Ancient People Who Burned Their Culture and Vanished

Bright Side

Tartessos, a mysterious society that thrived between the 9th and 5th centuries BCE, has intrigued historians for ages. Mentioned in Greek and Roman texts, its exact nature was unclear for a long time—was it a city, a kingdom, or even a river? Due to conflicting descriptions and a lack of solid archaeological evidence, pinpointing what Tartessos actually was proved difficult. Nowadays, it's generally believed that Tartessos was a civilization formed by a mix of indigenous people and Greek and Phoenician colonizers in the Iberian Peninsula. This unique blend of cultures created a rich and fascinating society that eventually disappeared abruptly, leaving behind many unanswered questions.  Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00Tartessos, a mysterious, highly developed society that once flourished and then, without

00:06any warning, suddenly disappeared.

00:09Moreover, before they were completely gone, they performed some strange rituals, as if

00:15they were trying to save themselves from something.

00:18But what happened to these people?

00:21Let's try to find out.

00:24Let's go to the southwest of Spain, to about 2,500 years ago.

00:29Once there was a beautiful city here, a trade center of Tartessos.

00:34Imagine the temple in the middle of a deserted town, a breathtaking monumental two-story

00:40building.

00:41There's a thick smell of frying meat in the air, and the smoke from its frying rises

00:46high into the sky, covering the patterns of the sanctuary.

00:51The sun has already set, and it's time to prepare for the ritual.

00:56We enter the ancient monumental hall.

00:59Inside, hundreds of people gather around a long wooden table, lined with delicate ceramics

01:05and bronze bowls.

01:07They feast and drink.

01:09These people have much more fun than the animals outside the building.

01:13These animals are being prepared for the ritual.

01:15Horses, cows, pigs, donkeys, even dogs.

01:20All of them were brought here to appease the deities.

01:24But what happens after the ritual itself is even crazier.

01:29At the end of the ceremony, people take torches and set fire to the whole building.

01:34Everything turns to ashes and coals, and when the last embers fade away, they take shovels

01:40and begin to bury this place.

01:43It will take them at least several days to bury the former sanctuary under piles of earth.

01:48They work tirelessly.

01:50In some places, the thickness of the layers of mud and clay will reach almost 14 feet.

01:56And then these people, the last known Tartessians, just leave this place and disappear from our

02:02world forever.

02:05But what just happened?

02:06Why did they even do all this?

02:09Let's start from the beginning.

02:10Tartessos was first mentioned in Greek and Roman texts thousands of years ago, but for

02:16a long time, we had no idea what it even was.

02:20All the descriptions were contradictory and confusing.

02:24Some archaeologists thought that Tartessos was a kind of seaport.

02:28Others thought that it was a river or a water reservoir.

02:32They even said this place could be connected with the mystical Atlantis.

02:36But there was nothing to back it up with, so the scientific community quickly rejected

02:41this idea.

02:42But today, we know the truth.

02:45Tartessos was an ancient civilization.

02:48It's been located on the Iberian Peninsula, one of the southernmost islands of Europe.

02:54It flourished in the 9th to 5th centuries BC, and then, around 2,500 years ago, suddenly

03:00disappeared.

03:02They were quite rich.

03:03The island had rich reserves of metal, so their economy was thriving.

03:07Silver, copper, lead, and other good things were mined in the local Sierra Morena mountains.

03:14Almost all the locals were engaged in trade.

03:17For them, it was a common thing.

03:20Isn't that strange that there were so few records left about them?

03:24And not so many monuments of their culture have survived to this day.

03:28In total, throughout Spain, scientists were able to collect around 20 archaeological finds

03:33related to Tartessos.

03:36Three of them were excavated in the Guadiana Valley, Canto Ruano, Casas del Toronuelo,

03:43and La Mata.

03:44Let's start with the first one.

03:46Canto Ruano was discovered in 1978.

03:50This find was one of the most significant pieces of the puzzle.

03:54This is one of the most beautifully preserved structures of the Tartessian civilization.

03:59Not only the walls have survived to this day, but so did the altar, the moat, and even several

04:05artifacts.

04:07For example, some jewelry and wine glasses.

04:12It was a square building surrounded by a deep moat filled with water.

04:17And to be honest, we still don't know its exact purpose.

04:20We only assume that it could be an ancient temple.

04:24Some rituals were carried out there.

04:27For instance, they would set fire to the temple and cover it with thick layers of sand and

04:31clay.

04:32They even left some expensive artifacts inside, tools, gold jewelry, and so on.

04:39Moving on to the next find.

04:42Casas del Toronuelo is one of the best preserved buildings in the entire Western Mediterranean.

04:48We only discovered it a couple of years ago, back in 2015, and it hasn't been studied

04:53that well yet.

04:55But we already know that this place is also pretty weird.

05:00Casas del Toronuelo was a very rich building.

05:03It wasn't just some kind of temporary camp.

05:06It was a place of monumental, impressive architecture.

05:11Massive staircases, vaulted ceilings, luxurious materials brought from all over the Mediterranean,

05:17and the latest construction technologies.

05:20It was supposed to be a place of power, maybe even something like a palace.

05:26And yep, it also became the venue for the rituals.

05:30It's unclear whether the locals intended to destroy this beautiful place from the very

05:34beginning, but this is where they performed the greatest ritual in the area.

05:39This ritual involved more than 50 animals, including the most valuable ones, horses.

05:45It was their only means of transportation.

05:48The fact that these people gave away their horses may indicate that they planned to stay

05:53here for some time.

05:54Perhaps they hoped to appease the deities and settle on local lands.

05:59The ritual was carried out exactly as they intended.

06:03Just like Cancho Ruano, this place was also set on fire.

06:07When the ritual ended, the locals buried this place and left, disappearing into the countryside

06:13of the Iberian Peninsula.

06:15Now it's an abandoned and quiet place.

06:18Just like Cancho Ruano, it's been standing here untouched for more than 2,000 years.

06:25The last find is La Mata, which was discovered much earlier than the other two, back in 1930.

06:32The resemblance between all of them was striking.

06:35La Mata had the same fate.

06:37It was burned and forgotten for centuries.

06:40All of this is very strange and mysterious.

06:44It seems like the locals were fleeing from something.

06:47Perhaps, something happened that made them start building these banquet halls and arranging

06:52large-scale rituals.

06:54They thought that their deities turned away from them and tried to appease them, but unfortunately

07:00it didn't work.

07:01As a result, they were forced to leave their temples and soon disappeared altogether, forever.

07:07And by the way, why did they disappear at all?

07:11Well, this is another mystery of this civilization.

07:15One of the most important questions is, did they know that they were going to disappear

07:19or was it something unexpected?

07:22Did they suffer some kind of sudden catastrophe from which they were trying to escape?

07:27Or something else?

07:29Scientists have several theories on this.

07:32The first theory says that there may have been several major earthquakes and subsequent

07:36tsunamis in this region.

07:39These natural disasters destroyed local sediments and severely demoralized the survivors.

07:45Perhaps they were looking for salvation from this.

07:48Another theory is that there were some problems with trading.

07:51Since they were rich in metal and lived off their economy, any problems in it could lead

07:56to big troubles.

07:58If they had some kind of mining crisis, then relations between different nations could

08:02worsen greatly and things could get pretty nasty.

08:07The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

08:10The most current theory says that around the 6th century BC, a large-scale tsunami hit

08:15the port.

08:16This greatly damaged the economy, which worsened the relationship between Tartessos and its

08:21neighbors.

08:22In any case, this seems to be speculation.

08:26This place is like a dream come true for archaeologists.

08:30It stores a huge amount of information and secrets that we have yet to unravel.

08:36The Tartessians had no idea that by burying their artifacts, they were making a real gift

08:41to the scientists of the future.

08:44And while scientists continue to study them, we can check out the stuff they have already

08:49discovered.

08:51History lovers can see Tartessian tools, horse figurines, and decorated ivory in the Archaeological

08:58Museum of Badajoz.

09:00Let's hope that in the future, scientists will learn more interesting things about this

09:04civilization and we'll finally find out what happened to them!

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