La Torre-La Janera megalithic site is located in the municipalities of

Ayamonte Ayamonte (; pt, Aiamonte) is a town and municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Huelva, Andalusia. It is located near the border with Portugal on the mouth of the Guadiana River. According to the 2015 census, the city had a population ...

and Villablanca in the

province of Huelva Huelva () is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by Portugal, the provinces of Badajoz, Seville, and Cádiz, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is Huelva. Its area is 10,1 ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

. It was discovered when in 2018 a farmer intended to prepare the land to cultivate avocados and in view of the archaeological potential of the site the local council demanded a survey to be made. It is considered to be one of the largest megalithic site in Europe with over 500 standing stones.

Location

The site is he municipalities of Ayamonte and Villablanca at about 2.5 km to the west of the

Guadiana The Guadiana River (, also , , ), or Odiana, is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from the ...

river and some fifteen km from the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

in the south. It was built though near the coastline as some 6000 to 4000 years ago, the sea level was two meters higher. The megaliths are in about 90 hectares that are part of a 600 hectare large rural estate.

Discovery

The megalithic site was discovered in 2018 as in view of the archaeological potential of the site, the local council decided to execute a survey through which

menhirs A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...

dolmens A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were somet ...

, burial grounds were unearthed. Following the

Regional Government of Andalusia The Regional Government of Andalusia ( es, Junta de Andalucía) is the government of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Regional Government and the Government Council. The 2011 budget was 31. ...

divided the area into four divisions mostly reserved for archeological investigations, and agricultural use is only permitted on about 220 hectares of the site. It has at least 6 surrounding terraces and a quarries for

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

and conglomerate

Description

La Torre - La Jarena is described as the largest megalithic site in Europe, with hundreds of standing stones, several dolmens and geometric alignments.

Dolmens

There are several

on the site, who stand out for the small size of their chambers.Linares-Catela, José Antonio et al. (2022).p.121 Some stand alone, others in groups and they were up to half a meter high. Forming circles or ovals, the several dolmens diameters spanned from six to seventeen meters and forty-one coffins hewn in stone have also been found within them.

Standing stones

So far 526 standing stones were revealed during the survey, either still standing or lying on the surface. Most of the ones in an alignment of a geometric form are lying on the ground.Linares-Catela, José Antonio et al. (2022).p.126

Geometric alignments

There are two alignments in the shape of a letter, one in the shape on U or horseshoe, and another one in shape of an H.Linares-Catela, José Antonio et al. (2022).p.122 The third one is an elliptic one. They seem to have been created and are assembled on a hilly surface.Linares-Catela, José Antonio et al. (2022).pp.122–123 The elliptic one is within an area of almost 2 hectares and 200 meters long in its long diameter. It has at least six surrounding terraces and a quarry for

Greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

. The H spans 100 meters length, 80 meters width and is composed by three interconnected walls which include six menhirs.

History

It is assumed that the first megaliths were erected in the 5th or 4th Millenia BCLinares-Catela, José Antonio et al. (2022).p.125 while most constructions are thought to have been erected between 3750 and 3500 BC.

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

have been planted in the region, and the area has also been affected by the construction of

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

in 2008.

References

{{coord missing, Spain Archaeological sites in Spain Megalithic monuments in Spain