Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T08:23:14.855Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The La Bastida fortification: new light and new questions on Early Bronze Age societies in the western Mediterranean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2015

Vicente Lull ,
Rafael Micó ,
Cristina Rihuete-Herrada  and
Roberto Risch
Vicente Lull
Affiliation:
*Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra Campus, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence)
Rafael Micó
Affiliation:
*Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra Campus, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence)
Cristina Rihuete-Herrada
Affiliation:
*Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra Campus, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence)
Roberto Risch
Affiliation:
*Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra Campus, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

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 character of these structures appears beyond question and their design suggests they were a response to significant changes in warfare and weaponry in this period. This sophisticated fortification system raises once again the question of possible Mediterranean contacts, along with social change and the role of physical violence in the rise of Argaric society.

Keywords

SpainLa BastidaArgaric Bronze Agefortificationsiege warfaremilitary technology
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 340 , 01 June 2014 , pp. 395 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aranda Jiménez, G. & González, F. Molina. 2006. Wealth and power in the Bronze Age of the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula: the funerary record of Cerro de la Encina. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 25: 47–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2006.00248.x Google Scholar
Arribas, A., Molina, F., Carrión, F., Contreras, F., Martínez, G., Ramos, A., Sáez, L., Torre, F. De La, Blanco, I. & Martínez, J.. 1985. Informe preliminar de los resultados obtenidos durante la VI campaña de excavaciones en el poblado de Los Millares (Santa Fe de Mondújar, Almería), 1985. Anuario Arqueológico de Andalucía 1985: 245–62.Google Scholar
Bernabò-brea, L. 1964. Poliochni. Città prehistorica nell'isola di Lemnos. Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider.Google Scholar
Biran, A., Ilan, D. & Greenberg, R.. 1996. Dan I: a chronicle of the excavations, the Pottery Neolithic, the Early Bronze Age, and the Middle Bronze Age tombs. Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60.Google Scholar
Cardoso, J.L. 2010. Leceia: a evolução do sistema defensivo, in Gonçalves, V.S. & Sousa, A.C. (ed.) Transformação e mudancça no centro e sul de Portugal: o 4° e o 3° milénios a.n.e. Actas do Colóquio Internacional. Cascais (6-9 de Octubre 2005) (Colecção Cascais, Tempos Antigos 2): 43–63. Cascais: Camara Municipal.Google Scholar
Cartailhac, É. 1886. Les âges préhistoriques de l'Espagne et du Portugal. Paris: Reinwald Librairie.Google Scholar
Castro, P., Chapman, R., Gili, S., Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete, C., Risch, R. & Sanahuja, M.E.. 1999. Proyecto Gatas, 2: la dinámica arqueoecológica de la ocupación prehistórica. Sevilla: Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía.Google Scholar
Chapman, R. 2003. Archaeologies of complexity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Douglas, K. 2007. Die Befestigung der Unterstadt von Khirbet ez-Zeraqon im Rahmen der fruehbronzezeitlichen Fortifikationen in Palästina (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 27.3). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Easton, D.F. 2002. Schliemann's excavations at Troia, 1870-1873 (Studia Troica 2). Mainz: von Zabern.Google Scholar
Gauss, W. 2010. Aegina Kolonna, in Cline, E.H. (ed.) The Bronze Age Aegean ca. 3000-1000 BC. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gibbins, S. 2008. The role of monumental architecture in social transformation: Pella and the EB I/II transition, in Kühne, H., Czichon, R.M. & Kreppner, F.J. (ed.) Proceedings of the 4th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 29 March-3 April 2004, Freie Universität Berlin: volume 1. The reconstruction of environment: natural resources and human interrelations through time. Art history: visual communication: 377–90. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Greenberg, R. 2002. Early urbanizations in the Levant. A regional narrative. London & New York: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Helms, S.W. 1975. Posterns in Early Bronze Age fortifications of Palestine. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 107: 133–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/peq.1975.107.2.133 Google Scholar
Hurtado, V. 2004. El asentamiento fortificado de San Blas (Cheles, Badajoz). III milenio AC. Trabajos de Prehistoria 61(1): 141–55.Google Scholar
Inchaurrandieta, R. De. 1875. Notice sur la montagne funéraire de La Bastida-Province de Murcie (Espagne), in Congrés International d'Anthropologie et d'Archéologie Préhistorique . Compte rendue de la 4e session, Copenhague (1869): 344–50. Copenhagen: Imprimerie de Thiele.Google Scholar
Kunst, M. 2010. Zambujal, a dinâmica da sequéncia construtiva, in Gonçalves, V.S. & Sousa, A.C. (ed.) Transformação e mudança no centro e sul de Portugal: o 4° e o 3° milénios a.n.e. Actas do Colóquio Internacional. Cascais (6-9 de Octubre 2005) (Colecção Cascais, Tempos Antigos 2): 131–53. Cascais: Camara Municipal.Google Scholar
Lamb, W. 1936. Excavations at Thermi in Lesbos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lull, V. 1983. La cultura de El Argar. Un modelo para el estudio de las formaciones económico-sociales prehistóricas. Madrid: Akal.Google Scholar
Lull, V. & Estévez, J.. 1986. Propuesta metodológica para el estudio de las necrópolis argáricas, in de Cultura, Consejería (ed.) Homenaje a Luis Siret (1934-1984): 441–52. Sevilla: Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía.Google Scholar
Lull, V. & Micó, R.. 2011. Archaeology of the origin of the state: the theories. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lull, V. & Risch, R.. 1995. El estado Argárico. Verdolay 7: 97–109.Google Scholar
Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete-Herrada, C. & Risch, R.. 2010. Límites históricos y limitaciones del conocimiento arqueológico: la transición entre los grupos arqueológicos de Los Millares y El Argar, in Bueno, P., Gilman, A., Morales, C. Martín & Sánchez-Palencia, F.J. (ed.) Arqueología, sociedad, territorio y paisaje. Estudios sobre prehistoria reciente, protohistoria y transición al Mundo Romano en homenaje a Ma Dolores Fernández-Posse (Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana 28): 75–94. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Historia.Google Scholar
Lull, V. 2011. El Argar and the beginning of class society in the western Mediterranean, in Hansen, S. & Müller, J. (ed.) Sozialarchäologische Perspektiven: Gesellschaftlicher Wandel 5000-1500 v. Chr. Zwischen Atlantik und Kaukasus (Archäologie in Eurasien 24): 381–414. Berlin: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Lull, V. 2013. Political collapse and social change at the end of El Argar, in Meller, H., Bertemes, F., Bork, H.-R. & Risch, R. (ed.) 1600-Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs?/1600-cultural change in the shadow of the Thera Eruption?: 283–302. Halle: Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte.Google Scholar
Martínez Santa-Olalla, J., Sáez, B., Posac, C.F., Sopranis, J.A. & Caturla, E. Del Val. 1947. Excavaciones en la ciudad del Bronce Mediterráneo II, de La Bastida de Totana (Murcia) (Informes y Memorias 16). Madrid: Ministerio de Educación Nacional.Google Scholar
Miroschedji, P. De. 1990. The Early Bronze Age fortifications at Tel Yarmut. An interim statement. Eretz-Israel 21: 48–61.Google Scholar
Miroschedji, P. De. 2009. Rise and collapse in the southern Levant in the Early Bronze Age. Scienze dell'antichità. Storia archeologia antropologia 15: 101–29.Google Scholar
Miroschedji, P. De, Sadeq, M., Faltings, D., Boulez, V., Naggiar-Moliner, L., Sykes, N. & Tengberg, M.. 2001. Les fouilles de Tell es-Sakan (Gaza): nouvelles données sur les contacts égyptocananéens aux IVe-IIIe millénaires. Paléorient 27(2): 75–104.Google Scholar
Molina, F., Contreras, F., Ramos, A., Merida, V., Ortiz, D. & Ruiz, V.. 1986. Programa de recuperación del registro arqueológico del Fortín 1 de Los Millares. Análisis preliminar de la organización del espacio. Arqueología Espacial 8: 175–201.Google Scholar
Montero, I. & Teneishvili, T.O.. 1996. Estudio actualizado de las puntas de jabalina del dolmen de La Pastora (Valencina de la Concepción, Sevilla). Trabajos de Prehistoria 53(1): 73–90.Google Scholar
Osten, H.H. Von Der. 1937. The Alishar Hüyük, seasons of 1930-32, part I (Oriental Institute Publications 28). Chicago (IL): Oriental Institute of Chicago.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Ramsey, C. Bronk, Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & Plicht, J. Van Der. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azu js rc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Risch, R. 2002. Recursos naturales, medios de producción y explotación social. Un análisis económico de la industria lítica de Fuente Alamo (Almería), 2250-1400 ANE. Mainz: von Zabern.Google Scholar
Schuhmacher, T.X. 2012. El marfil en España desde el Calcolítico al Bronce Antiguo, in Banerjee, A., López Padilla, J.A. & Schuhmacher, T.X. (ed.) Elfenbeinstudien. Faszikel 1: marfil y elefantes en la Península Ibérica y el Mediterráneo occidental (Iberia Archaeologica 16): 45–67. Mainz: von Zabern.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G.M. 2007. Taking the long view on collapse: a Syrian perspective, in Kuzucuoğlu, C. & Marro, C. (ed.) Sociétés humaines et changement climatique à la fin du troisième millénaire: une crise a-t-elle eu lieu en haute Mésopotamie? Actes du Colloque de Lyon, 5-8 décembre 2005: 45–67. Paris: Institut Français d' Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil & De Boccard.Google Scholar
Siret, H. & Siret, L.. 1887. Les premières Âges du Métal dans le sud-est de l'Espagne. Bruxelles: Polleunis, Ceuterick et Lefébure.Google Scholar
Topbaş, A., Efe, T. & İIlasli, A., A. 1998. Salvage excavations of the Afyon Archaeological Museum, part 2: the settlement of Karaoğlan Mevkii and the Early Bronze Age cemetery of Kaklık Mevkii. Anatolia Antiqua 6: 21–94.Google Scholar
Zafra, N., Castro, M. & Hornos, F.. 2010. Marroquíes Bajos (Jaén, España) c. 2800-2000 cal ane: agregación, intensificación y campesinización en el Alto Guadalquivir, in Gonçalves, V.S. & Sousa, A.C. (ed.) Transformação e mudança no centro e sul de Portugal: o 4° e o 3° milénios a.n.e. Actas do Colóquio Internacional. Cascais (6-9 de Octubre 2005) (Colecção Cascais, Tempos Antigos 2): 519–53. Cascais: Camara Municipal.Google Scholar