After El Argar

1550 – 1300 BCE
After El Argar

In this period there were widely known societies in the Mediterranean area: The 18th Egyptian dynasty, the Hittite Empire, Mycenae. There is evidence of the disappearance of the Argar political and ideological system in the abandonment of the burials made in the settlements, and the emergence of new burial forms, along with new products and an overall rearrangement of the settlements. Many communities continue inhabiting the Argar settlements, but other new ones appear, about which very little is known at present.

The centuries that followed the culture of El Argar can be defined by the recovery of the political self-government of the communities and domestic groups apart from a general improvement in the living conditions of the south-eastern populations. The diet was more varied and included higher meat consumption, as livestock grew in importance and hunting became a way of food provision. The flow of social relationships is shown by the existence of a large networking of movement of goods. Atlantic tin allows for the popularisation of bronze alloys, and pottery and other manufactured objects from other regions arrive at the southeast. This period is traditionally known as the Late Bronze Period.

Starting 1300/1250, a new change in the Iberian south-eastern communities took place. We know new models of settlement and a new organization of the social life production. For four centuries, a hereditary aristocratic class arose, which benefited from the work of increasingly larger groups, and drove war policies. From 900, they increased their wealth thanks to their alliance with Phoenician traders. This wealth was expressed in the Oriental style linked to the mythical kingdom of Tartessos, and later on, in the homogeneity displayed by the Iberia world.