Prehistory

MERCADAL

Traces of Mercadal's past

Next to the small port of Sanitja, located on the west shore of the Cavalleria cape, is one of the most important archaeological sites from the Lower Roman Empire in the Balearic Islands. These are the remains of a Roman settlement, approximately 18,000 m2 in size, which the historian Pliny the Elder cites with the name Saniceram in the 1st century. This population was originally linked to Monte Toro by a Roman road, of which some traces still remain in the vicinity of the paleo-Christian basilica of "es Molinet del cap des Port" (Fornells) and in Cavalleria. Also noteworthy are the discoveries made in the artificial caves of Addaia (where remains of ceramics from the 2nd century BC have been found, which seem to come from a shipwreck), the Albufera, Bindonís, and the beach of Son Nadal. The best-preserved talayotic remains are found on the estates of Sa Roca, Son Tema, Binial.làs, and Rafal Roig, where there is a unique talayot with a circular plan and five meters in height with two access portals and a spiral-shaped passageway. The burials discovered in the Pla de Sa Creu reveal the existence of a necropolis where incineration rituals were performed during the 1st and 2nd centuries. Another important site is in the hamlet of Rafal des Frares, where small bronzes representing a naked youth in a running posture have been found, dated around 500 BC, and a harpy or siren that could belong to the 5th century.