Zearbide 3 txabola hondoa
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
Zearbide 3 txabola hondoa is a megalith in Ultzama, Spain. Its entries are Wikidata item Q66121704; the position in the catalogue is 42.9754° N, 1.6570° W. Wikidata gives an elevation of 778 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 Zearbide 3 txabola hondoa
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 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. Further down this page, About this kind of monument gives the whole of “Megalithic monuments of the Basque highlands”.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Typological estimate, not a date for this site: monuments of this kind in this region are normally dated 4300 BCE to 1200 BCE. The range comes from what is known about megalith monuments in Spain; nothing measured on this site itself is on record, so it may be younger or older than the range suggests.
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 Mediterranean megalithic tradition ends by c. 1200 BC.
Landscape and neighbours
The catalogue lists 18 other sites within 1 km, 30 within 5 km and 157 within 10 km; 11 of them are also classed as megalith. That puts it inside a dense cluster of monuments. In Ultzama, Spain, 11 of the 54 catalogued sites are classed as megalith.
The closest catalogued sites are Zearbide 2 txabola hondoa (0.1 km north-west, megalith); Zearbide 1 txabola hondoa (0.1 km north-west, megalith); Zearbide 1 (0.3 km south-east, megalithic mound); Zearbide 2 (0.4 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
Wikidata lists the site with the heritage status Archaeological site in Nafarroa. The open records for it are Wikidata (Q66121704), where corrections and further identifiers can be added. Access varies from open common land to private fields; check local access rules, ask where needed, and take care not to damage the monument.
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 “Megalithic monuments of the Basque highlands”, 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
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
- 42°58′31″ N, 1°39′25″ WFor a GPS or map app: 42.97540, -1.65699
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.
- MegalithZearbide 2 txabola hondoa4300–1200 BCE
- MegalithZearbide 1 txabola hondoa4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Zearbide 14300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Zearbide 24300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Zearbide 34300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Zearbide 44300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Zearbide 54300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Zearbide 64300–1200 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q66121704wikidata.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
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 Q66121704CC0
- 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