Dolmen de las Peñezuelas
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Xauxa Håkan Svensson · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Dolmen de las Peñezuelas is a passage grave built between 3500 and 3000 BCE, lying in the remains of a small round mound on the western edge of the village of Granucillo, in the province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain. It was reconstructed in 1998.
It was excavated in the 1930s and again in 1985, and was placed under protection in 1994 together with the neighbouring dolmen of San Adrián.
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 las Peñezuelas
It consists of a round chamber of eight side stones with a passage starting on the south side.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen de las PeñezuelasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen de las PeñezuelasCC BY-SA 4.0
Las Peñezuelas is a round passage grave built of large quartz blocks. It consists of a round chamber of eight side stones with a passage starting on the south side. The passage was largely destroyed by the building of the neighbouring road, and two of its stones survive. All the capstones are missing, if graves of this type, which are always found without capstones, ever had them.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen de las PeñezuelasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen de las PeñezuelasCC BY-SA 4.0
The site was excavated in the 1930s and then again in 1985. The finds consist of flint flakes, geometric stones, a knife, an arrowhead and parts of a necklace of slate beads.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen de las PeñezuelasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen de las PeñezuelasCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument was reconstructed in 1998. Together with the neighbouring dolmen of San Adrián, it was placed under protection in 1994.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen de las PeñezuelasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen de las PeñezuelasCC BY-SA 4.0
Spain has a great many megalithic tombs, running from Andalusia in the south to Galicia in the north-west.
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
- 3000 BCE
Der zwischen 3500 und 3000 v. Chr. errichtete Dolmen de las Peñezuelas liegt in den Resten eines kleinen Rundhügels am Westrand des Dorfes Granucillo in der Provinz Zamora in Kastilien-León in Spanien.
Source - 1985
Die Anlage wurde in den 1930er Jahren und dann noch einmal im Jahr 1985 ausgegraben.
Source - 1994
Zusammen mit dem benachbarten Dolmen von San Adrián wurde der Dolmen de las Peñezuelas 1994 unter Schutz gestellt.
Source - 1998
De Las Peñezuelas ist ein 1998 rekonstruiertes rundes Ganggrab aus großen Quarzblöcken.
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
4 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°03′07″ N, 5°55′52″ WFor a GPS or map app: 42.05199, -5.93104
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q18451507wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Granucillo de Vidriales-Las Penezuelas.jpgXauxa Håkan SvenssonCC BY-SA 3.0
- Dolmen de Las Peñezuelas (23696982488).jpgÁngel M. Felicísimo from Mérida, EspañaCC BY 2.0
- Dolmen Las Peñezuelas.jpgRodelarCC BY-SA 4.0
- Granucillo-peñezuelas.JPGWaxhCC 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 las Peñezuelas" (German), 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