Crystal skull? Pah. That pales in comparison to what a group of archaeologists have found at a 5,000 year old tomb in southern Spain.
Sometimes you meet an artefact that is so striking, so unusual, that you can barely believe it’s real. This 5,000 year old crystal dagger is definitely one of them, but it is real… and it’s not even the only one!
Archaeologists in Spain spent three years excavating the Dolmen del Montelrio – a megalithic tomb near Seville. The monument, built with slate, extends nearly 44m in total and contains at least 25 individuals buried inside its many chambers – each with an extraordinary collection of grave goods.
In one chamber, archaeologists found a young man with clothes made of tens of thousands of beads, a set of 23 flint blades, an elephant tusk laid above his head, and numerous ivory objects. The whole lot (including his body) had been sprayed with a red pigment made from cinnabar.
But the most striking artefact is by far and away the cache of exquisite crystal weapons, including a dagger, some arrowheads, several blades and a few cores.
Cache of rock crystal arrowheads from Montelrio.
The arrowheads have the characteristic barbs of flint arrowheads from the area – but investigators remarked that even greater skill must have been required to produce these unique features when using rock crystal.
Together, they form part of “the most technically sophisticated and aesthetically impressive collection of rock crystal material culture ever found in Prehistoric Iberia“.
You can read more about their discoveries in The allure of rock crystal in Copper Age southern Iberia, published in Quaternary International.
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Written by Maiya Pina-Dacier
Director of Engagement at DigVentures, Maiya digs with a trowel in one hand, and a Twitter feed in the other. She loves finding new ways to get people involved in archaeology - online and in the field.
Comments (3)
Awesome , to create quartz weapons.
Rose
Hi there!
Nice article, it’s great for something as awesome as this to be finally recognised. Did you know they dig the dolmen back in 2009ish but what they found hasn’t been shown to the public yet? I’ve only seen it in pictures.
One little note: there’s a misspelling in the name of the dolmen: it’s called Montelirio, not Montelrio. And, if anyone wants more information about its whereabouts, it’s in a town called Valencina de la Concepción, that has other dolmens you can actually visit. The greatest objects are in the archaeological museum in Seville, though.
Heard about these a ways back, yes, these are awesome , some of he points resemble some Egyptian points . Fayoom area . ( if I spelled it correctly ) I have a rare Solutrean point found in VA.