Prehistoric Spanish people transported 2-tonne stone by boat

A 2 -ton megalith in southern Spain has been transported to its current location by a group so far from old sailors over 5,300 years ago.

The Matarrubilla stone is a solid gypsum slab about 1.7 meters long by 1.2 m wide, sitting in a tomb -shaped structure on the Valencina copper age site, near Seville.

It is located in a circular room called Tholos, with just enough space to hold it. Given its composition and its single size, it is believed that the stone has been used in rituals, but its origin has been a mystery so far.

Luis Cáceres Puro at the University of Huelva in Spain and his colleagues carried out a chemical analysis on the slab and the dating of optically stimulated luminescence – which is closer to the last time that the light has struck the sediments – on the ground below to better determine its age and its original site.

The results suggest that the megalith was dragged towards its current location between 4544 and 3277 BC, which is hundreds of years – perhaps even 1000 years – earlier than before. The new dates also suggest that the rock was moved to Valencina long before the construction of the structure of the tunnel around.

The composition of the stone most closely corresponds to a career 55 kilometers on the other side of the Guadalquivir river. At the time, there was a large estuary between the two sites, suggesting that the stone should be transported by boat.

This is the first proof of a megalithic stone transported by boat in the Iberian peninsula, but large stones on other megalithic sites in Europe, such as Stonehenge in the United Kingdom and Carnac in France, would also have been transported in this way.

“The 4th millennium before JC has experienced a rapid development in coastal navigation,” explains Leonardo García Sanjuán, member of the team at the University of Seville. “The Matarrubilla stone basin is a good indirect evidence, which, in our opinion, proves that these people had raft, canoeing or advanced sailing technology.”

The archaeological discoveries of other sites show that the Mediterranean communities already built sophisticated and navigation boats, he adds.

“The crossing of the formerly existing sea with such an enormous stone proves once again the technical knowledge of the manufacturers of Matarrubilla,” explains Ramón Fabregas Valcce at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, which was not involved in the study.

Valencina is one of the largest prehistoric sites in Europe, covering an area of ​​more than 460 hectares. Among the rarest artifacts on the site are imported materials from distant regions, including amber, flint, cinnabre, ivory and ostrich egg.

“”[Valencina] Contains megalithic monuments, massive ditches, vast funeral files and a refined material culture which reveals links between Iberia, North Africa and the Mediterranean, “explains Cáceres Puro.

Previous work in the region has discovered many details indicating the historical importance of the site, including a period of several centuries from 2900 to 2650 BC while it was widely led by women.

“This study adds more intriguing details for one of the main monuments in Valencina,” said Alasdair Whittle at the University of Cardiff, in the United Kingdom.