In the Copper Age, the woman was the person with the highest social status on Iberia

2023/07/06 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Arkeologia
• Berdintasuna

The person with the highest social status known on Iberia in the Copper Age was the woman, contrary to what was previously believed. Through a novel method, the study of a dental enamel peptide has shown that the person was a woman. The discovery has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

His remains were found in a tomb in Valencia in 2008. He is between 3,200 and 2,200 years old, and besides being buried by himself, he was surrounded by unique and valuable objects, such as elephant tusks, ostrich shells, high-quality yolks, a quartz dagger… This demonstrates the status of this person. Through usual anthropological studies, he was considered a male from 17 to 25 years old.

Nevertheless, they have now analyzed the amelogenous peptide of dental enamel. The genes in this peptide are found in sex chromosomes X and Y and their study can determine whether it comes from one sex or another. Moreover, as part of the enamel, amelogenin is well preserved in archaeological remains, both of adult teeth and milk. It is particularly useful in the case of children, as morphologically it cannot be differentiated between males or females. In this case the AMELX gene (X chromosome) has been identified and the AMELY genus (Y chromosome) has not been found. So they've shown that that person was a woman.

Researchers claim that men with similar or subsequent alcohol levels have not yet been found. In contrast, another case of similar status, found in the same burial zone, was the woman.

Thus, this discovery demonstrates that women could have a high status in those ancient societies. Moreover, since no valuable objects were found in the burying of children, it seems that in those societies the status did not come for the birthright. Thus, researchers suggest that this woman acquired this status on merit and achievement.