‘Largest ever’ collection of ancient beads found in mass burial in Spain. Take a look
Nearly two decades ago, researchers discovered a large tomb complex in Spain dating to between 3,200 and 2,200 years ago.
The remains of someone with high status in the ancient society was found buried with high-value goods, including ivory pieces that earned them the title of the “Ivory Man.”
Later, however, researchers discovered the remains actually belonged to a woman, now known as the “Ivory Lady.” This Copper Age society didn’t give women power by birth rite, but rather the leader earned her position through her life achievements, researchers said in 2023.
The “mega-site” of the tomb, in modern-day Seville, is called Montelirio tholos.
Now, excavations in the areas surrounding the Ivory Lady’s final resting place show her burial isn’t the only groundbreaking discovery buried within.
About 330 feet north of Montelirio, researchers discovered a burial chamber with more than 2,000 beads scattered in the corridor, according to a study published Jan. 29 in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.
As they dug further, researchers found more human remains and more beads, piled up in groups corresponding to textiles, according to the study.
Researchers cleaned the beads and weighed them, hoping to determine the total number instead of counting them one by one, according to the study.
The beads were primarily made of marine shells, though a few were made from stone and bone, researchers said.
Accounting for the material, the total weight of the beads is more than 33 pounds, according to the study, or the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of beads.
“Together, the entire Montelirio bead collection would amount to a remarkable 270,769 beads,” researchers said. “This figure, which excludes the beads from (another site), probably sets the Montelirio bead assemblage as the largest ever recorded worldwide.”
Researchers calculated how long it would take a single bead to be made by using tools available around the same time to construct the beads themselves, according to the study.
They found “the whole Montelirio bead assemblage could have been made in around 7 months by 10 persons working full-time 8 hours a day,” researchers said.
Of the 20 bodies found with the beads, 15 could be identified as women, and the beads were in linear patterns, suggesting they were strung together into clothes, study author Marta Díaz-Guardamino told CNN.
“I think that the efforts to produce these beaded robes far exceed those required to produce a couture red carpet garment today,” she told the outlet. “You would need many more hours and people invested in the production of the beads. Indeed, it would have been, altogether, an enterprise on a whole different scale with no parallels in the world yet.”
Like the Ivory Lady, they likely were also revered women, as something as intricate and labor-intensive as these clothes weren’t made for everyday use or easily accessible, researchers said.
“We think the beads formed ceremonial clothing that was worn by these women, who were very important socially or religiously, at special occasions or special ceremonies,” lead study author Leonardo García Sanjuán told CNN. “These things must have been pretty heavy. Not something you wore in your everyday life.”
Seville is in southwestern Spain.
The research team includes Leonardo García Sanjuán, Samuel Ramírez-Cruzado, Marta Díaz-Guardamino, José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez, Teodosio Donaire Romero, José Ángel Afonso Vargas, Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán, Verónica Balsera Nieto, Luis M. Cáceres Puro, David W. Wheatley, Timothy Earle, Marta Cintas-Peña, Juan Manuel Vargas Jiménez, Álvaro Fernández Flores, Miriam Luciañez Triviño, Juan Cárdenas-Párraga, María Martínez Merino, and Fernando Muñiz Guinea.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 2:08 PM with the headline "‘Largest ever’ collection of ancient beads found in mass burial in Spain. Take a look."
