Archaeologists felt they knew what to anticipate as they dug into the gray-brown soil of eastern Spain. After all, they had spent years excavating one of the culture's abandoned sites while studying it for decades.
Archaeologists are reconsidering ancient Tartessian culture after finding human-shaped, first-of-their-kind reliefs in Guareña, photos show. Photo from the Spanish National Research Council
Archaeologists later realized they were mistaken as a long-lost face poked its head out of the earth.
According to a news release from the Spanish National Research Council on April 18, the archaeologists were excavating the courtyard of the Casas del Turuuelo in Guarea. The Tartessians, a prehistoric Spanish society, built a two-story, well-preserved building at the location.
In southwestern Spain, Tartessian civilisation flourished between the ninth and sixth centuries B.C., according to the World History Encyclopedia. The Tartessians, skilled in the metallurgy of silver, tin, and iron, rose to great affluence, becoming, in the words of the encyclopedia, "like an ancient version of the modern 'El Dorado,'" a mythical city of gold.
The Casas del Turuñuelo site as seen from above. The left-most room is the upper chamber. The right-most room is the courtyard Photo from Building Tartesso website
An article from Building Tartesso, the project centre for Tartessian excavations, claims that the Casas del Turuuelo was built by the Tartessians about 2,500 years ago. The impressive site is shown in photos.
The courtyard is the space to the right. According to a map from a 2019 investigation of the site published in the journal Antiquity, the room contains a hallway running along one side and a pair of stairs leading up to an anteroom that branches in three directions.
According to Building Tartesso, Room 100 is an upper main room with a vault and a stone bathtub-like structure that lies directly ahead of the anteroom. A smaller room can be found to the right. A complete set of ceramics, jugs, a cauldron, and a grill were discovered in the banquet room, which lies to the left of the anteroom, together with other leftovers from a feast.
Some of the animal skeletons from the mass sacrifice. Photo from the Spanish National Research Council
The building might have been a Tartessian temple or sanctuary. According to a research council news release, archaeologists discovered the remains of a complex ritual mass sacrifice ceremony next to the courtyard stairs in 2017.
Before the location was destroyed, burned, sealed with clay, and abandoned, sixteen horses, two bulls, and a pig were sacrificed there, according to Building Tartesso and the council.
Five human face reliefs were found by archaeologists digging in this courtyard, according to the April 18 news release. The first Tartessian human representations ever discovered, according to experts, are these statues.
Nearing completion are two of the 2,500-year-old sculptures. The statues, which feature two female figures wearing traditional Tartessian jewelry, could be of long-lost goddesses or well-known individuals, according to the press statement.
These two female figures are visible in photos posted on Twitter by the Spanish National Research Council. One statue is broken into multiple pieces and is colored like brown charcoal. The statue's eyes lack an iris and it looks straight ahead while sporting large earrings. The eyes of the other sculpture, which is yellow-gold in hue, are covered by a band resembling a crown.
Less was done on the other three statues. One was recognized as a warrior by archaeologists based on its helmet, while the identities of the other two are unknown.
Close up photos of the two female statues. Photos from the Spanish National Research Council
According to the release, experts have long assumed that the Tartessian people preferred to represent their gods as animals, plants, or sacred stones rather than as human beings.
Archaeologists are drastically changing and reevaluating their knowledge of Tartessian society in light of these sculptures.
The Building Tartesso project is now conducting excavations at the Casas del Turuuelo and other Tartessian ruins.
About 210 kilometres to the southwest of Madrid is Guarea.
