Exploitation of Mining Resources in El Argar Culture: Bronze Age Metallurgy in the Hinterland of the Western Betic Cordillera (Southeastern Iberian Peninsula)

Abstract

This research addresses the territorial organisation of metallurgical production during the El Argar Bronze Age (2200–1550 cal bc) in the inner areas of El Argar territory through lead-isotope and trace element analyses of geological copper ores, archaeometallurgical remains and copper-based artefacts. Results from 31 mineral and 35 archaeological samples suggest that the exploitation of copper resources in the studied region was significant and had a similar impact than other mining districts of El Argar territory. This, therefore, leads the hierarchical and centralised production model to be questioned. It also appears that the copper ore deposits in the coastal regions that were intensively exploited during the Copper Age were used less intensively in the El Argar period. At that time, copper was mostly procured from ore deposits in the inland areas of El Argar territory: that is, ore deposits within the Alpine orogeny hinterland (inland areas of the Betic Cordillera, from Granada to Baza). Other artefacts were sourced from outside the Alpine geological domain, but still on the fringe of El Argar territory (the foothills of the Sierra Morena-Linares mining district) or even from ore deposits definitely outside El Argar territory itself (the Los Pedroches Variscan region and elsewhere).