Inca's mayor, Virgilio Moreno (right), with others at the site. | Juanjo Roig

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This coming Monday, the first excavation project at an archaeological site in Inca will begin. This is Son Mas de Potecari. The landowners have signed an agreement with the town hall that will allow excavation for at least five years.

The work will last until the end of July. Volunteers have been registering to assist with the first phase of consolidating a part of the site that was most affected by the removal of stones by machinery when the main road to Santa Margalida was built in the 1960s.

Archaeologist Magdalena Sastre says that consolidation tasks will allow an initial excavation to secure the structure and to locate the surroundings of the central burial mound.

Two talayots have so far been documented - the central one of around 18 metres diameter and a smaller one that is at the entrance to the site. Various burial mounds suggest that Son Mas was a settlement that stretched beyond the two talayots. In the past, ceramics have been found from different eras - Talayotic, Roman and Muslim. In 1928, a bronze bull's head was discovered.

Four archaeologists, a restorer and up to ten volunteers per day will be working at the site.