green mica bead. Additional testing, including luminescence dating of when the sand and stones were last exposed to light, may reveal whether the tombs were reused or if the builders were among the last to build megalithic tombs in southern Iberia. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS One. To read about megalithic tombs in southern Iberia, go to “Iberian Gender Imbalance.”
