Researchers have said that women in the ruling class may have been important in the management of El Argar Society, the Mediterranean social archeology research group. said the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in a news release published on Thursday.
The team analyzed tombs found in a royal tomb at the La Almoloya site, in present-day Murcia.
The tomb, known as Tomb 38, contains the remains of two individuals – a man between the ages of 35 and 40 and a woman between 25 and 30 – along with about 30 valuable items, many of which are made of silver.
Most objects belonged to the woman, including jewelry such as bracelets, necklaces and earplugs, and a silver diadem.
The items were first discovered in 2014, and researchers have now determined that the tomb was located under the government hall of a palace building.
This is the first time that archaeologists have found evidence that El Argar society was organized around this kind of complex, which had a political function.
Study co-author Cristina Rihuete, a professor of prehistory at UAB, told CNN that burying under the government hall would have legalized the social position of those in the grave.
Women have been part of the political elite in the highly hierarchical society, Rihuete said – and its implications are important.
“The role of women in the past was far more important than we dared,” she said, explaining that women in El Argar were able to exercise political power in their own right in an extremely violent and exploitative society.
“It says a lot about the process of silence that women have suffered since then,” Rihuete added.
People tend to think that our history was built up, Rihuete said, but El Argar experienced a society to the extent that subsequent civilizations had no recollection of it.
“We have lost all knowledge of these people,” said Rihuete, whose work has begun to build an image of life in El Argar over the past two decades.
The El Argar society ruled the region from 2200 to 1550 BC, and according to the news release developed into the first state organization in the western Mediterranean during the last two centuries of its existence.
Archaeologists have compared the diadem found at La Almoloya with four others found in different tombs of the El Argar community, and found that 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 miles apart, Rihuete said.
This means that the symbols of political power have remained the same across the vast sphere of society, she added.
The fact that elite women are buried with such lavish funeral goods shows, according to researchers, their important role in the Argar society.
“In Argarian society, women of the dominant classes were buried with diadems, while the men were buried with a sword and dagger. The funeral goods buried with these men were of a lesser quantity and quality,” they said. . “Since swords are the most effective tool for strengthening political decisions, El Argar’s dominant men would have played an executive role, although ideological legitimacy as well as perhaps government lay in the hands of some women.”
The couple found in the tomb died at the same time, or about the same time, in the middle of the 17th century BCE They were not related and had together a daughter who was buried in the area.
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.