Megalitos de 'El Padrún'
DatedEst. 4300–1200 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Megalitos de 'El Padrún', also called Megalitos d'El Padrún or El Cantu les cruces, are three funerary structures of dolmenic type in the municipality (conceyu) of Ayer, Asturias, Spain. They are described as the oldest known trace of human presence in the municipality of Ayer.
The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 4300 to 1200 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
Megalitos de 'El Padrún'
They are reached by climbing from the village of Bo to the ridge that separates the municipality of Ayer from that of Ḷḷena.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (ast): Megalitos d'El PadrúnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (ast): Megalitos d'El PadrúnCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument consists of three funerary structures of dolmenic type. They are reached by climbing from the village of Bo to the ridge that separates the municipality of Ayer from that of Ḷḷena. The coordinates are given as 43.1449, -5.7795.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (ast): Megalitos d'El PadrúnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (ast): Megalitos d'El PadrúnCC BY-SA 4.0
The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 4300 to 1200 BCE.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (ast): Megalitos d'El PadrúnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (ast): Megalitos d'El PadrúnCC BY-SA 4.0
In the Basque Country, dolmens are collective burials, placed in spots of great visibility, often on the tops of mountain ridges, and built of local materials. A dolmen has a chamber of flat stones under a roof stone, covered with stones and earth.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Megalithic monuments of the Basque highlands
Most of the Atlas's Spanish "megalith" records lie in the Basque country and Navarre, in upland pasture where prehistoric graves are found in great numbers. The Basque Country has a multitude of megaliths, described as dolmens or as mounds, sometimes confusingly. They are burials of a collective nature, placed in spots of great visibility, often on the tops of mountain ridges, and are built of local materials. Around 800 dolmens and about 500 mounds are known, though some of the mounds could be dolmens awaiting excavation. Dolmens have a chamber of flat stones under a roof stone, covered with stones and earth; the chambers are either simple or with a corridor, and the corridor type is limited to the Ebro valley. The largest dolmens are in lowland areas and the smaller ones in the mountains.
Few Basque dolmens have clear stratigraphy, because older remains were swept aside to make room for new burials. Even so it is known that megalithic burial arrived in the late Neolithic, was in frequent use in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, and in some mounds continued as late as the Iron Age.
The standing stones and stone circles are later. Menhirs and cromlechs seem to belong to the Iron Age, when cremation became dominant. The individual burial in a cromlech is the most abundant, but limited to the Pyrenean region, where 851 of them are documented. They are 3 to 7 metres across, with the burial at the centre; the body was not burned inside the circle but at a nearby spot, and only a handful of ashes was carried to the monument.
When visiting, expect to walk: the monuments are on upland ridges, and a circle or mound is often hard to see until you are close.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Basque prehistory, Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: Cromlech, Wikipedia: Menhir · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4300–1200 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megaliths in Spain; this site has not been dated itself. Megalithic construction in southern Spain c. 4300 BC and in Malaga and Guadiana c. 3500 BC; the Mediterranean megalithic tradition ends by c. 1200 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Spain
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 43°08′42″ N, 5°46′46″ WFor a GPS or map app: 43.14495, -5.77949
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 Entrerríos4000–3000 BCE
dolmen of Merillés (Tineo)4000–3000 BCE
dolmen of Baradal (Tineo)4000–3000 BCE
Santa Cruz de Cangas de Onís
Dolmen de Santa Cruz4000–3000 BCE- DolmenDolmen de Pradías4000–3000 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir of Collado de Las Llaves2800–1800 BCE
Dolmen of Montouto4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q20619826wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Dolmen de Entrerríos48 km W
- dolmen of Merillés (Tineo)48 km W
- dolmen of Baradal (Tineo)51 km NW
- Santa Cruz de Cangas de Onís57 km NE
- Dolmen de Santa Cruz57 km NE
- Dolmen de Pradías85 km W
- Menhir of Collado de Las Llaves99 km E
- Casetón de los Moros115 km S
- Dolmen de El Tesoro120 km S
- Dolmen de San Adrián122 km S
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Megalitos d'El Padrún" (ast), 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 (ast): Megalitos d'El PadrúnCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q20619826CC0