Dolmen de Busnela
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo David Perez · CC BY 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The dolmen of Busnela is a stone structure on a height on the left bank of the river Nela, south of the village of Busnela in the province of Burgos (Castilla y León), Spain. Its structure resembles that of a dolmen, although no evidence proves that it is one.
The catalogue places it, on typological grounds, between 4000 and 3000 BCE.
Read on Wikipedia1 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
Dolmen de Busnela
The structure makes use of a large rock that serves as wall and roof, resting on seven large vertical slabs of sandstone.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Dolmen de BusnelaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Dolmen de BusnelaCC BY-SA 4.0
The structure makes use of a large rock that serves as wall and roof, resting on seven large vertical slabs of sandstone. Its long axis measures about 7 m and its height reaches 2.3 m.
Although it has popularly been regarded as a genuine dolmen, its use as a burial chamber is doubtful because there is no mound that would have protected it.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Dolmen de BusnelaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Dolmen de BusnelaCC BY-SA 4.0
The structure stands on a height on the left bank of the river Nela, south of Busnela. It lies to the left (west) of the road to Busnela, shortly after the junction towards Ahedo de las Pueblas, reached from Santelices on the road linking Espinosa de los Monteros with Soncillo.
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
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
3 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
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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
- 43°01′22″ N, 3°46′49″ WFor a GPS or map app: 43.02266, -3.78016
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.
Dolmen de La Cabaña4000–3000 BCE
Dolmen von El Moreco4000–3000 BCEPhoto: jacinta lluch valero from madrid * barcelona...., (España-Spain) · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Bernalta-ii4300–1200 BCE
- DolmenBernalta-i4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenLa Boheriza 24000–3000 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)La Boheriza 14300–1200 BCE
- DolmenDolmen de la Nava Negra4000–3000 BCE
- DolmenCotobasero-ii4000–3000 BCE
_*_Camara_de_enterramiento_(6679213315).jpg){kind=link}
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q5812481wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Dolmen de Busnela 01 by-dpc.jpgDavid PerezCC BY 3.0
- Dolmen de Busnela (49274618428).jpgÁngel M. Felicísimo from Mérida, EspañaCC BY 2.0
- Dolmen de Busnela.JPGVanbasten 23CC BY-SA 3.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen de Busnela" (Spanish), 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 (Spanish): Dolmen de BusnelaCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q5812481CC0