Unfortunately, since there are no records of any kind, there is still no certain knowledge about life in Talaiotic times. Everything is pure speculation and every new excavation can bring surprises to light.Since the Romans
(123 BC until today)
With the fall of Carthage and the occupation of the Balearic Islands by the Romans in 123 BC, the era of Talaiotic culture officially came to an end. However, many of its villages and buildings were still inhabited during the Roman period and the subsequent occupation by the Moors, right into the Middle Ages. It was not until the Christian reconquest of the Balearic Islands by the Catalonian King James I that life in the Talaiotic villages, most of which are much older than the "eternal" city of Rome, came to an end. Since then, the monuments have fallen into disrepair or were used as quarries for new buildings until the 1920s.
Talaiotic period
(approx. 1,300 to 123 BC.)
Between the years 1,300 and 1,200 BC, a significant change in architectural style took place on the island. The navetas, in which groups of up to 50 people lived, disappeared and the talaiot form of construction appeared. These were villages with a central round tower (Arab: Atalaia = watchtower) around which small rectangular "row houses" were grouped. These villages provided space for an estimated 300 to 400 inhabitants.
Pre-Talaiotic period
(approx. 3,000 to 1,300 BC.)
At the beginning of this period, Mallorca was Neolithic. Small groups of people lived in caves or under rock vaults and produced ceramics. With the beginning of the Copper Age, around 2,200 BC, we also find on Mallorca the "bell cup" culture known from all over Western Europe. The Mallorcans of that time probably lived in small, isolated family groups spread all over the island.
Around the year 2,000 BC, the megalithic burial culture, which had already been developing in northern Europe for more than a thousand years, also appeared on Mallorca. While natural caves were still used as burial sites at the beginning of the Pre-Talaiotic period, "artificial caves" - elongated, vaulted rooms made of stone and earth - were now built to bury the dead.
Almost at the same time, the so-called "navetas" (from Latin nave = ship) appeared. These are halls made of large stone blocks whose elongated, arched shape is reminiscent of an upside-down ship. While these buildings were used exclusively as burial sites on Menorca, they were completely normal dwellings for the people on Mallorca.
Talaiot, ca. 1.300 - 123 v. Chr.:
Naveta, approx. 1.800 - 1.300 v. Chr.:
