9,500-Year-Old Baskets And 6,200-Year-Old Sandals Found In Spanish Cave

Scientists have discovered and analyzed the first direct evidence of basketry among hunter-gatherer societies and early farmers in southern Europe (9,500 and 6,200 years ago), in the Cueva de los Murciélagos of Albuñol (Granada, Spain).

This site is one of the most emblematic archaeological sites of prehistoric times in the Iberian Peninsula due to the unique preservation of organic materials found there.

The work analyzes 76 objects made of organic materials (wood, reed and esparto) discovered during 19th century mining activities in the Granada cave.

The researchers studied the raw materials and technology and carried out carbon-14 dating, which revealed that the set dates to the early and middle Holocene period, between 9,500 and 6,200 years ago.

This is the first direct evidence of basketry made by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies in southern Europe and a unique set of other organic tools associated with early Neolithic farming communities, such as sandals and a wooden mace.

As researcher of the Prehistory Department of the University of Alcalá Francisco Martínez Sevilla explains, “the new dating of the esparto baskets from the Cueva de los Murciélagos of Albuñol opens a window of opportunity to understanding the last hunter-gatherer societies of the early Holocene.”

“The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in southern Europe. This work and the project that is being developed places the Cueva de los Murciélagos as a unique site in Europe to study the organic materials of prehistoric populations.”

Cueva de los Murciélagos is located on the coast of Granada, to the south of the Sierra Nevada and 2 kilometers from the town of Albuñol. The cave opens on the right side of the Barranco de las Angosturas, at an altitude of 450 meters above sea level and about 7 kilometers from the current coastline. It is one of the most emblematic prehistoric archaeological sites of the Iberian Peninsula due to the rare preservation of organic materials, which until this study had only been attributed to the Neolithic.

The objects made of perishable materials were discovered by the mining activities of the 19th century and were documented and recovered by Manuel de Góngora y Martínez, later becoming part of the first collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid.

As detailed by María Herrero Otal, co-author of the work and researcher at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, “The esparto grass objects from Cueva de los Murciélagos are the oldest and best-preserved set of plant fiber materials in southern Europe so far known.”

“The technological diversity and the treatment of the raw material documented demonstrates the ability of prehistoric communities to master this type of craftsmanship, at least since 9,500 years ago, in the Mesolithic period.

Only one type of technique related to hunter-gatherers has been identified, while the typological, technological and treatment range of esparto grass was extended during the Neolithic from 7,200 to 6,200 years before the present.”

The work is part of the project “De los museos al territorio: actualizando el estudio de la Cueva de los Murciélagos de Albuñol (Granada)” (MUTERMUR). The objective of this project is the holistic study of the site and its material record, applying the latest archaeometric techniques and generating quality scientific data.

The project also included the collaboration of the National Archaeological Museum, the Archaeological and Ethnological Museum of Granada, the City Council of Albuñol and the owners of the cave.

“The results of this work and the finding of the oldest basketry in southern Europe give more meaning, if possible, to the phrase written by Manuel de Góngora in his work Prehistoric Antiquities of Andalusia (1868): ‘the now forever famous Cueva de los Murciélagos’,” the authors say.

The study was conducted by a team of scientists led by researchers from the Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and published in the journal Science Advances.

Ancient Roman city was violently destroyed. Now, its huge plaza has been unearthed

The ruins of an enormous Roman plaza — which dates back around 2,000 years — were recently unearthed in Spain.

It is the oldest known public square ever found in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula, which encompasses Spain, Portugal and part of France, according to a news release from the University of Zaragoza.

The excavation was made at La Cabañeta, an archaeological site along the banks of the Ebro River in northeastern Spain, researchers said.

It contains the remains of a mysterious, ill-fated Roman city founded around 200 B.C. Less than a century later, the city with a name not yet known was violently destroyed during a civil war.

After nearly a decade-long hiatus, archaeologists resumed operations at the site in July. Their excavation was focused on the central area, where the ruins of a massive square were found.

The unearthed plaza was surrounded by a portico topped with meticulously crafted tiles, researchers said. A series of chambers, likely used for commercial activity, were also located.

The discovery is of great significance because of its architectural intricacy and large size. It will help scholars understand the diffusion of Roman-style architecture throughout the Iberian Peninsula, where the Roman Empire once had multiple provinces.

The city, which was organized in a grid, likely once served as a transportation hub for merchants ferrying goods up and down the river, Borja Díaz, co-director of the excavation, told El Pais.

But charred material indicates that around the year 70 B.C., the city met its ruin, Díaz told the outlet, adding that he hadn’t ruled out the possibility of encountering human remains.

The city’s destruction occurred during the Sertorian War, a bloody conflict in modern-day Spain associated with the First Roman Civil War, according to a 2022 study published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.

Confrontations were characterized by “assaults and sieges of towns that habitually ended with them being burned to the ground or destroyed, and with severe punishments meted out to the populations,” according to the study.

Large Roman structures are regularly unearthed throughout the Mediterranean.

A Roman stadium-lake structure was located in Greece in 2022, and a massive Roman-era building with thermal baths was discovered in France earlier this year, according to reporting from McClatchy News.

Archaeologists uncover AMAZING mosaic depicting Medusa in Mérida, Spain

Spanish archaeologists in the La Huerta de Otero Archaeological Zone, on the western side of Mérida and part of the Roman city of Augusta Emerita, uncovered amazing mosaics, including one depicting the ancient Greek mythological figure Medusa.

Augusta Emerita was founded in 25 BC by Augustus to resettle Emeriti soldiers from the veteran legions of the Cantabrian Wars.

The city emerged as one of the largest Roman centres in Hispania and the capital of the province of Lusitania, covering an area of over 20,000 square kilometres.

Recent excavations in the La Huerta de Otero Archaeological Zone have revealed a large mosaic in the main room of a Roman domus depicting Medusa, one of the three monstrous Gorgons from Greek mythology.

According to the researchers, the depiction is a prophylactic representation to protect the Domus inhabitants, similar to other Medusa depictions found in numerous artefacts and mosaics from throughout the Greek and Roman world for protection.

The Medusa image is framed in the centre of an octagonal medallion, surrounded in all four corners by peacocks that embody the four seasons.

The overall mosaic measures around 30m2 and also contains geometric patterns and images of floral and animal motifs such as birds and fish.

In this excavation, the remains of a Roman domus and a canvas of the city wall were brought to light.

After decades of abandonment, at the beginning of 2019, a research project began with the objective of comprehensive documentation of the site through archaeological excavations, geophysical surveys and the adaptation of the exhumed remains to public visits.

The Consortium of the Monumental City, the Institute of Archeology and the City Council, promoter of the workshop for Operators specialized in Heritage, Archaeological Excavations and Construction of the Dual Professional Schools Medea, Barraeca I and the current Barraeca II collaborate in this project.

Stone Penis Found in Medieval Spanish Ruins Had Violent Purpose

Archaeologists found a six-inch stone penis while excavating the Tower of Meira (Torre de Meira) in the city of Ría de Vigo in the northwest region of Spain.

Phallic symbolism is commonly found in prehistoric artifacts, but it is less common in finds from the medieval era. That’s why archaeologists couldn’t understand why this object was on medieval grounds.

But now the relic stands out, not just for its phallic form, but for its violent purpose – to sharpen weapons in preparation for bloody battles during the Irmandiño War in Spain.

Experts said this kind of symbolism may have been related to the violent uprisings taking place in the region around the time when the tower was demolished.

Torre de Meira was brought down in 1476 during the Irmandiño revolts when peasants rose up against the Spanish nobility. Some 130 castles and forts suffered the same fate.

According to Darío Peña from the Árbore Arqueoloxía team, sharpening stones are commonly discovered at medieval sites, and can have different forms.

The archaeologists determined the function of the stone penis by observing a distinct pattern of wear on one side of the phallic whetstone.

The artifact’s cultural significance is unknown, but its proximity to the fortified tower may provide some insight. It might have had a symbolic significance in relation to the war or served a useful function during that trying time.

“It materializes the symbolic association between violence, weapons, and masculinity,” archaeologist Darío Peña told  Hyperallergic. “An association that we know existed in the Middle Ages and that is present in our culture today.”

The phallic stone was found among other artifacts including pottery and stone spindles according to Árbore Arqueoloxía e Restauración S. Coop. Galega, the group leading the excavations.

Excavations at this site began around 3 years ago. In the first phase of excavations, the tower was excavated and restored by Arbore. Just last year, the focus was shifted to the structure’s surrounding wall, and finally, the focus was shifted to the excavation of the main building.

Archaeologists plan to continue excavations at the site, after seeking permission from the landowners in the municipality of Moaña.

Freshwater and marine shells used as ornaments 30,000 years ago were discovered in Spain

In Malaga’s Cueva de Ardales, up to 13 freshwater and marine shells that were carefully transformed by humans between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago have been discovered.

According to a study published in the environmental scientific journal Environmental Archaeology, the first Homo sapiens wore necklaces and earrings made from seashells from the Bay of Malaga.

This incredible discovery was the result of research conducted in collaboration with the Neanderthal Museum of Colonia, the University of Colonia, and the Cueva de Ardales, according to a press release from the University of Cadiz.

This archaeological enclave is now once more among the most significant in the Iberian Peninsula thanks to the discovery. When it comes to the Paleolithic era, body adornments are a subject of great interest to the scientific community.

According to the scientific article, the shells were “carefully transformed” by humans of the genus Homo sapiens into ornaments and pendants to decorate the bodies of these groups that occupied the Ardales Cave.

The symbolic value of these natural supports and the distance that human groups occasionally traveled to gather them and turn them into decorative elements represented a significant advancement in the development of cognition.

The analysis of these shells has been headed by UCA professor Juan Jesús Cantillo Duarte.

“It is unusual to find this type of marine remains in caves located so far inland and with such an ancient chronology. On the Mediterranean, only a little more than a hundred remains were known, and all of them are located on the coast,” Duarte said.

“ The inhabitants of the Ardales cave, however, had to travel a distance of more than 50 km to collect the shells on the coast”, added Professor José Ramos.

Investigadores de la UCA lideran un estudio arqueológico en la Cueva de Ardales que revela el uso de conchas como adornos hace 30.000 años.

Más info: https://t.co/G5gtB274lC#Arqueologia #CuevaArdales #Investigacion

— Universidad de Cádiz (@univcadiz) June 2, 2023

Also noteworthy was: “the presence of vermetids, a kind of tube-shaped snail that is uncommon in the archaeological record”, stressed Cantillo Duarte.

The chronological framework and the association of these ornaments with the rock art and lithic remains documented inside the cave confirm their social dimension.

“The results of the excavations in the Ardales Cave suggest that it was used as a place for specialized symbolic activities during various phases of the Upper Palaeolithic,” said Pedro Cantalejo, research director of the Ardales Cave, for whom the cave still has much to tell.

Unprecedented drought reveals 7500-year-old Spanish Stonehenge

Rising temperatures and drought conditions have caused serious problems for human populations all over the world, according to the World Health Organization.

Those dramatic changes in landscape brought on by lowering water levels, though, have also led to a number of notable discoveries, as Insider notes.

One area particularly affected by drought has been the central Spanish province of Caceres, where water levels in the Valdecanas reservoir have dropped nearly 30%, and as a result, a fascinating site from near pre-history has been recovered, per Reuters. 

Though that lack of water has caused a number of serious problems in the country, the archaeological site that reemerged from the water in Spain dates to around 5,000 B.C., as Reuters also notes.

The site, which up until recently was submerged, was discovered first in the 1920s, but it was lost when the area was flooded for a reservoir project under Franco’s leadership.

The chance to study the area once again is a rare opportunity for scientists, according to Madrid’s Complutense University archaeologist Enrique Cedillo (via Reuters).

THE SPANISH STONEHENGE WAS UNCOVERED

The archaeological site uncovered by the receding waters of Valdecanas reservoir near the city of Huelva consists of dolmens, or large neolithic stone structures, as well as a number of standing stones similar to England’s Stonehenge, according to CNN. For this reason, the area is officially called the Dolmen of Guadalperal, but it’s colloquially known as the  Spanish Stonehenge. In total there are thousands of stones on the site, spread over some 1,500 acres.

What’s also notable about the Iberian complex is that experts estimate there are some 500 stones still standing at the Spanish Stonehenge. According to experts, they were put there at different points in history, beginning as early as 5000 B.C. up through 1000 B.C., as Live Science notes.

There are also coffin-shaped structures on the site called cists where researchers believe human remains were buried.

Similar sites were also likely used as memorials for the dead, but so far, no human remains have been verified.

THE SPANISH STONEHENGE COULD BE OLDER THAN OTHER SITES

A number of similar sites with similar stone structures are found across Europe, according to Britannica, but otherwise not much is known about those who built them.

It’s believed that such areas served a number of purposes for ancient peoples, both ritualistic and astronomic, among other potential explanations. It’s not possible to date the exact age of the stone, but the age of the sediment on the stone can be estimated with radiocarbon dating techniques (via The New York Times).

The sheer number of different types of stones and stone structures at the Spanish complex is particularly notable, and it’s believed to be possibly older than other similar areas so far studied.

Since the Spanish area was spotted in the 1920s and then flooded in the 1960s, it’s only been above water four times. Now that the “Spanish Stonehenge” is once more accessible, some advocate moving it permanently away from the flood area.

The Iberian Peninsula drought that contributed to the resurfacing of the Spanish Stonehenge is the worst of its kind in some 1,200 years. Scientists expect it will worsen, according to CNN. 

Archaeologists discovered a 2,000-year-old rock-carved face at Spain’s Tossal de La Cala castle

Archaeologists have discovered a rock-carved face at Toscal De La Cala, a Roman fort in Benidorm, on the east coast of Spain.

Archaeologists from the University of Alicante discovered a 2,000-year-old rock-carved “inscultura” face with three artistic representations of a human face, a cornucopia, and a phallus during excavations.

The carving was described by University of Alicante professor Jesús Moratalla, head of the excavation, as “a relief of outstanding historical importance”.

The carving measures 57 x 42 centimeters, however, Moratalla and his team believe that this scene is “possibly incomplete” since “the upper right quadrant” being missing.

Historical and Cultural Heritage Councilor Ana Pellicer said that there are no parallel references to engraving and reliefs of similar composition at sites in Rome.

Unknown is the carving’s purpose; it might have been graffiti or served a ritualistic function. Given that the Romans considered the phallus to be the embodiment of masculine generative power and one of the symbols of the safety of the state (sacra Romana), the inclusion of a phallus raises the possibility that it served to offer protection.

Given that many Roman deities connected to the harvest, prosperity, or spiritual abundance are frequently depicted carrying a cornucopia in Roman reliefs and coins, the depiction of a cornucopia or “horn of plenty” raises the possibility that the face could be that of a god or goddess.

In a myth, the cornucopia was created when Heracles (Roman Hercules) wrestled with the river god Achelous and ripped off one of his horns; river gods were sometimes depicted as horned.

Located on a 100-meter-high hill, the Tossal de La Cala site was excavated in the 1940s by Father Belda and in 1965 by Professor M. Tarradell, dating the archaeological remains found between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.

Archaeological excavations carried out by the University of Alicante (AU) since 2013 reveal that it was a Roman settlement occupied by the armies of Quinto Sertorio during the Sertorian Wars.

The Sertorian Wars was a civil war fought between a group of Roman rebels (Sertorian) and the Roman government. (80 to 72 BC)

A 5,400-year-old tomb discovered in Spain perfectly captures the summer solstice

Archaeologists have discovered a 5,400-year-old megalithic tomb near a prominent lone mountain in southern Spain, suggesting the peak may have been meaningful to prehistoric people there.

The area, in the countryside near the city of Antequera, is renowned for its megaliths — prehistoric monuments made from large stones — and the newly found tomb seems to solve one of the mysteries of their alignment.

The tomb was designed to funnel light from the rising midsummer sun into a chamber deep within — much like the contemporary megalithic tomb built more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away at Newgrange in Ireland, suggesting both places shared similar beliefs about the afterlife more than 5,000 years ago.

“Newgrange is much bigger and more complex than the tomb we have discovered [in Spain], but they have something in common — the interest of the builders to use sunlight at a specific time of the year, to produce a symbolic — possibly magic — effect,” Leonardo García Sanjuán, an archaeologist at the University of Seville, told Live Science. 

The bedrock at the site is tilted away from the position of the sunrise on the solstice at midsummer, so the builders deliberately constructed a cavity to admit its light, according to a study by García Sanjuán and his colleagues published April 14 in the journal Antiquity.

“They worked very cleverly to make an arrangement of stones, which were engraved and possibly painted,” he said. “These were sacred things placed so that the sunrise on the [summer] solstice would go straight into the back of the chamber.”

Megalithic tomb

The new study describes excavations by García Sanjuán and his team beside a prominent limestone mountain known as La Peña de los Enamorados — the Rock of the Lovers — named after a  legend that says two star-crossed lovers once killed themselves by jumping off it.

The mountain is also famous because it looks like the profile of the head of a sleeping giant, especially at times of low light such as sunrise and sunset.

García Sanjuán and his colleagues excavated the tomb in late 2020 in the “neck” region of the mountain, near the Matacabras rock shelter, which is adorned with pictographs thought to be painted about 5,800 years ago.

They think the tomb was first built a few hundred years after the rock paintings were made, and that it was used for burials for more than 1,000 years.

The archaeologists have found several deposits of human remains in the newfound tomb, dating from three major phases of its use, as well as pieces of pottery.

Ancient landscape

The Antequera area is famed for its natural rock formations like La Peña and the megalithic monuments in the region, which may have been influenced by the local geography. The most famous is the Dolmen of Menga — one of the largest and oldest megalithic structures in Europe, which was built between 3800 B.C. and 3600 B.C. 

But the passage in Menga is not aligned to a solstice sunrise or sunset, as might be expected — instead, Menga points toward La Peña de los Enamorados, about 4 miles (6.5 km) to the northeast. (The other two megaliths in the region were built later and seem to point elsewhere.)

The alignment suggests La Peña was an important focus for local prehistoric people and solves a mystery of where Menga was pointing: to the location of both the rock art and the newly found tomb at  La Peña, while the tomb at La Peña itself pointed to the solstice sunrise, García Sanjuán said.  

The inner chamber of the newfound tomb is decorated with a distinctive stone with ripple marks on its surface, which was taken from a region that had once been a beach or part of the seabed.

The stone was placed so that the light from the rising midsummer sun fell upon it; the part of the burial chamber in front of it seems to have been kept clear of human remains, García Sanjuán said.

“These people chose this stone precisely because it created these waving, undulating shapes,” he said. “This was very theatrical… they were very clever in producing these special visual effects.”

He noted that megalithic structures have been found from Morocco to Sweden and that the people who built them seem to have had similar beliefs. 

“There are differences as well, but one common element is the sun,” García  Sanjuán said. “The sun was at the center of the worldview of these people.”