The identification of skull remains at the Olèrdola and Molí d'Espígol sites allow researchers to expand this practice among groups that lived south of the Llobregat River

The study of skull fragments from the Olèrdola (Olèrdola, Barcelona) and Molí d'Espígol (Tornabous, Lleida) sites has provided new evidence that would allow the ritual of "severed heads" from the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula to be located, for the first time, among the Iberian groups of Cessetani and Ilergetes. The discovery allows the southern border of this practice, traditionally associated with the Indigetes and Laietani who lived north of the Llobregat River, to be expanded.

The study, published in the journal Trabajos de Prehistoria, has been led by researchers from the Unit of Biological Anthropology and the Department of Prehistory of the UAB and included the involvement of experts from the Museum of Archeology of Catalonia and the Museum of History of Catalonia, as well as from the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology.

The severed heads were skulls that were decapitated and treated for public display. It was a practice among the Iberian peoples inhabiting the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC, and also among Celtic groups of central and southern Europe. Until now, evidence of this ritual had been found in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula among groups of Indigetes, such as in Ullastret (Ullastret, Girona); and groups of Laietani, at the sites of Burriac (Cabrera de Mar, Barcelona) and Ca n’Oliver (Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona).

The five cranial remains from Olèrdola were the first to be identified in a Cessetani site. The ten fragments found at the Ilergete site of Molí d’Espígol were collected in previous campaigns, but had not been studied until now.

"Bioanthropological and waste analyses have allowed us to identify injuries produced with sharp objects at a time close to death. Due to their arrangement, depth and location, they are compatible with the ritual of severed heads. We have also been able to verify in the remains of Olèrdola the presence of plant substances that could have been used in their treatment or exhibition", explains Rubén de la Fuente, UAB researcher and research coordinator.

"These are results that force us to rethink the cultural framework of the ritual, which until now was considered to be specific only to the peoples north of the Llobregat River, and point to a wider territorial dispersion than we thought", says Eulàlia Subirà, coordinator of the study and researcher at the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology during the research.

Olèrdola, rare marks and pine resin used as a treatment

The fragments from the Olèrdola site, all from the front of the skull and face, belonged to the same young male individual (aged 8 to 15 years old), while those from Molí d’Espígol corresponded to three different individuals, one of whom was also a young man. The research team was unable to identify decapitation marks, given that the lower part of the skulls were missing, but they were able to determine the type and orientation of the blows, as well as, in the case of Olèrdola, marks that would have been made on the jaws with a very thin tool, of the size of the needles found in other Iberian sites and described in relation to the severed heads, such as in Puig Castellar (Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona). “These marks were made to remove the flesh from the skull and indicate that, in addition to the scalp, the skin of the individual’s face was also removed. It is an infrequent practice, but it is documented in the ritual in European sites in France and the United Kingdom", explains Eulàlia Subirà.

The analysis of organic residues adhered to the Olèrdola fragments from the soil where the skull was deposited indicated the presence of biomarkers of animal and vegetable fats, such as pine resins, oils and waxes, which could be interpreted as products with which they treated the head as part of the funerary ritual.

The research team also compared the composition of the soil adhering to the Olèrdola bones with samples of fauna, sediment and plants from around the site to obtain information about the individual's provenance. The results of the isotopic analysis of the strontium values ​​do not match, which could indicate a foreign origin. "With the isotopic analyses we record mobility at a very early stage of adulthood; therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that it was a person who moved to Olèrdola later, or that the body¾or the skull¾was moved there after death", states Rubén de la Fuente.

Located in unique constructions

The cranial remains from both sites were located in significant spaces that were common and could have had an ideological or symbolic character. In the case of Olèrdola, they were found on the ground floor of one of the two towers of the wall that flanked the entrance to the settlement, so “it is likely that it was exposed in the same tower or at the entrance to the town”, notes De la Fuente. The remains found at Molí d’Espígol were recovered in a “space of indeterminate use, but architecturally unique enough to be a prominent or emblematic place of the settlement”.

The findings made in this study add valuable information to a very limited bioanthropological record, since cremation was the predominant burial ritual of Iberian communities, and contribute to delving deeper into the symbolic or ideological value of the ritual of displaying severed heads as trophies. These rituals, present in many cultures, are mostly linked to war enemies and the display of power and prestige. The severed heads did not exclusively belong to men, since skulls of women were also identified, as well as some individuals that perhaps stood out within the community. "In the Iberian Peninsula we do not have classical sources that talk about it extensively, unlike what happens, for example, with the Gallic groups that inhabited what is now France. Archaeological records help us to better understand this practice among the Iberians and the possible relationship it could have had with the Celtic or Gallic world”, the researchers point out.