Neither weapons nor gold Archaeologists discover in Spain the tomb of “The Ivory Lady” with the oldest and largest collection in history
Archaeologists studying a 5,000-year-old tomb have published their findings about an “unparalleled” burial attire of an Iberian Copper Age society.
Discovered in 1868, the Tholos de Montelirio archaeological site just outside of Seville, Spain was left alone for decades until the 1980s. Recently though, archaeologist investigating the 5,000-year-old Iberian Copper Age megalithic burial monument at Valencina unearthed what has amounted to be the largest collection of beads ever documented at a single site.
The beads were part of “unparalleled beaded attires” that were worn by some of the people buried there, mostly women estimated to have been between the ages 18 and 34 when they were laid to rest. Detailed analysis of the elaborate outfits carried out over the past five years reveals the power and status of women in this copper age society according to the researchers.
Over 270,000 beads requiring thousands of hours of effort to make
The study published in the journal Science Advances explains that the 270,769 beads discovered at the Tholos de Montelirio burial site were made from three materials: animal bones, stones and marine shells.
The former two were used in far smaller numbers compared to marine shells which were used to make 99% of the beads. Of those, scallop shells were they most common but there were some that were made with mother of pearl from oyster and clam shells.
The researchers think it is “plausibly symbolic, associating the individuals with the sea.” The site, which is now inland, would’ve been located on the coast 5,000 years ago.
The sheer number of shells needed to produce so many beads and the effort that it required is mind boggling. The researchers estimate that it would have taken around 18,000 shells to produce the whole assemblage of 270,000 beads, and that is a lower range of estimation. That’s the equivalent of around 1,768 pounds, nearly a ton, of marine shells.
In order to manufacture the beads, it would have taken “10 persons working 8 hours a day would have taken 206 days (nearly 7 months) to produce the whole assemblage,” say the researchers. “Evidently, the labor value of the beaded attires was high,” they surmised.
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