The Mysterious Lady of Elche

The Mysterious Lady of Elche

In 1897, archaeologists uncovered a stunning artifact on a private estate at L’Alcúdia in Valencia, Spain.

This find was a bust of a woman’s head, believed to date back to the 4th Century BC.

The bust features a woman wearing an elaborate headdress, and now seen as one of Spain’s most famous icons.
The bust is known as the Lady of Elche.

The bust shows the woman’s head, neck and shoulders, and chest.
However, it is possible that the bust was originally part of a larger, full-body statue.

The complex headdress features two large coils known as “rodetes” on either side of the head and face.
It is thought that this was a ceremonial headdress, and that the woman may have been a priestess.

The headdress runs across the forehead, with a pattern of raised marble-shaped bumps.
Tassel-like pieces hang in front of the ears, and elaborate necklaces grace her chest.

The woman’s face contains an expressionless gaze, when it was found, the bust contained traces of red, white, and blue decorative paint.

The origin of the sculpture is puzzling, and has become a subject of heated debates.

She’s been called a Moorish queen, a witch, and stranger still, an extraterrestrial visitor from another planet!

However, archaeologists believe the bust is actually a unique Iberian portrayal of the Carthaginian mother goddess Tanit, used as a funerary urn.

There have always been rumors of forgery surrounding the authenticity of the Lady of Elche.

But in 2011 research carried out using electron microscopy and x-ray technology found that the piece is an original, and confirmed its use as an ancient urn.

Traces of ashes containing fragments of human bone were detected in the study.
These were carbon-dated to be more than 2,500 years old.

The Lady of Elche is now exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain in Madrid.