About 2,500 years ago, the inhabitants of Casas del Turuñuelo, in Las Vegas Altas del Guadiana (Badajoz), carried out a unique ritual in the patio. They carried out a massive sacrifice of animals, whose bones were left there for posterity. But it was not the only one. The Iron Age site was a place where these ceremonies were usually held.
Archaeological sites from this era are rarely discovered in the Mediterranean region with evidence of significant animal sacrifices. Hence, the discoveries made at this site built in the 5th century BC and linked to Tartessos have captivated researchers.
Experts from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) have examined and dated 6,770 bones belonging to 52 beasts that were buried in three different phases. The identified specimens were predominantly adult horses, but male cattle and pigs and even a dog between 3 and 4 years old have also been found.
As researchers María Pilar Iborra and Sebastián Celestino explain in an article published in the journal PLOS ONE, the skeletons of the first two phases were mostly complete and unaltered. In the third, however, the bones (except those of equids) show signs of having been processed as food.
This suggests, according to specialists, that some type of banquet accompanied this ritual in Casas de Turuñuelo. These data further indicate that the space was used repeatedly over several years for sacrificial ceremonies whose practices and purposes varied.
This is the largest animal sacrifice discovered in the entire western Mediterranean during the First Iron Age, the result of ritual practices carried out by the last communities of Tartessos (the civilization that developed in the triangle formed by the current provinces of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz). ).
“There was an intentional selection of adult animals instead of young ones and importance was given to fire, evidenced by the presence of burned plant and animal remains. The Turuñuelo Houses (discovered in 2017) also present unique characteristics compared to other sites, such as the great abundance of sacrificed horses,” the archaeologists write.
The mass sacrifices were part of a series of rites linked to the last period of activity of the site, just before its final abandonment. The rites took place at the end of the 5th century BC, when both the building (intentionally destroyed) and the animals were buried under a mound 90 meters in diameter and 6 meters high.
“The fact that the animals are mostly adults rules out the probability that they died from natural causes or from an epidemic. Furthermore, the scenic deposition of certain equids in pairs, as well as the evidence of the burning of plant offerings, suggest an intentional ritual sacrifice,” Iborra and Celestino write.
Researchers have identified the remains of six cattle, four pigs, a dog and 41 horses. The work also includes the discovery of cremated vegetables that could have been part of offerings and objects associated with symbolic activities, such as sheep tabas, a leg bone related to luck and divination practices.
“The protagonism of equids in these sacrifices is important, a fact that shows the relevance of these species (horses, donkeys and their hybrids) in the economic systems and culture of Iron Age communities,” the researchers conclude.
The latest excavation campaign in Casas de Turñuelo has focused on the eastern sector of the site, where a large room has been discovered in which a batch of ivories of Etruscan origin and the first figurative reliefs of Tartessos have been recovered.
The good state of conservation of this building makes it the best preserved in the western Mediterranean, which makes it possible to characterize construction techniques and architectural solutions that to date had not been documented in a site of that culture in the south of the Iberian Peninsula.
