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Publications (80)
The Early Bronze Age in Europe is characterized by social and genetic transformations, starting in the early 3rd millennium BCE. New settlement and funerary structures, artifacts and techniques indicate times of change with increasing economic asymmetries and political hierarchization. Technological advances in metallurgy also played an important r...
The Late Bronze Age (1700–900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the archaeological record of over half a millennium within the entire northern littoral of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Iberia, incorporating archaeological, archaeometric, and bioarchaeological evidence....
This guide aims to show you the most interesting aspects of the research carried out since 2008 on the archaeological sites of La Bastida and Tira del Lienzo (Totana). After several campaigns of excavation, restoration and consolidation, both sites are now accessible to the general public. At the same time, the research in the laboratories continue...
This guide aims to show you the most interesting aspects of the research carried out since 2013 on the archaeological site of La Almoloya (Pliego, Murcia). After several campaigns of excavation, restoration and consolidation, both sites are now accessible to the general public. At the same time, the research in the laboratories continues on the hug...
The emerging Bronze Age (BA) of southeastern Iberia saw marked social changes. Late Copper Age (CA) settlements were abandoned in favor of hilltop sites, and collective graves were largely replaced by single or double burials with often distinctive grave goods indirectly reflecting a hierarchical social organization, as exemplified by the BA El Arg...
Los restos de fauna, escasa o dudosamente documentados en tumbas del Grupo Argárico, han cobrado relevancia en los últimos años al amparo del concepto “comensalidad”. El objetivo de este trabajo es revisar su aplicación en las interpretaciones actuales, así como explorar nuevas vías de análisis a partir de los registros de La Almoloya y La Bastida...
To what extent was the fear of individuals capable of killing used as a political instrument to foster large scale consent to the rule of elites in stratified and state societies? The aim of this paper is to discuss the implications of public, lethal, physical violence in the context of class societies. These societies are characterised by economic...
The recent discovery of an exceptionally rich grave at La Almoloya in south-eastern Spain illuminates the political context of Early Bronze Age El Argar society. The quantity, variety and opulence of the grave goods emphasise the technological, economic and social dimensions of this unique culture. The assemblage includes politically and ideologica...
There is almost no phenomenon as difficult to identify in the archaeological record as ritual violence. Yet we know that violence and rituals are fundamental historical forces that have not only radically altered societies, but also ›regulated‹ them over long periods of time. They have thus contributed as much to the establishment of accepted socia...
The explanation of the worldwide spread and long-term maintenance of economic asymmetries and centralized and hierarchical political structures is a major concern for sociological and humanistic disciplines. This problem may be formulated as a paradox when exploited and victimized groups overtly support the social order that subdues them. Archaeolo...
The El Argar society of the Bronze Age in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula (2200–1550 cal BCE) was among the first complex societies in Europe. Its economy was based on cereal cultivation and metallurgy, it was organized hierarchically, and successively expanded its territory. Most of the monumentally fortified settlements lay on steeply slop...
La sociedad de El Argar es uno de los referentes para el estudio de las grandes transformaciones de la Edad del Bronce en Europa. Se desarrolló entre 2200 y 1550 antes de nuestra era y llegó a ocupar un territorio de unos 33.000 km2 en el sureste de la península ibérica, coincidiendo, en todo o en parte, con las provincias de Almería, Murcia, Grana...
El Argar society developed during the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2200-1550 BC) in southeast Iberia, becoming one of the Ḁrst state-level societies in continental Europe. As part of its strategy to take control over the means of production, specialized craftsmen gener-ated such a characteristic, sophisticated and highly standardized pottery repertory, co...
The “Bastida Project” has been led by an interdisciplinary team of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona since 2008. La Bastida, the archaeological site after which it is named, has a long research history that has made it one of the benchmarks for knowledge on Europe’s Bronze Age. The excavations carried out at various sectors of the site, as well...
Agriculture frst reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the
genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in diferent geographic areas of Iberia. In our
study, we focus on the maternal genetic makeup of the Neolithic (~ 5500–3000 BCE), Chalcolithic (~
3000–2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (~ 2200–1500...
The Argaric halberd is a specialized weapon for hand‐to‐hand combat, with its full development in the south‐east of the Iberian Peninsula between 2000 and 1800 cal BCE. This paper deals with the Argaric combat system and the factors that drove this type of confrontation, given the social order, the active and passive archaeological traces present i...
The detailed, rich and diverse Argaric funerary record offers an opportunity to explore social dimensions that usually remain elusive for prehistoric research, such us social rules on kinship rights and obligations, sexual tolerance and the role of funerary practices in preserving the economic and political organization. This paper addresses these...
La Almoloya es uno de los yacimientos arqueológicos más importantes de la sociedad de “El Argar”, que habitó el sureste de la península Ibérica a inicios de
la Edad del Bronce (entre 2200 y 1550 antes de nuestra era). Desde los trabajos pioneros de los hermanos Siret (1890), la arqueología argárica ocupa un lugar protagonista en el estudio de las p...
Die archäologische Erforschung des Phänomens »Krieg« führte in den letzten 25 Jahren zu einem außerordentlichen Erkenntnisgewinn: Schlachtfelder und Befestigungen wur-den ausgegraben, Massengräber geborgen, unzählige Skelette mit Verletzungsspuren untersucht, Waffen sowie bildhafte Darstellungen und historische Texte analysiert. In diesem Begleitba...
The time around 22oo BC was marked in the Iberian Peninsula, and particularly in its southern regions, by profound social, political, and ideological changes. A substantial number of 14C dates confirms that most, if not all, of the Chalcolithic fortified settlements, as well as the Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic monumental ditched enclosures, had been...
Sampling a series of Glycymeris species shells from an age transect in the well-dated Gatas excavation site, we found δ18O isotope ratios that indicate a small gradual decrease in mean sea surface temperatures between 27oo BC and 12oo BC. The sea surface temperature seasonality recorded in the mollusk shells during this period was 7.o °C. While the...
The aim of this article is to bring to light a serious problem affecting radiocarbon dates produced at least from 2009 onwards by the AMS Leibniz laboratory at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität (Kiel, Germany). Archaeological observations and cross-checkings between several laboratories confirm that in a significant number of dates, clear deviati...
The south-east of the Iberian Peninsula saw deep social and political changes at the dawn of the second millennium bce. The emergence of important economic asymmetries inside communities was apparently based to a large extent on control of the secondary metallurgical production process; namely, forging. In this sense, the recently excavated archite...
Resumen Excavaciones recientes en el yacimiento argárico de Tira del Lienzo, situado en la vega del Guadalentín y a tan sólo 7 km del asentamiento urbano de La Bastida, han puesto al descubierto un complejo arquitectónico singular, especializado en la producción y la gestión administrativa. Este trabajo constituye un avance del estudio que se está...
Este trabajo presenta toda la información disponible sobre el yacimiento arqueológico de la Almoloya antes del inicio del programa de investigación que emprendió nuestro equi-po el año 2013. ABstRACt This paper is a collation of all the available information on the Argaric Bronze Age site of La Almoloya before the beginning of our research program,...
Este trabajo presenta toda la información disponible sobre el yacimiento arqueológico de la Almoloya antes del inicio del programa de investigación que emprendió nuestro equi-po el año 2013. ABstRACt This paper is a collation of all the available information on the Argaric Bronze Age site of La Almoloya before the beginning of our research program,...
Recent excavations at La Bastida in southeastern
Spain have revealed an impressive stone-built fortification system dating to 2200–2100 cal BC that protected one of the main economic and political centres of Argaric Early Bronze Age society. It consists of parallel walls with projecting towers flanking a narrow entrance passage. The defensive chara...
Recent excavations at La Bastida in south-eastern Spain have revealed an impressive stone-built fortification system dating to 2200–2100 cal BC that protected one of the main economic and political centres of Argaric Early Bronze Age society. It consists of parallel walls with projecting towers flanking a narrow entrance passage. The defensive char...
The aim of this paper is to establish an absolute chronology for the prehistoric entities and sites of the Balearic islands. We begin with the human settlement of each island and continue with the temporalities of the most important entities and materials of the Pretalayotic period: the Beaker phenomenon, megalithic tombs, artificial burial caves,...
Political and economic organisation of Argaric society has been one of the most interesting research topics among Iberian Prehistory. Recent debate has focused upon how to define and assess the socio-economic differentiation which is characteristic of Argaric communities, as well as the suitability of the term ‘State’ when approaching those differe...
The Balearic islands were the last islands of the Mediterranean to be permanently settled. From ca. 23oo BC until the Roman colonisation they seem to have become a place of refuge, where the changes that occurred on the continent were mirrored. The Balearics were never isolated from their neighbouring territories, but they adapted technical, social...
El Argar, one of the politically and economically most developed societies in Bronze Age Europe, collapses around 1550 B. C. E. All the settlements are abandoned or restructured according to new architectural principles at this time. Moreover, the strict observance of intramural burial rites, which serve to signify the position of the members of th...
Ideology pervades all forms of social practice, including theoretical reasoning and scientific practice. This chapter will first define ideology and the place it occupies in ways of thinking and acting. We define ideology as thought that always refers directly or indirectly to a given material reality. This reality is shaped historically and, hence...
Archaeological research carried out during the last decades in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula has allowed us to gain a better understanding of the social structures of the Copper and Bronze Ages. As in other parts of the Old World, the question about the importance of metallurgy for the economic and political development of society also ris...
Nowadays, ‘violence’ is a polysemic term, used to refer to a wide range of events and, moreover, laden with moral and ideological connotations. Thus, any research referring to it has to delimit its semantic field, before
defining the criteria that should allow to approach the specific manifestations being analysed. This paper carries out a critical...
Recent research including 781 radiocarbon dates and the excavation of Ses Arenes de Baix, has
allowed a new review of the sequence of megalithic burial practice on Menorca. Rock-cut tombs,
dolmens, caves with entrance-works and the famous boat-shaped houses and tombs (navetes) are
placed in overlapping chronological order. The authors suggest that,...
La diversidad observada en el campo de la teoría arqueológica suele ser presentada y explicada bajo la forma de una sucesión histórica de escuelas de pensamiento, tradiciones y autorías, que tiende a enfatizar las diferencias de orientación interpretativa y las controversias que éstas han suscitado. El presente artículo aborda la cuestión de la teo...
The Balearic Islands are one of the most widely dated regions in Europe, totaling about 800 dates. The aim of this paper is to propose an updated periodization for the prehistory of Majorca and Minorca based on the analysis of a series of absolute dates for over 100 archaeological sites and in combination with a critical assessment of the associate...
La diversidad observada en el campo de la teoría arqueológica suele ser presentada y explicada bajo la forma de una sucesión histórica de escuelas de pensamiento, tradiciones y autorías, que tiende a enfatizar las diferencias de orientación interpretativa y las controversias que éstas han suscitado. El presente artículo aborda la cuestión de la teo...
Archaeological research into political relations and ideology among prehistoric societies has often been seen as unreliable or intrinsically speculative. Without denying the difficulties of this task, great advances can nevertheless be made when societies produced specialized artefacts in order to enhance social communication. Starting from histori...
Archaeology has the privilege of being able to explain the long-term, interaction between the social and the natural worlds. Archaeo-ecological research has made us increasingly aware that today's environmental and ecological problems are historical constructions: changing, dynamic entities that are the result of economic strategies in the past. In...
El marxismo se propone identificar y explicar las condiciones objetivas materiales en las que se basa la producción de la vida social, así como definir si las relaciones sociales que se establecen en y entre sociedades, explotan, ocultan y/o alienan al individuo social. En primer lugar, vamos a exponer la teoría global de las sociedades a partir...
Field research and predictive modelling of global warming and desertification by environmental scientists in the Mediterranean has concentrated on the short term. In this paper, it is argued that collaboration between the historical sciences, especially archaeology, and the environmental sciences can provide a longer-term perspective on desertifica...
This paper presents new data on agricultural production, the palaeoenvironment and social change during the Bronze Age of southeast Spain. The authors argue against the inference of irrigation as the basis for agriculture and relate the emergence of cereal monoculture to the extraction of surplus and the exploitation of human labour. In the rest of...
The Aguas Project was designed in order to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of metastable systems and the role of human practices as a crucial factor in the desertification and degradation of the Mediterranean region. The specific project objectives were:
1. To establish the variation and magnitude of palaeoclimatic conditions manifest in cult...