Whether it was to appease a deity or honor the dead, ritual animal sacrifice was widespread in the ancient world. But there is a region where it appears that hardly any of these rituals occurred for an extended period of time.
Until now, the archaeological record was almost devoid of any evidence of significant animal sacrifices in the Mediterranean region during the Iron Age. Hardly any written sources describing the practice have been found. While the exact reason that we don’t see any evidence remains unknown, archaeologists have now unearthed more details on one of the only sites sacrifices were known to happen in the Iron Age Mediterranean, a location in western Spain.
The bones of Casas del Turuñuelo now tell us more from beyond the grave than they ever have. “The 52 animals deposited in the courtyard of Casas de Turuñuelo represent a series of episodes of slaughter,” a team of archaeologists said in a study recently published in PLOS ONE.
More than a phase
Casas del Turuñuelo used to be a thriving hub of Tartessian culture from about the 9th to the 5th centuries BCE. This culture was a hybrid of local practices and those of Phoenicians (known to have sacrificed animals and possibly more than that) who landed in the southern Iberian Peninsula around the 9th century BCE.
The archaeologists have cataloged 6,770 bones at the site, many of them from equids—horses, mules, or donkeys—buried alongside pigs, cattle, and a lone dog. How could the archaeologists be sure these animals were sacrificed and were not instead slaughtered for food or succumbed to illness?
“The fact that the animals are mostly adults discards the likelihood that they died from natural causes or an epidemic,” they said in a study recently published in PLOS ONE. “In addition, the scenographic deposition of certain equids in pairs, as well as evidence of the burning of plant offerings, suggest an intentional ritualistic sacrifice.”
Three distinct phases of animal sacrifice have been identified at Casas del Turuñuelo. Sacrifices were performed differently depending on the time period. Most of the animals belong to Phase 1, the group of bones at the very bottom of what was once an ancient courtyard (sacrifices that happened later were performed above the buried bones from the previous ritual), with the majority of these being equids. This level includes many complete and nearly complete skeletons. It is thought that scavengers, human activity, or fire (presumably from the sacrifice) may be responsible for any missing bones. The skeletons lay over burnt wood and barley. Closer study revealed that most bone material had been altered by heat, which means these animals were probably burnt offerings.
Phase 2 included the skeletons of 10 equids that had been burned, according to signs of heat alteration on their bones and the burnt barley beneath them. The significant difference here is what the researchers refer to as “evidence of possibly postmortem evisceration of the thorax.” The absence of the hyoid bone in the neck led them to this conclusion, but it is difficult to conclusively demonstrate this type of evisceration since it leaves no knife marks behind.
Something that became evident in Phase 3 was an indication that there must have been some sort of feast accompanying the sacrifice. The equid bones in this phase show no signs of being butchered, but these signs were seen on the bones of cattle, notably defleshed ribs. There were also traces of human bites on these ribs. Animal sacrifices that incorporated the consumption of animals were also practiced in ancient Greece around the same time, so this was not an anomaly.
Mystery of the ghost horses
Ancient writings describe equid sacrifices in the Mediterranean, sometimes involving hundreds of animals, but there had previously not been much evidence to back this up. There were far fewer than a hundred at Casas del Turuñuelo, although most were equids. The ages of all sacrifices at their time of death were estimated by signs of wear on their teeth. Most were found to have been male working animals in the prime of life, and eight of them had wear caused by iron bits found in their mouths. This provides further evidence for them having been used for war, transportation, or agricultural work.
Something that stood out in Phase 1 was that the equids in that phase had evidently been sacrificed in pairs or at least positioned that way postmortem. The archaeologists suggest they might have pulled carts together before death. There was also an instance in Phase 2 where the necks of two skeletons were crossed in the center of what was once a courtyard. Whether this was part of a ritual associated with either a deity or the afterlife of a deceased owner is unknown.
Why horses, in particular, were sacrificed remains an open question. The researchers think there is a possibility that they were used in a funerary sacrifice so the deceased could enter the afterlife alongside their loyal companions. This has been evidenced in other ancient cultures, such as the Scythians of what is now Russia and Ukraine, who would sacrifice horses at a funeral. Whether this was the case for at least some of the equids at Casas del Turuñuelo is still a mystery.
PLOS One, 2023. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293654
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