A recent study on the cave paintings of the Altamira Cave in Santillana del Mar, Cantabria (Spain) has concluded that some of the artworks it contains could be much older than previously believed, dating back more than 30,000 years. Although the cave was discovered more than 140 years ago, the exact chronology of the artworks […]
Spain
Posted inMiddle Ages
Wamba, the Elder Who Didn’t Want to Be King of the Visigoths
The Chapel of Corpus Christi in the Toledo Cathedral is also known as the Mozarabic Chapel because Cardinal Cisneros decreed in 1504 that it be used to celebrate worship according to the eponymous rite—the Hispano-Gothic one preserved by Christians who remained in Muslim territory and which only survived in that city. That is why in […]
Posted inBronze Age Archaeology
Rare Glass Ornaments from Egypt Found in Spanish Sites Predate Phoenician Colonization
A multidisciplinary study led by researchers from the University of Alicante (UA) and the University of Augsburg (Germany) has discovered that glass ornaments reached the Iberian Peninsula from Central Europe, Egypt, and the Near East during the Bronze Age. The research, based on the analysis of 17 glass beads recovered from archaeological sites in Alicante […]
Posted inStone Age Archaeology
A Prehistoric Community Lived for a Thousand Years Without Hierarchies or Inequality in the Largest Copper Age Settlement in Europe
For over a thousand years, between 3300 and 2150 BCE, a prehistoric settlement located in what is now the town of Valencina de la Concepción in Seville was the permanent home of a community that, far from reproducing rigid hierarchies or centralized forms of domination, organized its life around principles of equality, cooperation, and sustainability. […]
Posted inClassical Archaeology
First Stone Mold Used for Coin Minting in Hispania in the 2nd Century BCE Found at the Obulco Site in Jaén
A team of researchers from the University of Jaén has identified the first stone mold used for coin production in ancient Hispania. The discovery, made at the archaeological site of Obulco, in present-day Porcuna (Jaén), provides new insights into the coin manufacturing processes during the Republican period and the organization of minting workshops, whose location […]
Posted inBronze Age Archaeology
Borders of El Argar, the First State of the Iberian Peninsula During the Bronze Age, Identified
A recent study conducted by researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology has precisely identified the economic and political borders that, approximately 4,000 years ago, defined the territory of El Argar. Considered the first state structure of the Iberian Peninsula, this society maintained complex relationships with […]
Posted inAncient Rome
The Tower of the Scipios, the Best-Preserved Roman Funerary Monument in Hispania
Six kilometers from Tarragona (roman Tarraco in Catalonia, Spain), next to the ancient Via Augusta, stands a stone monument that was misinterpreted for a long time: the Tower of the Scipios. The tower’s name comes from the mistaken belief that the Scipios, famous for their campaigns in the Second Punic War, had been buried here […]
Posted inArt, Stone Age Archaeology
Prehistoric Engravings Found in Marbella Could Precede the Oldest Cave Art by 100,000 Years
The city of Marbella (Málaga, Spain) has witnessed an archaeological discovery that could rewrite the history of prehistoric art on the Iberian Peninsula. In the Coto Correa site, located in Las Chapas, a team of experts has identified a stone block with engravings that could be over 200,000 years old. This finding, made as part […]
Posted inStone Age Archaeology
A Facial Fragment of Homo affinis erectus Found in Atapuerca Is the Oldest “Human Face” in Western Europe
The Sima del Elefante site, in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain), has once again been the scene of an extraordinary discovery. A team of researchers has identified a human facial fragment dated between 1.1 and 1.4 million years old, making it the oldest face ever discovered in Western Europe. This discovery, led by IPHES-CERCA […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
The Story of the Keichō Embassy: The Japanese Who Traveled to Spain and Rome in the 17th Century
If I told you that today we are going to talk about a 17th-century figure named Felipe Francisco de Fachicura, you would probably think of a military officer, a writer, or perhaps a politician from the Spain of Philip III. However, that is not the case—or at least, not exactly—because that was the name given […]
