Aproximación a la distribución del espacio funerario en El Argar (Antas, Almería)

El Argar (Antas, Almería) is the main reference site for the study of the Bronze Age in the Iberian Peninsula. The burial assemblages of more than 1000 excavated tombs show the social diversity of the interred. This article analyses the spatial distribution of the burials, considering the multiple variables of the funerary ritual in relation to their location. The aim is to try to understand whether socioeconomic patterns can explain their location. For this, based on the documentation from the Siret Archive, we have been able to situate a considerable number of graves on the plateau that forms the site and we have considered the variability of funerary containers, the burial assemblages and the physical characteristics of the interred.Statistical significance tests do not show a relation between sex, age and location, but they indicate one between rich grave assemblages and spatial distribution, which cluster in a particular area of the site.El Argar (Antas, Almería) es el yacimiento de referencia para el estudio de la Edad del Bronce en la península ibérica. Los ajuares de las más de 1000 tumbas excavadas muestran la diversidad social de los inhumados. Este trabajo analiza su distribución espacial considerando las múltiples variables del ritual funerario en relación a su ubicación. El objetivo es tratar de comprender si existe algún patrón socioeconómico en su localización. Para ello, a partir de la documentación del Archivo Siret, se ha logrado posicionar un número importante de sepulturas en la meseta del yacimiento y se ha considerado la variabilidad de los contenedores funerarios, los ajuares y las características antropológicas de los individuos inhumados. Las pruebas de significación estadística no muestran ninguna asociación entre sexo o edad y ubicación, pero sí entre los ajuares de prestigio y su distribución espacial, concentrándose en una determinada zona del yacimiento

Re-thinking Chalcolithic landscapes in southeast Iberia: the case of the Middle Antas river (Almeria, Spain)

Our understanding of Chalcolithic settlements in southern Iberia (c. 3200–2200 bce) has changed dramatically in recent decades. Instead of clearly bounded and dense settlements, archaeology is establishing a range of site types, some sparsely settled, some quite large. Such varied settlement typology is now understood as being part of a thriving period of development, which included monumental tombs, high-quality craft organisation and highly dynamic exchange networks. This article presents recent work around the River Antas in Almeria, Spain, which has revealed a complex settlement network along the river for the period in question. This new evidence challenges our understanding of prehistoric habitation in the area and poses new questions about major settlement pattern changes in the prehistory of the region.British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant (SRG18R1\181131)Rust Family Foundation GrantAyuntamiento de Anta

Prehistoric palaeodemographics and regional land cover change in eastern Iberia

Much attention has been placed on the drivers of vegetation change on the Iberian Peninsula. While climate plays a key role in determining the species pools within different regions and exerts a strong influence on broad vegetation patterning, the role of humans, particularly during prehistory, is less clear. The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of prehistoric population change on shaping vegetation patterns in eastern Iberia and the Balearic Islands between the start of the Neolithic and the late Bronze Age. In all, 3385 radiocarbon dates have been compiled across the study area to provide a palaeodemographic proxy (radiocarbon summed probability distributions (SPDs)). Modelled trends in palaeodemographics are compared with regional-scale vegetation patterns deduced from analysis of 30 fossil pollen sequences. The pollen sequences have been standardised with count data aggregated into contiguous 200-year time windows from 11,000 cal. yr BP to the present. Samples have been classified using cluster analysis to determine the predominant regional land cover types through the Holocene. Regional human impact indices and diversity metrics have been derived for north-east and south-east Spain and the Balearic Islands. The SPDs show characteristic boom-and-bust cycles of population growth and collapse, but there is no clear synchronism between north-east and south-east Spain other than the rise of Neolithic farming. In north-east Iberia, patterns of demographic change are strongly linked to changes in vegetation diversity and human impact indicator groups. In the south-east, increases in population throughout the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age result in more open landscapes and increased vegetation diversity. The demographic maximum occurred early in the 3rd millennium cal. BP on the Balearic Islands and is associated with the highest levels of human impact indicator groups. The results demonstrate the importance of population change in shaping the abundance and diversity of taxa within broad climatically determined biomes

About the Distribution of Metal Objects in Prepalatial Crete

Although metal objects have been used as evidence in different interpretations of the socioeconomic changes identified in Prepalatial Crete (c.3100-1900 BC), they constitute an understudied category of material. This paper argues that metal objects on Crete were subject to complex processes regarding the creation of meaning; a more comprehensive appraisal of metal objects on the island may cast new light on these issues. Copper-based, gold, lead and silver objects are investigated from their ore extraction locations outside Crete to their final deposition, linking the different steps of the process of creating an artefact with different layers of meanings for the metal and, subsequently, for the finished objects. This study evaluates differences in the use of metals, with a particular focus on their intra-island depositional patterns. It seeks to identify differences in the roles of metals within Cretan communities as well as regional fashions in the use of metal objects. It is suggested that metals had different characters since their depositional patterns vary, and that people consciously chose certain metals to make specific objects and also used metal objects in different ways, reflecting the socio-economic context for each region

Interaction, gold and power: Contrasting stories from tombs across the East Mediterranean ca. 2000–1800 BC

There is little doubt that the desire to acquire gold and silver was one of the factors that fomented connectivity amongst Aegean communities and between the Aegean and surrounding regions during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Perhaps influenced by the better understood Late Bronze Age networks both metals have been mainly considered from a commercial point of view, with analyses interested in the way these metals were exchanged. This article aims to complement the more economically oriented analysis with a more detailed look at the consumption patterns of gold in the Aegean. In particular, I aim to show the problems with the traditional assumption that gold was mainly employed as part of conspicuous consumption mechanisms and to propose a more complex understanding of the relationship between metals, consumption, social organisation, ritual practice, political negotiation and exchange mechanisms