A special type of coastal settlement, promontory forts defended by inland-facing walls, appeared in the Balearic Islands in an imprecise time during the Bronze Age. A research project was initiated in 2011 to study one of these sites on each of the two major islands of the archipelago. The first one, Es Coll de Cala Morell (north Menorca), is a walled promontory with a relatively large plateau, with 13 horseshoe-shaped houses (navetes). The second, Sa Ferradura (east Mallorca), is a smaller coastal cape, with a different spatial planning, with only two large built-up areas, both attached to the enclosure wall. Two of the navetes have been excavated at Es Coll de Cala Morell, showing a domestic space with a central hearth in both cases. The occupation has been dated to around 1600–1200 cal BC. At Sa Ferradura seven hearths have been recorded in a large, open-air area. Their chronology falls within the interval of approximately 1200/1100–900 cal BC. From a chronological point of view, fortified settlements in coastal promontories are not, as was expected, a unitary phenomenon in Menorca and Mallorca and have to be related to different cultural periods.

This article presents the results of direct accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating of a new bone anvil retrieved in the Iron Age–Roman site of Montefí (Ciutadella), in the southwest of the island of Menorca (western Mediterranean). The radiometric date confirms the chronology obtained through the stratigraphy and typological analysis of ceramics (1st–3rd century AD), and indicates that this bone-made tool not only represents the first archaeological anvil from the island but also constitutes the earliest evidence in the western Mediterranean. This ancient date is more consistent with the known eastern regional chronology and reinforces the importance of obtaining direct AMS 14C dates to refine artifact chronologies.