Gold earring found in burned ruins of an Iron Age village may reveal ‘moment in time,’ archaeologists say

by | May 20, 2024 | Science

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.A two-story building burned to the ground more than 2,000 years ago in the Pyrenees mountains of northeastern Iberia in Spain. The inferno consumed the wooden structure, situated in an Iron Age settlement, killing six animals penned in the stable.The fates of the people who used the building are unknown, but details of their lives remain preserved in handfuls of scorched clues, including bits of pottery, tools for textile work and a metal pickax, archaeologists recently discovered.They also found one precious object: a gold earring measuring 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) long and 0.8 inches wide. It had been hidden inside a small jar concealed in a wall, perhaps to keep it safe from the hypothesized marauders who set the fire, according to the study published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.The site of the settlement is called Tossal de Baltarga, and thousands of years ago, a community of Iberian people known as the Cerretani occupied the village. This group predated the Roman occupation of Iberia and left their mark on the region in carvings on mountain rock. However, researchers are still piecing together clues about Cerretani life, including the meanings of these carvings, said lead study author Dr. Oriol Olesti Vila, an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain.Scientists have uncovered several burned buildings at Tossal de Baltarga since 2011, all dating to the third century BC. Archaeologists recently excavated a nonresidential, multipurpose structure dubbed Building G, the best-preserved building at the site. It measured about 26 feet (8 meters) long by about 7 feet (2 meters) wide, and its contents offer an unprecedented glimpse of Cerretani life …

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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnSign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.A two-story building burned to the ground more than 2,000 years ago in the Pyrenees mountains of northeastern Iberia in Spain. The inferno consumed the wooden structure, situated in an Iron Age settlement, killing six animals penned in the stable.The fates of the people who used the building are unknown, but details of their lives remain preserved in handfuls of scorched clues, including bits of pottery, tools for textile work and a metal pickax, archaeologists recently discovered.They also found one precious object: a gold earring measuring 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) long and 0.8 inches wide. It had been hidden inside a small jar concealed in a wall, perhaps to keep it safe from the hypothesized marauders who set the fire, according to the study published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.The site of the settlement is called Tossal de Baltarga, and thousands of years ago, a community of Iberian people known as the Cerretani occupied the village. This group predated the Roman occupation of Iberia and left their mark on the region in carvings on mountain rock. However, researchers are still piecing together clues about Cerretani life, including the meanings of these carvings, said lead study author Dr. Oriol Olesti Vila, an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain.Scientists have uncovered several burned buildings at Tossal de Baltarga since 2011, all dating to the third century BC. Archaeologists recently excavated a nonresidential, multipurpose structure dubbed Building G, the best-preserved building at the site. It measured about 26 feet (8 meters) long by about 7 feet (2 meters) wide, and its contents offer an unprecedented glimpse of Cerretani life …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
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