Treasure find of Aliseda

The treasure trove of Aliseda (Spanish: Tesoro de Aliseda ) is a hoard find consisting of several large and over 300 small parts from the town of Aliseda in the southwestern Spanish region of Extremadura .

Find history

Parts of the gold , silver , bronze , iron and glass treasure were discovered on February 29, 1920 in the outskirts of Aliseda by two brothers who secretly wanted to sell them on. However, the authorities quickly got wind of the matter and undertook another dig that brought more pieces to light. The treasure has been kept and shown in its entirety in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España in Madrid since the 1920s . In Aliseda itself there are copies of individual pieces.

Dating and classification

The treasure, which mainly consists of finely worked gold jewelry, is dated from around 700 to 250 BC. Dated; for this, mainly some iron remains were of decisive importance, which can be classified in the late Phoenician or Carthaginian times. A small glass vase with incised hieroglyphs comes from Egypt and was considered a luxury good. It is assumed that the Phoenicians did not make the gold jewelry or the other pieces themselves, but that they were made in Tartessos (possibly also in the eastern Mediterranean) and were negotiated from there.