Menorcan Taulas
On the island of Menorca stands a monument with taulas as tall as 3.7 meters. The taulas date back thousands of years to between 1000 BCE and 300 BCE. There is very little known about them or how they were created. There are numerous theories about the site such as that the stones had religious or astronomical significance. Archaeologist Michael Hoskin has posited the idea that the stones were part of an ancient healing cult.
The island of Menorca is a very small rocky island and it is only 50 km across at its widest point. There are 35 separate stone megaliths found on the small island which makes it a place of great interest for archaeologists. What continues to intrigue archaeologists is that the stone structures look very similar to those found at Stonehenge in England and Gobekli Tepe in Turkey.
The taulas were built by the Talayotic people who lived on the island since 2000 BCE and thrived on the tiny island until the Romans arrived in 125 BCE. The people who built the stone megaliths left behind no documentation or information about why they were built which leaves very little for archaeologists to go on. Even the name “taulas” means table in the island’s Catalan language and references how the stone appeared before excavation. Originally all that could be seen of the megaliths were the flat tops which appeared like tables to the locals.
Some suggest that the taulas were the representation of the ancient God much like the cross is to Christians. A bronze bull statue found at the site have led some to wonder if the taulas are meant to represent the face of a bull and that the ancients who built the site worshiped a bull god. Another theory is that the temple was built to be oriented to the Centaurus constellation which support the theory that it was built for the healing cult.