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The researchers created a sustainable material with a distinguished cultural history – enabling us all to dress like pharaohs…
Rock art reveals long-distance trade
Bronze Age sailors, metal prospectors, and traders regularly travelled between northern and southern Europe – a distance of more than 2,000 miles – according to new research looking at similarities in the depiction of boats in rock carvings in Sweden, Denmark, Spain, and Portugal.
Boat representations are the most prevalent motif in the rock-art imagery of southern Scandinavia, with some 20,000 recorded examples. Typically, they are carved into the surface of glacially smoothed rocks along coasts and inland waterways. Similar depictions are found decorating burial chambers or engraved into the surface of bronze artefacts. One example is also known that was carved into the trunk of a tree.
Using a combination of carbon-dating, metallurgical analysis, and comparisons between rock-art carvings of swords, axes, and shields and actual contemporary artefacts, these Scandinavian examples have been dated to the later Bronze Age (c.1300-500 BC). Researchers have also been able to create a chronological sequence for some of these carvings by linking their position on the rock surface to rising sea-levels.
Systematic surveys of rock-art sites in the Iberian Peninsula conducted in the late 1990s revealed the existence of similar depictions of boats at 12 rock-art sites in northern Portugal and south-western Galicia. In a paper published in June 2026 in PLOS One (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349417), called ‘Boats on the rocks’, the authors demonstrate that the carvings of boats in both regions share distinct design features.
The researchers drew several conclusions from these striking similarities. First, that the rock-art depictions corresponded with the reality of boat shape and technology, and that these carvings therefore contain a wealth of information about Bronze Age maritime capabilities and vessel design, with clear depictions of planks, curved hulls and sterns, steering oars, sails, masts, and rigging. These strongly support the hypothesis that sail technology was widespread along the Atlantic European coast during this period. In addition, the many depictions of boats with banks of rowing oars have enabled the researchers to estimate the length and width of such vessels.
Second, Bronze Age communities were highly connected through sea- travel covering long distances, and that commodities, technological innovations, and complex ideological frameworks were being shared across Europe through maritime links and long-distance trade. The research team identified cosmological elements on both sets of rock art, such as sun crosses, wheels, horses, cup marks, and concentric circles, hinting at parallels with Nordic iconography and a shared preoccupation with the sun’s path across the sky and epic journeys.
The research team, led by Marta Díaz-Guardamino of the Department of Archaeology, Durham University, also mapped and analysed the location of the Iberian rock art, finding further similarities with Scandinavian examples. Often isolated from domestic settlements, the petroglyphs were positioned near the sea with expansive views to the Atlantic Ocean or a major river. It is suggested that the rock art was used to mark key landing sites that also served as hubs for commercial and cultural exchange.
Notably, 38% of the engraved outcrops lay within a two-hour walking distance of tin deposits, and the one rock-art site that was not close to navigable water was located in the tin-rich valley at Penedo do Mouro, 100km from the coast – perhaps left there by visitors of Scandinavian origin, drawn by the search for metal ores.
The authors conclude that these findings directly challenge the dominant ‘terrestrial narrative’ of European prehistory, instead establishing Atlantic Europe as ‘a cohesive, navigable seascape with places for trade, metal prospecting, rest and resupply’. The depiction of bird masks and horned helmets in the rock art suggests a symbolic and spiritual element to these sites, which might have been used for seasonal gatherings and initiation into the esoteric knowledge possessed by the seasoned travellers who played a key role in long-distance maritime trade.
Tartessian bronze chariot
That trade network continued down the Atlantic coast and into the Mediterranean, where the Tartessian culture, centred around the Guadalquivir and Guadiana river valleys of modern-day Andalusia, played a key role in the Bronze and Iron Age metal trades. The recent discovery, announced in June 2026, of an ornate ceremonial chariot of bronze has been hailed as the clearest indication yet that the elite members of Tartessian society participated in luxury exchange networks stretching across the ancient Mediterranean.
The chariot was found at Casas del Turuñuelo during the eighth consecutive excavation campaign carried out by researchers from the Institute of Archaeology of Mérida. The site consists of a two-floor building that was ritually set on fire during the 5th century BC and buried beneath a massive tumulus, measuring 90m in diameter and 6m high, which was rediscovered in the 1980s.
Only half of the chariot survives, but the body and wheels show an exceptional level of decorative detail and sophisticated metalworking. The decorations include representations of the river god Achelous, along with griffins and two Atlas-like male figures supporting the vehicle’s body.
The closest parallels come from the ancient Etruscan civilisation of central Italy, suggesting the object may have originated there or been heavily influenced by Etruscan craftsmanship. Further evidence of the trade in imported luxury goods found at the site includes fine pottery from Attica, an Egyptian alabaster vessel, and ivory objects decorated with warriors and animal and plant motifs.
The chariot was found in what the archaeologists have identified as a banqueting hall, and it might have been used in the final ceremonial feast held to mark the deliberate closure and burial of the building at the end of the 5th century BC. As part of the closing ceremony, 52 animals were sacrificed in the main courtyard, including horses, donkeys, cows, and sheep or goats.
The reason why the Tartessian civilisation collapsed remains a mystery. Thriving and immensely wealthy from the 9th to the 5th centuries BC, it was formed from a mixture of indigenous people and Greek and Phoenician migrants. The Tartessian language, known from tomb inscriptions, has been described as an early form of Celtic that became the lingua franca of Atlantic metal traders, spreading to Britain and Ireland over time. The impact of earthquakes, tsunamis, the silting up of ports and rivers, and competition from Carthage have all been given as reasons why, from the early 6th century BC, Tartessian villages were abandoned, mines closed, and imports ceased. Another theory is that the Phoenicians abandoned their colonies in Spain after the conquest of the Levant by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 539 BC.
Sea silk recreated
Sea creatures have proved to be the source of two of the most prized colours in ancient history. Purple dye used to make the garments reserved for Roman emperors and high-ranking officials was derived from the mucus glands of sea snails, while the high-status golden fabric known as ‘sea silk’ was made from the threads produced by Pinna nobilis, the large Mediterranean clams that generate these fibres to anchor themselves to rocky surfaces.
Three times finer than human hair, these protein filaments, known as byssus threads, are nevertheless exceptionally tough and durable. For centuries, they have been used to create a shimmering golden fabric that was reserved for priests and pharaohs in ancient Egypt. The Emperor Diocletian’s Edict on Maximum Prices of AD 301 lists a tunic made of byssus fibres at 48,000 denarii – compared to a few hundred for an everyday garment.
Pinna nobilis is now endangered, and the European Union has banned its harvesting, but researchers in South Korea have recreated the legendary textile using fibres from a similar clam (Atrina pectinata), a shellfish cultivated for food in Korean coastal waters. In a paper published in Advanced Materials (https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202570212), the researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology have also described how its golden appearance is due to microscopic proteins that reflect light. Because they are an integral part of the material’s structure, the colour does not fade and remains vibrant for centuries.
The byssus fibres of the Korean clams have traditionally been discarded as waste, but by demonstrating that they can be converted into woven textile the researchers have shown how to create a sustainable material with a long and distinguished cultural history – enabling us all to dress like pharaohs, emperors, and popes.
