Gold earring found in the burnt ruins of an Iron Age village could reveal a ‘moment in time’, say archaeologists

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A two-story building was completely destroyed by fire more than 2,000 years ago in the Pyrenees Mountains in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain. The inferno consumed the wooden structure, located in a Iron Age settlement, killing six animals confined in the stable.

The fate of the people who used the building is unknown, but details of their lives remain preserved in a handful of burned clues, including pieces of pottery, tools for textile work and a metal pickaxe, archaeologists recently discovered.

They also found a precious object: a gold earring measuring 2 centimeters long and 0.8 centimeters wide. It was hidden inside a small jar hidden in a wall, perhaps to keep it safe from the would-be looters who started the fire, according to the study published Friday in the journal. Frontiers in Environmental Archeology.

The settlement site is called Tossal de Baltarga and, thousands of years ago, an Iberian community known as Cerretani occupied the village. This group predates the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula and left its mark on the region in carvings in the rock of the mountains. However, researchers are still gathering clues about the lives of the Cerretani, including the meaning of these carvings, said the study’s lead author. Oriol Olesti Vilaassociate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​Spain.

Scientists have discovered several burned buildings in Tossal de Baltarga since 2011, all dating back to the 3rd century BC. Archaeologists recently excavated a non-residential, multi-purpose structure called Building G, the best-preserved building at the site. It measured around 8 meters long by 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 history. The destruction of the entire settlement by fire suggests that the fire was deliberately set. And the chronology of the fire suggests that the arsonists may have been an invading army commanded by Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who led troops against the Roman Republic and crossed the Pyrenees around this time, during the Second Punic War (218 BC to 201 BC), the researchers wrote in the study.

Lifestyle clues

Although the upper floor of Building G collapsed when the support beams caught fire, it still retained traces of its previous structure, with mud bricks in the eastern part of the floor and stones in the western part. One explanation is that the upper floor was divided into two distinct spaces used for different tasks, the scientists said.

More than 1,000 pottery shards from the upper floor represented a variety of vessels, used for cooking, eating, drinking and storing. Eight cooking vessels were nearly complete when found, and chemical analysis revealed that they contained organic residues: animal fats, dairy products, and plants. The drawings of some vessels indicated that they were acquired from another Iberian region through trade. More than a dozen loom weights and spindles told researchers that the building’s occupants were spinning and weaving with wool.

In the stable, scientists found the remains of a horse, four sheep and a goat. The horse was kept in a separate stable, and the charred particles represented a variety of local grasses and plants, as well as cultivated grains, stored there as feed for livestock.

The presence of a horse in the stable suggested that these people were wealthier than some of their neighbors, Olesti Vila said.

“In ancient times, horses were not the typical animals that a normal peasant family would have,” as they were expensive to feed and were not raised for meat or milk, Olesti Vila said.
“In general, horses are linked to the elite.”

This discovery provided archaeologists with another important clue about the social structure in ancient Iberia, introducing the possibility of an “aristocratic” class, the study authors wrote.

A moment in time’

Their discoveries illuminate the lifestyle of the Cerretani, indicating textile work and the use of agriculture and natural resources. Analysis of the hidden earring revealed traces of silver mixed with local gold, showing that the Cerretani were also familiar with metallurgy.

Discovering a “moment in time” like this is exceptional in the archaeological record, he said Dr., professor in the anthropology department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who was not involved in the research. The site provides important information about the daily lives of Iron Age Iberian populations in the Pyrenees at this crucial time in history, Arnold said in an email.

“The most impressive aspect of the excavation of Building G is the breadth of the scientific analyzes carried out on the finds recovered there, which reveal a self-sufficient community with regard to some productive activities, such as spinning and wool weaving”, Arnaldo said .

However, the analysis also showed that this community was part of a wider regional exchange network “through trade and, presumably, bonds of obligation”, linking them to the Iberian tribal leadership, he added.

Mortal attack

The fact that the animals died inside the stable gave researchers yet another clue about the terrible circumstances of the fire.

During the Iron Age, when people lived in wooden houses heated by fire, buildings often burned down accidentally. But if the fire had occurred, the animal owners would likely have opened the barn doors to save their cattle, Olesti Vila said.

They would probably also have returned after the fire was extinguished to retrieve their hidden treasure – the gold earring they hid in a jar.

“This is also an indication of some kind of conflict or some kind of violent aggression,” Olesti Vila said. Scientists have suspected that the community may have been caught up in the Second Punic War and Hannibal’s crossing, “due to chronology and context,” but as the precise date of the fire is unknown, this link is only a hypothesis, he said.

In fact, the existence of violent raids among Iron Age populations in Europe, with bands of raiders stealing valuables, livestock and even people, “is well attested archaeologically,” Arnold added, “and need not be associated with an event specific history such as 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.

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