In Spain, in Villena, one of the most important gold treasures from the Bronze Age in Europe and the oldest iron artefact ever found in the country was stolen. Thursday August 27around dawn, a group of thieves using a diversion he managed to sneak inside the MUVIthe city museum of Villenain the south of the Valencian Community. The criminals had a particular objective: the so-called Villena’s Treasurethe second most important deposit of gold jewelery from the European Bronze Age, after that found inside the Mycenaean royal tombs in Greece, and the most important in the entire Iberian Peninsula. In just four minutes, the thieves have stolen all the gold pieces and a part of the silver ones (in total 59 pieces), together with other archaeological finds from the MUVI. At the moment their fate it is not knownand the population of the town remains deeply shock from the theft of a very important part of one’s cultural identity. The estimated value of the gold content alone would be around 1.7 million euros.
The Treasure of Villena was discovered in 1963by chance, during urban planning works in the city. This cache of gold, silver, iron and amber immediately became the object of study by the archaeologist José María Soler. To be precise it was composed of 59 objects weighing almost ten kilogramscontained within a ceramic vase, of which over 90% 23.5 karat gold: 11 bowls and 28 gold bracelets, two gold bottles, three silver vessels, an amber and gold button, and several objects, including a meteoric iron bracelet. The latter it is the oldest iron object on the Iberian Peninsula.
The purpose of this storage room remains enigmatic. It was probably a votive depositassociated with some kind of ritual. In association with the vase that contained the treasure, layers of ashwhich suggest some sacrificial offering. Soler was also involved in studying the Treasure of Cabezo Redondoa similar golden closet found a few months earlier also in the Villena area.
On the basis of the typological comparison between the materials of Cabezo Redondo and those found in Villena, a dating that is still widely accepted today was proposed, namely that ofFinal Bronze Agearound the 1000 y. C.
