A recent investigation reveals a significant gender imbalance within the megalithic burial site of Panoria, where the number of women interred is double that of men.
A team of researchers from the Archaeometry group at the University of Tübingen and the GEA group at the University of Granada discovered an interesting pattern at the megalithic necropolis of Panoría (Granada, Spain): there are twice as many women buried there compared to men. This disparity is even more pronounced among younger individuals, with a striking ratio of 10 females for every male.
Located at the far eastern end of the Sierra Harana in the town of Darro (Granada), the Panoría necropolis includes at least 19 graves, 9 of which were excavated from 2015 to 2019. These collective burials yielded over 55,000 human skeletal remains. Dating analysis reveals that the earliest burials occurred about 5600 years ago, with sporadic use continuing until around 4100 years ago.
A recent publication in the journal Scientific Reports highlights how new bioarchaeological techniques have enabled the identification of chromosomal sex through DNA study and analysis of a specific protein called Amelogenin found in tooth enamel. This advancement has allowed for an accurate demographic profile of the individuals buried in these ancient monuments. The results surprisingly show a significant preference for female burials, with a ratio favoring them at twice that of male burials. Among juveniles, this imbalance is even more striking with a ratio of 10 females for every male; a stark contrast to the typical human population ratio of one to one. Such a significant skew usually only occurs during extraordinary situations like wars, conflicts, or mass migrations that disrupt population balance.
What factors might have contributed to such a notable gender bias in the burials at Panoría? The observed preference for female burials can be seen across all analyzed graves, age groups, and throughout the entire period of the necropolis’s use. This consistency suggests that a long-standing social choice influenced the burial practices for the different social groups interred there. Therefore, it seems unlikely that random or extraordinary events led to the gender bias observed at Panoría.
If the imbalance in sex representation was indeed a societal decision, what could account for the notable prevalence of women in burial customs? Given that biological kinship appears to be a primary criterion for burial placement, a larger number of female individuals could indicate that funerary practices focused on matrilineal descent—establishing family ties and social identity through the mother. This would help explain the preference for female burials and the lack of young males, who might have assimilated into different family groups, a phenomenon known in anthropology as male exogamy. Overall, this over-representation of women suggests the presence of a female-centered social hierarchy, where gender may have played a pivotal role in shaping burial customs and cultural practices.
