Dolmen dels Cantons

Dolmen dels Cantons, also called Llipoter, is a dolmen in the municipality of Espolla, Alt Empordà, Spain. It lies in an area known as els Cantons and forms part of the Dòlmens d'Espolla. The monument was discovered and identified in 1995 by a resident of Espolla while hunting wild boar.

Only one rectangular fragment of the roof remains, positioned behind the head of the chamber. Its inner face shows signs of dressing and its edges are worked. The chamber probably had a narrow entrance passage with dry-stone walls or slabs, set on the same axis as the chamber, but no remains are visible without excavation. The mound appears to have been circular, with rubble and earth filling, and an outer retaining ring of large stones laid flat.

Because it was identified in 1995, Dolmen dels Cantons has not received the deeper studies given to other megalithic monuments, including some of the oldest. Its architectural type remains undetermined. Josep Tarrús (2002) placed it between the second and third phases of the megalithic burials of Alt Empordà and Rosselló, in the second half and final part of the fourth millennium BCE. It is generally dated to 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE by typological estimate.

Its state of preservation is fair: part of the chamber remains in place but is very damaged, together with traces of the mound and the outer retaining ring in front of the chamber. The name Llipoter comes from the local word for a shrub found in the surrounding woodland of oaks, holm oaks and hazel. Spain has many megalithic tombs, and monuments of this kind in the country are usually known as dolmens.

Dolmen dels Cantons is a dolmen in Espolla, Spain. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Catalan article "Dolmen dels Cantons", shown in the original language.