The first Minorcans were a pastoral people, who grew wheat and barley, and tended their cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. (It is thought they may also have hunted the Myotragus (antelope) to extinction.) In the cooler seasons they probably wore skins. They built small boats, and indulged in coastal piracy when opportunity offered. But among their number were some with other skills. In addition to the metal workers, they had an elite of gifted constructional engineers, and we shall try to imagine their technique.
An outcrop of rock near the proposed site for building would be chosen, which it is thought may have been split by inserting a piece of wood in an existing crack, wetting it till it expanded. Alternatively they may have found that the growing trunk of a fig tree in an existing crack had produced a similar splitting. The slab would then be levered with poles on to rollers, and dragged over a prepared roadway by means of leather ropes to its proposed final site. There it was chipped by masons to the desired shape and size, dressed and polished.

In the case of a taula, enormous ramps of stones or sand would then be prepared, and the upright levered into a prepared hole. By the use of further ramps the tricky business of levering and pulling the capstone into position was undertaken.

It is difficult to estimate the man-hours for the whole operation from raw material to end product. The number of able bodied young men on the island must have been limited. Perhaps the entire male population and some of the women took part. In the organisation of their society there may have been some kind of compulsory community service. This was not unknown in the feudal society of the Middle Ages, and has a parallel in military conscription in our own country.

Slingers for hire
One more activity of first Minorcans which outlasted their building achievements, and brought them renown throughout the then civilised world, was their skill with the sling. The Roman historian Timeo reports in the fourth century BC (Phase III of the Talayot period): 'the inhabitants of these isles were called the Balears, on account of their skill in throwing stones by means of slings'. The stone-strewn island provided unlimited ammunition. New arrivals on the island were frequently on the receiving end of an attack by the slingers, but usually ended up by enlisting them as mercenaries to help them fight their own battles elsewhere.
Minorcans reduced slinging to a fine art. Each man carried three slings of different sizes, and ammunition of polished stones was also graded. 
 

The thongs were of leather or plaited esparto grass. He carried one sling round his head, one at the shoulder, and one in his hand, selecting the most suitable for the range required, rather as a golfer would a club. His aim was said to be deadly, even at a hundred yards. Training in the art was begun in childhood - an early form of vocational training - and was undertaken by the mothers. A tall wooden post was set up, and food balanced on the top. The children had to knock it down with stones-otherwise they had no breakfast!

By a brilliant piece of research we know quite a lot about the physique of the slingers, and even what they looked like. In 1932 Dr Margaret Murray, the famous Egyptologist led a team of excavators from Cambridge University to Minorca, where they excavated the precincts of the taulas of Trepuco and Sa Torreta. There she unearthed numerous sling-stones and other objects dating from the first millennium BC, together with human bones of the same period. She submitted these to Dr John Cameron, a professor of anatomy, who reported a remarkable development of the upper end of the humerus (upper arm bone) and of the scapula (shoulder blade), indicating over-development of the shoulder-rotating muscles. Even more striking was an actual bowing of the shaft of the upper arm bone itself, as a result of constant rotation of the arm since childhood.

Professor Cameron has also written a pen picture of the physical appearance of a Minorcan slinger, as deduced from his bone structure, which was follows:

His average height was only 5 feet 51/2 - inches, a somewhat aquiline prominent nose, a rather prominent pointed chin. The relatively fine bones of the jaws indicated that they were accustomed to cooked food. The relatively short thigh bones exhibited a flattening of the articular surfaces due to constant squatting. 
Lest the overall impression be of the early Minorcan being extremely primitive, I may add that their cranial capacity-both children and adults-were up to that of modern European skulls, and in one case above it.

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Next : Chapter 4 -  Formative Influences to 1700... 25