Remains of wool textiles found alongside ritually sacrificed animals in fifth-century BC Iberia

An opulent banquet gave way to a complex ritual sacrifice. Four cows, four pigs, one dog and up to 52 horses were offered to the gods more than 2,500 years ago on a rural estate in southwestern Spain. In the middle of the remains, however, there was something more surprising that caught the attention of the archaeologists.

In the ritual about 50 domestic animals were sacrificed
[Credit: Beatriz Marin-Aguilera]

Among the offerings excavated in Casas del Turunuelo (Tartessos) at the end of the Iron Age were the oldest known wool textiles on the Iberian Peninsula. Textiles that were extremely valuable, made with very fine threads, accompanied by 24 spindle spirals and 36 loom weights.

"It is possible that the spinners and weavers were working on the site specifically for the occasion of the ritual banquet, and that the precious textiles they made, along with their tools, were later included in the sacrifice," Spanish archaeologist Beatriz Marin-Aguilera, lead author of the study that has just been published in Antiquity, explains.

Aerial view of the excavations at Casas del Turunuelo
[Credit: Marin-Aguilera et al. 2019]

To sacrifice the 50 domestic animals and valuable materials, the building where the celebration was held was burned to the ground. "The destruction of Casas del Turunuelo represents a significant and costly act that involved large quantities of valuable objects, materials and animals that were not consumed during the banquet," says the team of researchers from the University of Cambridge and CSIC.

The two storey house was intentionally burned
[Credit: Marin-Aguilera et al. 2019]

Marin-Aguilera said "the incredible diversity of the textile collection, with fabrics of linen, wool, and spelt mats, had inestimable value for that time, because the quality of the fabrics is very fine". The unique combination of the materials found has led experts to conclude that the setting evokes a Phoenician-Punic sacrifice.

Remains of textiles found at Casas del Turunuelo
[Credit: Marin-Aguilera et al. 2019]

"Casas del Turunuelo, located in Guarena (Badajoz, south-west Spain) is the only site in the western Mediterranean that has so far provided proof of the existence of the ritual known as zb?, which means 'offering' and 'sacrifice'", adds the expert. During this ceremony the sacrifice of animals, the consumption of food and drinks and the consecration of textiles and precious objects were combined.

The Phoenician people, which spread throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from the Near East, had commercial links with Iberia from the 9th century BC. "The preservation of textiles is generally very poor, and before this discovery there were no textile remains dating back to this time in Iberia," says the Spanish archaeologist.

Digital and scanning electron micrographs of threads and fibres found at
Casas del Turunuelo: a spliced linen thread, flax fibre bundles
and esparto grass [Credit: Marin-Aguilera et al. 2019]

"The discovery, therefore, provides us with very valuable information about the textiles in the Iberian Peninsula 2,500 years ago and also evidences the existence of ritual sacrifices outside the Graeco-Roman world, which have been excavated to date," adds Beatriz Marin-Aguilera.

Spindle whorls and loom weights from Casas del Turunuelo
[Credit: Marin-Aguilera et al. 2019]

This large two-storey building with adobe walls on stone foundations had a large staircase that led to a room that fulfilled a ritual function and had in its interior an altar in the shape of an ox hide situated in the centre of the room, as well as a long bench along its northern wall.

The sacrifice," the authors of the study write, "represented an ostentatious relinquishment of the social power that these objects might otherwise have transmitted, and bears witness to the power and control over the resources that this elite had. After the ritual of the late 5th century BC the site was covered with a mound.

Author: David Ruiz Marull | Source: La Vangguardia [trsl. TANN, August 15, 2019]