The people of the Iron Age living in the Iberian Peninsula during the last millennium before our era had a striking funeral tradition: cutting the heads of people and suspending them in prominent places – sometimes with a giant nail hammered through the skull. Archaeologists, however, do not know who was beheaded: was it a veneration ritual for important members of the community, or a striking warning for enemies?
To investigate this question, a team of European researchers has analyzed seven heads cut off from two archaeological sites in Spain to determine whether the beheaded people were inhabitants or foreigners to these former colonies. Local origins would imply a funerary custom for respected members of the community, while the cut heads of foreigners may have served as a symbol of threatening power. Interestingly, the researchers found evidence of the two hypotheses, which suggests that the traditions of funeral decapitation varied from one community to another, and even in individual establishments.
“Our premise to approach the study was that if [the severed heads] If war trophies would not come from analyzed sites, while if they were venerated, they would most likely be local, “said in an archaeologist at the Universitat Autònoma in Barcelona (UAB). statement. He is also the first author of studyPosted on February 13 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
The researchers led isotopic analyzes (A methodology used to study ancient human regimes, environments and movements) on seven heads cut off from Puig Castellar and Ullastret: respectively, an old Iberian colony and a city on the northeast coast of modern Spain. The two sites were abandoned between the end of the third century and the beginning of the second century BC, probably in relation to the Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, according to the study.
The analyzes indicated that three of the four cut heads of Puig Castellar were probably non -local individuals. In addition, all the Puig Castellar heads had been discovered “near the inner side of the wall, beyond the main entrance to the colony,” wrote researchers in the study. This indicates “an interest in making these remains visible,” they added. Based on these two elements, Fuente-Seoane and his colleagues theorize that these three cut heads were probably war trophies intended to remove external and internal enemies.
As for the three Ullastret cut heads, they “revealed a mixture of local and not local origin,” continued Fuente-Seoane in the press release. Two of the three cut heads were probably local and had been discovered in a city street, which implies that they may have hung the walls or the doors of the houses, “suggesting that the remains exposed would be important inhabitants of the colony, perhaps revered or justified by society,” said researchers in the study.
The third head, on the other hand, was probably a stranger and had been discovered in a pit – a potential storage site for enemy heads, according to the researchers.
In the end, the study indicates “that the practice of [displaying] The cut heads have been applied in a different way on each site, which seems to exclude a homogeneous symbolic expression, “said Fuente-Seoane. In other words, the funeral tradition of decapitation was more complex than researchers thought it before. “But more research is necessary to be sure.”
Their research nevertheless put light on an ancient culture which has otherwise left few archaeological traces of their societal organization.
