The right behaviour in time of crisis.
Learning from the Tartessos of Cancho Roano |
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In times of economic crisis it should be better to carry out less commerce and more agriculture. This lesson can be learnt from the Tartessos, who lived in Extremadura thousands of years ago. They have given to posterity an entire town and significant insights into the right behaviour in times of crisis. |
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Photomontage of the Cancho Roano construction. This excavation site of Tartessos is the best-preserved of Spain. The residents of Tartessos were megalithic people who lived from 1000 before Christ in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. |
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Cancho Roano. Remnants of the sacrificial altar. |
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Cancho Roano. Remnants of the central building. |
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Cancho Roana owes its existence to a serious economic crisis that occurred 2,500 years ago in the Mediterranean. The empire of the Tartessos spread out in the south of the Iberian Peninsula from roughly 1000 BC. According to the Greek historian Heredotus, the capital of the empire by the Guadalquivir must have been immensely beautiful and majestic. Arganthonius, the famous king of the clan, was in want of nothing in order to reign for over 100 years. The legendary king was so immensely wealthy that he, so runs the legend, used to make donations for the construction of town fortifications for allied clans.
The Tartessos owed their wealth to commerce with people of the Mediterranean. The merchants came by ship from Egypt, from the island Cyprus, from Carthage and Sicily to Guadalquivir. The Tartessos sold ore in great quantities from the mines of the Iberian Peninsula, whose southern part was governed by them. One day a crisis shook the ore trade. No-one knows the reasons still today, except that the Tartessos moved from the south to the north within a few decades. From then on, they focussed their economic activities on agriculture. They built a new city as an administrative centre in the middle of their new empire.
Cancho Roano is located in the vicinity of the small town Zalamea de la Serena, which can easily be reached from Zafra. It takes only about one hour from Zafra to the excavation sites. Cancho Roano used to serve not only as a control centre for surrounding agricultural enterprises, but also as a sacrificial altar. Researchers believe that a nobleman must have ruled Cancho Roano as a high priest because of the basic religious commodities that have been found there. Archaeologists have found out that the Tartessos also suffered crises there. This could be recognised because the town was rebuilt several times. Cancho Roana actually consists of three different cities. The second city was built upon the first one, and the third upon the second one.
The archaeological excavation works have been going on since 1978. Thanks to the findings it has gradually become possible to trace back to the origins of Cancho Roano’s history and development. The discovering of amphorae for the conservation of wine, honey and cereals is evidence that the Tartessos used to live mainly from the production of agricultural products. Furthermore, amber and ivory were also found, which leads us to assume that commerce was still going on. An information centre has recently been providing information about the fascinating culture of the Tartessos. Visitors there also get to know how the archaeologists are able to deduce crisis periods and prosperous times from the architectural structures of a town. The information is presented so it can be easily understood even without background knowledge. The findings of jewellery, kitchen utensils and effigies scarified in glass panels represent the core of the excavation. The best known object from Cancho Roano is kept in the archaeological museum in Badajoz: it is a 22 centimetre brazen horse that is so beautifully depicted that you will forget how old it is.
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