Abstract
This chapter provides an alternative interpretation of interpersonal and intergroup violence in Argaric society from southeast Iberia. As with many other cultures of the European Bronze Age, Argaric society has traditionally been considered violent and warlike. According to this narrative, the emergence of complex polities in the Argaric Early Bronze Age would go hand in hand with the rise of new, individualistic, and self-interested warrior elites competing for political power. As argued in the chapter, however, a critical analysis of the archaeological evidence does not corroborate this reading. Defensive structures do not provide conclusive evidence for widespread conflict, for very few settlements comprise fortifications enclosing large portions of the inhabited area. Specialised weapons such as swords and halberds are ambiguous to interpret due to their limited numbers, heterogeneous shapes and dimensions, and varying technological features including unusual use-wear. As for the skeletal trauma, this can clearly be ascribed to interpersonal violence. However, the prevalent blunt force cranial trauma caused by bludgeoning weapons, such as maces and clubs, and the absence of postcranial sharp injuries caused by metallic blades argue against established interpretations of widespread warfare waged by elite warriors armed with metal weapons. Based on alternative personhood models, Argaric violence is reinterpreted here as a social strategy aimed at regulating conflict with few or no fatalities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aranda JimĂ©nez, G. (2015). Resistencia e involuciĂłn social en las comunidades de la Edad del Bronce del sureste de la PenĂnsula IbĂ©rica. Trabajos de Prehistoria, 72(1), 126–144.
Aranda JimĂ©nez, G., Molina González, F., Fernández MartĂn, S., Sánchez Romero, M., Al Oumaoui, I., JimĂ©nez-Brobeil, S., & Roca, M. G. (2008). El poblado y necrĂłpolis argáricos del Cerro de la Encina (Monachil, Granada). Las campañas de excavaciĂłn de 2003–05. Cuadernos de Prehistoria y ArqueologĂa de la Universidad de Granada, 18, 219–264.
Aranda Jiménez, G., Montón-Subias, S., Sánchez-Romero, M., & Alarcón, E. (2009a). Death and everyday life. The Argaric societies from Southeast Iberia. Journal of Social Archaeology, 9(2), 139–162.
Aranda Jiménez, G., Montón, S., & Jiménez-Brobeil, S. (2009b). Conflicting evidence? Weapons and skeletons in the bronze age of south-east Iberia. Antiquity, 83, 1038–1051.
Aranda Jiménez, G., Montón-Subias, S., & Sánchez Romero, M. (2015). The archaeology of bronze age Iberia. Argaric Societies. New York: Routledge.
Bartelheim, M., Contreras Cortés, F., Moreno Onorato, A., Murillo-Barroso, M., & Pernicka, E. (2012). The silver of the South Iberian El Argar culture: A first look into production and distribution. Trabajos de Prehistoria, 69(2), 293–309.
Brandherm, D. (2003). Die Dolche und Stabdolche der Steinkupfer- und lteren Bronzezeit auf der Iberischen Halbinsel (Prähistorische Bronzefunde, Vol. VI.12). Stuttgart: Frank Steiner Verlag.
Brandherm, D. (2011). Use-wear on bronze age halberds: The case of Iberia. In M. Uckelmann & M. Mödlinger (Eds.), Bronze age warfare. Manufacture and use of weaponry (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 2255, pp. 23–38). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Brandherm, D. (2012). Huellas de uso en las alabardas argáricas: una primera aproximaciĂłn. MARQ, ArqueologĂa y Museos, 5, 91–102.
Brück, J. (2004). Material metaphors. The relational construction of identity in early bronze age burials in Ireland and Britain. Journal of Social Archaeology, 4(3), 307–333.
Budja, M. (2012). Interpretative trajectories toward understanding personhoods in prehistory. Documenta Praehistorica, XXXIX, 137–153.
Cámara Serrano, J. A., & Molina González, F. (2011). JerarquizaciĂłn social en el mundo argárico (2000–1300 aC). Quaderns de Prehistoria i ArqueologĂa de Castellò, 29, 77–100.
Carrión, E., Baena, J., & Blasco, C. (2002). Efectismo y efectividad de las espadas argáricas a partir de una réplica experimental del ejemplar de la Perla (Madrid) depositado en el museo arqueológico de Cataluña. In I. Clemente, R. Risch, & J. F. Gibaja (Eds.), Análisis funcional: su aplicación al estudio de las sociedades prehistóricas (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, Vol. 1073, pp. 285–294). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Castro, P. V., Chapman, B., Gili, S., Lull, V., Mico, R., Rihuete, C. & Sanahuja, M. E. (1993–94). Tiempos sociales de los contextos funerarios argáricos. Anales de Prehistoria y ArqueologĂa , 9–10, 77–106.
Cloquell, B., & Aguilar, M. (1986). Herida por espada en un niño argárico. Revista de ArqueologĂa, 184, 10–15.
Contreras, F., & Cámara, J. A. (2002). La jerarquización en la Edad del Bronce del Alto Guadalquivir (España). El poblado de Peñalosa (Baños de la Encina, Jaén) (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, Vol. 1025). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Cowell, A. (1973). The tribe that hides from man. New York: Stein and Day.
Cruz Berrocal, M., GarcĂa Sanjuán, L., & Gilman, A. (Eds.). (2013). The Prehistory of Iberia. Debating early social stratification and the state. New York: Routledge.
Cuadrado, E. (1950). Utiles y armas de El Argar. Ensayo de tipologĂa. I Congreso Nacional de ArqueologĂa (pp. 7–28). Cartagena.
Foucault, M. (1985). Un diálogo sobre el poder y otras conversaciones. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Fowler, C. (2004). The archaeology of personhood. An anthropological approach. New York: Routledge.
Fowler, C. (2013). Identities in transformation: Identities, funerary rites, and the mortuary process. In L. N. Stutz & S. Tarlow (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the archaeology of death and burial (pp. 511–526). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fowler, C. (2016). Relational personhood revisited. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 26(3), 397–412.
GarcĂa Sanjuán, L., & Murillo Barroso, M. (2013). Social complexity in copper age Southern Iberia (c. 3200-2200 Cal BC): Reviewing the “state” hypothesis at Valencina de la ConcepciĂłn (Seville, Spain). In M. Cruz Berrocal, L. GarcĂa Sanjuán, & A. Gilman (Eds.), The prehistory of Iberia. Debating early social stratification and the state (pp. 119–140). New York: Routledge.
Gilman, A. (1976). Bronze age dynamics in Southeast Spain. Dialectical Anthropology, 1, 307–319.
González Ruibal, A., Hernando Gonzalo, A., & Politis, G. (2011). Ontology of the self and material culture: Arrow-making among the Awá huntergatherers (Brazil). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 30, 1–16.
Hårde, A. (2005). The emergence of warfare in early bronze age: The Nitra group in Slovakia and Moravia. In M. Parker & I. J. N. Thorpe (Eds.), Warfare, violence and slavery in prehistory (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, Vol. 1374, pp. 87–105). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Harding, A. (2000). European societies in the bronze age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harding, A. (2007). Warrior and weapons in bronze age Europe. Budapest: Archaeolingua.
Hernández Pérez, M. (1990). Un enterramiento argárico en Alicante. In Homenaje a Jerónimo Molina (pp. 87–94). Murcia: Academia Alfonso X el Sabio.
Hernando Gonzalo, A. (2013). Change, individuality and reason, or how archaeology has legitimized a patriarchal modernity. In A. González Ruibal (Ed.), Reclaiming archaeology. Beyond the tropes of modernity (pp. 155–167). London: Routledge.
Hernando Gonzalo, A. (2015). Identidad relacional y orden patriarcal. In A. Hernando Gonzalo (Ed.), Mujeres, hombres, poder. Subjetividades en conflicto (pp. 83–124). Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños.
Jantzen, D., Brinker, U., Orschiedt, J., Heinemeier, J., Piek, J., Hauenstein, K., Krüger, J., Lidke, G., Lübke, H., Lampe, R., Lorenz, S., Schult, M., & Terberger, T. (2011). A bronze age battlefield? Weapons and trauma in the Tollense Valley, North-Eastern Germany. Antiquity, 85, 417–433.
Jiménez-Brobeil, S., Botella, M., & Ortega, J. A. (1995). Arthropaties in the Iberian peninsula during the bronze age: Argar culture. In R. Batista, D. Campillo, & T. Carreras (Eds.), IXth European meeting of the paleopathology association (pp. 173–180). Barcelona: Museu d’arqueologia de Catalunya.
Jiménez-Brobeil, S., Du Souich, P., & Al Oumaoui, I. (2009). Possible relationship of cranial traumatic injuries with violence in the South-East Iberian peninsula from the Neolithic to the bronze age. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 140, 465–475.
Kristiansen, K., & Larson, T. B. (2005). The rise of bronze age society. Travels, transmissions and transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lull, V., MicĂł, R., Risch, R., & Rihuete, C. (2009). El Argar: la formaciĂłn de una sociedad de clases. In M. Hernández PĂ©rez, J. A. Soler DĂaz, & J. A. LĂłpez Padilla (Eds.), En los confines del Argar. Una cultura de la Edad del Bronce en Alicante (pp. 224–245). Alicante: MARQ Museo ArqueolĂłgico de Alicante.
Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C., & Risch, R. (2010). Metal and social relations of production in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Trabajos de Prehistoria, 67(2), 323–347.
Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C., & Risch, R. (2011). The Argar and the beginning of class society in the Western Mediterranean. In S. Hansen & J. Müller (Eds.), Sozialarchäologische Perspektiven: Gesellschaftlicher Wandel 5000–1500 v. Chr. Zwischen Atlantik und Kaukasus (pp. 381–414). Berlin: Deutsche Archäeologisches Institut-Von Zabern.
Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete-Herrada, C., & Risch, R. (2014). The La Bastida fortification: New light and new questions on early bronze age societies in the western Mediterranean. Antiquity, 88, 95–410.
Lull, V., Micó Pérez, R., Rihuete Herrada, C., Risch, R., & Escanilla Artigas, N. (2017). Halberdiers and combat systems in the Argaric. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 36(4), 375–394.
Milner, G. R. (1999). Warfare in prehistoric and early historic Eastern North America. Journal of Archaeological Research, 7(2), 105–151.
Montero Ruiz, I. (1993). Bronze age metallurgy in Southeast of Spain. Antiquity, 67, 46–57.
Montero Ruiz, I. (1994). El origen de la metalurgia en el Sudeste de la PenĂnsula IbĂ©rica. AlmerĂa: Instituto de Estudios Almerienses.
Montero Ruiz, I., & Murillo Barroso, M. (2010). La producciĂłn metalĂşrgica en las sociedades argáricas y sus implicaciones sociales: una propuesta de investigaciĂłn. Menga. Revista de Prehistoria de AndalucĂa, 1, 37–51.
Montón-Subias, S. (2007). Interpreting archaeological continuities: An approach to transversal equality in the Argaric bronze age of South-East Iberia. World Archaeology, 39(2), 256–262.
Montón-Subias, S. (2010). Muerte e identidad femenina en el mundo argárico. Trabajos de Prehistoria, 67(1), 119–137.
Moreno Onorato, A., & Contreras Cortés, F. (2015). Un arma no solo de prestigio: la espada argárica de Peñalosa (Baños de la Encina, Jaén). Trabajos de Prehistoria, 72(2), 238–258.
Murillo Barroso, M. (2013). ProducciĂłn y Consumo de Plata. Un Análisis Comparativo entre la Sociedad Argárica y los Primeros Asentamientos Orientalizantes en el Sur de la PenĂnsula IbĂ©rica, Granada, Tesis Doctoral. Universidad Granada.
Osgood, R. H., Monks, S., & Toms, J. (2000). Bronze Age Warfare. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
Sanahuja, M. E. (2007). ÂżArmas o herramientas prehistĂłricas? El ejemplo del mundo argárico. In M. Sánchez Romero (Ed.), ArqueologĂa de las mujeres y relaciones de gĂ©nero (pp. 195–200). Madrid: Complutum 18.
Sánchez Romero, M. (2008a). Cuerpos de mujeres: la construcción de la identidad y su manifestación durante la Edad del Bronce. Arenal, 15(1), 5–29.
Sánchez Romero, M. (2008b). Childhood and the construction of gender identities through material culture. Childhood in the Past, 1, 17–37.
Schubart, H. (1973). Las alabardas tipo Montejicar. In H. Schubart (Ed.), Estudios dedicados al profesor Dr. Luis Pericot (pp. 249–279). Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona.
Siret, E., & Siret, L. (1890). Las primeras edades del metal en el sudeste de España. In Resultados obtenidos en las excavaciones hechas por los autores desde 1881 a 1887. Murcia: Dirección General de Cultura, Museo Arqueológico de Murcia.
Vandkilde, H. (2003). Commemorative tales: Archaeological responses to modern myth, poetics and war. World Archaeology, 35(1), 126–144.
Vencl, S. (1999). Stone age warfare. In J. Carman & A. Harding (Eds.), Ancient warfare (pp. 57–62). Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
Acknowledgments
This research was carried out as part of the R+D+i research project “Innovation, Continuity and Hybridisation. The Copper and Bronze Age Societies in the Southern Iberian Peninsula” (HAR2013-42865-P) and the research group: “GEA. Material Culture and Social Identity in the Recent Prehistory of Southern Iberia” (HUM-065). I would like to thank Almudena Hernando Gonzalo, Antonio Blanco González, and Margarita Sánchez Romero for their useful comments and observations on a draft version of this paper. I am also indebted to Detlef Jantzen for his kind permission to reproduce the photographs of the wooden clubs from the Tollense Valley site.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Aranda Jiménez, G. (2018). Untangling Bronze Age Warfare: The Case of Argaric Society. In: Dolfini, A., Crellin, R., Horn, C., Uckelmann, M. (eds) Prehistoric Warfare and Violence. Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78828-9_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78828-9_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78827-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78828-9
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)