Archaeologists working at Torre d’en Galmés, the largest prehistoric settlement in Menorca, have found the remains of another individual buried inside one of the village’s houses — bringing the total discovered in the same building to seven.
The excavation
Since 2020, the Amics del Museu de Menorca association has been excavating the northern area of the site, under the scientific direction of Carlos de Salort and Marta Blanco. The team includes restorers who consolidate walls and floors, physical anthropologists who recover and study human remains, and around fifteen technicians, students and volunteers from Menorca and universities across Spain each season.
The find
The work focuses on “Structure 1”, one of the oldest houses in the village. Six people were recovered from the building between 2021 and 2023. The latest campaign revealed a seventh, buried in one of the rooms.
In another part of the same room, just below floor level, the team found a decorated Talaiotic pot that had clearly been placed there deliberately.
Why it’s unusual
In Talaiotic Menorca, the dead were normally buried in collective tombs such as caves and hypogea, away from homes. Finding seven individuals inside a house is therefore exceptional and raises questions about what happened in the final phase of the building’s use.
The pot buried under the floor suggests a symbolic act — perhaps an offering or a ritual linked to closing or abandoning the house — although its exact meaning remains open to interpretation.
What happens next
- The bones will be studied in detail to determine the age, sex, health, diet and any injuries or illnesses of the seven individuals, and radiocarbon dating may clarify whether they died at the same time.
- The building will be consolidated, with the walls, pillars and floors restored so that the house can be protected and better understood by visitors.
A World Heritage site
Torre d’en Galmés, in the municipality of Alaior, is one of the key sites of Talaiotic Menorca, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2023. With its talaiots, taula enclosure and houses, it offers a rare picture of life on the island around 3,000 years ago — and, as this find shows, it still holds many secrets.
