Techniques for the Documentation, Registration and Analyses of Rock-Cut Tombs

Abstract

The Archeology of Death, a line emerged within the processualist theoretical position, meant great advances in issues related to the study of the funeral ancient practices, mainly through anthropological studies. However, we do not always have deposits or primary contexts, usually we find the graves looted, pillaged or modified since ancient times. In this sense, this work intends to constitute a methodological example of approach to the knowledge of the funerary sphere of a society through the application of new technologies for those cases in which we do not have any type of information referred to both the biological subjects and the grave goods that accompanied them. The study case chosen is the necropolis of Cala Morell (Ciutadella), a set of several hypogea or artificial caves with different structural characteristics that seem to be framed in the middle of the first millennium BCE but whose exact chronology we cannot determine with accuracy due to the constant plundering and reuses to which the necropolis was exposed. The goals of our research try to determine if there are socioeconomic differences within the same necropolis, if we can talk about a certain structural pattern and if the results obtained can be extrapolated to the rest of the Menorcan necropolis. The technical methodology used in this research consists in developing a quality graphic documentation using photogrammetric models, the management of a database that includes the structural characteristics of each one of the funeral units treated and, finally, the statistical analysis to infer spatial or socioeconomic issues.