Dolmen de Céllecs
Also known asCabana del Moro de Céllecs
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Clemens Schmillen · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Dolmen de Céllecs, also called the Cabana del Moro de Céllecs, is a megalithic site in the municipality of La Roca del Vallès, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, at an elevation of 338 m. It is a Cultural Asset of Local Interest.
It is a low Catalan gallery dolmen, or a rectangular funerary cist, and it was reconstructed after excavation. It is dated between the Late Neolithic and the Chalcolithic (2500 to 1800 BCE).
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
Dolmen de Céllecs
Preserved are two lateral orthostates of granite, two smaller ones that must have belonged to the gallery, and the very large cover slab.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de CéllecsCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de CéllecsCC BY-SA 4.0
The burial chamber measures 2.25 by 2 m. Preserved are two lateral orthostates of granite, two smaller ones that must have belonged to the gallery, and the very large cover slab. The rest of the gallery has disappeared, and only a few traces of the tumulus remain: a few stones behind the dolmen, to the north-east. The rectangular chamber is oriented to the south-west. According to M. J. Tarrús, the original passage must have been about 2 m long and the tumulus may have reached 8 m in diameter.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de CéllecsCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de CéllecsCC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen was discovered in 1929 by the Agrupació Excursionista de Granollers. The site was excavated by Josep Colomines, who uncovered only a fragment of handmade pottery. After the excavation it was rebuilt and rearranged to its present configuration. The catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 3000 BCE.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de CéllecsCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de CéllecsCC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen lies in the Cordillera Litoral park, where other dolmens and menhirs are found, among them the dolmen of Can Gurri, the dolmen of Can Boquet and the menhir of Castellruf. It has been entered in the Inventory of the Architectural Heritage of Catalonia since 1991.
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
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
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
- 41°34′00″ N, 2°19′54″ EFor a GPS or map app: 41.56655, 2.33175
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 Q11917559wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- DolmenCellecs.jpgClemens SchmillenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Dolmen de Can Cellecs - panoramio.jpgGregorio ArriagaCC BY 3.0
- La cabana del moro.JPGRigoleCC BY-SA 3.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Pedra de les Creus0.7 km W
- Pedra de les Creus0.7 km W
- Dolmen de Can Gol II1.1 km W
- Roca Foradada de Can Gol1.2 km W
- Dolmen de Can Gol I1.5 km W
- Pedra de l'Escorpí1.8 km NE
- Roca Foradada de Can Planes1.9 km NE
- Cambra Megalítica de Can Nadal2.1 km S
- Dolmen de Can Planes2.3 km N
- Roca Foradada de Can Nadal2.3 km S
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen de Céllecs" (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 de CéllecsCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q11917559CC0