Multidisciplinary research reveals gender bias in the megalithic necropolis of Panoria, with burials of women occurring at twice the rate of men.
A multidisciplinary research team, led by the Archaeometry group from the University of Tübingen and the GEA group from the University of Granada, made a remarkable discovery at the megalithic necropolis of Panoría (Granada, Spain). They found that the number of women buried was double that of men, with an even more pronounced disparity among juveniles, where the ratio stood at 10 females for every male.
The necropolis of Panoría is located at the easternmost end of Sierra Harana, in the town of Darro (Granada). It consists of at least 19 graves, 9 of which have been excavated between 2015 and 2019. They are collective burials from which more than 55,000 human skeletal remains were recovered. The dating of these remains shows that the first burials took place 5600 years ago with a discontinuous funerary use until 4100 years ago.
Bioarchaeological Advances
In a recent study published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports, the use of new bioarchaeological methods has allowed the identification of chromosomal sex from the study of DNA and the analysis of a protein known as Amelogenin present in the tooth enamel.
In this way, it has been possible, for the first time, to obtain a precise demographic profile of the biological sex of the people who were buried in these megalithic monuments. Surprisingly, the result is a clear bias in favour of female burials, twice that of male burials, a bias that is even more pronounced among juvenile individuals with a ratio of 10 females for every male individual.
This ratio is far from the usual composition of human populations, which is approximately one to one. Only in exceptional circumstances, e.g. conflicts, wars or intense migration processes, does this ratio break down in favour of one of the sexes.
Understanding the Female Burial Bias
What circumstances could have led to such a pronounced bias in the population buried at Panoría? The bias in favour of female burials appears in all the analysed graves, in all age groups and throughout the time of use of the necropolis. This allows us to confirm that this was a very persistent and determining social decision over time affecting the different social groups buried within the graves. Therefore, extraordinary or unpredictable events can been ruled out as the cause of the bias found in Panoría.
If sex bias was a social decision, but what are the reasons for this over-representation of women in funerary rituals? Considering that biological kinship relations are the main criterion to be buried in the different structures, the over-representation of female individuals could indicate funerary practices based primarily on matrilineal descent.
This means that family relationships and social belonging are established through the maternal line. This would explain the bias in favour of women and the absence of young male individuals who could have joined other kin groups, a common practice known in anthropology as male exogamy. In any case, the over-representation of women would indicate a female-centred social structure, in which gender would have influenced funerary rituals and cultural traditions.
Reference: “Female sex bias in Iberian megalithic societies through bioarchaeology, aDNA and proteomics” by Díaz-Zorita Bonilla Marta, Aranda Jiménez Gonzalo, Sánchez Romero Margarita, Fregel Rosa, Rebay-Salisbury Katharina, Kanz Fabian, Vílchez Suárez Miriam, Robles Carrasco Sonia, Becerra Fuello Paula, Ordóñez Alejandra C., Wolf Michael, González Serrano Javier and Milesi García Lara, 23 September 2024, Scientific Reports.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-72148-x
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2 Comments
Obviously, female bones were seen as more valuable than male ones. Sounds like business as usual. 51% of the dead in Gaza are women and children, that is 38% of the dead are women, and 13% of the dead are kids.
The 49% of civilians murdered by the IDF are men. We hear nothing about that number in the news media.
History simply repeats itself; males are disposable.
I think it’s one of 2 situations. #1). Women were more likely to die inside the community. Men where more likely to die away from the community (e.g. warfare/raiding) and recovering/ returning their body was difficult, dangerous, and/or decomp occurred to quickly causing burials to be in route back home or close to place of death. #2). Pregnancy, labor, and delivery. All 3 were far more dangerous in the past (even the recent past such as the 1800s and 1920s) than they are today with our advances in health care. Our modern society has become divorced from the fact of how dangerous and complicated pregnancy, labor and delivery actually are. Also, in the past, including the right up to the 1800s, the average age of marriage and therefore pregnancy was between 12 – 14. Youths in this age range are more likely to die from labor/delivery complications than older women say ages 19 -28. Considering, these two situations alone, a 10 female to 1 male ratio isn’t really that strange. The female burials would only be highly significant if they were all genetically related ( I didn’t see a mention of that). In my opinion what’s significant about the burial site is the long time period of usage by a community.