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More than 2,000 years ago, a two-story building burned to the ground in the Pyrenees Mountains of Iberia in northeastern Spain. The inferno consumed the wooden structure of the Iron Age settlement, causing the deaths of six animals kept in the stable.
The fate of the people who occupied the building is unknown, but details of their lives are preserved in a handful of burnt clues that archaeologists have recently discovered, including pottery shards, textile tools and a metal pickaxe.
They also found a valuable object: a gold earring measuring 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) long and 0.8 inches wide. It was hidden in a small jar hidden inside the wall, perhaps to protect it from looters who supposedly started the fire, according to research published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archeology.
The name of the settlement is Tossal de Baltarga, and thousands of years ago it was occupied by a community of Iberian people known as the Cerretani. This group appeared before the Roman occupation of Iberia and left its mark on the region with carvings in mountain rocks. However, Dr., an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain. Oriol Olesti Vila said researchers are still trying to piece together clues about Cerretani life, including the meaning of these carvings.
Since 2011, scientists have uncovered numerous burnt buildings at Tossal de Baltarga, all dating back to the 3rd century BC. Archaeologists recently excavated a non-residential, multi-purpose structure called Building G, the best-preserved building in the area. It measured approximately 26 feet (8 meters) long and approximately 7 feet (2 meters) wide, and its contents offer an unprecedented glimpse into Cerretani life in Iron Age Iberia.
But the blackened ruins also preserve a darker story. The fact that the entire settlement was destroyed by fire indicates that the fire was started deliberately. The chronology of the fire indicates that the arsonists may have been an invading army under the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who led troops against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War (218 BC – 201 BC) and crossed the Pyrenees around this time. researchers wrote in the study.
Lifestyle tips
Although the upper floor of Building G collapsed when the support beams burned, it still preserves traces of its old structure, with adobe bricks in the eastern part of the floor and stones in the western part. One explanation, the scientists said, is that the upper floor was divided into two separate areas used for different tasks.
More than 1,000 pottery sherds in the upper level represented a variety of vessels used for cooking, eating, drinking and storing food. The eight cooking pots were nearly complete when they were found, and chemical analysis revealed that they contained organic residues: animal fats, dairy products and plants. The designs of some ships indicated that they were acquired from another Iberian region through trade. More than a dozen weights for a loom and spindles told investigators that the occupants of the building were spinning and weaving wool.
Scientists found the remains of a horse, four sheep and a goat in the barn. The horse was kept in a separate stable, and the charred particles represented cultivated grains, as well as various local herbs and plants stored there as fodder for animals.
Olesti Vila said the presence of a horse in the stable showed that these people were richer than some of their neighbors.
“In ancient times, horses were not the typical animals that a normal peasant family would have,” says Olesti Vila, because they were expensive to feed and were not kept for their meat or milk.
“Horses in general are associated with the elite.”
This finding provides archaeologists with another important clue to the social structure in ancient Iberia, raising the possibility of an “aristocratic” class, the study authors wrote.
‘A moment in time’
Their discoveries shed light on the lifestyle of the Cerretani; It points to textile craftsmanship, agriculture and the use of natural resources. Analysis of the hidden earring revealed traces of silver mixed with local gold; This shows that the Cerretani were also familiar with metalworking.
Dr., a professor in the anthropology department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who was not involved in the research. Bettina Arnold said it was exceptional to uncover such a “moment in time” in the archaeological record. The site provides important information about the daily lives of Iberian Iron Age populations in the Pyrenees during this important period in history, Arnold said in an email.
“The most impressive aspect of the Building G excavation is the extent of scientific analysis of the finds recovered here, which reveals the existence of a self-sufficient community in some production activities such as wool spinning and weaving.” Arnold said.
But the analysis also showed that this community was part of a larger regional network of exchanges that connected them to Iberian tribal leaders “through ties of trade and possibly obligation.”
fatal attack
The fact that the animals died in the barn gave investigators another clue about the horrific conditions of the fire.
During the Iron Age, when people lived in wooden houses heated by fire, buildings often burned accidentally. But Olesti Vila said that if such a fire had occurred, livestock owners would likely have opened their barn doors to save their animals.
They would probably return after the fire was out to retrieve their hidden treasure, namely a gold earring they had hidden in a jar.
“This is also indicative of some type of conflict or some type of violent aggression,” Olesti Vila said. Scholars suspected “due to chronology and context” that the community may have been caught up in the Second Punic War and the passage of Hannibal, but since the exact date of the fire is unknown, this connection is only a hypothesis. said.
Indeed, the existence of violent raids among Iron Age populations in Europe, in which bands of invaders seized valuables, animals, and even people, is “archaeologically proven,” he added, “and is not necessarily associated with a specific historical event as such.” Hannibal’s campaigns.”
Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American, and How It Works magazines.
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