2,600-year-old stone busts of ‘lost’ ancient Tartessos people discovered in sealed pit in Spain

Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed 5 life-size busts of human figures that may very well be the first-known human depictions of the Tartessos, a individuals who shaped an historic civilization that disappeared greater than 2,500 years in the past. 

The carved stone faces, which archaeologists date to the fifth century B.C., have been discovered hidden inside a sealed pit in an adobe temple at Casas del Turuñuelo, an historic Tartessian website in southern Spain. The items have been scattered amongst animal bones, largely from horses, that possible got here from a mass sacrifice, in line with a translated assertion (opens in new tab) printed April 18.

“The weird factor concerning the new discovering is that the representations correspond to human faces,” Erika López (opens in new tab), a spokesperson for the Spanish Nationwide Analysis Council (CSIC), mentioned within the assertion.