Cordoba (EFE) about 70 years ago.
In Spain, there are only three mitreos, in Tarragona, Lugo and Mérida, in this case it is covered, but in no case linked to the statue of the god, as is the case in Cabra.
The mitreum is for private use, small in size, eight meters long by less than three meters wide and, unlike the pavement in the rest of the town, which is mosaic, in this case it is made of earth and bones.
The bones, according to archaeologists, come from animal sacrifices that were offered to the god and, once consumed, were deposited and buried as sacred objects.
The Mithra de Cabra is located in the Archaeological Museum of Córdoba and is one of the reference pieces of the museum installation.
“Unusual” discovery in the Iberian Peninsula
The BIC statement places the origin of the villa, for residential use, in the 1st-2nd centuries after Christ, although it has a series of renovations that date back to the 3rd and 4th centuries, “of the peristyle type, due to the existence of this that allows the distribution around it of the main rooms, among which it includes some hot springs, located to the Northwest ».
The mayor of Cabra, Fernando Priego (PP) highlighted this Monday to EFE that both the researchers from the Carlos III University and the University of Malaga who have participated in the third excavation of the site have highlighted this exceptional find.
For Professor Jaime Alvar, from the Carlos III University, one of those responsible for the excavations carried out between November 2022 and the end of January 2023, it is “something unusual” in the Iberian Peninsula, after the disposal of the statue of Mithra, the god killing the bull, as explained in the presentation of the find.
The site was acquired by the Egabrense City Council in 2018, together with the adjoining land, where the excavation has now been carried out and the discovery has been made.