The prehistoric site of Son Oleza is a prehistoric "

Beaker culture The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the Inverted bell, inverted-bell beaker (archaeology), beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the E ...

dolmen 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 ...

and associated settlement site on the Spanish island of

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

. It is near to the village of

Valldemossa Valldemossa is a village and municipality on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is famous for one landmark: the Royal Charterhouse of Valldemossa, built at the beginning of the 14th cent ...

on the island's north-west facing coast. The site is named after the nearby place of Son Oleza. The large site, a nearly complete village, has been investigated by Professor Bill Waldren. Significant features include houses, a dolmen and a water supply system. It is believed the site was occupied by several families between circa 2500BC to circa 1300BC. In 1998 it was the subject of episode 5 in series five of the archaeological television programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'' ( Series 5).

Nearby sites

The "Talaiotic site of Son Ferrandell" is located in the immediate vicinity of the settlement of Son Oleza. It is not mentioned in the Time Team programme, but related to Son Oleza. Whether accidentally or intentionally, the four talayots on the site are laid out roughly South-West to North-East, perhaps similar to the alignment of

Capocorb Vell Capocorb Vell is a talayotic site located about 12 km from Llucmajor on the island of Mallorca. It is one of the most highly excavated talayotic sites in the Balearic islands. Another such site is Ses Païsses. There are a number of talay ...

.http://www.talayots.es/mallorca/murallas/capocoes.htm, http://www.talayots.es/mallorca/talacirc/jaquetes.htm, accessed 28 April 2017. Approximately 2 km North-East from Son Oleza are two further sites that feature in the Time Team programme: the maze and the sanctuary of Son Mas. The site referred to as "the maze" was likely occupied by a small group of Beaker people, and more extensively during the iron age, as well as the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

. They might have used the copper and iron age sanctuary of Son Mas. The sanctuary has a sighting stone. During the copper age, up until about 1700BC, the sanctuary would have offered a view of the Southern Cross framed by a two mountains, and the Time Team speculate that this is of central importance to the site. The Southern Cross was not fully visible from 1700BC onward, and radiocarbon finds indicate that the site was unoccupied for about 400 years until 1300BC.

References

Former populated places in Spain Archaeological sites in the Balearic Islands Dolmens in Spain Bronze Age Spain Prehistory of the Balearic Islands Indigenous ancient cities in Spain 3rd-millennium BC architecture Bronze Age sites in Europe Buildings and structures in Mallorca {{Europe-archaeology-stub