MURCIA, SPAIN—According to a New York Times report, a 3,700-year-old tomb holding the remains of a man and a woman has been found in southeastern Spain at the El Argar site of La Almoloya. Their bodies were placed in an ovoid jar under the floor of a large hall lined with benches that featured a podium before a hearth that provided warmth and light. Archaeologist Cristina Rihuete Herrada of the Autonomous University of Barcelona said that the man, who died in his 30s, wore flared gold ear plugs and a silver ring. A copper dagger with four silver rivets was found near his remains. The woman was in her 20s when she died. She had a shortened, fused spine, a stunted left thumb, and may have died of tuberculosis. She was buried wearing silver spirals in her hair, silver earlobe plugs with silver spirals, a silver bracelet, a silver ring, and on her head a silver diadem whose disc would have covered the tip of her nose. Rihuete Herrada suggests that the elite couple may have held power in different realms of their Bronze Age society. DNA testing of the remains of an infant discovered under another building at the site showed that the deceased were parents of this child, she added. Read the original scholarly article about this reearch in Antiquity. To read about jewelry fakes in Bronze Age Spain, go to "Artifact."
