The fabric of Torre d'en Galmés, Menorca, Spain

Abstract

AbstractThe term fabric has a variety of meanings, particularly in geology and archaeology. In the former case, it can encapsulate the three‐dimensional arrangement of particles and voids, including organizational aspects such as bedding. In archaeology, it can also refer to positions of sites on a landscape or the structure and geometry of, say, buildings within a site; it can also refer to the infillings within individual structures. In this study, we illustrate the concept of fabric with the site of Torre d'en Galmés on the Spanish Island of Menorca to show that in fact fabrics exist at a variety of scales from the geological fabric of the Island, down to the fabrics of the sedimentary infills between and within buildings and spaces. We show that by examining the fabrics at different scales on Menorca, we can gain a more complete and integrative understanding of the geoarchaeology at this location, rather than simply investigating individual aspects as is more typical in geoarchaeology and archaeology.