Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Túmulo de Los Tiesos
Datedc. 3500–1400 BCE
Photo David Perez · CC BY 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Los Tiesos is a prehistoric tumulus in the province of Ávila, Spain, in the basin of the river Voltoya, near the village of Mediana de Voltoya in the comarca of Campo Azálvaro. Researchers date the tumulus and its use to between 3500 BCE and 1400 BCE, from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.
It was discovered in 1997, investigated in 2001 and restored a year later.
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
Túmulo de Los Tiesos
The tumulus stands on a height close to the stream of La Mediana or Ciervos, which made it a landmark visible from a distance.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
The tumulus stands on a height close to the stream of La Mediana or Ciervos, which made it a landmark visible from a distance. It consists of a central chamber, probably circular, made of slate slabs set vertically, where offerings and burials took place. Over and around the chamber lies a tumulus of stones and earth, which gave the monument its size and distinction.
ArchaeologySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
In the post-medieval period the tumulus was plundered by treasure hunters, who disturbed the chamber and removed the offerings and grave goods deposited in it. The dating given above is based on the objects that remain.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
As with many others, its function was not only funerary: it also served as a marker related to the ownership of land, its use, and the control of livestock routes (vías pecuarias). It is possible that the tumulus marked the division between the pastures of the prehistoric populations who visited Campo Azálvaro seasonally with their livestock.
VisitingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
The tumulus is reached from Mediana de Voltoya by taking the local road towards Urraca Miguel, to the south-east. It is signposted and described on site, and protected by a metal fence that keeps out livestock and other large mammals. Its maintenance and study are managed by the Junta de Castilla y León.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
Burial mounds of this kind in the northern highlands of the Iberian Peninsula are usually placed in spots of great visibility, often on ridges, and are built of local materials.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Iberian tumuli
Most of the Atlas's Iberian mounds lie in the northern highlands, especially the Basque country, where prehistoric collective graves are found in great numbers. Archaeologists there separate dolmens, which have a stone chamber covered by a mound of stones and earth, from "tumuli" or mounds that have no chamber but were used in the same way, for collective burial. Roughly 800 dolmens and about 500 mounds are known in the Basque Country, though some of the mounds may be dolmens waiting to be excavated.
Both kinds are placed in spots of great visibility, often on mountain ridges, and are built of local materials; the larger ones tend to be in lowland areas and the smaller ones in mountain zones. The dead were placed in the chamber or under the mound over generations, and older remains were moved aside to make room for newer ones, which is why very few Basque monuments have a clear layered record. Megalithic burial arrived in the late Neolithic, was in constant use in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, and in some mounds continued as late as the Iron Age.
Across Iberia the picture changes with the Bell Beaker phenomenon of the late Chalcolithic, which brought individual graves, often under mounds, in contrast with the collective graves that came before.
Dating is difficult, because few mounds have been excavated and the collective burials were disturbed, so the Atlas gives broad typological ranges.
When visiting, look for low circular mounds of stone on high ground in pasture, often with a ring of larger stones or a dip in the centre where a chamber may have collapsed, and for neighbouring stone circles on the same ridge.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Basque prehistory, Wikipedia: Tumulus, Wikipedia: Bell Beaker culture, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1997
Descubierto en 1997, no fue investigado hasta 2001 y restaurado un año más tarde.
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
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
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 megalithic mounds 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 last vestiges of the Mediterranean megalithic tradition date to c. 1200 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Spain
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 40°41′16″ N, 4°33′19″ WFor a GPS or map app: 40.68778, -4.55528
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 Q6154669wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Tumulo Los Tiesos by-dpc.jpgDavid PerezCC BY 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 "Túmulo de Los Tiesos" (Spanish), 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 (Spanish): Túmulo de Los TiesosCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q6154669CC0