A man and woman in an ancient tomb full of treasures: the mystery of a 3,700-year-old queen

A prosperous 700-year-old empire called El Argar in the Western Mediterranean may have been dominated by women, according to new evidence from ancient tombs in Spain.

Research led by the Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB – Spain) studied “Grave 38”, a strange grave discovered at the site of La Almoloya in Pliego, Murcia, Spain.

Close-up of the ancient grave of the couple and what looks like an ancient crown on the girl’s head (small photo) – Photo: Antiquity

According to Ancient Origins, the body is in the throneancient tombdating from around 1700 BC was placed in a special large ceramic “sarcophagus”, containing 2 people: a man about 35-40 years old and a young woman 25-30 years old. Around them were 30 valuable burial items, many of which appeared to be individually crafted and exquisitely crafted, unlike anything previously unearthed. They are all made of silver, the most precious material in this ancient society.

Silver items that look ordinary today were priceless treasures 3,700 years ago – Photo: Antiquity

A special point is that most of the treasure belongs to women. These are bracelets, earrings, necklaces, offering boxes of animal origin… The most prominent is something like a silver crown placed on the woman’s head.

The study, published in Antiquity , compared the ancient tomb with four other tombs from the El Argar empire found in the 19th century. All belonged to noble women and were filled with crafted silver jewelry. individually crafted, although the uniformity shows that it may have been made from a single silver workshop, or a single silver craft village. An ancient silver workshop discovered in Tira del Lienzo also by a research team from UAB a few years ago could be the answer.

Panorama of the relic site with many archaeological discoveries about the mysterious El Argar – Photo: Antiquity

Speaking on Phys.org, Dr. Cristina Rihuete, a member of the research team, said: “They are symbolic objects created for these women, thus turning them into typical subjects of this class. dominant ruling class”.

Archaeologists believe that the noble women in ancient tombs must have been at least an official, a queen, ruling at least one area of ancient El Argar society, although the overall leader is unknown. Is this empire of great economic and political stature a woman?

Further evidence to support that theory is that while the tombs of noblewomen were filled with high-value treasures, the graves of warriors or other noble men were only buried with swords, daggers and some lower quality jewelry.