At the heart of Extremadura, on the site of Casas del Turuñuelo, archaeologists have made an unprecedented discovery for the entire Iberian Peninsula: half of a votive bronze chariot dating to the 5th century BCE. It is the 8th excavation campaign at this site that yields this treasure, further confirming that the Tartessian civilisation was far more sophisticated than scholars assumed just a few decades ago.

Tartessian winged feline in bronze, Getty Villa, Malibu
Tartessian winged feline in bronze, 5th century BCE, Getty Villa, Malibu — CC BY-SA 3.0

The chariot is decorated with spectacular iconography: Achelous, the river-god of Greek mythology, depicted as a man with a bull's head; griffins with outstretched wings; and Atlantes, the male figures who carry the sky on their shoulders. Each of these motifs is borrowed from the Greek and Etruscan repertoire — confirming that Tartessian craftsmen were not merely imitating their Mediterranean neighbours, but engaging with them, perhaps recruiting them, and adapting their symbolism to their own ritual needs.

Tesoro del Carambolo, Tartessian gold treasure, Seville
Tesoro del Carambolo, gold treasure of the Tartessian civilisation, Archaeological Museum of Seville — CC BY-SA

Tartessos flourished from the 9th to the 5th century BCE in the south-west of the Iberian Peninsula, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. It controlled considerable metal resources — silver, copper, tin — that attracted the Phoenicians of Tyre and the Greeks of Phocaea. The ancients spoke of it as a fabulous kingdom: Herodotus claimed its kings lived so long they seemed immortal; Strabo placed it at the site of a submerged city. This mythical aura led some modern historians to identify it — wrongly — with Plato's Atlantis.

Carambolo treasure, Tartessian gold jewellery
Carambolo treasure, Tartessian gold jewellery, 7th-6th century BCE — CC BY-SA, Museo Arqueologico de Sevilla

The Casas del Turuñuelo chariot was not designed to travel on roads. It is a votive object, probably used in foundation or consecration rituals, then deliberately buried or destroyed — a practice attested in several Iberian Iron AgeIron AgeThe last period of protohistory (from c. 1200 BC in Europe and the Near East), marked by iron metallurgy and the first kingdoms.→ cultures. The missing half of the chariot may have been removed, melted down, or lies in another unexcavated part of the site. Excavations, led by a team from the CSIC, are planned to resume in autumn 2026.