Archaeologists excavating the La Chorrera site in Los Yébenes, Toledo, have uncovered a 6,000-year-old megalithic complex used for prehistoric rituals and community gatherings.
The latest excavation campaign reveals the structure is a thousand years older than previously estimated and remained active for nearly 4,000 years across multiple prehistoric eras.
The findings were uncovered during the latest field campaign of the Entre Dos Tierras project, directed by University of Madrid archaeologist Arturo Ruiz Taboada. The research initiative receives funding from the Los Yébenes Town Council and the Provincial Council of Toledo.
Researchers previously dated the megalithic structure to 5,000 years ago. The revised 6,000-year timeframe demonstrates that organized human communities inhabited the region much earlier than historians and archaeologists had established.
Los Yébenes is a municipality located in the province of Toledo in central Spain, situated within the Montes de Toledo mountain range roughly an hour south of Madrid. The area features a rich landscape that has preserved traces of human settlement spanning several millennia.
The discovery is comparable to a recent announcement by the University of Granada, which revealed that the extraction and use of lead in the Iberian Peninsula predates the arrival of the Phoenicians.
Structure of the La Chorrera megalithic complex
The newly analyzed structure at La Chorrera consists of a burial mound, or tumulus, featuring a double megalithic ring. Archaeologists identified the construction as a prehistoric funerary monument dating back to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods that continued in use through the Iron Age.
The Neolithic era marked the emergence of agriculture and permanent settlements in prehistoric Europe, while the Chalcolithic period brought early metalworking in copper. The structure remained functional into the Iron Age, demonstrating rare architectural continuity over four millennia.
At the center of the formation is a cromlech, a circular arrangement of upright standing stones set into the ground. The stone ring measures 12 meters in diameter and surrounds a central standing stone, or menhir, that stands approximately two meters high.
A second outer circle surrounds the primary stone ring, which archaeologists believe functioned as an access corridor leading into the interior. According to Tesauros, a digital classification tool maintained by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, such megalithic enclosures served both burial functions and astronomical purposes to observe seasonal changes.
Ritual landscape and regional discoveries
Researchers have located several similar stone structures across the municipality of Los Yébenes. These monuments complement previously documented rock shelters containing schematic cave paintings, establishing the site as a key area for studying prehistoric spiritual practices.
Ruiz Taboada said he and his team were on the threshold of a discovery that could transform the understanding of megalithic culture in the Montes de Toledo region, as reported by Toledo Diario. He noted that future work will focus on defining the exact role the site played for surrounding populations and how it connected to nearby prehistoric settlements.
The research team operates under the main hypothesis that the cluster of stone formations formed a unified ritual space. In addition to housing funerary rites and sacred ceremonies, the complex likely served practical agricultural needs by helping early farming communities track annual planting and harvesting cycles.
