Archaeological investigations carried out along the sun-kissed shore of Ibiza before building work have uncovered something of great importance: an ancient 2-millennia old wooden statue of the legendary hero Hercules. The 30-centimetre-tall statue was found about 7 metres underground inside an ancient waterlogged pit. Because organic objects such as wood decompose rapidly in a Mediterranean climate, there shouldn't have been any wood left after 2,000 years.
However, this grain silo had no oxygen because it was left open to the rain and had a muddy environment after it was abandoned. This incredible discovery provides an extraordinary insight into the Roman time period when Ibiza was known as Ebusus and illustrates how strongly the spiritual or cultural aspects of Greco-Roman mythology affected the lives of ancient people on the island. Preserving such a rare artifact allows historians to reconstruct the ritualistic practices of Ebusus, bridging the gap between tangible archaeological evidence and ancient religious devotion.
