2,500-year-old bronze chariot sheds light on Tartessos history

Inside the burial mound of Casas del Turuñuelo, in the Badajoz town of Guareña, in the Vegas Altas del Guadiana region, the eighth excavation campaign of the Construyendo Tarteso project has brought to light a bronze chariot with no known equivalent in the Iberian Peninsula.

The piece has a box decorated with figures in relief: on the front, Achelous, a river deity associated with the underworld; on the sides, two griffins with eagle heads and lion bodies; and at the ends, two human figures with raised arms supporting the whole structure, which rests on two similarly ornamented wheels.

"It is one of the most significant finds made to date at this Tartessian site," emphasised Esther Rodríguez, co-director of the excavations.

The piece was recovered in the southern sector of the main building, whose excavation began in 2015. The research team from the Institute of Archaeology of Mérida, a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the regional government of Extremadura, point out that the only documented parallels belong to the Etruscan civilisation, which reached its peak in central Italy between the 8th and 5th centuries BC.

This supports the hypothesis that the object reached the south-west of the peninsula via the same exchange networks that linked Tartessos with the rest of the Mediterranean. As for its function, co-director Sebastián Celestino suggested that it may be associated with feasting rituals: the chariot was found next to the room where the Turuñuelo community is thought to have held a final banquet before deliberately sealing the building at the end of the 5th century BC.

Greece, Egypt and the East at the same site

Alongside the chariot, archaeologists recovered a set of imported materials that significantly expands the map of Tartessos' external relations. Among the finds are ceramics from Greek Attica, an alabaster vessel of Egyptian origin and several ivories decorated with depictions of warriors and with animal and plant motifs pointing to workshops in the eastern Mediterranean.

"These materials are providing us with extraordinary information for understanding trade relations between the East and the Iberian Peninsula. We are documenting imports and unique pieces that help to reconstruct these exchange networks," Rodríguez explained.

The 2026 campaign, carried out during April and May, also broadened understanding of the building itself. Work in the northern and southern sectors of the mound, which measures 90 metres in diameter and six metres high, made it possible to identify new rooms and circulation areas.

In the northern sector, archaeologists also uncovered two braziers and a bronze cauldron. The volume of ceramics was, by contrast, lower than in previous campaigns, which researchers attribute to the nature of the areas explored this year, whose function is not yet clearly established.

Ten years of excavations and a second phase still to come

The Casas del Turuñuelo site now boasts a decade of discoveries that have gradually reshaped the image of Tartessos. In 2017, archaeologists documented the remains of the largest animal sacrifice known in the western Mediterranean. In 2023, the first human representations of this culture came to light.

A year later, a slate plaque with scenes of warriors and an alphabet in southern Palaeohispanic script added another dimension to the record. And in 2025, the site yielded the oldest Greek marble altar in the western Mediterranean.

With the fieldwork campaign now concluded, the project is entering its laboratory phase. The restoration, documentation and analysis of the pieces are being carried out at the Service for Conservation, Restoration and Scientific Studies of Archaeological Heritage (SECYR) at the Autonomous University of Madrid, which has collaborated with the project since its inception.

"The second phase of any archaeological excavation is indispensable. A crucial piece of work is now beginning that will allow us to better understand the function of the spaces, the commercial relations and, ultimately, the lives of those who inhabited this place," Rodríguez said.

The project brings together almost thirty institutions and around one hundred national and international researchers, and has the backing of the Badajoz Provincial Council and Guareña Town Council, as well as institutional support from the CSIC (source in Spanish) and the regional government of Extremadura.