The origins of El Argar: Decorated ceramics as an archaeological indicator of its initial social space

Abstract

We suggest a new approach to the spatial and temporal dimensions of the beginnings of the Argaric group. This is based on the data provided by the archaeological work carried out during the last decade in the lower Segura and lower Vinalopó basins, and from the study of the archaeological materials and stratigraphic sequences obtained at sites in the area excavated in the 1980s and 1990s. Radiocarbon dating and careful analysis of the ceramic record from the basal strata of Argaric sites such as Laderas del Castillo, Tabayá, Cabezo Pardo and Caramoro I allow us to consider the formation of the material bases of the Argaric society in a wider territory than the one until now considered its “nuclear area”. This would now include not only the Vera Basin and the Guadalentín Valley, but also the lower Segura and lower Vinalopó basins.