About 3700 years ago, a man and a woman were buried together in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Their tomb was an egg-shaped jar under the floor of a large hall in a sprawling hill complex known as La Almoloya, in what is now Murcia, Spain. It is one of the many archeological sites associated with the El Argar culture of the early Bronze Age, which from 2200 BC to 1500 BC controlled an area as large as Belgium.
Judging by the 29 high-quality objects in the tomb, described in Antiquity magazine on Thursday, it appears that the couple were members of the Hungarian upper class. And the woman was perhaps the more important of the two, asking questions to archaeologists about who exercised power among the Argarics, adding more evidence in a debate about the role of women in prehistoric Europe.
She died in her twenties, possibly of tuberculosis, and was placed on her back with her legs bent toward the man. In life, she has had a range of congenital disorders, such as a shortened, fused spine and a stray left thumb.
On and around her were sublime silver emblems of wealth and power. Her hair was tied with silver spirals, and her silver earplugs – one larger than the other – ran silver spirals through it. A silver bracelet was near her elbow, and a silver ring was still on her finger. Silver adorned the diamond-shaped ceramic pot near her, and triple plates of silver adorned her oak trees – a symbol of womanhood.
Her most fantastic silver artifact is an impeccably manufactured diadem – a headband-like crown – that still rests on her head. Only six were discovered in Argarian tombs.
She would have smiled in life. “Imagine the diadem sinking with a disc toward the tip of her nose,” said Cristina Rihuete Herrada, a archaeologist and professor of prehistory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and one of the discoverers of the funeral. It’s shiny. You can actually see yourself on the disk. If you frame the woman’s eyes, it will be very, very impressive to see. And someone’s ability to reflect – their face in another face – would have been something shocking. ”
The sound of her would also have been dramatic: ‘Think of the noise – this sounds loud, because it is silver against silver in these very large earrings,’ said dr. Rihuete Herrada said. “It will produce a remarkable person.”
The man, who was in his thirties when he died, was buried with his own gourmets, including flaming gold plugs in his ears. The silver ring that had once been on his finger fell off and lay near his low back. At his side was a copper dagger with four silver rivets.
Like their contemporaries – such as the Minoans of Crete, the Wessex of Britain and the Unetice of Central Europe – the Argarics had the characteristics of a Commonwealth, with a dominant bureaucracy, geopolitical boundaries, complex settlement systems and urban centers with monumental structures. They had division of labor and class distinction that continued after death, based on the great difference in grave goods discovered in archaeological sites.
And although most of these systems have long been considered deeply patriarchal, the double burial at La Almoloya and other Argarian tombs causes archaeologists to reconsider life in ancient Iberia. Was she the one using the power? Was she a symbol of power, but nothing of her own? Did they share power or use it in different areas?
They were buried under the floor of a large hall, where long benches stood along the walls, and a podium stood in front of a fireplace intended for warmth and light, not for cooking. The space was large enough to accommodate about 50 people. ‘Hundreds of El Argar buildings have been excavated, and it’s unique. It is clearly a building that specializes in politics, ‘said Dr. Rihuete Herrada said.
The couple had at least one child together – a baby buried under a nearby building was a genetic match for both.
In El Argar culture, girls were given more serious goods at an earlier age than boys, indicating that they were considered women before boys were considered men. Diadems are found exclusively in women, and their graves contain a richer variety of valuable goods. Some male elite warriors were buried with swords.
As far as the power structure of the two is concerned, dr. Rihuete Herrada suggested that they might have had strength in different areas. The swords may indicate that ‘the enforcement of government decisions will be in the hands of men. “Maybe women were political rulers, but not alone,” she said.
She suggests that the Argarics may have been similar to the matrilineal Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois), with women having political and decision-making power – including matters of headship, war and justice – but men were in control of the military.
These interesting ideas fit into an emerging investigation from various archaeological studies in Europe that re-examined female power in the Bronze Age.
“The fact that most tombs, including all the silver, are associated with the female, clearly indicates an individual who is considered very important,” said Karin Frei, a research professor of archeometry at the National Museum of Denmark. . . “It makes sense to raise the question of whether a class-based state society can be ruled by women.”
Dr. Frei is the director of Tales of Bronze Age People, who uses methods such as biogeochemical and biomolecular analyzes to study the remains of both elite and ordinary funerals in Denmark. “In several parts of Europe during the Bronze Age, women could have played a much larger role in political and / or long-distance networks than previously thought,” she said.
Joanna Bruck, an expert on the Bronze Age of Britain and Ireland and head of the School of Archeology at University College Dublin, says that the assumption that elite women of this era were ‘bridal brides’ was exchanged as objects in networks of male power, is ripe for reconsideration.
The funeral at La Almoloya ‘provides such clear evidence that women have been able to hold special political power in the past,’ said Dr. Bruck said. “I think we need to be open to the possibility that they are using power and agency. Of course, power is a very complex thing. You may have power in some contexts, but not in others. We must not think that power is something you have or do not have. ‘