Bronze Age Societies (2200-1300 BC)
The Bronze Age is the first period in which it is possible to clearly distinguish elements of cultural diversity in different parts of the Iberian Peninsula.
It is also the first period that reveals considerable differences in the exploitation of the environment, giving rise to two types of groups: those with strong ties to a specific territory, and those who continued to lead a nomadic life and moved from place to place.
However, in both types of communities, differences in economic status within the social structure gradually became more pronounced.
The communities of eastern Andalusia, the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula and most of La Mancha developed sedentary settlements in the early phases of the Bronze Age, leaving traces of their existence in the form of sites that still mark the landscape today.
In these groups, which exploited the land and local resources more intensively than their predecessors, socioeconomic differences became increasingly evident and were often passed down from one generation to the next.
The internal dynamics of these societies, some of which even developed quasi-state policies, disintegrated at the end of this period, and the material elements and organisational structures that had characterised them gradually disappeared.
The Argar Culture
This culture emerged in southeast Iberia, with its epicentre in what are now the provinces of Almeria, Granada and Murcia. Based on an economic model that revolved around intensive agriculture and animal husbandry with strong ties to the territory, the Argar culture represents the most complex example of social organisation in Iberia’s Early Bronze Age.
One element that sets the Argar culture apart is the prevalence of corpses buried beneath the floors of dwellings in their settlements.
The graves – usually individual but occasionally double or triple – adopt different forms, with a predominance of stone or masonry cists and jar burials. There is also evidence of burials in urns, rock-cut chambers and simple pits.
These burials reveal a strong bond between the living and their ancestors, possibly associated with the notion of permanence on earth. Furthermore, the material differences between grave goods speak to us of social inequalities, which affected both the age and gender of the people interred.
This burial was discovered practically intact and is a rare example of the high-ranking tombs of the initial phase of the Argar Culture.
It corresponds to a middle-aged male who was buried with his weapons – a long dagger and a halberd – and a small silver ornament. The grave goods also included food offerings, a vessel and a bowl which originally contained some form of liquid, and the leg of a bovid. Early – Middle Bronze Age.
Photos: Füsun Kavrakoğlu, National Archaeological Museum, Madrid, 2026.
Sources
Information panels of National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
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