Ses Païsses

Ses Païsses is a Bronze Age talayotic settlement on the southeastern outskirts of Artà in northeastern Majorca [1]. It is one of the most important and best-preserved prehistoric sites in the Balearic Islands, although it is largely overgrown with woodland, mainly Quercus ilex [1]. The Ses Païsses settlement is thought to have begun as a cylindrical talaiot, or "turriform", built during the first millennium BC (c900–800BC) on a hillside with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside [1]. The tower is 12m in diameter and still stands 4m tall; there are stairs within the massively thick wall, but the building's central column has not survived [1]. A low passageway, roughly 0.75m high, runs right through the building from one side to the other, linking the central chamber to a later room known as "the hypostyle chamber" adjoining it to the northeast [1]. The hypostyle chamber is so-called because of the three short columns at the centre of the room and the remains of seven others built into the walls [1].