Social spaces and forces in the centre and east of the Iberian peninsula between 2200 and 1550 BCE: a macro-spatial approach

Abstract

Scrutiny of more than 100 years of archaeological research in the central-eastern part of the Iberian peninsula has made it possible to document 1.445 settlements belonging to the Early Bronze Age (c. 2200-1550 BCE). The present work uses the information on the location, extension, duration and geographic distribution of these settlements to identify the population dynamics in force in an area of 177.444 km2 over approximately seven centuries. This analysis shows that the distribution and location of the settlements were the result of social strategies that involved the “castling” and atomization of communities, surely in a context of more or less latent conflicts and violence. The causes of this sociopolitical situation ‒ which is exceptional in the context of the Early Bronze Age of Europe and the Mediterranean ‒ are examined in the light of the profound environmental and social changes identified around the 23rd and 16th centuries BCE in many regions of Europe and the Near East, as well as in relation to the expansive and disruptive development of El Argar in the southeast of the Iberian peninsula.