Doors to a symbolic world: a new interpretative proposal on taula enclosures from Menorca

Abstract

Singular buildings known as taula enclosures were built in Menorca in the second Iron Age. The central structure of these spaces has been the object of numerous hypotheses during the 20th century, most of them aiming at shedding light on its symbolic interpretation. On the contrary, domestic spaces, which were built in the same period and present a high level of standardisation, have been mostly studied on the aspect of their function. In this paper, the two types of structures are compared, suggesting that both respond to the same ideological conception of space. From this comparison, it is suggested that the taula is the monumental representation of the door that gives access to the northern room in domestic spaces, representing an entrance to the sacred space. The statistical analysis of the proportions of the constitutive elements of doors and taulas, despite not being conclusive, allows for stating that there is an architectural similarity between these two elements. Finally, it is suggested that the analogy between dwellings and taula enclosures constitutes a means of legitimation of the social structures by the communities who built them.