Navetas, Menorca, Baleares Islands.
They are megalithic constructions only at Menorca Island. They had a clear funerary function. They had to do with Peninsular megalithic expressions -corridor dolmens- but constructive features show a technical progress in those of Menorca. Both constructions have a door as an access to the burial chamber, worked as a window on a stone. First navetas had an oval shape that makes us remember a tumulus.
The most usual shape for navetas is an inverted boat. That gives them their name.
They are chronologically prior to talaiotic culture and age. They are still built with big stones -orthostates- that cover their walls and are placed in a vertical position -as corridor dolmens-. This megalithic shape of building was later changed by a different one called cyclopean: it consisted of an horizontal fitting of middle-size stones.
List of well preserved navetas on the island is as follows: