Albia trikuharria
Also known asAlbi
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Theklan · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Albia dolmen (Albia trikuharria, also recorded as Albi) is a megalithic site in the municipality of Baraibar, in the Foral Community of Navarre, Spain. The Atlas gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 3000 BCE and records it as an archaeological site in Navarre.
It is one of the elements of the megalithic zone of the Aralar massif. The site has been associated with the Neolithic, the Copper Age and the Bronze Age.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Albia trikuharria
The dolmen stands in the middle of a narrow hill, in a small grassy clearing, at 987 m above sea level.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen d'AlbiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen d'AlbiaCC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen stands in the middle of a narrow hill, in a small grassy clearing, at 987 m above sea level. Its tumulus of medium-sized stones measures 18 m in diameter and rises 0,80 m on the south side, 1,10 m on the north, 1,20 m on the east and 1,30 m on the west. At the centre is the burial chamber, formed of three orthostates still in place and its capstone, measuring 2,30 × 2,20 m and 0,35 m thick, which has been slightly displaced and rests on the north slab.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen d'AlbiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen d'AlbiaCC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen was discovered and excavated in 1915 by Telésforo Aranzadi Unamuno and Florencio Ansoleaga Elizondo, who published their exploration of the dolmens of Aralar in that year.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen d'AlbiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen d'AlbiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Spain has a great many megalithic tombs. The finest are at Antequera in Andalusia, where the Dolmen of Menga is dated to about 3750 to 3650 BCE. Megalithic tombs of this kind were built over a long span, and the periods with which the Albia site has been associated run from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Dolmens of Andalusia, Extremadura and Galicia
Spain has a great many megalithic tombs, and the Atlas's Spanish dolmens run from Andalusia in the south to Galicia in the north-west. The finest are at Antequera in Andalusia, where the Dolmen of Menga, dated to about 3750 to 3650 BCE, is among the largest ancient megalithic structures in Europe. It is 27.5 metres long, 6 metres wide and 3.5 metres high, built with thirty-two megaliths, the largest weighing about 180 tonnes. After the chamber was finished it was covered with soil and built up into the hill seen today; when it was opened in the nineteenth century archaeologists found the skeletons of several hundred people. The Dolmen of Viera stands 70 metres away, and the tholos of El Romeral lies about 4 kilometres off; the three were inscribed as the Antequera Dolmens Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 2016.
In the south-west, the Dolmen de Soto at Trigueros in Huelva province is a Neolithic tomb estimated to date between 3000 and 2500 BCE, one of about 200 Neolithic burial sites in the province. It was found in 1922 when its owner, Armando de Soto Morillas, wanted to build a house; the German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier found eight bodies in a fetal position with artefacts, and its engraved and painted uprights have been studied more recently.
In Galicia and Portugal a dolmen is an anta, and in Catalan-speaking areas dolmens have folk names such as cova (cave), caixa (crate or coffin), taula (table) and arca (chest). These names are tradition: they record what people made of the monuments, not what they were built for.
When visiting Menga, look at the great capstones from inside the corridor, and at the way the mound was built up over the chamber.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Dolmen of Menga, Wikipedia: Dolmen of Viera, Wikipedia: Antequera Dolmens Site, Wikipedia: Dolmen de Soto, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1915
Il a été découvert et fouillé en 1915 par Telésforo Aranzadi Unamuno et Florencio Ansoleaga Elizondo.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
7 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–3000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in Spain; this site has not been dated itself. Most dolmens date from the Late Neolithic period (4000-3000 BCE); the Dolmen of Menga in Andalusia dates to about 3750-3650 BCE.Source for this date
Where it stands
Spain
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 42°57′44″ N, 1°59′49″ WFor a GPS or map app: 42.96212, -1.99690
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q25475055wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Albi trikuharria-01.jpgTheklanCC BY-SA 4.0
- Albi trikuharria-02.jpgTheklanCC BY-SA 4.0
- Albia trikuharria.jpgUranzuCC BY-SA 4.0
- Dolmen.Aralar.jpgJrpvaldiCC BY-SA 3.0
- Egilazko Aizkomendi trikuharria.jpgSan Martin, JuanCC BY-SA 3.0
- Aralar, dólmenes 1990 01.jpgLBM1948CC BY-SA 4.0
- Aralar, dólmenes 1990 03.jpgLBM1948CC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen d'Albia" (French), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen d'AlbiaCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q25475055CC0