European Kingdoms

South-Western Iberian Bronze (Chalcolithic / Bronze Age) (Iberia)
c.1900 - 700 BC
Incorporating the Ferradeira Horizon (1900-1500 BC), Atalaia Horizon (c.1500-1100 BC), & Santa Vitória Horizon (1100-700 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 South-Western Iberian Bronze (or SWIB for the sake of brevity) in Iberia is a loosely-defined umbrella for various regional Bronze Age cultural appearances in southern Portugal and nearby south-western Spain, primarily including Huelva, Seville, and Extremadura. It replaced a late-arriving urban and megalithic-building late Neolithic period which had been slow to reach the western coast of Iberia.

The SWIB is characterised by individual burials in cists, in which the deceased is accompanied by a bronze knife. Also associated with such burials are the stelae and their representations of weapons and other warrior accoutrements. Some of the more rare tombs are classified as being 'grabsystem' examples, made up of three adjacent quasi-circular stone enclosures, each with an opening. Those are covered by tumuli, possibly as chieftain burials or for a small nobility class

The first part of the SWIB involves the Ferradeira Horizon (1900-1500 BC). This was still primarily Chalcolithic in nature but its people individually buried their dead, thanks to influences which came from the nearby Vila Nova de Sao Pedro culture. The late third millennium BC use of collective burials in megalithic structures and artificial caves now faded out entirely.

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 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 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: 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.1900 BC

The first part of the South-Western Iberian Bronze (SWIB) involves the Ferradeira Horizon. This is still primarily Chalcolithic (Copper Age) in nature but its people are already being influenced in terms of burials by the nearby Vila Nova de Sao Pedro culture. The late third millennium BC use of collective burials in megalithic structures and artificial caves now faded out entirely.

Within the broader South-Western Iberian Bronze is this Ferradeira horizon pit grave at Herdade do Álamo, and its location at the potential entrance to a Chalcolithic ditched enclosure

c.1500 BC

The SWIB's second phase is covered by the Atalaia Horizon in the middle Iberian Bronze Age, contemporary with the 'Argaric B' period at the end of the Argaric culture, and the subsequent Post-Argaric in south-eastern Iberia, as well as the widespread Atlantic Bronze Age from 1300 BC.

It introduces grabsystem tombs, and also extends SWIB territory into Extremadura and towards the emergent Western Andalusian Bronze. This period sees the 'Alentejo' stelae of Alentejanas being erected, mainly in southern Portugal, with their displays of weapons and other warrior accoutrements.

The Asturian-Cantabrian Bronze now also emerges along Iberia's northern Atlantic coast. The neighbouring Galician Bronze and the western-central Iberian Western Bronze also both emerge at this approximate time.

Bronze technology in Iberia was championed by the Los Millares civilisation of the Mediterranean south coast, but it was later cultures which progressed to cover much of the peninsula (click or tap on map to view full sized)

c.1100 BC

The SWIB's third and final phase is the Santa Vitória Horizon. Imitations of early Urnfield rilled-ware vessels of this period are found in burials in southern Portugal, such as attractive funerary pottery urns at Santa Vitória in the Beja municipality. Stylistic similarities can be found across Urnfield Western Europe and in the Rhine-Swiss-French group which now formed part of the 'Hallstatt A'.

c.800 - 700 BC

Radiocarbon dates for the earliest Celtic arrivals of the Hallstatt culture in the south-western Iberian peninsula put this around 800 BC. This is at Segovia just to the north of Elvas in Portugal, with them having already passed through Cogotas II territory in central Iberia which they strengthen with their presence. The next oldest dates are about 700 BC at Faro, well within the South-Western Iberian Bronze.

The Pyrenees (as seen here from the national park on the French side of the border) has presented a considerable obstacle to many migrating groups and campaigning armies, but there are paths across it, as the proto-Celtic Urnfield people and their Hallstatt culture successors found