European Kingdoms

Post-Argar Period (Bronze Age) (Iberia)
c.1500 - 800 BC

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The system which has evolved to catalogue the various archaeological expressions of human progress is one which involves cultures. The task of cataloguing the vast range of human cultures which emerged from Africa and the Near East right up until human expansion reached the Americas is covered in the related feature (see link, right).

Early Iberia formed the south-western peninsula of Europe and comprises the modern countries of Portugal and Spain, plus the principality of Andorra and the British crown colony of Gibraltar. The peninsula's role in human development played a notable role in the first millennium BC, even before the coming of imperial ambitions which reached its southern and eastern shores.

The three thousand year-old Iberian Neolithic experienced some difficulties towards the end of the fourth millennium BC, seemingly as part of a wider climate-related transition which also affected Sumer. The early Chalcolithic (Copper Age) became dominant, leading directly into the Iberian Bronze Age around 2800 BC.

The Post-Argar period in Iberia succeeded its namesake, the Argaric culture. To date not too much is known of this period in south-eastern Iberia. The chronology for the Argaric is subject to a touch of disagreement even when it comes to its finish dates. An end date of 1600-1500 BC is generally accepted, but some want a later date of around 1100 BC.

The indecision would seem to revolve around what is known as the 'Argaric B' period which covers 1500-1300 BC. Some Argaric customs continued to be practiced but the fortified cities had been abandoned. Burial traditions had changed to favour the use of Aegean-style pithoi for the burial of ashes in much the same way as was being practiced by the Mycenaeans.

Perhaps not coincidentally this was at the same time as Babylonia in the Near East experienced a short dark age. In Iberia a second wave of Indo-European elements arrived from the north, possibly also destabilised by a shift in climate.

As 1300 BC is also used by some as an end date for the Argaric, that can also be used as a start date for a definitive post-Argaric B and a general post-Argaric. Quite possibly the people in this region were already joining or forming part of the pre-Iberian Iron Age tribal structure which included early Indo-European groups such as the Vettones, and Iberian tribes such as the Bastetani. By 900-800 BC eastern parts of former Argaric territory were beginning to fall under Tartessian control.

Archaeological finds are constantly being made, and archaeological cultures are frequently being updated with new information. Get in touch here if this page also requires updating.

(Information by Trish Wilson & Peter Kessler, with additional information by Edward Dawson, from Ceremonial spaces from Late Bronze Age to Roman in Cantabrian hillforts, Angel Villa Valdes, from De aldea fortificada a Caput Civitatis?, Angel Villa Valdes (in Spanish), from A Provenance Study of Early Bronze Age Artefacts Found in Asturias (Spain), A Reguera-Galan, T Barreiro-Grille, M Moldovan, L Lobo, M Á de Blas Cortina, & J I García Alonso, from Settlements and Houses in Galicia in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, M Pilar Prieto-Martinez & Mikel Diaz-Rodriguez, from Portuguese Castros - The Evolution of the Habitat and Proto-Urbanization Process, Armando Coelho Ferreira da Silva, from Mycenaean Contacts with the Iberian Peinsular during the Late Bronze Age, Alfredo Mederos Martin, from The horse in the Iberian peninsula, Arre Caballo, from The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, David W Anthony, from The Archaeology of Bronze Age Iberia, Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez, Sandra Montón-Subías, & Margarita Sánchez Romero (Routledge, 2019), from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Departamento de Prehistoria, Trabajos de Prehistoria, Vols 26-51, in Spanish), from Amigos del museo arqueológico de Lorca, Salvador Fontela, Juan Antonio Gómez, & Miguel Miras (2004), from Atlantic Seaways, Barry Cunliffe, from Iberia, the Atlantic Bronze Age and the Mediterranean, Brendan O'Connor, from Bronze Age Iberia, Vicente Lull, Rafael Mico, Cristina Rihuete Herrada, & Roberto Risch, from Contacto cultural entre el Mediterráneo y el Atlántico (siglos XII-VIII ane), S Celestino, N Rafel, & X-L Armada (Eds, Consejo superior de Investigaciones Cientificas Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma, in Spanish), from Vida y muerte de una espada atlántica del Bronce Final en Europa: Reconstrucción de los procesos de fabricación, uso y destrucción, Bénédicte Quilliec (in Spanish), from Les ors de l'Europe atlantique à l'âge du bronze, Barbara Regine Armbruster (in French), and from External Links: The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe (Nature), and Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa (in Spanish), and Celtiberia.net (in Spanish), and Lista de pueblos prerromanos de Iberia (in Spanish, Hispanoteca.eu), and Euskomedia (in Spanish).)

c.1500 - 1300 BC

The Bronze Age Post-Argaric period begins in south-eastern Iberia. The earlier date given here is the most reasonable one given for the end of the preceding Argaric culture, but an Argaric B phase which employs different burial customs continues until about 1300 BC.

The Argaric ruins at La Bastida once formed one of the biggest and most powerful Iberian Bronze Age settlements, just outside the modern town of Totana

This same approximate date, 1300 BC, also sees the end of the Motillas culture to the immediate north of Argaric territory and the Vila Nova de Sao Pedro over on the opposite side of the peninsula.

c.1250 - 1100 BC

One of the earliest proto-Celtic cultures has started to appear in Central Europe, this being the late Bronze Age Urnfield. This replaces the preceding Tumulus culture before spreading far and wide.

Some Q-Celtic-speaking proto-Celtic groups of this culture apparently end up in Britain, while others enter north-eastern Iberia to provide some of the earliest Indo-European elements there. The Levantine Bronze to the immediate north of the Post-Argaric for one is greatly influenced by this in its own later phase.

It serves as an intercommunicating network between the various other Iberian Bronze Age cultures, while also picking up a degree of influence from the neighbouring Cogotas I culture through the same channels.

By around 1300 BC various changes had taken place in Iberia, with the Argaric culture having collapsed and others having experienced problems, including the Levantine Bronze, leaving the way clear for the emergence of a fresh wave of cultural zones (click or tap on map to view full sized)

c.1100 - 1000 BC

The Iberian Bronze Age's upper-central Cogotas I culture is ended by a growing influx of Indo-European tribes. These no doubt include proto-Italic-speakers who are already becoming established, but now Urnfield proto-Celts are joining them.

These groups generally occupy areas of central and western Iberia, forming new cultural expressions on the ruins of the older ones. One of these involves a grouping which will later become the Vettones, and involves the formation of the Cogotas II culture.

More recently, however, there has been a tendency to identify such early arrivals as being more broadly Indo-European or proto-Celtic tribes rather than actual Celts, and argue for a process of infiltration over an extended period, from around 1000 to 300 BC, rather than invasions.

This perfect Late Bronze Age sword of the Urnfield culture in Central Europe was discovered as part of a burial, lying next to the remains of a man, woman, and child

The first arrivals appear to establish themselves in Catalonia, having probably entered via the eastern passages of the Pyrenees. Later groups (more readily identifiable as Celtic) venture west through the Pyrenees to occupy the northern coast of the peninsula, and south beyond the Ebro and Duero basins as far as the Tagus valley.

It could be the strong Iberian presence in the east which prevents these proto-Celts from continuing down the Mediterranean coast to enter the Levantine Bronze or Post-Argaric regions.