(ORDO NEWS) ā Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed ancient Egyptian artifacts while excavating a 2,700-year-old Iron Age settlement in Salamanca.
According to Heritage Daily, the archaeological team was excavating at the site of the Cerro de San Vicente monument, located on one of the three hills of Salamanca.
The first Iron Age settlement was discovered here in 1990. Over the past three decades, archaeologists have excavated and explored an area of āāabout 1,000 square meters.
They managed to find artifacts quite unusual for these places. In particular, the team found amulets and painted pottery with motifs of Egyptian origin.
Putting the fragments of pottery together, the scientists found that they are part of a gilded inlay that depicted the goddess Hathor, one of the main deities in ancient Egypt.
She was worshiped as the wife of the sky god Horus. However, in some Egyptian cities, Hathor was considered the wife of the sun god Ra.
In any case, both of these gods personified royal power. It was their earthly representatives that the pharaohs were considered. Hathor herself was the goddess of fertility, motherhood, joy and love.
As the researchers report, pieces of ceramics put together form a fragment about five centimeters long, on which the lower part of the hair of the goddess Hathor with her characteristic curls is clearly visible.
On the reverse side of the pottery, archaeologists found traces of some ancient glue, the composition of which has yet to be determined in the laboratory.
This suggests that painted ceramics with images of ancient Egyptian deities could decorate some large item, which, in turn, could be installed on the palace wall as decoration.
The question of how such an artifact could have ended up in an Iron Age settlement in Spain remains open. It is believed that Phoenician traders could bring it here as a gift.
However, one cannot exclude the possibility that the inhabitants of local settlements somehow themselves adopted the rites and iconography of ancient cultures geographically quite distant from them.
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