A new scientific technique identifies a body interred in an impressive 5,000-year-old tomb on Spain's Iberian peninsula as a woman, giving new insights into gender roles we know 'preciously little about'.
An artist's impression shows the "Ivory Lady" with her Copper Age community.abc.net.au/news/5-000-year-old-spanish-burial-revealed-powerful-woman/102574050Analysis of two teeth dating back nearly 5,000 years has shown that a lavish megalithic tomb in Spain contained a high-status woman, not the young man archaeologists first assumed.
The tomb, excavated in 2008 near the city of Valencia, 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.
"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," Professor García Sanjuán said.