A two-story building burned to the ground more than 2,000 years ago in the Pyrenees mountains of northeastern Iberia in Spain. The inferno consumed the wooden structure, situated in an Iron Age settlement, killing six animals penned in the stable.
The fates of the people who used the building are unknown, but details of their lives remain preserved in handfuls of scorched clues, including bits of pottery, tools for textile work and a metal pickax, archeologists recently discovered.
They also found one precious object: a gold earring measuring two centimetres long and two centimetres wide. It had been hidden inside a small jar concealed in a wall, perhaps to keep it safe from the hypothesized marauders who set the fire, according to the study published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.
The site of the settlement is called Tossal de Baltarga, and thousands of years ago, a community of Iberian people known as the Cerretani occupied the village. This group predated the Roman occupation of Iberia and left their mark on the region in carvings on mountain rock. However, researchers are still piecing together clues about Cerretani life, including the meanings of these carvings, said lead study author Dr. Oriol Olesti Vila, an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain.
Scientists have uncovered several burned buildings at Tossal de Baltarga since 2011, all dating to the third century BC. Archeologists recently excavated a nonresidential, multipurpose structure dubbed Building G, the best-preserved building at the site. It measured about eight metres long by about two metres wide, and its contents offer an unprecedented glimpse of Cerretani life in Iron Age Iberia.
But the blackened ruins also preserve a darker story. The destruction of the entire settlement by fire hints that the blaze was set deliberately. And the chronology of the fire suggests that the arsonists may have been an invading army under Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who led troops against the Roman Republic and crossed the Pyrenees around this time, during the Second Punic War (218 BC to 201 BC), the researchers wrote in the study.
Though the upper floor of Building G collapsed when the supporting beams burned, it still retained traces of its former structure, with mud bricks in the eastern part of the floor and stones in the western section. One explanation is that the upper floor was divided into two distinct spaces used for different tasks, the scientists said.
More than 1,000 pottery fragments from the upper floor represented a variety of vessels, used for cooking, eating, drinking and storage. Eight cooking vessels were near-complete when found, and chemical analysis revealed that they contained organic residues: animal fats, dairy products and plants. Designs of some vessels indicated that they were acquired from another Iberian region through trade. More than a dozen weights for a loom and spindles told the researchers that the building鈥檚 occupants were spinning and weaving with wool.
In the stable, scientists found the remains of a horse, four sheep and a goat. The horse was kept in a separate stall, and charred particles represented a variety of local grasses and plants as well as cultivated grains, stored there as feed for the livestock.
The presence of a horse in the stable suggested that these people were wealthier than some of their neighbors, Olesti Vila said.
鈥淚n antiquity, horses were not the typical animal that a normal peasant family would have,鈥 as they were expensive to feed and weren鈥檛 kept for their meat or milk, Olesti Vila said.
鈥淚n general, horses are connected with the elite.鈥
This finding provided archeologists with another important clue about social structure in ancient Iberia, introducing the possibility of an 鈥渁ristocrat鈥 class, the study authors wrote.
An illustration shows how聽Building G, the best-preserved structure at Tossal de Baltarga, might have looked before a fire destroyed it. (Reconstruction by Francesc Riart, illustrator / CNN Newsource)
Their discoveries illuminate the lifestyles of the Cerretani, indicating textile work and the use of agriculture and of natural resources. Analysis of the hidden earring revealed traces of silver mixed with local gold, showing that the Cerretani were also familiar with metalworking.
Uncovering a 鈥渕oment in time鈥 such as this is exceptional in the archeological record, said Dr. Bettina Arnold, a professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who was not involved in the research. The site provides important insights into the daily lives of Iberian Iron Age populations in the Pyrenees at this pivotal time in history, Arnold said in an email.
鈥淭he most impressive aspect of the excavation of Building G is the range of the scientific analyses carried out on the finds recovered there, which reveals a community that was self-sufficient with regard to some production activities, such as spinning and weaving wool,鈥 Arnold said.
However, the analysis also showed that this community was part of a larger regional exchange network 鈥渢hrough trade and presumably bonds of obligation,鈥 linking them to Iberian tribal leadership, she added.
The fact that the animals died inside the stable offered the researchers another clue about the terrible circumstances of the fire.
During the Iron Age, when people lived in wooden homes heated by fires, buildings often accidentally burned. But had this been such a fire, the animals鈥 owners would likely have opened the stable doors to save their livestock, Olesti Vila said.
They would probably also have returned after the fire died down to retrieve their hidden treasure 鈥 the gold earring that they concealed in a jar.
鈥淭his is also an indication of some kind of conflict or some kind of violent aggression,鈥 Olesti Vila said. The scientists suspected that the community may have been caught up in the Second Punic War and the crossing of Hannibal, 鈥渂ecause of the chronology and the context,鈥 but because the precise date of the fire is unknown, this connection is just a hypothesis, he said.
Indeed, the existence of violent raids between Iron Age populations in Europe, with bands of invaders making off with valuables, livestock and even people, 鈥渋s well attested archaeologically,鈥 Arnold added, 鈥渁nd need not be associated with a specific historic event like Hannibal鈥檚 campaigns.鈥
Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine.
Israel launched airstrikes early Saturday on what it described as military targets in Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile assault Oct. 1, officials said. There was no immediate information on damage in the Islamic Republic.
Scotiabank has confirmed outages affecting mobile and online banking services, according to a statement published to its X account.
Canada Post driver Rick Harper recounts how he and others helped save a woman from a Tesla that caught fire after crashing into a guardrail on Lake Shore Boulevard.
A makeshift aquarium that popped up this summer in a puddle beneath a leaky fire hydrant in New York City has been paved over, to the dismay of neighbours who turned the area into a hangout spot and goldfish shrine.
Human-caused climate change made almost all of Canada鈥檚 heat waves hotter and more likely, Environment and Climate Change Canada said in an announcement Friday.
A New Hampshire woman was sentenced Friday to 53 years to life in prison in the death of her 5-year-old son, who was beaten, starved and exposed to drugs before his 19-pound body was found buried in a Massachusetts park in 2021.
Longtime Liberal MP Wayne Long says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should give more weight to the views of his backbenchers in determining his future leading the Party, rather than relying on those in his immediate orbit.
Two adults and two children were found dead in the charred rubble of a house fire after a mother and another child jumped from a third-floor window to escape flames in a southwest Las Vegas neighborhood, authorities said.
Russian actors made a widely circulated video falsely depicting mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, U.S. officials said Friday.
The Yukon government says testing around the gold mine where a containment facility gave way, spilling millions of tonnes of cyanide-laced rock, has found increased levels of mercury, cobalt and cyanide.
It's been a long and emotional journey for Manitoba residential school survivor Susan Caribou. Her niece, Tanya Nepinak, has been missing since September 2011 and has never been found.
The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) has uploaded dozens of dashboard camera videos from the 1970s to their YouTube channel.
Canada Post driver Rick Harper recounts how he and others helped save a woman from a Tesla that caught fire after crashing into a guardrail on Lake Shore Boulevard.
A Canadian navy missile test was aborted mid-flight this week after controllers lost communication with the projectile off the coast of southern California.
A former Alberta teacher has been sentenced to four years for sexually abusing a student.
Russian actors made a widely circulated video falsely depicting mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, U.S. officials said Friday.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday formally apologized to native Americans for the 'sin' of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a 'blot on American history' in his first presidential visit to Indian Country.
Israel launched airstrikes early Saturday on what it described as military targets in Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile assault Oct. 1, officials said. There was no immediate information on damage in the Islamic Republic.
Chinese hackers targeted cellphones used by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, his running mate, JD Vance, and people associated with the Democratic campaign of Kamala Harris, people familiar with the matter said Friday.
A New Hampshire woman was sentenced Friday to 53 years to life in prison in the death of her 5-year-old son, who was beaten, starved and exposed to drugs before his 19-pound body was found buried in a Massachusetts park in 2021.
Pizza inadvertently laced with THC has apparently sickened dozens of people in Wisconsin.
Longtime Liberal MP Wayne Long says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should give more weight to the views of his backbenchers in determining his future leading the Party, rather than relying on those in his immediate orbit.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada strongly condemns a new surge in gang violence in Haiti.
Canada's long-held consensus on immigration is under threat but has not disappeared, the immigration minister said in an interview after announcing a major cut to the number of newcomers to Canada.
Children who have coughs that go on for weeks may have a type of walking pneumonia that鈥檚 been surging in the U.S. this year, and they may need a different antibiotic regimen to treat it, infectious disease experts say.
The number of people infected by the E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers increased to 75 from 49, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.
Understanding the common symptoms of a cold or flu can help you make an informed choice about treatment. Here鈥檚 what to know about each illnesses鈥 symptoms and when it鈥檚 time for a doctor visit.
Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. are cracking down on a troubling spread of child sexual abuse imagery created through artificial intelligence technology 鈥 from manipulated photos of real children to graphic depictions of computer-generated kids.
The search for a popular tortoise that went missing from his home in Piedmont is over after his owner said he came home.
Most people have accumulated a pile of data -- selfies, emails, videos and more -- on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
Phil Lesh, a classically trained violinist and jazz trumpeter who found his true calling reinventing the role of rock bass guitar as a founding member of the Grateful Dead, died Friday at age 84.
A New Mexico judge has upheld her decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
Tom Holland is getting ready to don his Spidey suit again. The fourth installment of the blockbuster series has been set for a July 2026 release, Sony Pictures said Friday.
Natural gas producers in Western Canada have white-knuckled it through months of depressed prices, with the expectation that their fortunes will improve when LNG Canada comes online in the middle of next year.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says the world has become more prone to supply shocks which create more risks to inflation, but the central bank is in a better place to deal with them now that inflation is under control.
The former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch pleaded not guilty Friday to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.
Archeologists have uncovered a tiny house in Pompeii that is filled with elaborate 鈥 and sometimes erotic 鈥 frescoes, further revealing the ornate way in which Romans decorated their homes.
In early 2018, Amanda and Sunil started chatting, messaging back and forth on Instagram, introducing themselves and talking a little about their lives. Fast forward to August 2018, the couple got engaged on vacation in Thailand and a year later, after Amanda moved to India, got married.
A Toronto man who only recently checked a Lotto 6/49 lottery ticket he bought back in June is now $2.5 million richer.
A Sherpa teenager who's won mountaineering celebrity as the youngest person ever to summit the world's 14 highest peaks called for Sherpas to be recognized as athletes and expedition leaders as well as porters and guides.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored the winning goal 1:26 into overtime, and the Winnipeg Jets remained unbeaten this season with a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
Broadway vs. Hollywood has produced the starriest Series in decades, if not ever.
A town in southern Alberta will be one of the first to let golf carts be driven on select roads as part of a provincial pilot program.
An increased risk of fire has prompted the recall of thousands of Honda hybrid vehicles in Canada.
A senior executive for Volkswagen in China has been deported for allegedly using cocaine and marijuana while on vacation in Thailand, according to Chinese authorities and German media reports.
A new resident at a Manitoba animal rescue has waddled her way into people's hearts.
Hundreds of people ran to the music of German composer and pianist Beethoven Wednesday night in a unique race in Halifax.
He is a familiar face to residents of a neighbourhood just west of Roncesvalles Avenue.
A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.
Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.
A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.
A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.
A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.
Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.
The final count of ballots in the 2024 B.C. election begins Saturday, with more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee votes potentially yet to be counted across the province's 93 electoral districts.
A B.C. real estate agent who allowed strangers to access a home without licensed supervision, and then lied when questioned about it later, is facing a $14,000 fine and a six-month suspension.
The countdown to the arrival of Taylor Swift鈥檚 Eras Tour is on, with three dates planned in Vancouver this December - and some condo owners are looking to cash in on the fan frenzy.
Canada Post driver Rick Harper recounts how he and others helped save a woman from a Tesla that caught fire after crashing into a guardrail on Lake Shore Boulevard.
Police say they are searching for a second suspect wanted in connection with the murder of a 37-year-old Brampton man who was shot to death in Toronto last month.
Scotiabank has confirmed outages affecting mobile and online banking services, according to a statement published to its X account.
The Alberta legislature is set to reconvene on Monday and the Danielle Smith government will be providing more details about its plans for the session.
An investigation into the death of a man in Calgary police custody earlier this month has concluded that officers did not contribute to his death and that he was cared for properly.
The province still has a huge supply of a Turkish children鈥檚 pain-relief medicine that was procured in 2022 during a countrywide shortage.
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say a 14-year-old boy from Bridgewater, N.S. is facing several charges in connection with threats made against a Catholic high school in eastern Ontario.
A Montreal man is charged with first-degree murder in connection to the stabbing death of a woman at a park in Ottawa鈥檚 south end on Thursday.
Ontario Provincial Police are investigating after a body was found in Perth, Ont. Friday afternoon.
Quebec's social services minister says he's outraged by reports that educators at a detention centre for youth in Montreal had sexual relations with minor detainees 鈥 and that one of the employees allegedly had a baby with a teenage resident.
Two minors were in court Friday to face charges after four teenagers were stabbed outside a Montreal high school.
Israel launched airstrikes early Saturday on what it described as military targets in Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile assault Oct. 1, officials said. There was no immediate information on damage in the Islamic Republic.
A former Alberta teacher has been sentenced to four years for sexually abusing a student.
A second person has been charged in connection with the death of a man in the Kingsway area earlier this year.
Students are feeling the pinch, and the University of Alberta Food Bank is looking to refill the shelves ahead of what is expected to be another record year for demand.
The GoFundMe page for the family of an employee found dead at a Halifax Walmart last weekend has paused donations after almost $200,000 was raised in roughly 24 hours.
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say a 14-year-old boy from Bridgewater, N.S. is facing several charges in connection with threats made against a Catholic high school in eastern Ontario.
Eviction day is one week away and the number of tents in the median of University Avenue in Halifax is steadily decreasing ahead of the city-imposed deadline.
Winnipeg police are looking for a suspect after a woman's dorm room was broken into at the U of M and she was assaulted.
Repairs to the historic 110-year-old rail bridge at The Forks could come with a multi-million dollar price tag.
Manitoba RCMP are providing an update to a crash on Highway 1 that killed one person on Wednesday.
Saturday will mark the end of the CFL regular season, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders will have their eyes on Winnipeg鈥檚 matchup versus Montreal to know if they have a chance of clinching the West Division.
With an attempt to address the shortage of housing available in the community, the City of Yorkton has started a housing incentive program where new builders will receive a 50 per cent rebate on residential lots, and a full tax exemption for five years.
As the final day of voting for the Saskatchewan election inches closer, voters may be wondering when official winners will be declared.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, the man who stabbed three people in a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo, says he 鈥榓cted dumb鈥.
All the evidence has now been called at the trial of Erick Buhr, who has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder in the death of his grandmother, Viola Erb.
Residents spotted smoke coming from a waste management site in Waterloo on Friday afternoon.
A Saskatchewan woman is worried her child might die before receiving life-saving surgery and tests as he sits on the province's surgical waitlist.
The Saskatchewan RCMP is releasing the names of two suspects arrested on Thursday for a violent vehicle theft that triggered a widespread police search.
Police have still not confirmed the identity of a body discovered in Prince Albert last week.
The Town of Cochrane plans to roll out its $10-lot program in a month or two.
Two people 鈥 one from Timmins, the other from Kapuskasing -- have been fined more than $7,000 for camping violations, including empty septic tanks directly onto the ground.
The federal government is spending a significant amount of money to improve Indigenous student learning across Ontario.
London police have issued a warning to the public following an increased number of overdoses in the area of Queens Avenue and Adelaide Street North.
On Wednesday afternoon just before 4:30 p.m., a man and woman entered a business in the area of Oxford Street East and Highbury Avenue North.
A new staff report calls for homeless encampments to be allowed even closer to residential neighbourhoods, reducing the buffer zone from 100 metres to 25 metres.
Several students have been banned from being spectators at school sporting events, and others suspended from school, after verbal and physical exchanges at a high school soccer game.
A 15-year veteran officer with the South Simcoe Police Service has been charged with discreditable conduct following an allegation of sexual assault.
Residents are reporting troubling scenes along a stretch of Georgian Bay鈥檚 shoreline, where several dead birds have been found.
The Windsor Police Service is investigating a suspicious death in south-central Windsor.
A Harrow school is memorializing two students and their mother, who were tragically killed in June.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge will serve as a new crossing for vehicles, but many walkers and cyclists are also excited about the opportunity to access the U.S. in a different way.
The final count of ballots in the 2024 B.C. election begins Saturday, with more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee votes potentially yet to be counted across the province's 93 electoral districts.
Hulitan Early Years Centre is a brand new, 48-seat childhood learning centre in Colwood. It was built to support Indigenous children throughout the capital region.
Mounties in Nanaimo are asking the public for help as they investigate a fatal hit-and-run collision that killed a man southeast of the city Thursday evening.
More than two years after Alannah Brown and Douglas Barker were found dead north of Penticton, police are asking for help identifying a vehicle they believe was associated with the crime.
Dave Lindsey began growing giant pumpkins to bring a bit of magic to his grandkids' Halloween.
A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.
About 15,000 students are enrolled at Lethbridge鈥檚 post-secondary schools, and now the city is working with those schools to try to find ways to get them s to stick around a while.
With Halloween less than a week away, organizations in Lethbridge are preparing to get in on the trick-or-treating fun.
The City of Lethbridge is bringing forward a water conservation policy, the first of its kind for the city.
The union that represents hospital workers across the province is used a symbol from Greek mythology Friday in Espanola to drive home its campaign about the perils of privatization in health care.
CTV's Coats for Kids is nearing the end of its donation window, with the need as strong as it鈥檚 ever been.
The Anishinabek Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police are investigating the circumstances around a death in Fort William First Nation.
Investigators found the remains of a 77-year-old American man on Wednesday at the scene of a fire that destroyed a hotel in western Newfoundland earlier on the weekend.
Police in western Newfoundland say a 77-year-old man visiting the province from Kansas is missing after a fire at a hotel in Deer Lake, N.L.
At 2 p.m. on Thursday, the scene at the Lions Club in Clarenville, N.L., rivalled any rowdy St. John's bar that thumps with music late on a weekend night.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at 愛污传媒. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.
