European Kingdoms

Western Bronze (Bronze Age) (Iberia)
c.1500 - 900 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 Western Bronze in Iberia occurred largely in Portugal and along the Spanish border. It followed an evolution which was generally similar to that of the Asturian-Cantabrian Bronze and the Galician Bronze, both to the north, and all three were eventually part of the Atlantic Bronze Age, while the Western Bronze absorbed the spent Vila Nova de Sao Pedro.

Across the entire Atlantic coastal region during this period there were large-scale changes in economic and social structure, along with a move from the transitory living of Neolithic pastoralists to being fully settled in villages. This period also saw the beginnings of fortifications which would in time lead to the Castro culture.

The region within the Western Bronze was perfectly fitted to allowing its human occupants to take full advantage of the local topography. They commanded several river basins and good agricultural land, which allowed them to exploit local mineral resources such as tin and gold while at the same time giving them access to growing trade and transport routes.

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 First Bronzes of NW Iberia - The Data from the Fraga dos Corvos Habitat Site, Joao Carlos Senna-Martinez, Elsa Luís, Maria Fátima Araújo, Pedro Valério, 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), from The Ancient People and Lost Tribes of Lusitania, ACEL Trebola, 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 BC

The Western Bronze begins in the middle Iberian Bronze Age, located along Iberia's western-central section of the Atlantic coast. This is around the same time as the Argaric culture in south-eastern Iberia is fading into the Post-Argaric.

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)

To the north the Galician Bronze and Asturian-Cantabrian Bronze emerge at the same approximate time, as does the Western Andalusian Bronze which lies some way to the south.

c.1300 BC

The Atlantic Bronze Age (or ABA) begins to form along the Atlantic coast of France, specifically between Brittany and Gironde. It quickly expands northwards and also south into Iberia. The name is an umbrella term for a series of metalworking industries (or 'traditions').

Dates are somewhat movable, with a start of about 1300 BC or 1000 BC being offered, and a concluding date of about 700 BC or 500 BC. It quickly reaches southern early Britain and the Iberian Bronze Age. In the latter it encompasses Asturian-Cantabrian Bronze, the Galician Bronze, the Western Bronze (which now absorbs the people of the Vila Nova de Sao Pedro), and the Western Andalusian Bronze.

Citânia de Briteiros is one of the most expressive proto-historical villages in the Iberian peninsula, either in terms of its size, or by the sheer size and thickness of its walls, urbanism, and architecture

The ABA also succeeds the European Bell Beaker culture, the Bell Beaker and Wessex culture in Britain, and the Armorican Tumulus culture in what is now north-western France.