Discourses of Power (also) in Feminine in the Iberian Cemeteries in the South-East of the Iberian Peninsula (6th-3rd centuries BCE)

Abstract

This article proposes new interpretations of the role of women in Iron Age communities in south-east Iberia. Based on the study of several necropolises in the region, it presents a model of social organisation in which women are a key part of the power structure. The chronological scope of these necropolises demonstrates the evolution of this society over the centuries. Thanks to anthropological studies of the bone remains in the tombs, we know that women were highly represented in the necropolises of the middle centuries of the first millennium BCE. Many of these women were also buried in prominent locations, inaugurating funerary spaces that would later be used for new burials and which gave order to the necropolis. The grave goods that accompany these individuals also reveal a high social status, often associated with productive activities such as textiles, which played a significant role in the economic structure of these communities.