The discovery of 6,770 ancient bones belonging to 52 different animals from the Iron Age in one place has caused archaeologists to question what happened in this region of Spain. Researchers in Spain, who have published a new study, believe they may now have a clear answer.
This massive site of bones was recently excavated at Casas del Turuñuelo, an Iron Age settlement in southwestern Spain around the 5th century BC. After compiling their evidence, researchers concluded that this mysterious cemetery was a site of ritual animal sacrifice.
Among the bones were at least 41 horses, six cattle, four pigs and a single dog. Soil layers show that animals were buried in three successive stages. While in the first two stages the animals were buried without any changes, in the last stage the skeletons looked as if they had been slaughtered for meat.
The authors of the study say that this may be evidence that the ritual sacrifice turned into a feast or banquet in later periods.
The remains show that the animals died as healthy adults, confirming that they were unlikely to perish from an epidemic or natural disaster. Additionally, some animals, particularly horses, appear to have been buried in neat pairs.
This arrangement of equid pairs with similar characteristics makes it more likely that they were chariot animals sacrificed at the same time, the study’s authors said. This idea is supported by pathologies showing that they served for riding and possibly pulling carts. The discovery of metallic fragments, combined with the wear of premolars and the erosion of the spaces between more than half of the equids, proves that they were cared for, kept under control, and therefore used for work.
Another important clue came from burnt vegetable matter at the site, typical remains left by burnt offerings.
Although there are numerous literary sources suggesting that such an event occurred in ancient times, it is quite unusual to find concrete evidence of mass animal sacrifice in the Mediterranean during the Iron Age.
For example, according to Homer’s Odyssey, King Nestor sacrificed 81 black bulls on the beach of Pylos. In the Iliad, it is mentioned that Peleus, the father of Achilles, sacrificed 50 black rams in case his son returned alive from Troy.
But despite the prevalence of these stories, solid archaeological evidence like the one at the newly found site is extremely rare.
The new study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
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