Tarteso

There was a time when, at the westernmost edge of the then-known world, an opulent civilization flourished, considered the first in the West. The Greeks called it Tartessos. They spoke of its long-lived kings, its inexhaustible silver, and a land where myth and history intertwined. Then, Tartessos vanished. For centuries it was a shadow. A name. A legend. Until now. In this book, Sebastián Celestino and Esther Rodríguez, two of the archaeologists who have contributed most to transforming our understanding of this culture, offer a captivating, up-to-date, and profoundly revealing synthesis of the Tartessian world. Far from romantic or speculative visions, and based on spectacular findings —monumental sanctuaries, sacrificial rituals, buildings sealed underground, sculpted faces that have been looking at us for 2,500 years— the authors reconstruct the history of a powerful, sophisticated society deeply connected to the Mediterranean and do not shy away from the ultimate question: what was Tartessos really and why did it fall into oblivion?