A multi-analytical study of the Montelirio beaded attires: Marine resources, sumptuary crafts, and female power in copper age Iberia.

Excellent indicators of technology, social organization, exchange patterns, and even beliefs, beads are a topic of research in their own right. Findings made between 2010 and 2011 at the Montelirio tholos burial, part of the Valencina Copper Age mega-site, in south-western Spain, revealed what amounts to the largest single-burial ever-documented assemblage of beads. Furthermore, the Montelirio beads were part of unparalleled beaded attires worn by some of the people buried in the grave, mostly females. A multi-analytical study undertaken over the past 5 years-including a meticulous quantification of the collection, the characterization of the raw materials, radiocarbon dating and chronometric statistical modeling, morphometric analysis, phytolith analysis, experimental work and contextual analysis-reveals several previously unidentified aspects of these remarkable creations. This includes the role of the attires as sumptuary attributes heavily loaded of symbolism, used by a selected group of women of high social significance.