On the Italian Adriatic coast, archaeologists have made a sensational discovery: a luxurious Iron Age tomb, which turns common ideas about men and women in prehistoric Europe upside down.

The find in Numana does not fit into the usual picture of early power structures and gender roles. The grave goods of the dead woman reveals: She was rich, fond of culinary pleasures and a prominent member of her society. She is not the only woman to have been buried so opulently. In the Iron Age, women reached the highest positions in Italy, France and Germany - the unknown woman from Italy, the princess from the German Heuneburg and the lady from Vix. Who were these women? And how did they live?