MERIDA, 18 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The works carried out within the framework of the V excavation campaign at the Tartessian site of Casas del Turuñuelo, located in the municipality of Guareña in Badajoz, have brought to light the remains of five figured reliefs from the V century BC, the first belonging to the Tartessian culture (8th-4th centuries BC).
The discovery was made during the excavation of the eastern sector of the site, the area through which the patio of the building is accessed where a massive sacrifice of animals was documented, mainly horses, and the “unusual” thing about the new finding is that the representations correspond to human faces.
The team from the Institute of Archaeology, a joint center of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Junta de Extremadura, led by Esther Rodríguez González and Sebastián Celestino Pérez, confirmed this Tuesday at a press conference that, of the set recovered to date , two of the figurative reliefs are almost complete and correspond to two female figures adorned with prominent earrings or hoop earrings that represent typical pieces of Tartessian goldsmithing.
Until now, these gold pieces were only known through discoveries made in enclaves such as the Cancho Roano site or within the set that makes up the Aliseda treasure, a Tartessian funerary trousseau found in Cáceres.
Given the technical quality and the artistic detail with which they were made, it could be before the representation of two female divinities of the Tartessian pantheon, although, nevertheless, the researchers do not rule out that they are prominent figures of Tartessian society, it has been reported the CSIC in a press release.
Along with the two female figures, other fragments of reliefs have been recovered. These belong to at least three other individuals, one of them identified as a warrior by preserving part of the helmet.
This “extraordinary finding” represents a “profound change” of the paradigm in the interpretation of Tartesus, traditionally considered an aniconic culture for representing divinity through animal or plant motifs, or through betilos (sacred stones). Thus, the finding does nothing but influence even more both the importance of the site and the importance of the Tartessian culture in the Guadiana valley during its last moments.
In addition to the research team, the press conference was attended on Tuesday by the director of the IAM-CSIC, Pedro Mateos; the representative of the CSIC in Andalusia and Extremadura, Margarita Paneque, and the mayor of Guareña, Abel González.
Building Tarteso is a project of the State Research Agency within the I D i State Plan of the Ministry of Science and Innovation. Its main objective is to characterize the Tartessian material culture through the architectural analysis of the large adobe buildings excavated in recent decades.
The Construyendo Tarteso team, which began its first excavation campaign in 2015, at the Casas del Turuñuelo site, located in Las Vegas Altas del Guadiana, is currently immersed in its fifth excavation campaign. This campaign has received the support of the General Secretary for Science, Technology, Innovation and University of the Junta de Extremadura, through the concession of a FEDER Fund, the Diputación de Badajoz and the Palarq Foundation.
In this campaign, the work is focused on the eastern sector of the site since, after the work carried out in 2022, the current objective is to try to locate the access point: the building’s façade. As they are constructions that follow an oriental pattern, they are usually oriented towards the east, that is, towards sunrise. In addition, it tries to discover if there is a symmetry with the patio or if there could be a door that communicates directly with said space.
This site is unique for many aspects, fundamentally, for its “excellent state of conservation.” To date, it is the best-preserved building built on land in the western Mediterranean. This is due, among other reasons, to preserving its two construction floors, that is, the possibility of walking through both the upper and lower floors.
Its state of conservation makes it possible to document construction techniques and architectural solutions that to date had not been documented in a Tartessian site. An example is the possible existence of a vault that covered one of its main rooms or the use of lime mortar, in this case, to make the ashlars for the lower steps of the stairs.
In addition to the architectural elements, such as the conservation of adobe elevations up to five meters high, the mass sacrifice of animals is significant, the largest that has been documented to date in the western Mediterranean.
On the other hand, the materials that it treasures and their state of conservation are “exceptional”, since the presence of a marble sculpture from Mount Pentelicus, of which only the feet are visible, or the set of original glasses Macedonian, together with the collection of Etruscan ivories, show the cultural and material wealth of this unique enclave.
The Institute of Archeology of Mérida is a mixed center formed by the CSIC and the Junta de Extremadura through the Ministry of Economy, Science and Digital Agenda. It carries out its activity at a regional level, in different parts of the country and outside its borders, extending its research to numerous sites in North Africa, Europe and America.
At this time, the involvement of the IAM in Extremadura stands out, where it develops research projects in different parts of the autonomous community, as in the case of the archaeological site of Mérida or in ancient cities such as Botija, Contribute Iulia and Metellinum, among others.
One of these deposits is that of Casas del Turuñuelo, whose research has been carried out by the institute since 2015. In addition to the CSIC, researchers belonging to more than 28 national and international research centers and universities collaborate in these works.
