Género y edad en las necrópolis de la meseta norte durante la Edad del Hierro (siglos VI-II a. n. e.)

Abstract

<p">Las necrópolis de la meseta constituyen uno de los conjuntos materiales fundamentales para entender la organización social de las comunidades del I milenio a. n. e. La tradición investigadora, que se remonta al siglo XVIII, frecuentemente ha atribuido algunos materiales de ajuar a un género o grupo de edad concreto sin el respaldo de análisis antropológicos. Desde la década de 1980, se han cuestionado dichas asociaciones y los estereotipos actualistas en que se basan. Este artículo se propone una aproximación inicial al tema de las relaciones entre los objetos funerarios y las características biológicas de los difuntos a partir de la bibliografía. Se centra en las necrópolis de Carratiermes, El Pradillo, Herrería III, La Yunta y Las Ruedas que cuentan con la información más completa. La muestra comprende 245 individuos para la Primera Edad del Hierro (siglos VI y IV a. n. e.) y otros 245 para la Segunda Edad del Hierro (finales del IV al II a. n. e.). Se analiza la distribución de la población por sexo y edad, atendiendo a la evolución de las curvas de mortalidad. También se lee la información en clave de género comparando las interpretaciones con los datos osteológicos. Además, se ofrecen algunas claves sobre la evolución de los materiales, la ausencia de marcadores de identidad y los principales ejes identitarios.

A Perspective on Late Iron Age Women in the Iberian Northern Meseta

“…In her analysis of the Heuneburg region in southern Germany in the Early Iron Age, she identified evidence that age may have been the primary organizing social category, while gender, status, or social role were dependant variables. By contrast, I have argued elsewhere (Liceras-Garrido, 2021: 137) that, in the Iberian Meseta, the primary social category seems to have been the status of the lineage, with gender, age, or social role as secondary elements.…”

“…This has led to the simplistic assumptions that graves with weapons corresponded to men, mostly warriors, and burials with personal ornaments were associated with women. In recent decades, Late Iron Age cemeteries such as those of Carratiermes, Numantia, El Pradillo, El Inchidero, La Yunta, Herrería, or Las Ruedas (Figure 2) have been excavated using modern techniques and, when possible, essential osteological data has been analysed, enabling us to compare age and sex profiles (Liceras-Garrido, 2021) (Table 1).…”

“…The distribution of weapons among ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ grave goods seems generally balanced, although differences exist between regions. Most of the female individuals buried with weapons were twenty–thirty years old, while the males were generally aged thirty–fifty, both age groups coinciding with the periods of highest mortality among adults (Liceras-Garrido, 2021: 128–29).

Figure 4.Grave 74 of La Yunta (redrawn with modifications after García-Huerta & Antona, 1992: fig.

…”

“…Artefacts, such as the Hispanic-Calcidic helmets (Graells et al, 2014) or the human and hybrid representations on the pottery from Numantia (Jimeno et al, 2012) were the result of the cultural impact of their trips. Furthermore, in the cemeteries of the northern Meseta, there is a general absence of males under thirty years old (Liceras-Garrido, 2021: 124–27). This contrasts with an increase in female mortality between the ages of twenty and thirty, possibly related to pregnancy, childbirth, and breast-feeding.…”

“…This article focuses on the northern Meseta in central Spain (Figure 1), a region with a long Iron Age research tradition, but for which knowledge about women is so far poor and limited to general overviews of gender mostly in funerary contexts (Prados-Torreira, 2011–2012; Baquedano & Arlegui, 2020; Liceras-Garrido, 2021) and some publications that merely present grave goods in female burials (Sanz-Mínguez & Diezhandino, 2007; Sanz-Mínguez & Romero, 2010; Sanz-Mínguez, 2015; Sanz-Mínguez & Coria, 2018). In none of these publications is the role of women in society as social agents posited, nor is it considered whether their agency influenced, transformed, or shaped past communities.…”