Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Urtao
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
What the sources say
Urtao Aretxabaletan dagoen tumulu bat da, Orkatzategiko Estazio Megalitikoan.
Article in BasqueRead 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.
The full article
Urtao: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Urtao is a megalithic mound with integral stones in Aretxabaleta, within the Orkatzategi Megalithic Station in Spain. It lies on the southeastern slope of Ametzueta mountain, 450 metres north-northeast of the Linatza tumulus and at an altitude of 780 metres above sea level. A hut stands 100 metres away.
The mound is 16 metres in diameter and 1'50 metres high. Its central crater is 4 metres across and 0,30 metres deep. Around the mound is a concentric circle measuring 2 metres in width and 0,30 metres in depth. The site was not disturbed by excavation.
Fidel Alcala, Luis del Barrio and Txomin Ugaldek discovered Urtao in 1980. It is dated by typological estimate to 4300 BCE to 1200 BCE. No further research history or information about later use is given.
Mounds of this kind in the Basque Country usually occupy highly visible places, often on mountain ridges, and are built with local materials. They could serve as collective burial places over generations, with older remains sometimes moved aside for newer burials. About 800 dolmens and 500 mounds are known there, although some mounds may yet prove to be unexcavated dolmens.
No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Basque article "Urtao", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Urtao is a megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones) in Aretxabaleta, Spain. A typological estimate: 4300 BCE to 1200 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Basque article "Urtao", shown in the original language.
AurkikuntzaSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Fidel Alcala, Luis del Barrio eta Txomin Ugaldek aurkitu zuten 1980. urtean. Ez da indusketarik egin.
KokapenaSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Ametzueta mendiaren hego-ekialdeko magalean aurkitzen da, Linatza tumulutik 450 metro ipar-ipar-ekialdera. Itsas mailatik 780 metrotako altueran dago.
100 metrotara txabola bat dago.
DeskribapenaSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
16 metrotako diametroa du eta 1'50 metrotako altuera. Erdiko kraterrak 4 metrotako diametroa du eta 0,30 metrotako sakonera. Tumulua inguratuz 2 metroko zabalera eta 0,30 metrotako sakonera duen zirkulu kontzentriko bat du.
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Urtao”, translated from Basque. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
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
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.
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
- 43°00′24″ N, 2°27′46″ WFor a GPS or map app: 43.00675, -2.46276
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.
Urtapotolueta I4000–3000 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Urtapotolueta Ii4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Linatza4300–1200 BCE
Aitzgain Ii4000–3000 BCE
Aitzgain4300–1200 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Asuntzeta Ekialdea4300–1200 BCE
Asuntzeta Mendebaldea4300–1200 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Puntiaga4300–1200 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q133515104wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Urtao" (Basque), 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 (Basque): UrtaoCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q133515104CC0