By Will Dunham
(Reuters) – When archaeologists discovered a megalithic tomb in Spain dating back nearly 5,000 years and bearing sumptuous items such as a dagger made of rock crystal, ostrich eggshell and an African elephant’s tusk, they knew the person buried inside was a powerful figure. What they did not realize was that this was a woman.
Researchers said on Thursday an analysis of tooth enamel showed that the body entombed at the site near Seville was not a man as previously thought, a finding that indicates the leadership role women played in this ancient society that predated the pyramids of Egypt – and perhaps elsewhere.
She has been dubbed the “Ivory Lady” because of the finely crafted ivory grave objects surrounding her and the fact that a full elephant tusk was laid above her head during burial, as if protecting her, in a tomb dating to between 2800 and 2900 BC. The tomb, excavated in 2008, was more impressive than any other known from the Iberian peninsula from the time.
“She stands out as the most prominent person ever to have lived in that period” in this region, said University of Seville professor of prehistory Leonardo García Sanjuán, one of the authors of the research published in the journal Nature.
While the researchers do not know precisely who she was or what societal role she played, they suspect she combined political and religious power and may have been viewed as the founder of an important clan.
No male of similarly high status has been found at the site. Located nearby was a similarly lavish tomb containing the bodies of at least 15 women – thought to have been built by people claiming descent from the “Ivory Lady.”
“The third millennium BC is a time of major transformation. In Mesopotamia and Egypt, the early centuries of the third millennium correspond to early dynastic polities. In the British Isles, it is the peak time of Stonehenge, a major megalithic monument and sanctuary,” García Sanjuán said.
“In Iberia, it is a time of increased social complexity, with intensification of production, more availability of surplus, growing inter-regional connectivity and increased social inequality and political hierarchy. The ‘Ivory Lady’ reflects all these elements,” García Sanjuán said.
This time period on the Iberian peninsula featured complex societies but predated the formation of political entities like states.
“This study throws new light on a problem we know preciously little about: the social and political role of women among early complex pre-state societies,” García Sanjuán said.
The “Ivory Lady” shows that women may have held high leadership positions during the Copper Age, a transitional period between the Stone Age and the more technologically sophisticated Bronze Age.
“The political complexity of pre-state societies is usually associated with concepts such as ‘big man’ or ‘chiefdoms,’ which explain the emergence of early forms of leadership,” said study co-author Miriam Luciañez-Triviño, a researcher in the University of Seville’s Department of Prehistory and Archaeology.
“In the ethnographic literature, these leaders are most often males. However, our study provides data that may help to revise interpretations of (Iberian) peninsular and European prehistory, showing that we still know little about the role of women in positions of power during this period,” she added.
The entombed skeleton’s fragmentary state made it hard to determine gender. Certain features had led to an earlier conclusion that the person was “likely male.” The researchers solved the mystery by analyzing a molar and an incisor – detecting the presence of a gene regulating a certain enamel-forming protein to reveal it was a woman.
“One of the keys to progress in prehistoric archaeology is the use of all the new analytical methods available,” Luciañez-Triviño said.
(Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
