SEVILLE, Spain- In a forthcoming study to be published in The Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (June 2025), researchers unveil groundbreaking insights into the emergence of early female leadership and complex social organization at the Copper Age site of Valencina in southern Spain. Long overshadowed by more widely known prehistoric sites such as Stonehenge, Valencina is now being recognized not only for its scale and sophistication but also for the central role of women in its political, religious, and economic systems.
Located at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River near modern-day Seville, Valencina was ideally situated between Europe and Africa at a time, circa 3000 BCE, when long-distance trade networks were expanding across Eurasia, the Mediterranean, and North Africa. Its geographic position and monumental architecture suggest that it functioned as a major hub for regional exchange and ritual activity.
The site spans more than 400 hectares—possibly as many as 900—making it the largest known prehistoric site on the Iberian Peninsula and among the largest in Europe. As early as 1860, archaeologists had begun uncovering its tholoi—burial structures with long corridors and circular chambers—but serious, methodical research only accelerated in the past two decades.
Led by Professor Leonardo García Sanjuán of the University of Seville and anthropologist Timothy Earle of Northwestern University, the study titled Valencina: A Copper Age Polity reconstructs the complex societal landscape of the site.
What makes Valencina particularly notable, the researchers argue, is the emergence of distinctive female leadership, materialized in sumptuary objects—luxurious items made from exotic raw materials and produced by skilled artisans—and in the association of women with esoteric, possibly sacred, knowledge.
Fig. 8. A) Gold foil with four ‘oculi’ found in Structure 10.029, a small non-funerary pit located near the grave of ‘The Ivory Lady’, in the PP4-Montelirio sector; B) Comparison of all three ‘oculus’ motifs on gold foil known in Iberia (1: from Structure 10.029 at Valencina; 2: from the Las Canteras tholos at El Gandul; 3: from the Montelirio tholos at Valencina). Photographs: Miguel Ángel Blanco de la Rubia. [Courtesy
Among the most compelling pieces of evidence is the richly adorned burial known as La Dama del Marfil (“The Ivory Lady”), whose grave goods suggest high status, symbolic authority, and significant influence. Similar elite female burials at the Montelirio tholos included elaborate garments, ornamental amber and shell beadwork, and objects of prestige such as finely crafted copper weapons, mylonite arrowheads, and intricate ivory carvings. Some of the grave chambers measure five meters wide with towering terracotta vaults up to 4.5 meters high, signaling the societal resources committed to honoring these individuals.
“This society expressed leadership not through brute domination but through spiritual, symbolic, and material capital,” the authors write. “The skills deployed in the manufacture of these remarkable sumptuary and prestigious artifacts are impressive.”
The Crystal Dagger found on the secondary offering to ‘The Ivory Lady’, above her body, with rock crystal blade and ivory handle and sheath. Photograph: Miguel Ángel Blanco de la Rubia. [Courtesy
The scale of Valencina and the sophistication of its artifacts suggest the presence of an organized polity—one that controlled regional labor, food production, and bottlenecks in trade and waterway circulation. Valencina’s leaders, many of them women, also monopolized ideological and religious capital, likely centralized in temple-like sanctuaries that attracted participants from afar. García Sanjuán and Earle describe this as a “balanced staple-financed and wealth-financed polity,” blending Neolithic ceremonial traditions with emerging maritime trade networks and craft specialization.
Archaeological features uncovered over the past decade bolster this interpretation. Geophysical surveys on the site’s northern and southern edges revealed immense ditches—some up to 10 meters wide and potentially hundreds of meters long—suggesting concentric enclosures that functioned both defensively and ceremonially. The settlement also includes dozens of megalithic structures, hypogea (manmade caves), shafts, and thousands of pits likely used for ritual or storage.
While no named deities are documented at Valencina, researchers often hypothesize that the belief system may have included nature and fertility goddesses linked to the Earth, the cycles of life and death, and agricultural abundance. Ancestor veneration also appears likely, possibly involving priestesses who acted as intermediaries with the spirit world. Additionally, solar or celestial cults may have been part of the spiritual landscape, as suggested by the alignment of monuments and the use of gold and reflective materials like rock crystal. In short, although no specific gods are known by name, the religious symbolism and artifacts unearthed at Valencina strongly imply a spiritual system centered on female divinities, nature spirits, or ancestral forces—patterns common to many Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures across Europe.
The researchers argue that Valencina operated through a dialectical relationship of hierarchy and communalism. While elites wielded influence—particularly in religious contexts—the community at large contributed to monumental construction and shared in the ritual consumption of surplus. As García Sanjuán explains, “The construction of these enormous monuments led to a lot of expense, which consumed the agricultural surplus that these communities produced.” This process, he suggests, prevented wealth accumulation in the hands of a few and may have acted as a social safeguard against elite domination.
Despite its sophistication, Valencina never evolved into a state. Instead, it represented a unique form of early social complexity—one shaped not by kings or dynasties, but by collaborative labor, ritualized consumption, and female-centered authority. The political economy of Valencina, the study notes, offers critical insight into “top-down impulses vs. collective action” and invites new perspectives on how societies organized themselves in the absence of centralized state control.
Valencina’s golden age lasted from roughly 2900 to 2650 BCE. But by around 2300 BCE, the site began to decline rapidly, likely due to a combination of internal shifts and environmental stress. The so-called “4.2 kiloyear event”—a prolonged period of aridity and drought—had wide-reaching impacts across the Mediterranean and may have contributed to the socio-cultural collapse in the region. “The site experienced an abrupt and sharp decline and eventually was effectively abandoned,” the study states.
With the onset of the Bronze Age, Valencina’s role as a monumentalized central place came to an end. Its disappearance, along with that of other Neolithic and Chalcolithic megasites like Antequera, marked a profound shift in Iberian social structures. These central sites had, for two millennia, served as stabilizing forces—acting, in effect, as “social placebos” that delayed the emergence of authoritarian political systems.
What remains of Valencina is not merely an archaeological marvel but a lens through which scholars can rethink early leadership, gender roles, and social evolution. In a time long before kings ruled or empires rose, women at Valencina stood at the center of a vibrant, complex world—builders of monuments, keepers of sacred knowledge, and leaders in their own right. Their legacy, etched into ivory and stone, reshaped ancient power and heralded the Bronze Age.
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