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Most of the pottery recovered from political and administrative centers in El Argar (2200-1550 BCE), such as Tira del Lienzo and Ifre, locat
Interesting. Shows this society was more integrated across town limits than was known before. Indeed, a complex organisation.
Bronze Age burial site in Spain suggests women were rulers. Researchers in Murcia find exquisite objects at women’s graves later used as sites for elite warrior burials.
[ Photo: Bronze Age ear plug and spiral found at La Almoya, Murcia ]
“A burial site found in Spain - described by archaeologists as one of the most lavish Bronze Age graves discovered to date in Europe - has sparked speculation that women may have been among the rulers of a highly stratified society that flourished on the Iberian peninsula until 1550 BCE.
Home to the El Argar, a society that was among the first to utilise bronze, build complex urban centers and develop into a state organisation, the site is part of a vast territory that at its peak stretched across 35,000 sq km.
Research published on Thursday in the journal Antiquity has documented one of the site’s most tantalising finds: a man and a woman buried in a large ceramic jar, both of whom died close together in the mid-17th century BCE.
Buried with them were 29 valuable objects, nearly all of them belonging to the female, believed to be between 25 and 30 years of age. “It’s like everything she touched had silver on it,” said Cristina Rihuete of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Among the exquisitely crafted items were bracelets, rings and a rare type of crown, known as a diadem. In total 230 grams of silver were found at the burial site – an amount that at the time would have been worth the equivalent of 938 daily wages.
The prominent role women may have played in the society is echoed in other finds at El Argar; similar diadems were found at four other female burial sites while gravesites of women were later used for the burials of elite warriors, suggesting these sites were viewed as places of high status.
What made this most recent find unique was its location beneath what could be the first bronze age palace unearthed in the region. As the building would have been used for political purposes, it could be that the woman’s power stemmed from politics, said Rihuete.
Men were probably the warriors of society, as suggested by the swords found at several male burial sites, said Roberto Risch of Autonomous University of Barcelona. “Clearly they control the means of violence and they are probably behind the expansion of El Argar.”
The society, which thrived from 2200 BCE onwards, was highly organised with a wealthy elite that was probably sustained by some sort of tax system. “In western Europe there was nothing of the like,” said Risch, pointing to the rest of Spain where people at the time were living in self-sufficient communities of 50 to 100 people.
By the 16th century BCE, all of El Argar’s settlements were abandoned, believed to have been racked by internal uprisings. “Shortly after the woman dies, the whole settlement is burned down,” said Risch. “And not until the Greeks and Phoenicians arrive on the Iberian peninsula did we see anything similar, either in architecture or in political dimension.”
- Cambridge University Press via The Guardian via Pinterest
Un estudio realizado por investigadores de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona sobre la tumba 38 de La Almoloya revela nuevos datos sobre el papel que pudieron jugar las mujeres en las tareas de gobierno en la cultura argárica.
Archaeologists working at an ancient complex in southeastern Spain say women probably held political power in the Bronze Age society that ru
(CNN)Archaeologists working at an ancient complex in southeastern Spain say women probably held political power in the Bronze Age society that ruled the area 4,000 years ago -- a sharp contrast with earlier views of the civilization.
Researchers said women of the ruling class may have been important in governing the El Argar society, the Research Group in Mediterranean Social Archaeoecology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona said in a news release published Thursday.
The team analyzed grave goods found in a princely tomb in the La Almoloya site, in what is now Murcia.
The tomb, known as Grave 38, contained the remains of two individuals -- a man between the ages of 35 and 40 and a woman between 25 and 30 -- alongside around 30 valuable items, many of which were made from silver.
Most of the objects belonged to the woman, including jewelry such as bracelets, necklaces and earlobe plugs, and a silver diadem.
The items were first discovered in 2014, and researchers have now determined that the tomb sat below what was the governing hall of a palatial building. This is the first time archaeologists have found evidence that the El Argar society was organized around these kinds of complexes, which had a political function.
Study co-author Cristina Rihuete, a professor of prehistory at UAB, told CNN that being buried under the governing hall would have legitimized the social position of those in the tomb.
Women formed part of the political elite in the highly hierarchical society, Rihuete said -- and the implications are significant.
"The role of women in the past was much more important than we have dared to imagine," she said, explaining that women in El Argar were able to have political power in their own right in a highly violent and exploitative society.
"This says a lot about the process of silencing that women have suffered since," Rihuete added.
People tend to think that our history is accumulated, Rihuete said, but El Argar suffered societal collapse to the extent that subsequent civilizations had no memory of them.
"We lost all knowledge of these people," said Rihuete, whose work over the past two decades has started to build a picture of life in El Argar.
The El Argar society ruled in the region from 2200 to 1550 BCE, developing into the first state organization in the western Mediterranean during the last two centuries of its existence, according to the news release.
Archaeologists compared the diadem found at La Almoloya with four others found at different tombs from the El Argar society, and found they were all very similar and very valuable.
"The big surprise is that they match a clear model," even though they were found hundreds of kilometers apart, Rihuete said.
This means that the symbols of political power stayed the same across the extensive territory of the society, she added.
The fact that elite women were buried with such opulent funerary goods points to their important role in Argar society, according to researchers.
"In the Argaric society, women of the dominant classes were buried with diadems, while the men were buried with a sword and dagger. The funerary goods buried with these men were of lesser quantity and quality," they said. "As swords represent the most effective instrument for reinforcing political decisions, El Argar dominant men might have played an executive role, even though the ideological legitimation as well as, perhaps, the government, had lain in some women's hands."
The couple found in the tomb died simultaneously, or around the same time, in the mid-17th century BCE. They weren't related, and had a daughter together, who was buried nearby.
The team is planning further excavations at the site to try to expand our knowledge of El Argar, Rihuete said.
The research was published in the journal Antiquity.
Top Fav. Archaeological Sites [1/?] (in no particular order)
1. Knossos (Minoan Crete) 2. Mohenjo-daro (Indus Valley) 3. Teotihuacán (Precolumbian Civilization) 4. Persepolis (Achaemenid Empire) 5. El Argar (Bronze Age Spain)
Silver diadem worn by female ruler in Murcia, Spain
17th century BCE
“A particular question about El Argar society, raised by the exclusive presence of certain objects of social value in female graves, concerns the potentially prominent political role and status of women. This possibility is further supported by the recognition, in the funerary ritual, of adulthood at a younger age for girls compared with boys, and by the interment of some elite warriors of the middle Argar phase (c. 2000–1800 cal BCE) in graves where a woman had been previously buried.”
- Cambridge University Press, 11 March 2021
Photo: J.A. Soldevilla, Arqueoecologia Social Mediterrània Research Group, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (via Pinterest)
Almost 4,000 years ago, some tasks were already specialized according to gender
A study of the dental wear of 106 individuals buried in the Castellón Alto archaeological site (Granada, Spain) found that only women used their anterior teeth as tools to make threads and cords
Between 2200 and 1550 Before Common Era (BCE), the culture of El Argar developed in the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. It is known that this was a complex society that practiced social differentiation based on gender, age, and specialization in tasks such as craftwork—that is, working with ceramics, lithics, textiles, and metals. This understanding has now been reaffirmed by a new study published recently in Journal of Archaeological Science.
Analysis of dental wear from the remains of 106 individuals buried at the Castellón Alto archaeological site in Granada, Spain, revealed that, as early as the Bronze Age (1900–1600 BCE), women used their anterior (front) teeth to perform certain tasks associated with making threads and cords. Read more.
El Argar - Wikipedia
