Archaeologists in Spain have discovered the remains of a 2,400-year-old bronze chariot that was used to honor gods and may belong to the ancient Etruscans, who lived in what is now Italy. According to the research team, the discovery is “without known parallels” in Iberia.
According to one translation, the approximately 24 inches long (60 cm) chariot was designed with a flat, table-like top, which people would have used as a surface to burn incense as divine offerings. statement.
The side of the chariot displays a face with its tongue out. This face appears to be an unusual mixture of a Gorgonan ancient protective symbol associated with medusa; And immovableA powerful river god in Greek mythology who could transform into a bull. Guiomar Pulido GonzalezAn archaeologist from the Merida Institute of Archeology (part of the Spanish National Research Council) who was involved in the discovery told Live Science.
Archaeologists unearthed part of a chariot, including two legs and two wheels, at an archaeological site called Casas del Turunuelo (“House of Turunuelo” in Spanish) in the province of Badajoz, Spain, near the border with Portugal. The two legs look like two people holding the table portion of the chariot.
One face on the chariot appears to be an unusual mix of a Gorgon and Achelous, a river god in Greek mythology who could transform into a bull.
(Image credit: Construendo Tartesso Project)
On both short sides of the chariot is depicted a mythological creature associated with protection: a lion with wings and an eagle head, called a griffin. All the figurative parts of the chariots point to protective divinities, Pulido explained, although “we are not sure what they are protecting – perhaps the contents of the chariot, or the spectators watching them.”
Archaeologists have discovered similar chariots before EtruscansA pre-Roman people who lived in Italy from about 900 to 100 B.C. However, according to Pulido, who is also a doctoral student at the Autonomous University of Madrid studying ancient Mediterranean imports throughout the Iberian Peninsula, the new find is the first known chariot to feature the Gorgon-Achelous face mashup, and it is the first chariot of its kind found in the Iberian Peninsula.
On either side of the chariot is a griffin, a mythological creature associated with protection.
(Image credit: Construendo Tartesso Project)
Restorers working on the artifact noticed that the two men holding the chariot were wearing skirts, which would be unusual for an Etruscan chariot; Generally, Etruscan-made bronze figures are nude, Pulido said. Despite this discrepancy, the theory is that the chariot was built by the Etruscans and reached modern Spain via trade routes.
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The chariot was found in a layer that suggests it was abandoned around the end of the fifth century BC, although the design of the Gorgon-Achelous face statue indicates that it may have been made in the sixth century BC.
The humanoid figures on the chariot are clothed, which is unusual as other Etruscan-made bronze figures are naked.
(Image credit: Construendo Tartesso Project)
a mysterious people
Pulido explained that the archaeological site where the bronze chariot was recovered is in an area known as the Middle Guadiana River Valley, which contains 14 known sites left by a mysterious people who completely disappeared from the archaeological record around 400 BC. They were probably local populations that were heavily influenced by or mixed with tartesianA civilization that settled in the Iberian Peninsula around the eighth century BC and was known for detailed writing system.
Pulido said each of the 14 sites contained the remains of burned buildings that were later filled with soil and fragmented objects. The recently discovered chariot was deliberately broken – it has no other damage other than being cut in half – and is included in the wreckage.
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Excavators found the chariot at an archaeological site called Casas del Turunuelo (“House of Turunuelo” in Spanish) in southwestern Spain.
Researchers believe the chariot was made by the Etruscans, a pre-Roman civilization from what is now Italy, and that it ended up in Spain through trade.
The current leading theory regarding these ruins is that, for some unknown reason and at approximately the same time, the inhabitants of these centers burned their buildings, filled them in, and then abandoned the sites. According to Pulido, it appears that the setting of the fire and filling was very deliberate, as it occurred in the context of an enemy attack. “Instead, they would have formed part of a carefully planned ritual of closure, a symbolic farewell to buildings that had been deliberately destroyed,” he said.
Then, this culture “disappeared from the archaeological record,” Pulido said. But other evidence, including imported pottery Greece And other Etruscan bronze objects show that whoever these people were, they participated in ancient trade networks spanning the Mediterranean, with their elite having enough wealth to buy imported goods, he said.
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