Experts were able to establish the origin of a hoard about 2,700 years old, discovered near Seville, Spain, in 1958.
New research has solved the mystery surrounding the origin of the Carambolo hoard, an astonishing collection of ancient gold items found three kilometers from Seville in 1958. The results of the study are briefly reported by National Geographic.
When the 2700-year-old treasure was discovered, hypotheses immediately arose about its connection with the Tartessian state, which existed on the territory of present-day Spain in the 1st millennium BC. e. Ancient sources described this civilization as rich and well developed. The wealth of this power and its sudden disappearance, which occurred about 2500 years ago, led to exotic hypotheses, according to which Tartess could be, for example, a colony of the mysterious Atlantis.
Other hypotheses linked the treasure with the Phoenicians, an ancient Semitic Middle Eastern people who first arrived in the western Mediterranean in the 8th century BC. e. and established a commercial port there, which is now the Spanish city of Cadiz.
The Carambolo hoard includes 21 fine gold pieces. Archaeologists believe that it was buried in the 6th century BC. BC, although it is noted that most of the decorations were made two centuries earlier. To end controversy over the origin of the treasure, Ana and Navarro, director of the Archaeological Museum of Seville, and others who participated in the new study examined two pieces of jewelry from Carambolo - for example, elemental analysis of the items was carried out using mass spectrometry. as well as isotope analysis. Researchers also - for comparison - studied gold objects found in a burial in the city of Valencina de la Concepion (located near Seville) and dating back to the III millennium BC. e.
The results of both analyzes indicated that the items from Carambolo and from Valencina de la Concepción were made from local gold. However, the jewelry could have been created using Phoenician techniques, experts suggest. In addition, scholars believe that the Carambolo artifacts may have previously been melted from older artifacts from the Valencine de la Concepion burials. However, more research is needed to confirm this hypothesis.
The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.