Bronze Votive Chariot Unearthed at Casas del Turuñuelo in Spain
Archaeologists working at Casas del Turuñuelo in Guareña have uncovered a bronze votive chariot that they say has no known parallel in the Iberian Peninsula. The discovery, presented in Madrid by Esther Rodríguez and Sebastián Celestino, adds a rare and highly elaborate object to one of the most closely watched archaeological sites in Spain.
The find preserves half of a ceremonial wagon, including two wheels and the main vessel. Its structure combines bronze elements with iron components, while its ornamentation brings together a dense symbolic program: Acheloo, the ancient Greek water spirit; two griffins; and two male Atlantean figures supporting the box of the car. Rodríguez described the object’s decorative and iconographic complexity as unmatched.
Casas del Turuñuelo has been under excavation since 2014 and is associated with the Tartesian culture, active in the 5th century BCE. Scholars have already identified the site as one of the most important Tartesian enclaves in the Iberian Peninsula. Earlier discoveries there included evidence of large-scale animal sacrifices and the first human figurative relief sculptures from Tartesos, including women wearing gold earrings and a warrior in a helmet.
Those finds have helped researchers reconstruct Tartesian ritual practice and architecture, but the new chariot sharpens the picture further. The site may have functioned as a temple or another major ceremonial center, and its location in Las Vegas Altas del Guadiana, near the mouth of the Búrdalo River, has led experts to suspect it once sat at the administrative head of a broad territory.
Only about a third of the site has been excavated, and work continues. For now, the chariot stands as one of the clearest signs yet that Casas del Turuñuelo was not a peripheral settlement, but a place of unusual ritual and political weight.
