Bronze Age Queens Ran Ancient Spanish Lands

Queens run the world and indeed – ran it in the past. Well, we might glibly claim we knew that instinctively, but Science News Online says that a lavish grave dating from the pagan Bronze Age in the territory that is now Spain, previously assumed to have been that of a male warrior chief, was in fact that of a queen. This unexpected discovery bolsters suspicions that women wielded political power in that region’s El Argar society, which lasted from around 4,220 to 3,570 years ago.  In the April issue of specialist magazine Antiquity, scientists revisit the grave, which was found under an ancient village ruin called La Almoloya . Most of the 29 valuables in the grave lay on or next to a female body, not the male consort it was apparently buried with.  A semicircular silver headband, or diadem, with a disk that would have rested on the forehead or the bridge of the nose, was found on the woman’s skull. Other sites excavated over the last two hundred years in the El Argar region seem to have had similarly adorned female bodies. The jewellery was strongly associated with status and political importance.