The megalithic tomb Ca Na Costa is located in the Natural Park of the Salinas de Formentera, and is the largest prehistoric monument in Formentera and one of the best preserved of the Balearic Islands.
Visiting the Ca Na Costa site
The site of Ca Na Costa is considered the most important prehistoric monument on the island of Formentera. Visiting this place is a highly recommended experience for lovers of history and archeology, since it is a funerary work of the Bronze Age in an excellent state of preservation. It was built by the first humans to permanently inhabit Formentera, between 2000 and 1600 BC.
The tomb is protected by a fence to prevent damage. As we approach the construction, we will be able to appreciate a tomb built directly on the rock, with a circular floor where the burial chamber is located and three outer rings surrounding it. The mystery of this place is highlighted by its location, in the beautiful Ses Salines Natural Park of Ibiza and Formentera.
How to get to the Ca Na Costa tomb?
The megalithic tomb of Ca Na Costa is located in the middle of the Natural Park of the Salinas, right between the pond of Estany Pudent and Es Pujols, just 500 meters away from Es Pujols.
History and excavation of Ca Na Costa
It is a funerary site built with a central chamber delimited by huge slabs placed vertically, which in turn are surrounded by three stone circles and a corridor that leads to the center of the building. The outside floor has a diameter of about 4 meters and the entrance is oriented to the west.
This building was discovered in 1974, where in addition to the megalithic remains, the remains of 8 individuals between 20 and 55 years of age were also found, specifically 6 men and 2 women.
In addition, other utensils such as bone buttons, flint pieces, tools, archer’s bracelets and jewelry made of bone, tusks and shells were also found. The height of these individuals was between 1.5 and 1.6 meters, but as a curiosity, one of the individuals found had a very large stature for the time (about 1.90 meters) which means that it was a person suffering from gigantism or acromegaly.
Dental analysis of the remains yielded data on the diet of the individuals, based mainly on soft proteins, which is consistent with a diet based on fish and shellfish.
As for the jewelry found in the burial chamber, some pieces made of ivory stand out, which makes it clear that exchanges and communication with the African continent were already frequent at this time.
Later human interventions altered the whole, for example by removing stones for construction in the surroundings and even planting a wild olive tree inside the chamber. However, even so, the tomb was found in a very good state of preservation.
All the extracted materials can be found in the Archaeological Museum of Eivissa and Formentera, located in Eivissa (Ibiza).
According to the carbon 14 tests carried out on the remains found at the site, they date back to 2000 B.C., making it the oldest archaeological find in the Balearic Islands.
In 1994 the site of Ca Na Costa was protected as an archaeological site of historical interest.
More information about Ca Na Costa findings
In the following video of the MAEF (Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera) you can learn more about the findings in the excavations of Ca Na Costa:
References:
- History museum of Ibiza and Formentera
- Book “Prehistory and archaeology of the balearic islands”, Archaeology Institute, Universitat de Barcelona
- Article “Excavations at Ca na Costa, Formentera” by Jorge H Fernández, Luis Plantaalamor and Celia Topp
