Archaeologists in Spain have found five life-size busts of human figures that may be the first known human depiction of Tartes, an ancient civilization that disappeared more than 2,500 years ago. The carved stone faces, which archaeologists date to the 5th century BC, were found inside a sealed pit in an adobe temple at Casas del Turunuelo, an ancient Tartessian site in southern Spain. According to the translated version, the fragments were scattered among animal bones, mostly horses, possibly from mass sacrifices.

“The unusualness of the new finding is that the images correspond to human faces,” said Erica Lopez. This is stated in the statement of the representative of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

Archaeologists from CSIC called this discovery “a profound paradigm shift in interpretation.” [Тартесоса]”for this ancient civilization, which existed from the 8th to the 4th century BC, was long seen as an aniconic culture in which divinity was represented by animal or plant motifs rather than deified humans.

Two of the figure reliefs are almost complete, and depict female deities wearing earrings, which may be a reference to the skillful goldsmithing of Bronze Age people. According to the description, archaeologists only found fragments of the other three reliefs, but determined that one of them was a helmeted warrior.

Although the Tartessians did not leave much archaeological record, archaeologists know that they were adept at working gold; for example, gold pieces similar to earrings in reliefs were found at two nearby Tartesian settlements, Cancho Roano and La Mata. These areas were burned in the same way as the recently discovered pit, but why and how these fires started remains a mystery.

Some historians, especially the Greek philosopher Aristotle, once associated the people of Tartessos with the legendary lost city of Atlantis. However, this idea was “widely rejected in the scientific community.”

“This finding further impacts both the site’s importance and the significance of the Tartesan culture in the Guadiana Valley in its final moments,” López said in a translated statement. Said.