Gender as a social construct…

Floor 1, Room 11, Showcase 11.5. Iberian weapons

The presence of weaponry in pre-Roman and, especially, Iberian burials is documented between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. In the form of grave goods or offerings, weapons such as falcatas or swords with frontlets or antennae are presented as identifying elements of the deceased and, at the same time, as symbols of a highly hierarchical Iberian society where the warrior elites were associated with war, hunting and horses. These elements have led researchers to think of an eminently masculine world, interpreted as a sign of the gender dichotomy in which men are identified with weapons and women with other elements such as jewellery.

By the 1970s, archaeologists had established that Iberian grave goods in which armaments were found could be identified as male burials, while female burials mostly contained items related to textiles (such as spindle whorls) or jewellery (such as earrings), but did not include armaments. This was due to the impossibility of obtaining information on the sex of the deceased because cremation was the main mode of burial in the Iron Age. Advances in research made it possible to learn about other realities and, therefore, to ask other questions.

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