Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Usaleze 2
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
Usaleze 2 is a megalithic mound recorded in Andia mountain range, Spain. In open records it appears as Wikidata item Q66122585, mapped at 42.8391° N, 2.0145° W. Wikidata gives an elevation of 944 m.
Built from structured records, not from an articleSources and licences
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
About Usaleze 2
This kind of monument hereSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
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. Further down this page, About this kind of monument gives the whole of “Iberian tumuli”.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
The Atlas shows 4300 BCE to 1200 BCE for this site, but that is a regional estimate for this kind of monument, not a date for this particular megalithic mound. No excavation, radiocarbon sample or other measurement is recorded for it, so the real age could fall anywhere within the range, or outside it.
The range rests on this regional background (source: the Wikipedia article “Megalith”): 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.
Landscape and neighbours
Counting outward from Usaleze 2, there are 25 catalogued sites within 1 km, 189 within 5 km and 391 within 10 km, and 224 of them are also classed as megalithic mound. That puts it inside a dense cluster of monuments. In Andia mountain range, Spain, 111 of the 199 catalogued sites are classed as megalithic mound.
The nearest neighbours in the catalogue are Usaleze 3 (0.1 km west, megalithic mound); Osaleze (0.3 km south-east, megalithic mound); Usaleze 1 (0.5 km south-west, megalithic mound); Mirueta 1 (0.5 km south-east, megalithic mound). The catalogue is assembled from open records and is not complete, so unrecorded monuments may lie closer.
Records and protectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Heritage records attach the status Archaeological site in Nafarroa to this site. The open records for it are Wikidata (Q66122585), where corrections and further identifiers can be added. Many such sites stand on private land; check local access rules and respect the monument and its surroundings.
How this page was madeSources for this section
Sources for this section
This page was built automatically from Wikidata (CC0), the heritage register named above and the regional article “Iberian tumuli”, written for the Atlas from the Wikipedia articles it cites (CC BY-SA 4.0), plus distances and counts computed from the catalogue coordinates. It contains no AI-written text.
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
- 42°50′21″ N, 2°00′52″ WFor a GPS or map app: 42.83906, -2.01451
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.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Usaleze 34300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Osaleze4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Usaleze 14300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Mirueta 14300–1200 BCE
- MegalithAnuelen bidea4300–1200 BCE
- MegalithPoken bidea 24300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Osagarate 2 ipar4300–1200 BCE
- MegalithErrebetz 24300–1200 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q66122585wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
This page is assembled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a tradition article paraphrasing Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). No article exists for this site, and nothing here is written by a model.
- Wikidata Q66122585CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0