mámoas do Chan da Cruz

The mámoas do Chan da Cruz are a megalithic necropolis of six mámoas in the municipality of Vilaboa, Spain, at about 234 metres above sea level. The site is a group of burial mounds, with some of the mounds preserving their central structures and others showing damage from later disturbance.

The mounds stand on a low hill with a gentle slope and granite outcrops at its summit. Beneath the largest mound, natural schist outcrops were used to make the monument’s base. Two mounds in the highest area remain in the best condition, while two have central areas opened to the outside, probably when their dolmen stones were removed. One mound is almost gone because of deliberate breakage for eucalyptus planting, and another was crossed by gullies or paths, although its centre remains held in place by a tree.

Archaeological campaigns were carried out in 1972, 1982 and 1983 by the Museo de Pontevedra. The first was an emergency excavation of a mound with a circular looting crater nearly three and a half metres across and forty centimetres deep. Finds included eight arrowheads, a polished axe, a polishing stone, a quern handle, two harness fittings and three pottery fragments. The 1972 mound stood 80 centimetres high; later campaigns identified six mounds in total.

The mámoas do Chan da Cruz are generally dated between 4000 BCE and 3000 BCE by typological estimate. Ramón Sobrino Lorenzo-Ruza recorded one mound in 1950, and Alfredo García Alén later identified eight. The site has been investigated across three campaigns, but the pack gives no further information about its original builders, burial practices or specific traditional names.

mámoas do Chan da Cruz is a dolmen in Vilaboa, Vilaboa, Spain. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Galician article "Mámoas do Chan da Cruz", shown in the original language.