LA BASTIDA AND TIRA DEL LIENZO [TOTANA·MURCIA] RUTA ARGÁRICA 1. ARCHAEOLOGICAL GUIDES by Integral Sociedad para el Desarrollo Rural

RUTA ARGÁRICA ARCHAEOLOGICAL GUIDES

VICENTE LULL RAFAEL MICÓ CRISTINA RIHUETE HERRADA ROBERTO RISCH

[·1·]

LA BASTIDA AND TIRA DEL LIENZO [TOTANA·MURCIA]

Ayuntamiento de Totana

Edited by:

Integral, Sociedad para el Desarrollo Rural © ASOME-UAB, 2015

Collaborations:

Mireia Ache · Lourdes Andúgar · Eva Celdrán · Selina Delgado Raack · María Inés Fregeiro · Camila Oliart · Carlos Velasco

Translated by:

Joana Catarina Araújo Bruno, in collaboration with Robert W. Chapman

Covers: Layout and design:

Printed by:

Editorial MIC

D.L.:

MU1305-2015

ISBN:

It is strictly prohibited, without the express authorization of the Copyright holders, under the sanctions established by Law, the total or partial reproduction of this work by any means or procedure, including reprography or treatment computer, and the distribution of copies of it through public rent or loans.

INDEX 1. RUTA ARGÁRICA DE SIERRA ESPUÑA

LA BASTIDA

2. THE HIDDEN CITY

3. THE FIRST BASTIDA

4. AN ARGARIC CAPITAL

5. INVESTIGATING THE SOCIETY FROM ITS TOMBS

121

6. WHAT WAS LA BASTIDA?

147

TIRA DEL LIENZO

153

7. AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

153

8. THE FIRST BUILDINGS

167

9. THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

181

10. WHAT WAS TIRA DEL LIENZO?

219

11. THE END OF AN ERA

223

NOTES

229

231

IMAGE REFERENCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

232

234

SCIENTIFIC TEAM

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

237

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RUTA ARGÁRICA DE SIERRA ESPUÑA LA BASTIDA AND TIRA DEL LIENZO

INTRODUCTION This guide aims to show you the most interesting aspects of the research carried out since 2008 on the archaeological sites of La Bastida and Tira del Lienzo (Totana). After several campaigns of excavation, restoration and consolidation, both sites are now accessible to the general public. At the same time, the research in the laboratories continues on the huge number of finds, so it is not surprising that some of the ideas expressed here may be modified in the future. The following pages are the result of the efforts of the members of the “Bastida Project”. This initiative materialised seven years ago thanks to the wishes and interests of the Government of the Region of Murcia through its Ministry of Culture, the Autonomous University of Barcelona through a team of the Department of Prehistory (Research Group in Mediterranean Social Archaeoecology - ASOME), which continues with the investigations, and of the City Council of Totana. What has been achieved to date fills us with satisfaction and is an incentive to continue working on what remains to be done. But let us not talk about the future. For now, nothing would make us happier than to share the knowledge, emotion and happiness we have experienced in La Bastida and Tira del Lienzo.

RUTA ARGÁRICA DE SIERRA ESPUÑA

View of La Bastida in November 2008, before our team began the fieldwork.

LA BASTIDA AND TIRA DEL LIENZO | TOTANA, MURCIA

View of La Bastida in November 2012, after discovering the fortification system and the first works being done to prepare the site for opening to the public.

RUTA ARGÁRICA DE SIERRA ESPUÑA

Reception area at the base of the northern slope of the hill of La Bastida.

LA BASTIDA AND TIRA DEL LIENZO | TOTANA, MURCIA

HOW TO GET

TO LA BASTIDA

La Bastida is located on state property in the municipality of Totana (Murcia). If you are travelling from Murcia or Almeria on the A-7 highway, it is best to take exit 609 (formerly 620) towards “Totana - Aledo” and join the RM-622 road to Totana. At the roundabout intersecting the N-340A road, continue along the RM-502 towards Aledo. After having travelled about 2.4 km and through two roundabouts, there is a third that allows you to continue towards Aledo by taking the first exit. Here, take the second exit towards the urban centre of Totana and follow the signs to the archaeological site of La Bastida. About 400 m later, there is a new roundabout from which the C-8 road towards “Carivete - La Huerta” should be followed. Then turn left about 700 m ahead where “Carivete - Las Viñas” is indicated and continue approximately 5.3 km without leaving this road until the parking area at the foot of the site. The perimeter of La Bastida is fenced and free access is not allowed. For this reason, it is best to plan the visit by contacting the Department of Culture and Tourism of the City of Totana.

HOW TO GET

TO LA TIRA DEL LIENZO

Access to the base of the site can be made by motor vehicle. From the roundabout of the N-340A road located at the exit of Totana in the direction of Alhama de Murcia, take the RM-502 that leads to Aledo. Upon entering the first roundabout, leave this road by taking the first exit, which connects with the paved road of Zatira del Lienzo. At a distance of about 2.2 km, nearing Ciudad Deportiva, the path becomes a dirt road that must be followed for about 400 m to reach the destination.

RUTA ARGÁRICA DE SIERRA ESPUÑA

RM-502

C-8

LA BASTIDA

N-340a

R LO

LA BASTIDA AND TIRA DEL LIENZO | TOTANA, MURCIA

ZO ’S R OA D

TIRA DEL LIENZO

TIR

EL L

IEN

N-340a

RM-502

CIA

RM-622

TO MU R

TOTANA

RO N

’S

RO AD

RM-3

A-7

TO M

AZA

RRÓ

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LA BASTIDA THE HIDDEN CITY

LA BASTIDA

In the centre of the image, La Bastida: a hidden city between the mountains of Espuña and Tercia.

THE HIDDEN CITY

DISCOVERING

LA BASTIDA

La Bastida was one of the first cities in continental Europe. More than 4000 years ago, at the dawn of the Bronze Age, some communities in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula started a revolution whose results are familiar to us: the formation of territorial states. La Bastida was the capital of perhaps one of the most important of these states. But La Bastida was a peculiar city. It is hidden, surrounded by mountains and away from the main communication routes and the most fertile lands. It occupies 45,000 m2 on a steep hill 450 m above sea level, between the mountains of Espuña and La Tercia. It is about 3 km from the Guadalentín river valley and 35 km from the Mediterranean coast. The hill is surrounded by ravines that fall into the Lébor and Salado watercourses, being only accessible with relative ease on the north side. In other words, it is an almost impregnable place enjoying the protection of the mountains. However, this is not the only reason why we refer to La Bastida as the “hidden city.” We also do it in a figurative sense because its extraordinary relevance had been hidden for a long time under veils of ignorance, abandonment and damage. Although La Bastida has been known internationally for almost a century and a half, the lack of continuity and depth in research had only allowed us to guess its importance. Archaeology has failed to return it to the daylight and restore it in its place.

LA BASTIDA

Excavations in La Bastida (2009).

Fortunately, we are confident that the work of recent years is reversing this situation. In 2008 the municipal, regional and state governments together with the Autonomous University of Barcelona, to which our team is assigned, joined forces in the “Bastida Project”. Between 2009 and 2013 we excavated almost 7000 m2 of the site, many of its buildings were restored and conditioned to allow visits, and thousands of artefacts are being investigated. All of this is revealing a forgotten city for which we only had isolated pieces. In cinematographic terms, we now begin to watch the movie we knew from the trailer.

LA BASTIDA

DISCOVERING A

CIVILISATION

During the nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth centuries, adventurers and academics competed to discover “ancient civilisations” at sites such as Babylon, Assur or Mari in the Near East; Troy, Knossos or Mycenae, in the eastern Mediterranean; or Copán, in Central America. Except for some areas around the Aegean sea, it was thought that civilisation in Europe was a recent phenomenon, derived from the Phoenician and Greek colonial enterprises throughout the first millennium BCE (Before the Christian Era). No one thought that the West saw the birth of civilisation. Usually, Europe had modest prehistoric sites, where remains of huts, earth embankments or, at most, megalithic constructions were found. As interesting as these findings were, they were considered typical of “primitive” societies. “The Argaric”, the name assigned to the society that lived in La Bastida, was maybe the last European “civilisation” discovered in Europe. Its ruins may not seem comparable in monumentality with those of the first eastern states, but this is not the case with the complex political and economic background. So, what do we mean by the term “civilisation”? “Civilisation” applies to any society with:

•

a centralised, hierarchical and well-defined political system contained within territorial borders;

•

an economic organisation based on large-scale inequalities;

•

the use of violence to maintain the internal social order and stimulate growth by participating in looting wars and military conquests.

THE HIDDEN CITY

In the end, civilisations are anything but “civilised”. The magnificence and splendour that we recognise in many of them is the result of tremendous social asymmetries and, at the same time, a way to perpetuate them by inspiring fascination or simply propaganda and fear. However, there may be civilisations that do not require spectacular displays of power to sanction the social order. We believe that Argaric society belonged to this category. When the Argaric began to form around 2200 BCE in the eastern flatlands of Almeria and Murcia, it barely occupied 2500 km2. Several centuries later, it dominated a territory of almost 35,000 km2 divided into several political units. Like any civilisation, it developed mechanisms to centralise power and imposed them by force over a vast region. And, like many others, it collapsed quickly leaving us with its physical manifestations and many puzzles to solve.

View of the hill of La Bastida (in the centre of the image) from the northeast.

LA BASTIDA

JAÉN

GRANADA

ALMERÍA

THE HIDDEN CITY

ALICANTE

MURCIA

The Argaric nuclear territory, around 2200 BCE.

EL ARGAR 2200-2000 BCE 0

400

1000

≥ 2000 m 100 Km

La Bastida, from the south. The length of the settlement in the north-south direction was approximately 300 meters (as indicated by the arrows).

LA BASTIDA AND ITS SURROUNDINGS The surroundings of La Bastida are formed by a geological substrate dominated by limestones, marls, gypsums, sandstones and conglomerates. To a lesser extent, there are also older metamorphic formations with slates and quartzites. The intense erosive processes formed ravines and deposits of alluvial and colluvial sediments. The climate is a semiarid Mediterranean type with warm summers and cool winters. The annual rainfall of 300 mm stands out for its irregularity. The flora includes meso-Mediterranean species like pine, kermes oak, esparto, cistus, juniper, hawthorn and thyme. Among the fauna there are mammals such as wild boar, atlas mouflon, white hare, fox, squirrel and birds such as choughs, crag martins and jays.

LA BASTIDA

Access to La Bastida from the Guadalentín Valley, following the Lébor watercourse.

This guide invites us to go on a visit to La Bastida, one of the most emblematic places of the Argaric “civilisation”, which dominated the southeast for more than six centuries. Then we examine the nearby settlement of Tira del Lienzo, which played a crucial role in this economic organisation. No guide can replace the experience of traveling to places lost in time, no matter how close they might seem to us according to what we are taught. Fortunately, getting to La Bastida is not complicated and the “hidden city” awaits us there.

THE HIDDEN CITY

TRACING ITS DISCOVERY

AND RESEARCH

La Bastida was one of the first Bronze Age sites to be excavated and made known internationally. In 1869, the engineer Rogelio de lnchaurrandieta was the first to excavate in La Bastida, after being informed by a farmer of its existence. In just three days, and with only eighteen workmen, he discovered about twenty tombs and made interesting observations on what he found. In addition he also published an article in the proceedings of the International Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology in Copenhagen, held in 1870. This promising start was useful to put La Bastida “on the map”, but it was not enough to establish a lasting and deep investigation. The list of archaeologists who have worked there is very long. Louis Siret, a key figure in the prehistory of southeast Spain, together with his foreman Pedro Flores, excavated the site in late 1886. Juan Cuadrado, the first director of the Archaeological Museum of Almeria, also worked on La Bastida at least twice: at the end of the 1920s and during the Spanish Civil War. In the post-war period, between 1944 and 1950, there were four campaigns led by the Seminar of Primitive History of Man of the University of Madrid, directed by Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla. From these works comes the greatest amount of information available before the start of the “Bastida Project”. The year of 1950 marked the beginning of a long period of institutional neglect and several acts of damage inflicted by clandestine excavators and, incomprehensibly, by various public works. The mismanagement goes back a long time. We know that La Bastida was the target of “treasure hunters” even before the excavation of lnchaurrandieta. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was also a history of looting and forgeries

LA BASTIDA

by “El Corro” and “El Rosao”. And, finally, the presence of many “toperas” (holes left by illegal excavations) tells us that La Bastida was also a target for clandestine explorations at least until the end of the last century.

Excavations in La Bastida during the 1940s.

THE HIDDEN CITY

Nonetheless, the most surprising event was the almost complete destruction of the top and the north slope by the reforestation promoted by ICONA, the state office in charge of Spanish reforestation programmes. It is incomprehensible that in the 1970s when La Bastida was already known as a first-class settlement, heavy machinery could break into the site without hindrance.

The pre-Argaric site on the hill of Juan Clímaco, located next to La Bastida, was destroyed by the work of ICONA.

A little over ten years ago, the Government of the Region of Murcia showed a clear interest in protecting the site1 and promoted consolidation and documentation work by the companies Arqueotec and ArqueoWeb. Finally, a new awareness settled in and created the auspicious conditions for the beginning of the “Bastida Project” in 2008.

LA BASTIDA

A DIASPORA

OF FINDS

As a result of a long history of legal and illegal excavations, there has been a real diaspora of objects. Up to nine European museums2 and an unknown number of private collections have pieces from La Bastida. If we could put them together, there would be enough material to create one magnificent museum. Necklace found by Louis Siret and Pedro Flores in 1886, currently in the collection of the Royal Museums of Art and History, in Brussels.

5 cm

However, not only the finds were dispersed. The information recorded during the excavations was scattered as well. Fortunately, public and family archives still retain photographs, notes and unpublished diaries that we thought were lost. This valuable data has helped to build the story we invite you to meet live.

THE HIDDEN CITY

ARGARIC SOCIETY: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION Before entering La Bastida, you should know a few things about Argaric society. There are no ancient written texts about it, because it is much older than the first writing in the Iberian Peninsula. We know that it developed between 2200 and 1550 BCE, more than five centuries before the arrival of the first Phoenician and Greek colonists. The oldest written sources refer to a kingdom called Tartessos, ruled by King Argantonio and perhaps located in the actual provinces of Huelva, Cádiz and Seville. So, knowing what happened before in the peninsula depends exclusively on archaeology.

The settlement of El Argar was 2 hectares in large and occupied a plateau along one side of the Antas river (Almería).

LA BASTIDA

At the end of the nineteenth century, Henri and Louis Siret, two mining engineers from Belgium, decided to excavate the site of El Argar (Antas, Almería). There they discovered about a thousand graves and thousands of objects in just two hectares of land. At that moment they realized that they had found the remains of an exceptionally advanced society. Since then we have used the name of this site to refer to the “society of El Argar” or “Argaric society.” Over more than a century, archaeology has unearthed numerous findings in Argaric sites in the provinces of Almería, Murcia, Alicante, Granada, Jaén and Ciudad Real. The best-known settlements are located on hills of one or two hectares with good visibility and naturally defensive conditions. These slopes were terraced to build a dense concentration of stone buildings within which various tasks were performed.

Tombs 41 and 42 of Gatas (Almería), two of the oldest Argaric burials.

Perhaps the most striking thing is that the dead were buried below the buildings of the settlements themselves. In most graves, the body was deposited inside a cist or “box” made of slabs or masonry, a ceramic vessel, or a pit or artificial cave. Rarely would the tomb be open again to accommodate a second body. Another interesting feature is that offerings were often deposited, such as ceramic vessels, portions of meat, tools and weapons of copper, and ornaments of bone, stone, shell, copper, silver and, exceptionally, gold. These objects, usually very well preserved, have been an invaluable source of knowledge about the Argaric economy.

LA BASTIDA

The differences in the contents of funeral offerings provided the key to understanding the social and political organization. Argaric society was marked by inequality. At the top of the social pyramid, there was a class formed by just 10% of the population. They enjoyed privileges and did not hesitate to use violence to hold on to them. Below them there were the ordinary folk and, below all of them, the servants or slaves that only deserved at most a modest funeral offering. At its peak, the Argaric territory reached about 35,000 km2 and maintained border barriers with the neighbouring communities of the Valencian region, the South Iberian Plateau and the Guadalquivir Valley. It was divided into several deeply interconnected political units that shared many customs and everyday objects. Towards 1550 BC the Argaric state or states collapsed, possibly due to a wide-scale uprising against relations of social, economic and political exploitation. Social asymmetries during the final phase of the El Argar.

THE HIDDEN CITY

10% 50% 40% 37

LA BASTIDA

JAÉN

GRANADA

ALMERÍA

THE HIDDEN CITY

ALICANTE

MURCIA

Maximum expansion of the Argaric territory, around 1650 BCE.

EL ARGAR 1650 BCE 0

400

1000

≥ 2000 m

100 Km

[·3·]

LA BASTIDA THE FIRST BASTIDA

LA BASTIDA

The first Bastida

A VIOLENT

WORLD

Many country people who have visited La Bastida said “this is not a good place to live.” Human communities avoided it for hundreds of thousands of years, from the most remote Palaeolithic until one day about 4200 years ago. Suddenly, a forgotten hill became so attractive that it was occupied for more than six centuries until, some other day about 3550 years ago, people apparently regained the good millenary sense and left. Since then, the only people who “lived” here have been members of the “Bastida Project”. Therefore our first question should focus on the reasons that led to the founding of La Bastida. To answer it we have to go back in time to the moment when the Chalcolithic communities in the south of the peninsula entered into crisis. These people had practised centuries of successful agriculture, grazing, hunting, fishing and gathering. Their efficiency in securing their subsistence allowed the colonisation of all kinds of environments. The Copper Age people inhabited even larger settlements and developed complex, sometimes even sophisticated, crafts. They buried their dead in collective tombs that strengthened local cohesion and lived in a world where social relations were fluid and communication was encouraged between regions.

Following the watercourse of the river Lébor, from the Guadalentín valley, it is difficult to see La Bastida until we are nearly there.

LA BASTIDA

The first Bastida

However, being in an open and supportive Chalcolithic community did not prevent conflicts. In fact, around the middle of the third millennium BC we can perceive an increase in physical violence and individualism until, around 2200 BCE, many settlements were abandoned, often following devastating fires.

The second city of Troy was set on fire and abandoned around 2200 BCE.

Interestingly, other societies in Europe, the Aegean, Egypt and the Near East suffered similar collapses around the same date. We still cannot explain the reasons that led to this general crisis, but in many regions, it was a clean slate in a world that did not have a predetermined course. The course of event that ended up affecting the peninsula’s southeast corner occurred in a direction from east to west. Around 2200 BCE, the communities of the coastal and pre-coastal plains of Almería and Murcia finally assembled two decisive conditions: an ideal environment for agriculture and an expansive and hierarchical political organisation that advocated violence. With the support of a thriving economy and the power of arms, they headed inland, to conquer new lands and to find a strategic resource: copper of exceptional quality housed in the bowels of Sierra Morena. La Bastida was one of the centres that guided this expansion, while other settlements such as La Almoloya (Pliego) were the spearhead. It provided security to the military elites and became an essential mechanism for the social control of the native population. What we call today “Argaric civilisation” was on its way.

3D modelling of the Copper Age settlement of Los Millares (Almería) in the current landscape.

Around 2200 BCE, a community occupied the hill of La Bastida for the first time. The fortification was the “founding act” of the oldest city in continental Europe.

LA BASTIDA

THE FOUNDATION OF AN

IMPREGNABLE CITY

Beginning of excavations on the eastern slope (2012), in the sector where the monumental fortification system was about to be unearthed.

About 4200 years ago, various groups of people began to settle in La Bastida and Las Anchuras, on both sides of the Lébor watercourse. Many descended from the Chalcolithic populations of the southeast, but their organisation and purposes were radically different from those of their ancestors. In mid-April 2012, as we were preparing to finish the last phase of excavations in La Bastida, we decided to explore an area of the eastern slope where we had previously found wall fragments on the ground surface. A few days later, we could not believe what began to appear

The first Bastida

after removing tons of collapsed and eroded remains: a stone fortification system without parallels in continental Europe at this time. After months of hard work, we started to get an idea of the monumental work before our eyes. It is a fortification system with two lines of walls separated by a few metres. Line 1 starts very close to the Barranco Salado and runs perpendicular to its course. We have followed its path on a stretch of about 45 m uphill, detecting a natural slope that is sometimes close to 40%. Its layout closes the only relatively convenient access to the hill from the north. Assuming that it continues until it surrounds the top of La Bastida, its length is around 300 m.

The fortification system visible in 2014.

LA BASTIDA

Front view of the fortification after the initial consolidation. Line 2 of the fortification with the quadrangular tower.

The first Bastida

Attached to the outside face of the wall of Line 1, there are five solid quadrangular towers between 3 and 4 m wide, built quite closely to each other. The preserved height is nearly 3 m at some points, while originally it reached a minimum of 6 m. The construction technique is very interesting: medium and large stones held together with mortar. Surprisingly, most of the stones used are of sandstone selected from the geological formation on the other side of Barranco Salado. But why take this extra effort when there were enough limestone and slate rocks available on site? There were at least two reasons: sandstone is easier to cut into more or less regular blocks and weighs less than the other stones, which allows it to be handled and moved more easily. Line 1 was completely covered with a layer of clay mortar that strengthened the work and denied any grip to possible assailants. Another curiosity: while the clay used in the wall faces is yellow and comes from formations of nearby marls, the clay used in some of the towers has blue or violet tones and is a product of mixing slate and shale. Maybe their goal was also to impress strangers through this spectacular chromatic effect? Line 2 was raised to the south, not far from Line 1. Both lines meet on the eastern side, where they form the main access to the fortified enclosure through a narrow corridor around 1 m wide. On one side, there were stout posts that would have supported the entrance gate. Line 2 has a tower that faces the corridor and another quadrangular one to the south, under which runs what seems to be a water collection device. Completing the excavation of this sector and extending it opposite Line 1 to identify additional defensive devices remains one of our most exciting, future objectives.

LA BASTIDA

The first Bastida

LA BASTIDA

POWER

AND VIOLENCE

3D modelling of the fortification system and the lower neighbourhoods after the year 2000 BCE, seen from the Salado ravine.

The fortification of La Bastida is unique and remarkable, not only for its monumentality but also for its age. The Carbon-14 dates indicate that it was built around 2200 BCE. It is hard to imagine that back then so many efforts could be combined to raise a defensive structure. This leads us to believe that the community that undertook such work was very powerful, but was not safe from harm. Who would have been responsible for causing it? Why this violence? We have to leave La Bastida again for a moment to understand it.

The first Bastida

The knowledge of architecture and engineering embodied in the fortification was a complete novelty in the West. But besides deviating from tradition, we are also presented with a new way of fighting and a new society. If until then the communities had faced hunting (bows and arrows with flint tips) and work tools (stone axes, knives), from now on they would have to stand up against weapons like copper halberds and daggers or short swords handled by specialists. Before, walls were the only barrier between the community and the outside world, but now the fortifications would not only be the scene of close combat, but also the place used for the surveillance of the external enemy and the boundaries that enclosed the people who lived in La Bastida. In other words, the forti-

The first Bastida

fication of La Bastida was both the foundational work of the new military establishment involved in expansion and conquest, and the instrument of the ruling class to introduce a new internal social, political and economic order. We still do not know if the situation that began to take shape around 2200 BCE was only a consequence of indigenous factors. It is striking that some suggestive parallels to the fortification of La Bastida are in the eastern Mediterranean, either before 2200 BC (for example, the second city of Troy, in Turkey) or years later (the sixth city of Kolonna, on the island of Aegina, Greece). Although we cannot rule out a foreign intervention to understand the qualitative leap in the southeast, it is very likely that the majority of the population, if not all, was of native origin.

Eastern slope of La Bastida with the fortification in the foreground and, in the background, the neighbourhood of the southeast slope.

Wall of Kolonna, on the island of Aegina.

LA BASTIDA

Door and entrance between successive fortification lines of La Bastida (above) and Kolonna (Aegina, Greece) (below).

The first Bastida

LIFE BEHIND

THE WALLS

Between 2009 and 2010, the fieldwork on the lower part of the southern slope uncovered the oldest domestic and public buildings. These buildings were contemporary with the construction of the fortification. In this first phase of occupation that lasted between 2200 and 2000 BCE, the most numerous buildings correspond to small huts or subsidiary structures with a curvilinear perimeter. These small huts had their western floors slightly excavated into the slope and a superstructure of mud walls, branches and wooden posts. The erosion and subsequent constructions greatly affected these remains. This, together with the fragility of the preserved traces, led us to protect them in such a way that today there is nothing to see. LA BASTIDA - FASE I

Structures of the first city of La Bastida on the lower southeast slope. A series of huts were distributed near a large stone building. 10 m

Pottery of the first phase of La Bastida

There were not many objects inside these constructions. Pottery stands out and includes mostly small and medium-sized pots and bowls. Looking into the technology and morphology of these pots, we identified some connections with the tradition of the Copper Age. However, it is worth noting the absence of decorated bell-beaker pieces, which are common in the final moments of this period in many regions. Grinding stones and other stone tools, as well as bone and copper, are scarce, while it is worth noting the remains of clay loom weights and wickerwork (mats, ropes). The building H35-36 stands out. It is much larger than the others with about 6 m maximum width and at least 14 m in length. It also has a slightly trapezoidal shape and is deeply excavated into the natural geology, so that the resulting cut served as a support to the walls, and we identified continuous benches running along the stone base. It might have been a two-storey building if we take into consideration the two thick posts of 60 cm in diameter and the thickness of the walls.

10 cm

Large storage vessel of about 200 litres of capacity embedded in the floor of the H3536 building.

LA BASTIDA

Together with the architecture, the contents of room H35-36 also stand out, especially a large vessel vertically embedded in the subsoil, a copper ingot and several buttons made of elephant ivory. Additionally, we found a bone arrowhead and a stone artefact with a groove, suitable for the manufacture of arrow shafts. The use of the bow and arrow declined dramatically compared to the “golden age” of archery during the Chalcolithic. Therefore, the arrowhead of La Bastida reinforces the idea that these weapons became subject to closer social controls and restrictions. In sum, H35-36 was used for storage and control of raw materials such as metal and ivory, that were both of great social value and limited access. As of now, we have not found any tomb from this period. Perhaps the bodies were exposed outdoors, which makes their long-term preservation very difficult. Or maybe they were buried on the periphery of the settlement or in an area that we have not yet explored. Then, a fire devastated the settlement during this first phase. But La Bastida prevailed and was rebuilt shortly after with a very different conception.

Reconstruction of building H35-36. The remains suggest that it could have been a place of accumulation and management of raw materials and objects of high social value.

The first Bastida

POST HOLES

Plan of building H35-36 building, with wide walls and partially excavated in the geological substrate.

Building H35-36 after the excavation was finished.

[·4·]

LA BASTIDA AN ARGARIC CAPITAL

LA BASTIDA

An Argaric capital

La Bastida reached its peak between 2000 and 1600 or 1550 BCE. The evolution of the city can be observed in the same sector of the southeast lower slope that we described in the previous section. This is where we will focus our attention, although we will briefly visit other neighbourhoods of the settlement where excavations have been less extensive.

THE URBAN

LAYOUT

At the beginning of the second millennium BCE, the topography of La Bastida began to undergo a radical transformation. The steep slopes were “domesticated” through the excavation of artificial terraces and the construction of structures with almost always rectilinear stone walls. It was the birth of the typical Argaric urban architecture. The first constructions were laid out with some open spaces between them. However the plan became more compact around 1850/1800 BCE and remained like this until the end of the Argaric. During this period (which we define as Phase III), La Bastida reached its maximum construction and demographic densities, with an estimated population close to 1000 inhabitants. At this time, the buildings were attached to each other, sometimes leaving a few narrow alleyways.

From 2000 BC, the slopes of La Bastida began to show traces of urbanisation through a system of artificial terraces where buildings of different types and sizes were erected.

EXCEPTIONAL BUILDING

DESTRUCTION BY REFORESTATION LIMIT OF INHABITED AREA

RAMBLA DE LÉ

B OR

WALL ENTRANCE

WATER RESERVOIR

PUBLIC BUILDING

BARRANCO SALADO

DAM

LA BASTIDA

3D modelling of La Bastida during the peak of its occupation.

An Argaric capital

LA BASTIDA

Plan of the neighbourhood on the southeast slope of La Bastida. The areas open to the public are highlighted.

An Argaric capital

WATER RESERVOIR

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LA BASTIDA

From afar, the hill of La Bastida had a completely urbanised appearance. Its compactness would definitely stand out, with its slopes covered with plastered constructions. Only some public facilities, such as the large water reservoir we will mention later, interrupted the ‘mosaic’ of walls. Its limits were the natural ravines and the fortification system of the eastern slope. The latter underwent successive repairs and remodelling and remained in use until the 18th century BCE. At this time, when Argaric society reached its maximum expansion, its frontiers were far away and the power of La Bastida was incontestable. The walls and towers were no longer necessary.

HOUSES, WORKSHOPS

AND WAREHOUSES

Most of the excavated buildings date from the last two or three centuries of La Bastida’s occupation, between 1850 and 1600-1550 BCE. The urban layout was so intense and complete in this phase, that in many cases it altered or destroyed the remains of the previous constructions. Despite this the visitor can still see some of the areas built shortly after 2000 BCE. One of the most complete is the so-called H83, near the right bank of the Barranco Salado. It has a rectangular shape 7 m long by 3 m wide, which encloses a useable space of just over 17 m2. The western wall takes advantage of an artificial cut into the rocky slope, while the remaining ones were built with mud on stone foundations. There were up to four benches attached to these walls, carefully covered with a layer of waterproof yellow clay. There is also a bench or maybe an internal partition wall that divides H83 into two parts. The roof was made of mud and branches and was supported by several wooden posts with bases composed of slate

An Argaric capital

slabs. The pavement was made of clay and had some tiled sectors. H83 also had two basins, perhaps for storage, and a circular oven with a floor formed by limestone blocks. Cereal grinding was one of the main activities carried out in H83, as shown by a minimum of four grinding stones in their positions of use. Surely they would have been able to produce more flour than a household unit consumed daily. Additionally, the presence of an oven is compatible with the preparation of food, such as perhaps some type of flour cakes. Therefore H83 might have contained a workshop that would supply basic products to a part of the community.

Remains of room H83 after its restoration. The walls belong to constructions built on the ruins of H83. In the centre of the image you can also see the “stone coffin” or cist of tomb 33, deposited after the occupation of H83 and which we have preserved in situ.

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The intense remodelling of the late nineteenth century BC produced a proliferation of buildings. Most have a rectangular or trapezoidal shape, although their dimensions vary between 15 and 70 m2 or even more, suggesting diverse tasks. In any case what we have before us is an architecture made with stone and mortar of magnificent quality. The walls are usually double-faced, with an average width between 60 and 80 cm. They were coated with a mortar and then whitewashed, which is something very interesting. First these structures could maintain a cool environment in summer and retain heat in winter. And, on the other hand, lime improves hygienic and sanitary conditions, an aim of vital importance in any urban agglomeration. Finally, it indicates not only a high level of technology but also, indirectly, the huge demand for fuel to produce the necessary lime for so many buildings. Some buildings of the peak occupation phase are very well preserved. One of them is the so-called Department XVIII, a trapezoidal construction of about 56 m2 of useful space that could be accessed through a door on the north side. Inside, we recovered about 16 grinding stones. Like H83, the productive capacity of this group of grinding stones greatly exceeded the needs of those who used Exceptional preservation of a section of wall with mortar and lime plaster.

An Argaric capital

View of H3 today, after having been consolidated and restored.

Reconstruction of the oven attached to one of the walls in room H3.

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External wall of the large wall preserved on the summit. The rest of the outline of the building, no doubt monumental, was destroyed by the reforestation works.

An Argaric capital

them and indicates that we are looking at an authentic workshop. When all working at the same time these instruments would have been able to produce the daily amount of flour needed for 60 or 70 people. At a short distance downhill, room H3 offers an interesting contrast. It also has a trapezoidal layout, but within its large area of more than 66 m2, we found seven large jars concentrated towards the bottom. Therefore, instead of a milling workshop, we have a warehouse probably used for storing thousands of barley rations. Also, in H3 there are two low benches, two carefully crafted basins on a raised platform and an oven. It was definitely one of the best-equipped houses in the whole neighbourhood, a characteristic that was also reflected in the funerary domain as we will see. So far, excavations in other sectors of the hill have been of limited extension. Even so, it is worth highlighting some of the findings on the summit. It is known that the Argaric elites established their residences in the highest parts of their settlements, where we also usually find monumental public buildings. Unfortunately, the acropolis of La Bastida was severely affected by the reforestation of the 1970s, so that the archaeological deposits completely disappeared in many places. Despite this, we were able to document a large wall almost 2 m thick, which belonged to a large building that crowned the summit. There is no doubt that this construction played a unique and relevant role, perhaps like the great quadrangular towers of Fuente Álamo (Cuevas de Almanzora, Almería). As we will see, we also discovered nearby one of the richest tombs in the site, which would confirm that here was the core centre of political and economic power. We hope to expand this area of study in future excavations.

LA BASTIDA

FUNERAL URNS CIST POST HOLES GRINDING STONES

Plan of Department XVIII Reconstruction showing the cereal grinding workshop of Department XVIII in full swing.

An Argaric capital

FUNERAL URNS POST HOLES

Plan of the H3 building, where an important quantity of grain was stored and managed. Reconstruction of the interior of H3 building.

LA BASTIDA

THE WATER RESERVOIR If the fortification of La Bastida was a public work with a clear political sense, the second great work was oriented towards economy and subsistence. It was a large water reservoir on the lower southeast slope, next to room H3 described above.

The water reservoir during the course of excavation.

The water reservoir dates back to the dawn of the second millennium BCE, and it underwent successive changes during its lifetime. It was established in a place where the slope of the hill was not as steep and its construction entailed a curved enclosure of large stones on the eastern side, as well as the waterproofing of the ground with clay. We do not know if this initial water reservoir had a wall on the north side, next to the Barranco Salado, because erosion has destroyed any such remains in that area. However we know that sometime later, the closure of the

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structure was materialised in a real dyke: a powerful wall of up to 5 m maximum width plastered with waterproofing clay, 21 m long and 1.70 m high, has been preserved. Later, stepped platforms were added to facilitate access to its interior. The surface occupied by the reservoir is 445 m2 and a preliminary estimate suggests that it would have had a capacity of about 320 m3. This would make it one of the largest water storage structures of later European prehistory.

Aerial photo of the neighbourhood excavated on the southeast slope.

The reservoir collected rainwater that flowed from the highest parts of the slope. The urban layout would have allowed the filtration of rainfall and reduced its strength before the run-off reached the reservoir. Once accumulated in this outdoor tank, the water could be used for economic purposes (processing of flax and esparto, pottery, masonry, etc.), hygienic and cleaning measures and even

The water reservoir of La Bastida after restoration.

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direct consumption. The Siret brothers also suggested at the end of the nineteenth century that the cisterns documented in some Argaric settlements3 were intended to provide water to the population in the advent of a siege. This hypothesis may be surprising because the reservoir of La Bastida was not covered and, therefore, it was exposed to pollutants (excrement, garbage) and evaporation. However, we have not ruled out this possibility, given the continuity of traditional methods of water purification in these conditions. Also, we documented something curious: in the many cubic meters of excavated sediments, the frequency of animal bones is unusually low. In other words, we suspect that the people of La Bastida were very concerned about keeping the reservoir free of the garbage and waste that would pollute the water.

Reconstruction of the water reservoir around 1800 BCE.

The reservoir might not have been enough to meet the needs of the thousand or so inhabitants of La Bastida, even if they had more abundant rainfall than today. However, it had an important and perhaps vital economic role in case of conflict.

An Argaric capital

SUSTENANCE:

FOOD AND LANDSCAPE

The thousands of remains of plants and animals discovered in La Bastida allow us to infer how subsistence was organized four thousand years ago. Agriculture and livestock were, as today, the basis of food, but they developed in a particular and surprising way.

Landscape to the north of La Bastida. Recent levelling of the ground surface for agriculture have irreversibly altered the landscape of the Bronze Age.

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AGRICULTURE There are few lands suitable for traditional methods of in the immediate vicinity of La Bastida. Today, the numerous grapevine plantations do not show the true agricultural potential of the area, because these are only possible due to the flattening of the original relief with heavy machinery and the installation of irrigation systems. In fact, even in the early twentieth century, the Lébor basin could barely support about twenty families, despite having a network of ditches and wells that did not exist in the Bronze Age.

An Argaric capital

Most of the food consumed in La Bastida came from the Guadalentín valley, several kilometres to the south. It is one of the most fertile valleys in the southeast, especially if we consider that four thousand years ago the riverbed was wide and had a much higher flow than today. Geomorphological studies suggest that back then the Guadalentín did not flow into the Segura, but instead drained into a lagoon area southeast of Totana, in “El Saladar” (which is a place-name indicative of areas with flooded waters).

A path next to Rambla de Lébor linked La Bastida with its agricultural territories in the fertile Guadalentín Valley. View from the top of Cabezo Gordo, next to La Bastida.

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How do we know which plants were consumed at La Bastida? With our current climate, the archaeological conservation of botanical remains is very difficult, unless they were burned and then buried relatively quickly. These circumstances occur, for instance, in the fire and consequent collapse of a building. Thousands of years later, when we dig up these remains, we collect bags full of earth mixed with small black particles that are almost impossible to identify. To do so, we have to separate them from the earth.

Flotation machine designed for the “Bastida Project”. The prehistoric carbonized remains are retained in the sieve column, in addition to roots and other particles, which will be separated in the laboratory.

An Argaric capital

Charred remains of a rhizome of esparto (above) and barley seeds (below).

The fastest way to recover the tiny remains of wood, seeds, fruits, leaves and other parts of plants is through the “flotation” process. It consists of pouring the samples of earth mixed with charred remains into large containers of water and create turbulence to make the burned fragments float. These fragments are then trapped in sieves with meshes between 0.5 and 2 mm in diameter. To deal with the huge volume of excavation samples, we commissioned an “industrial” flotation machine capable of processing hundreds of litres of sediment every day and, at the same time, recycling the water used. Once dry, we began the hard task of separating prehistoric remains from modern particles included in the samples. Part of the technical and labour project members spend long hours under a magnifying glass separating the small plant fragments that we will now describe. The results have completely compensated for the effort invested. In sum, we have observed a sharp contrast between the vegetable diet of the first phase of occupation and that of the urbanised period. In the beginning, the wide variety of species consumed stands out: barley, wheat and, to a lesser extent, beans, lentils, possibly chickpeas and flax. In addition, there is evidence of figs and grapes, although we do not know if they came from cultivated or wild plants, as in the case of blackberries, which were also consumed. The abundant leaves of rosemary could have served as a condiment and an aromatic plant, and also for the production of therapeutic oils and treatments.

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Barley seeds of La Bastida’s final occupation phase.

However, this variety of plants was reduced over time in favour of the predominance of barley. In the last centuries of the Argaric, the basis of food for many people was this cereal, which had to be grown on a large scale. Such dependence must have entailed the risks (e.g. insect pests, plant diseases, and soil depletion) of any strategy that neglects a diversified supply. Even so, barley is resistant to a lack of moisture and can grow in soils with moderate to low fertility. Therefore, it was the solution used to feed a large population and/or meet the demand for surpluses by the ruling class. However, the large-scale dry land cultivation of barley involved deforestation and contributed to the salinization of soils. Therefore, Argaric agriculture may have marked a milestone in the environmental degradation of the southeast lowlands.

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The importance of barley may be surprising because today we consider it as a low-quality food. However, during the Bronze Age, the consumption of barley was very frequent in Europe, the Middle East and Egypt. Despite its current secondary role, the local association “Women of the Rural Environment” informed us of a series of traditional Murcian dishes whose ingredients include or included barley flour: in Aledo, Totana and Lorca the jallullo is cooked, similar to breadcrumbs with vegetables and meat; in Cartagena, an unleavened bread called torta a la paleta was made, while in other areas a type of porridge called michos was consumed. It is not unreasonable to think that these preparations had their equivalent in the Argaric period. Charred seeds can also be chemically analysed to measure their isotopic nitrogen and carbon compositions.

Recreation of cereal and crop fields.

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These values indicate the amount of water received during the formation of the seed and record whether or not they grew on fertilized soils. The first results show that the crops were rainfed and benefited from animal fertilizer. The crops in the territory of La Bastida were very well cared for, and the overall results suggest an important cattle herding sector perfectly combined with agricultural activity. In addition to rainfed land, there would be gardens for the most demanding species such as legumes and flax. Botanical remains also allow us to estimate the extension of the agricultural territory of La Bastida. Feeding a population of about 1000 inhabitants would have required about 360 tons of barley annually. If we take into account that there were fields that were fallow for a year or two, and that a part of the crop would have to be reserved for the next sowing, and that cereal grinding causes losses, the agricultural territory would be around 1500 hectares. On the other hand, the hundreds of grinding stones discovered in the excavations suggest that more grains were ground in La Bastida than their inhabitants consumed. That means it would work as a kind of food “bank.” The peasant population transported tons of barley to “the hidden city.” Here, barley was stored and could be administered to feed the craftsmen who laboured in the workshops of the city, the armed guardians who protected it, and the unproductive elites. Also, bad harvests, caused by factors such as the irregularity of rainfall, could be alleviated by these stores. In sum, one part of the production was redistributed while another part became the surplus-value of the ruling class. How this elite managed to maintain its privileges must have been as obscure to the mass of the population as the financial engineering of banks and large companies are for much of today’s society.

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THE WOODLAND AND THE SURROUNDING VEGETATION The cultivation fields were concentrated in the Guadalentín valley and perhaps in small plots of land in the Lébor basin. Around it, on the slopes of Sierras de la Tercia and Espuña mountains and in the nearby depressions, there was more varied and abundant natural vegetation than today. Some research indicates that the level of rainfall was higher than nowadays, which allowed the growth of poplars and willows on the banks of what are now watercourses (‘ramblas’) and were then permanently flowing rivers. Furthermore, the landscape was dominated by Mediterranean woodland and vegetation composed of pines, holm

Pine (above) and rock rose (below) with their respective crosssections.

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oaks, olive trees and mastic trees, as well as scrubland with rosemary, heather, thorns and cistus. Occasionally, there would be open grassland. The supply of firewood and logs was dependent on the exploitation of woodland. These resources were transformed into posts, beams and planks for construction and, most likely, into tools that have not been preserved. The use of pine resin has also been confirmed, perhaps as an adhesive or for its medicinal properties. Throughout the occupation of La Bastida, there is a decrease in the variety of exploited species and an increase in the importance of pine and holm or kermes oak. However, it should be noted that recently we have documented riverbank species such as poplars or willows, as well as others that also require levels of humidity that are not available today, such as the strawberry tree and the black pine. Although its density is very low, we assume that the exploitation of the woodland in the surroundings of La Bastida was sustainable enough to preserve these vestiges.

LIVESTOCK AND HUNTING During our excavations, we found about 8,000 fragments or complete bones of animals that were well enough preserved to be classified into species. These were almost always food waste, discarded after butchery or consumption and left abandoned on the floor of the rooms or in outdoor spaces. Their study reveals that domesticated animals provided most of the meat resources, in an approximate proportion of 4:1 or 5:1 compared to wild animals. They were dominated by herds of goats and sheep, followed at some distance by cows and pigs. Finally, and with very low frequencies, we find the remains of horses and dogs.

An Argaric capital

Besides meat, domesticated animals provided other resources such as milk and wool in the case of cows, sheep and goats, while horses and oxen were used for traction and transportation. As for the dogs, they were able to assist in the hunting and guarding of the herds. Also, certain limb bones of sheep, goat and bovines were used to manufacture awls, spatulas and necklace beads. One of the large rooms of the peak occupation phase, H2, housed a butcher’s and a workshop for the production of tools and bone ornaments. The awls were sharpened on a sandstone slab and, once finished, were distributed to other workshops where they were used in leather goods, clothing and basketry.

Interior of room H2, where activities of butchery and manufacturing of bone objects were carried out.

A sheep’s tarsus bone with cut marks, confirming the use of copper knives in daily tasks.

Stone tools used to separate honey and beeswax.

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Sandstone polisher found in building H2 and used in the manufacture of tools and bone ornaments.

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Bone and shell bead necklace found during the excavations of 1886. Today it is deposited in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels.

Possible halberds made of deer antlers. They were found in this same position under the entrance passage of the fortification system. 10 cm

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The wildlife was intended for meat consumption. The best-represented animals are rabbits and deer, while the remaining species appear in smaller quantities (wild boar, roe deer, ibex, fox, hare and wildcat). What stands out is the use of deer antlers as raw material to manufacture handles for metal tools, chisels and spikes. Some of these antlers strongly recall halberds and, in fact, the two copies deposited at the entrance of the fortification could very well have been used as such. It is worth adding that food resources of marine origin, such as fish or shellfish, scarcely contributed to the diet. Although fishing has been verified in coastal settlements such as Punta de Gavilanes (Mazarrón), it does not appear that its products reached the interior in any significant quantities. There was also another important activity in La Bastida that was unknown until recently: the use of honey and beeswax, perhaps through beekeeping. Chromatographic and isotopic analyses showed traces of fatty acids trapped in some ceramic vessels and stone tools have revealed various uses of honey. It seems it was a common ingredient in Argaric cuisine, especially in combination with sheep, goat or beef and/or various types of vegetables. Besides the pleasant sweetness, it should not be ruled out that its germ-killing properties and its ability to preserve food were also sought. Mead (one of the first known liquors) was also possibly produced. On the other hand, the wax served as fuel for lighting, and we found its waste at the bottom of some containers used as lamps. As in other aspects, social differences were also reflected in meat consumption. According to the first results of isotopic analysis of the human bones, members of the upper class consumed more protein of animal origin than the rest of the population; that is, they had a more rounded and costly diet. On the other hand, it has also

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been observed that the highest frequency of horse bones occurs at the summit of the site, where the core of this dominant class resided. Since the rearing of these animals as a food source is ruled out, it seems more likely that the horse was used as a mount for elite movements, in addition to surveillance and combat. From this point of view, its association with the class that held the monopoly of arms does not seem accidental.

ECONOMY

AND ARTEFACTS

La Bastida has an extraordinary collection of tools that show us the multiple dimensions of technology and economic organisation. Along with the production of food, a range of crafts made the Argaric a unique society.

POTTERY The most frequent objects in any Argaric site are usually pottery vessels. Sometimes we find them complete and in such good condition that we could still use them to serve drinks and consume our daily diet. However, it is common to recover fragments, either because they were fractured while being used in the past and were discarded, or because the weight of the earth crushed and dispersed them. In any case, we always try to collect these fragments since they can provide very interesting data about the pottery production and, of course, its use in a range of social activities.

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Reassembly of ceramic fragments.

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There are thousands of pottery fragments from La Bastida. This is good news, even if it means an immense amount of work. First, they have to be washed, dried and then classified. Then if we suspect that a vessel may be whole or reasonably complete, the fragments go through a deeper cleaning with successive baths in distilled water to remove the deposited salts they acquired while they were in the ground. The laborious process of reassembly is similar to that of doing a puzzle. However, we cannot guarantee to have all the pieces. Then, patiently, these fragments have to be glued together until the original mass of a pot is reconstituted and, if necessary, fill in possible gaps.

Laboratory dedicated to pottery restoration.

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The pottery also has surprisingly little variation in its forms. Most containers can be classified into eight types and, in fact, the most common types are only four in number: open bowls (referred to as “Form 1”); slightly closed containers (“Form 2”); and the pots and vessels of ovoid or angular body with open mouths (“Forms 4 and 5”). In each type, we find the whole range of sizes, from the smallest for the consumption of food and beverages or to contain substances in small quantities, to large vessels to store grain or water that can exceed 200 litres of capacity. There were also medium-sized vessels to cook or serve food and store or move products on a small scale. In spite of being less frequent, we cannot forget to mention the elegant Argaric cups (“Form 7”), formed by a bowl of Form 2 above a foot or pedestal, and the even fewer containers of “Form 6”, with an angular body and a very narrow mouth. The latter was reserved for the members of the elite and was used to store very elaborate quality foods. All the dishes were modelled without the use of a wheel. They were created by superimposing strips of clay on a concave base sometimes obtained from a mould. The surfaces were smoothed and often burnished very carefully, which gave them an almost metallic shine. In La Bastida, the dark tones predominate, in ranges of grey or red, except in a significant part of the oldest ceramics, of yellowish, orange or greyish tones.

Basic types of Argaric pottery. The numbers indicate the ceramic type.

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However, shortly after 2000 BCE, this typological standardization became an imposition. This homogeneity not only evokes the work of specialized potters who followed norms and were not allowed to express themselves through decorative motifs but also that their content was dependent on some kind of control. In this sense, it has

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Excellently made carinated pot (form 5) from grave 33.

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Stacked bowls inside the H59 building where they were found next to several grinding stones. They seem to have served as containers for the measurement of rations or units of grain or flour.

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been suggested that the bowls could be used to distribute fixed quantities of grain rations within the context of a centralised economy. It is important to mention that some of the medium and large vessels ended their period of use as funeral urns, especially in the easternmost regions of the Argaric territory. For children under three years of age, Form 2 vessels were preferred, while Form 4 urns were the most commonly used to accommodate deceased individuals of older ages. As we will see later, most of the graves discovered in La Bastida conform to these characteristics. Among the funerary urns of La Bastida, the one deposited in tomb 18 deserves special attention. It was 97 cm high and 83 cm wide and had a capacity of slightly more than 300 litres, making it the largest funerary urn found in the site. The technical knowledge embodied in its modelling is amazing. Its parts were probably modelled separately, dried until the clay was consistent and then assembled. Next, the still wet walls of the vessel were scraped to reduce the weight of the piece. This operation must have been very delicate, always risking the breakage or warping of the vessel. However, it was completed successfully, so that the thickness of the walls never exceeds 2 cm. After carefully smoothing the surfaces, the “litmus test” in the literal and figurative sense was still missing: the firing. The vaulted ovens capable of receiving such large containers have not been found, so the process must have taken place outdoors, either on the ground or in a pit. Urns were covered with firewood of different sizes that, when burning, stained their outside walls in several places. The potters were definitely experts in controlling fire, because urns were uniformly fired. At a certain point, they stopped stoking the fire and the urn gradually cooled down without cracking. Finally, the urn was transported

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Tomb 18 urn with a capacity of more than 300 litres and a weight of about 45kg.

by several people (it weighed about 45 kg) to the place where it was going to be used, probably to store barley. We assume that this place of use was none other than the largest room (H3) excavated in La Bastida. We describe it in the architecture and urban planning section and emphasise that it had a storage capacity far superior to that of the neighbouring rooms. After performing this function for quite some time, our large urn was chosen to receive the bodies of two adult men, buried directly under the warehouse area. Next to it, they deposited ... a bowl with barley seeds! The urn used in tomb 18 is a marvel from a technological point of view that still challenges pottery experts, who are unable to make a replica nowadays. The vessel embodies an accumulation of knowledge, skill, time and effort that were only possible within the context of work by specialised potters. In their hands were the wisdom and

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secrets of this art but, at the same time, the imposition of a means to use, see and manage some basic objects in everyday life.

METALLURGY For a long time, the Argaric was labelled as a “society of metallurgists”, due to a large number of metal objects compared with earlier and contemporary communities. Weapons, tools and ornaments of copper and bronze, as well as ornaments of silver and, to a lesser extent, of gold, stand out in the Argaric repertoire.

Argaric artefacts of copper, silver and gold, mostly found in graves. The possibility of recasting objects that were worn or broken means that there may be fewer finds of metal artefacts inside buildings.

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Given the mining and metallurgical wealth of Murcia and Almeria, it seems logical to think that in the Argaric period their copper and native silver deposits were intensively exploited. However, to the surprise of many, the latest chemical analyses indicate that these resources were only used marginally. Instead, it is increasingly clear that the main mines were located in the district of Sierra Morena in the upper Guadalquivir. Here, settlements such as Peñalosa (Jaén) dealt with the initial extraction and transformation of large quantities of copper ores into ingots and artefacts. These then entered wide supply circuits under the control of the elites, who directly controlled the stocks of metal of each territory for a long time. The native silver also seems to have come from regions far from the Argaric nuclear zone, from the upper Guadalquivir or the south of the province of Ciudad Real. Within this setting, the role of the large settlements in the southeast lowlands was to centralise the flow of metals from the Sierra Morena and carry out the melting, recasting and repair work in specialized workshops.

Fragment of copper ingot.

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FUNERAL URNS CIST PIT POST HOLES

2009-12 BASTIDA PROJECT FIELD SEASONS 2003 ARQUEOTEC FIELD SEASON 1940’S FIELD SEASON

In La Bastida, the excavations of 1944 and 1948 discovered one of these workshops in Department XI-XXI. It is a remarkably large building, more than 12 m long and between 3.7 and 4.7 m wide (56.6 m2 of useful space) with one apsidal end and accessed from the south. An excavation carried out in 2003 by the ArqueoTec team completed the documentation of this area and consolidated its remains.

Map of Department XI-XXI with its metallurgical workshop.

Reconstruction of activities carried out in Department XI-XXI.

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Sandstone mould for axe casting found in the 1970s next to the west wall of Department XI-XXI and donated to the Centre of La Bastida. The axe seen in the photo was part of the grave goods of one of the men in tomb 18 and could have been produced in this mould.

Anvils and forging hammers. Unlike the moulds, made of sandstone, the hammers and anvils are made from igneous rocks of great hardness, such as gabbro. The large anvil was found near the summit.

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In comparison with other buildings, the presence of at least four hearths stands out, which by itself indicates the importance of the activities that required the application of heat. One of the hearths identified in 2003 was on a circular platform next to the western wall. Some similar structures located in the mining settlement of Peñalosa are interpreted as places dedicated to smelting. Moreover, the discovery of fragments of several pots and two axe moulds confirms this impression. Remember that the Argaric axes were both weapons and tools and that they distinctively represented males of the intermediate social class.

Portable stone sharpener from tomb 84. The traces of use are observed on the obverse face (left).

In the subsoil of Department XI-XXI, we found the graves of five adult individuals, two juveniles and two children, almost all buried in pottery vessels. The modesty of the funerary goods suggests that some of the people associated with this metallurgical workshop did not possess copper objects, but were only engaged in productive labour. Since the metallurgical activity was in the hands of few people, the tools related to smelting and forging, such as crucibles, moulds, anvils and hammers, are usually very scarce and very localized. Apart from inside and around Department XI-XXI, in La Bastida, we have only detected isolated pieces (e.g. an anvil) in one area of the summit.

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STONE TOOLS La Bastida yielded thousands of perfectly preserved stone artefacts. Thanks to this we can identify a wide range of uses and economic activities: food processing by grinding stones and pestles or working slabs; the working of wood with axes and adzes; the burnishing of pottery with finegrained stones; or the smelting and forging of the metal using moulds, anvils and hammers.

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The largest number of artefacts is related to the grinding of cereals to obtain flour, the staple food of Argaric society. So far, we have found more than 1300 grinding stones, in addition to hundreds of the hammerstones and abraders needed to revive the roughness of these stones. The wheels of traditional mills, like the one that still works in Totana near the railway station, are “sharpened” every 3 or 4 months. However, the Argaric grinding stones were fixed in the ground or on a low bench, and someone had to press with a hand ‘rubber’ on the cereal, making to and fro movements over the entire length of the grinding stone. In the time of El Argar, the use of a wooden rubber was

Grinding stones collected at the surface.

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introduced, which allowed more efficient grinding and the production of more purified flour, especially from barley. The number of grinding stones, especially in the last phase of the settlement, clearly exceeds the needs of the local population, estimated at around a thousand inhabitants. We have seen that some buildings specialised in the large-scale transformation of grain into flour, since more than twelve people could work in these spaces at the same time. In many societies, it is the women, slaves and prisoners who are forced to perform these hard, monotonous, and strenuous jobs. Some data suggest that large Argaric settlements were periodically visited by groups of people to grind cereals.

Louis and Henri Siret, pioneers of Argaric archaeology, working on a cereal grinding experiment at the end of the nineteenth century.

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The large number of grinding stones found in La Bastida shows that the site’s political elites managed to centralise an important part of the cereal harvest and control it in their own interests. These included, for example, keeping artisans and armed groups, carrying out urban works and establishing a systems of client relations with the most disadvantaged or dependent members of population.

Selection of grinding stones made of different kinds of rocks.

The importance of grinding for the economy of La Bastida is also evident in the provenance of the rocks used to make the stones. While many villages had to settle for the raw materials available in their immediate territory, generally within a radius of fewer than 10 km, 50% of the grinding stones of La Bastida are made of volcanic rocks such as dacites, andesites and lamproites, which are especially suitable for their task. The source of many of these rocks is about 30 km away, either to the southeast in the Mazarrón area or to the northeast in Barqueros. This gives us an idea of the large extent of territory controlled by

50 cm

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An Argaric capital

La Bastida. Also it is interesting to show that the same type of high-quality volcanic rocks represents only 30% of those present in Lorca, the powerful neighbour located only about 20 km southwest. Hence, probably, the frontiers of La Bastida allowed the storage of the best raw materials to benefit more people. Once again, politics, economy and welfare did not go hand in hand.

TEXTILES Linen is the best-documented material in fabric making. Keep in mind that the preservation of any organic material, especially textile fibres, is an exceptional phenomenon. Only in sealed and very dry environments or, more often, if the tissue was in contact with a copper object, do we have the right conditions for its preservation.

Copper dagger with traces of cloth attached. Detail of a linen fabric.

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10 cm

Obverse and reverse sides of a loom weight.

Flax is demanding in terms of humidity, so we assume that in the southeast it was grown in gardens. The transformation of the stems into threads of variable thickness and quality is a laborious process that, according to the ancient documents of the Mediterranean area, was mainly carried out by women. In the absence of preserved thread in skeins or reels, the object that is the best evidence for spinning is the spindle whorl. Made of stone, ceramic, bone or horn, they usually have a disk shape and are no more than 4-5 cm in diameter. They have a central hole in which the spindle was inserted and that allowed the spinning of the twisted fibres to form a continuous thread. According to ancient sources, women were also in charge of weaving. Unfortunately, the only vestiges of handlooms are the so-called “loom weights”, pieces of yellowish clay similar to thick, rounded cakes. In general, they have two or four perforations through which passed the longitudinal strands that made up the warp that the weight of the piece tightened.

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An Argaric capital

5 cm

In La Bastida, we have found hardly any spindle whorls and relatively few loom weights and they rarely appear grouped and in a particular number, as would make sense in a place where there would have been a loom. Consequently, today we assume that textile production was not an important occupation for the population of La Bastida. However, given the need for yarn and fabric in such a large community, it is likely that other centres carried out the bulk of this production and that, along with many other products and raw materials, they arrived at La Bastida as exchange or tribute.

Imprint of esparto in a fragment of mud cladding.

In addition to linen, the Argaric population used wool and, in all likelihood, animal and leather skins to manufacture clothing, accessories and various objects. Perhaps esparto grass, the charred remains of which have sometimes been documented in La Bastida, was the most important material used. With this vegetable fibre, they would have surely made mats, ropes, baskets and footwear. The esparto strands were also an essential material in the construction of the houses.

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LA BASTIDA INVESTIGATING THE SOCIETY FROM ITS TOMBS

LA BASTIDA

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INVESTIGATING The society from its tombs

BURIAL

AT HOME

Like most Argaric settlements, we find burials below ground of La Bastida. Having the opportunity to study both the living spaces and the funerary world opens up rarely realised possibilities for research. The main Argaric ritual consisted of depositing a single individual in a flexed position inside a pottery urn, a cist or stone coffin, a pit or an artificial cave (“covacha”). The grave goods were often deposited with the body and are usually very diverse in quality and quantity, allowing us to identify social differences. Occasionally, the tomb was reopened sometime later to accommodate a second corpse. Most of the Argaric tombs date from 2000 BCE and are especially numerous in the last three centuries of development of this society. Despite having been plundered for many centuries, La Bastida yielded several hundreds of graves that include every example of the Argaric funerary variability. If we add all the tombs found since the excavations of lnchaurrandieta in 1869 to those of our team until 2012, the final sum is 251. Unfortunately, Juan Cuadrado did not write down details of the more than a hundred tombs he discovered around 1927, although at least a part of the materials is curated in the Archaeological Museum of Almeria today.

Most of the tombs are excavated in the field with the help of industrial vacuum cleaners and precision instruments. It is essential to completely expose the skeleton and the offerings, in order to know the interesting aspects of the funerary ritual.

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INVESTIGATING The society from its tombs

When the state of conservation permits, some graves are transferred in blocks to the laboratory to be excavated and preserved there.

About three-quarters of the total number of tombs are pottery urns, followed by cists of stone slabs or dry-stone construction. Some of the cists exceed the average size and can almost be considered chambers. The pits and artificial caves are scarce. As mentioned before, the majority of tombs included only one individual, although about 20% received a second body. It is also worth noting that there are 16 cenotaph burials, that is, structures with the appearance of a grave but without human remains. For now, these are an enigma. Perhaps they were made in memory of people that died far from La Bastida and whose bodies could

Types of archaeological tombs: 1. Cists 2. Single and double urns 3. Pit 4. Artificial cave

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Cenotaph 13. Within a pottery vessel lying on one side we found nothing but a portion of a lamb’s leg. Next to it, two pieces of pottery, as well as a copper axe in an external position. Offerings from cenotaph 13.

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not be transferred back there. Also, we cannot discard the possibility that cenotaphs might have been graves temporarily occupied by a corpse until it was taken to be buried in another place, as part of a complex and rare ritual. Living on top of burials is very shocking today (when it may even be associated with the houses of serial killers!). We believe that not everyone was buried in the subsoil of the settlements, but we still have well-represented individuals of both sexes and all age groups. The reasons that lay behind the practice of selective burial within settlements remain unknown. Some think that it was a way of preventing the graves of certain ancestors from being desecrated by enemies, assuming, of course, that the conflict was somewhat endemic between communities. Other hypotheses suggest that the people buried in each room had a close link with that space while they were alive, a relationship permanently strengthened by the tomb, so that relatives and descendants could state certain rights. Finally, maybe the buried people formed the whole of a social group that shared ancestral lineages ... perhaps the buried population was the only one with the right to be called “Argaric” or whatever expression they used to identify themselves with a common past.

SOCIETY

AND DEATH

The study of funerary offerings has suggested that Argaric society was stratified into three classes: dominant, intermediate and servants or slaves. In La Bastida, this structure can be observed, albeit with certain nuances. When analysing the 150 intact tombs that we know of, it is surprising that only five, that is, around 3% of the total, correspond to the upper class, while in other Argaric sites the proportion is around 10%. This can be explained because

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most of the graves come from the neighbourhood located on the lower slopes of La Bastida, that is, where it would not be customary for the elites to reside. Interestingly enough, the only grave excavated on the summit by our team corresponds to the upper class. We refer to tomb 60, which miraculously escaped the destruction caused by the 1970s reforestation. It is a slightly trapezoidal dry-stone chamber of very large dimensions (2.10 m long, 1.30 m wide and 0.47 m deep). In each corner, there was a post that would help support a possibly wooden cover. In a certain way, its construction evokes that of the houses built down the hill in the 19th century BC. This parallelism between the “houses of the living” and one of the most notable tombs is very suggestive: maybe it was intended to symbolise a close relationship between the deceased and the urban reorganisation that marked the beginning of a new order in the city.

View of the tomb in chamber 60 and the position of the objects. The longitudinal disturbance of the rib cage was produced by the heavy machinery used in the reforestation works. It is a miracle that we have been able to document this burial.

OX LEG AWL “PELLET”

KNIFE

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FORM 5

FORM 6

INVESTIGATING The society from its tombs

Inside tomb 60, we found the skeleton of a 45-yearold woman. She rested on her right side with her legs flexed and her funerary offerings included a dagger and a copper awl. This association was very common among Argaric women from the middle and upper classes. A few centimetres from her head, we found a recipient associated exclusively with the elites: a vessel of “Form 6”. It contained an elaborate food preparation based on honey, meat and vegetables. Right next to it, there was a “Form 5” vessel that was possibly used to extract and distribute or even directly consume the contents of the main vessel. At the opposite end of the tomb, a portion of the hind quarters of a cow or ox was deposited. This fact is also significant since bovine meat offerings are usually associated with the members of the ruling class. Finally, two “curiosities” completed the set: a fossil sharks’ tooth and a small ball of iron ore, possibly goethite.

Grave goods of tomb 60.

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Grave goods of tomb 40.

The knife and awl mark out middle class women.

The axe and the dagger mark out middle class men.

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Halberd from tomb 40, photographed on both sides.

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Dagger from tomb 40, photographed on both sides.

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The remaining tombs were found on the lower slopes. Our team was fortunate to excavate one of them, tomb 40, which had been hidden by chance under a small, unexcavated area since 1948. In this case, it was a cist that contained two skeletons. The first body to be deposited was that of an adult woman, who was accompanied by a copper awl and a pot. Sometime later, her remains were moved to one corner during the burial of an adult man with the characteristic high-class offerings: a magnificent copper halberd, a dagger of the same metal, a pottery vessel and a portion of wild boar. The combination of halberd and dagger illustrates the warlike features of the early Argaric warriors that constituted the political and economic elite. Both weapons supported each other in hand to hand combat so that the halberd struck the head to produce cut and bruise wounds, while the dagger was used at closer distances as an opportunistic weapon. These warriors could also have bows and arrows or javelins with a copper tip to injure or kill at a greater distance, but some ritual taboo prevented these from being deposited in the graves. With this basic weaponry, the coastal and pre-litoral communities of Almería and Murcia extended the Argaric domain to the upper Guadalquivir. About 20% of the graves correspond to women and men of the intermediate social class. The characteristic that best defines them is the presence of copper tools: awls for women and axes for men, and/or daggers and knives associated interchangeably with one or the other sex. Also, it is not uncommon to find one or two pottery vessels and some ornaments. Interestingly, most of the middle-class graves contained women. This suggests the prominence of part of the female population in economic and political management, something that tomb 60 already showed. The grave

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burial discovered during the 1948 campaign illustrates this prominence. It occupied a place close to the entrance of Department XVIII, which was a cereal grinding workshop. It contained the skeleton of a woman accompanied by an awl and a copper dagger, the upper part of a cup and a shell pendant. It was not the only tomb deposited in this room, but it was the most outstanding of the remaining twelve, which mostly correspond to people belonging to the lowest classes. Maybe the woman buried in the cist exercised control over the people who worked in Department XVIII and, likewise, over the flour they produced. The tombs with the poorest offerings (a pottery vessel, whether or not combined with an ornament) compose a large majority. However, many of them belong to boys and girls who, in general, used to receive modest offerings or none at all.

Burial of a child in an urn (tomb 47), one of the most modest found in La Bastida. It lacks any offerings, and the vessel that received the body was already broken and covered with a fragment of another pot.

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HOUSES, TOMBS

AND PEOPLE

Despite the spatial and, probably, ancestral proximity between the buried individuals and those who occupied a certain dwelling, the group of deceased persons rarely reflects the composition of the domestic or social unit that inhabited it. We mentioned before the case of Department XVIII, in which individuals of all ages and different social settings were buried. This suggests a larger social group rather than a strictly domestic unit which worked in this space. However, the scenario in other cases is even more complicated and surprising. Let us see what happens in room H3, which we already know from earlier sections of this guide. H3 is the biggest room unearthed in the area of the lower south-eastern slope of La Bastida. Apart from the remarkable capacity for grain storage, the other finds are compatible with what you would expect in a domestic unit. However, the graves below ground present a more ambiguous and intriguing picture. Let us start with tomb 18, whose impressive urn we have described in the section on pottery. This grave was under the warehouse area

Image of the H3 building during its excavation. Two of the graves found under its floor are visible (numbers 18 and 21).

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INVESTIGATING The society from its tombs

Skeletons and grave goods from tomb 18.

and gave us a proper surprise: we found the bodies of two adult men, both dead between the ages of 22 and 25 and perhaps buried at the same time or within a short space of time. The offerings were remarkable: an axe and a copper

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dagger, a silver earring, a pot, a bowl full of barley seeds and portions of sheep and bovine. Finding a tomb with two men is something completely unusual since it was common for adult double tombs to combine a man and a woman. Also, it was common that several years or generations passed between the first and the second burial, raising the question of whether the man and woman were spouses, since they probably did not even know each other! In tomb 18, this circumstance did not occur at all. Therefore, in this grave, not only the prohibition of burying two men together was broken but also the two adults belonged to the same generation.

Discovery, excavation and offerings of tomb 21.

Within a short distance of Tomb 18, Tomb 21 had very different contents. Inside the urn was the skeleton of a deceased woman around 30 years old, accompanied by remarkable offerings: a copper knife and an awl, a necklace, a pot, a cup and a chalice shaped vessel and a portion of lamb or goat. In this case, the surprising thing is the placement of the body on the left side. It was usual for women to be positioned on the right side while men were buried on the left,... except for the first occupant of the grave 18. The list of tombs continues with number 23, an urn that contained the bodies of two babies without grave goods. They passed away between 7 and 11 months of age and were buried one after the other. In this case, the body that occupied the base of the tomb was the one who died afterwards, because the remains of the first were completely disarticulated and covering his skeleton. Whether he occupied that same urn alone or was temporarily buried in another one before is something that, for now, we do not know. This issue is relevant since two cenotaphs were deposited in H3. The urn bearing the number 14 was completely empty. Instead, within the grave number 13, there was a portion of lamb or goat and, outside, a copper axe, a cup and a pot.

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Inside tomb 23. Disarticulated bones of the first deceased baby are seen scattered on the skeleton of the second. You may observe the spine, ribs, scapula and the right humerus in anatomical position in the lower part of the image.

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Fitting the pieces of the H3 funerary puzzle is a difficult exercise. Let’s look into the two most important tombs, numbers 18 and 21, significant for being adults and for their grave goods. Both graves were occupied by individuals of the intermediate social class and transgress the norms that stipulated how men and women had to be arranged in the funerary ritual. Although it is a somewhat risky suggestion, we cannot rule out the possibility that the men in tomb 18 enjoyed a homosexual relationship, and that their social position allowed them to disobey a taboo and express this disobedience symbolically.

INVESTIGATING The society from its tombs

Children’s burial of tomb 42.

If we argue, using the same criteria, that the woman’s position within the tomb reflected a homosexual orientation, we need to underline a significant difference: in her case, not even her social status could transgress the Argaric taboo that always prevented two women from occupying the same grave. In sum, we can argue that a wealthy sector of society had the desire and ability to express their sexual orientations in opposition to what the dominant norms dictated. However, the two babies and the two cenotaphs are still waiting for answers.

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THE ARGARIC POPULATION

AND DEATH

So far, we have reviewed the social and ideological meanings of the dead at La Bastida through their rituals of identity and belonging. The advantage of working with so many well-preserved tombs is that we can address other dimensions of social life through the anthropological study of skeletons. The first relevant fact is the high infant mortality, with about 40% of the bodies belonging to children. One in two

Child from tomb 17 with a bowl as an offering.

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Infant double burial of tomb 65.

babies died before reaching one year and the maximum frequency of deaths occurs between 9 and 18 months, followed by new-born and perinatal individuals. The chemical analyses we have carried out show that weaning happened precisely around this age, indicating that none of the babies who died after one and a half years were being fed with breast milk. This is surprising because the change to a solid diet in non-Western and pre-industrial societies usually occurs between 2 and 3 years of age, as the health risks increase once the baby stops benefiting from the nutrients and protection of mother’s milk. Thus, it should be noted that the peaks of mortality occurred among infants and can be attributed to an unhealthy environment in which mild infectious processes or diarrhoea would be lethal. The analyses that we performed on other Argaric populations, such as at Gatas (Almería), indicate that it was during puberty and adolescence that diets had a lower protein intake. A poor diet, based almost exclusively on barley, would aggravate the damaging effects of an unhealthy environment.

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Signs of an inflammatory or haemorrhagic process of the meninges in the inner wall of the skull of one of the babies buried in tomb 23.

Bones of a foetus at the end of its term in a woman’s pelvic cavity.

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However, once childhood was over, the risk of dying during youth was relatively low. Most of the skeletons correspond to both men and women that were remarkably young. This is shown by the proportion of deaths between the ages of 20 and 35, which is the highest among the adult population. In the case of women, the decrease in the breastfeeding period and high infant mortality had dire consequences, since the increase in population was achieved at the cost of their bodies and their health. Very few people reached the sixth decade of life and overcoming it was a feat. Some studies indicate that men carried out activities that required a greater degree of mobility than women, although this does not seem to be the case in all social classes. On the other hand, the incidence of bone trauma related to violent episodes does seem to be higher among the male group. Both males and females shared characteristic facial features, such as prominent nasal bridges and narrow faces. The physical aspect of those people, who had graceful and lean bodies, is surprising if we compare it with the contemporary standards of Western societies.

INVESTIGATING The society from its tombs

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However, the average height of women (1.53 m) and men (1.63 m) was very similar to the Spanish average of only a century ago. In pre-industrial communities like the Argaric, the main causes of death were not highly related to degenerative diseases (which is precisely what happens nowadays). If we compare the record of pathologies from La Bastida with other sites such as La Almoloya, the low incidence of trauma and degenerative joint injuries related to hard work is surprisingly low. Measures such as periodically whitewashing homes, keeping the water collection systems and the reservoir clean of garbage and waste, or sealing the graves perfectly, sought to minimize the health threats caused by poor hygiene. Inhabiting a large and densely populated city was a new challenge in the West. And La Bastida was again a pioneer, although at a very high cost. Despite efforts to maintain good health conditions, the high mortality rates among infants and young adults show this cost. Their bones barely show episodes of chronic processes, and that fits with sudden deaths due to acute infectious-contagious processes, with a fast development that did not leave enough time for their symptoms to leave a mark on the skeleton. However, health appears to be related to socio-economic differences as upper-class members generally enjoyed a greater life expectancy. A more balanced diet with better quality food, avoiding mechanical and exhausting work activities, avoiding living in overcrowded areas and benefiting from better care make up the common recipe of elites in all civilised societies.

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A child skeleton from tomb 23.

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LA BASTIDA WHAT WAS LA BASTIDA?

LA BASTIDA

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WHAT WAS LA BASTIDA?

WHAT WAS

LA BASTIDA?

La Bastida marked a before and an after. It crystallised a revolutionary experiment in its time and its surroundings, which established a way of life close to what we call “civilisation.” Also, it left us a monumental treasure, objects providing keys to meeting the people who populated southeast Spain thousands of years ago and, without a doubt, our own society as well.

Visit to the restored and consolidated water reservoir.

Throughout these pages, we have shown two “Bastidas”. The oldest is testimony to the foundation of a society that began to form after the collapse of the Chalcolithic (or Copper Age) communities, around 2200 BCE. The enormous investment in defensive systems and choosing this hidden hill revealed the character of this new world: hidden but vigilant, closed but expansive.

The neighbourhood of the southeast slope of La Bastida in 2008, before the start of new excavation and restoration campaigns.

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The neighbourhood of the lower southeast slope in 2013, once the restoration and consolidation works were completed.

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The urban centre of La Bastida, capital of one of the first European states, developed from 2000 BCE. The complex urbanism, the multitude of objects enclosed by its buildings and the people who were buried underneath them give us a picture of a busy, populous city. But this city was everything but self-sufficient. In the same way that the Greek polis demanded from the khôra, La Bastida extended its domain far beyond the surroundings of Lébor, perhaps as far as the coast of Mazarrón. And also, as the Greek cities did a thousand years later, their leaders

WHAT WAS LA BASTIDA?

and part of their population shared material ties and customs with the other Argaric communities. So far, we have done nothing but knock at the door of La Bastida. Even so, we can guess the social, scientific and cultural benefits that wait for us beyond. La Bastida is a unique heritage resource that no one should ever forget again.

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TIRA DEL LIENZO AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

TIRA DEL LIENZO

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AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

HILLS AND PLAINS:

A COMPLEX TERRITORIAL SYSTEM As we have seen, the economy of La Bastida depended on a large cropping and grazing territory, as well as specialized workshops. The largest and most fertile lands were located in the Guadalentín valley, following the course of the Lébor river about 3 km to the south. The quality of these lands and the availability of water still make them one of the economic engines of the region nowadays. Also, both the riverbed and the fluvial terraces of the Guadalentín provide rocks of different sizes and nature to manufacture a variety of tools. This valley was the home of the people responsible for the agriculture and livestock that supplied La Bastida with food and raw materials. Periodically, these individuals would move to the capital to work in the workshops and centralized warehouses. The southwestern end of the Guadalentín valley was controlled by another large Argaric city, whose remains are now under the castle and old town of Lorca. In this area, we know of the existence of some lowland villages, such as Los Cipreses, La Alcanara and El Rincón de Almendricos. These are groups of rectangular and apsidal houses, scattered near the watercourses. Unlike La Bastida or other settlements located on higher lying ground, the villages usually yield several flint sickle blades which were used for harvesting, while grinding stones are much scarcer. Botanical remains are also different: instead of an almost total predominance of barley, villages usually have a higher proportion of wheat and, above all, legumes, such as beans and lentils grown in gardens. Everything indicates that a large part of the cereal harvest came in the form of tribute or tax to the large hilltop settlements. The hundreds of grinding stones found in the larger settlements were used to convert the grain grown by the river valley communities into flour.

Tira del Lienzo from the north.

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WHY EXCAVATE

TIRA DEL LIENZO?

After confirming that La Bastida was a true capital, we needed to know more about the territory under its domain. However, it is not easy to find Argaric villages in the plains. Many remain hidden under several metres of sediments accumulated by the erosion of the mountains during the last four thousand years. Others, as they were located on fertile land, have been destroyed by later agricultural work.

Reconstruction of one of the scattered houses from the village of El Rincón de Almendricos.

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Even though Tira del Lienzo is not a typical lowland village, it allowed us to get a better picture of the economy of an Argaric state. It is located on a hill on the northern fringe of the Guadalentín plains, 310 m above sea level and about 7.5 km northeast of La Bastida, as the crow flies. Tira del Lienzo, also known as “Los Yesares” and “Cabezo de Guerao” is listed in the Archaeological Charter of Murcia and underwent clandestine excavations that did not, for-

AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

tunately affect a substantial part of the site. During several campaigns, between 2010 and 2012, we excavated more than 80% of its surface and, at present, its remains are consolidated and can be visited. The first weeks of work at Tira del Lienzo had the benefit of including a teaching experience based on the archaeology that we were able to forge thanks to the collaboration of the José Antonio González Guerao project. Its participants were dozens of students from two public high schools in Totana who were able to apply skills and knowledge acquired on previous short courses. Who knows…? Maybe Tira del Lienzo ended up awakening stimulating an archaeological calling in these students. The Tira del Lienzo’s research has not been completed, so the overview we are offering here may change and, undoubtedly, be enriched by the progress of the ongoing analyses.

House 4 of Los Cipreses (Lorca).

High school students from Totana participating in the excavation of Tira del Lienzo in the early summer of 2010.

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WHAT CAN WE

SEE TODAY?

Tira del Lienzo is located on a hill next to the Rambla Sisquilla. If La Bastida was a “hidden city”, we are now facing something completely different, since the site has magnificent views over the Guadalentín valley and the southern foothills of Sierra Espuña. It would be possible to control a large area of land from Tira del Lienzo and, conversely, this small hill would also be visible from many places.

Aerial photo from 1945 before the levelling of a large part of the hill where Tira del Lienzo is located.

Most of the original hill disappeared as a result of the extraction of aggregates in 2004. Luckily, the southwestern end where the site is located was not affected. Here, about 35 m above the surrounding plains, we find an architectural complex of about 865 m2 whose constructions and spatial organization constitute a real novelty in the archaeology of the Argaric.

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AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

La Bastida

Tira del Lienzo

Tira del Lienzo, in the Guadalentín Valley. In the background you can see the urban area of Totana and the Sierra de la Tercia, where La Bastida is located.

The hill of Tira del Lienzo seen from the south, with the Sierra Espuña (1,583 m above sea level) in the background.

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ARTIFICIAL CUT-OFF

ROAD

RAMBLA SISQUILLA

50 m

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AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

The most significant buildings have been restored and can be visited. As we will see, these are constructions from the peak occupation period of the site about 4000 years ago. A large rectangular building occupies a dominant position at the centre and on the highest point of the hill. Surrounding it on the east and north and separated by an alley and a courtyard, we find a range of attached, smaller rooms with elongated floors. To the south, also separated by entrances, several more rooms are distributed. This group of structures is surrounded by a wall that defines a rectangular enclosure of about 40 m long by 23 m wide. Unlike the typical Argaric settlements, in Tira del Lienzo we only found two tombs, both with children. At the beginning of 2012, we also discovered a group of constructions at the base of the hill, very close to the Sisquilla riverbed. All had been partially excavated in the natural rock and, apparently, they served as warehouses. Next to them, we found a large hearth where we collected many charred barley seeds. Several dozen metres away, in

Aerial view of Tira del Lienzo with its central building and radially arranged cells.

Plan of Tira del Lienzo. In addition to the architectural complex on the summit, a group of constructions and two funerary cists have been documented south of the hill.

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a flat area, we identified the remains of two funerary cists that were unfortunately robbed in the past. The peculiarities of Tira del Lienzo raise a series of questions: who lived here and what activities were carried out? What role did the settlement play in the political and economic organisation directed by La Bastida? What relationship did it have with Cabeza Gorda, a site located just over 1 km and perfectly visible from Tira del Lienzo?

CABEZA GORDA,

AN IMPORTANT NEIGHBOUR

Skull from the stone coffin (cist) of Cabeza Gorda.

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Cabeza Gorda is a typical Argaric settlement located on a hill of about 0.8 ha in size. Together with Tira del Lienzo, it was a subsidiary settlement within the territory that had La Bastida as its capital. In 1965, a cist was robbed but fortunately, the magnificent grave goods were recovered and can be seen in the Archaeological Museum of Murcia.

AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

Image of the interior of the tomb at the time of its discovery. The skeleton lies flexed on the its side, the normal position for Argaric men. The lenticular vessel was deposited upon the body. To its right, the blade of the sword rests against the edge. Remains of the wooden handle and the second vessel are visible in the upper right corner. Below, the sword found on the cist from Cabeza Gorda (length 60.4 cm).

Although the whereabouts of the bones are unknown, the published photographs show that the skull has the typical sexual traits of males. The grave goods are also characteristic of the males of the Argaric ruling class, and they included a sword, a dagger, a necklace and two pots. One of the pots has a lenticular profile and was a type of vessel usually reserved for the elite, just like the one found in tomb 60 on top of La Bastida. For some reason, Cabeza Gorda and Tira del Lienzo remained as two separate site complexes. Neither of them seems to have relevant topographic advantages, except one that favours Tira del Lienzo: the water of the Sisquilla watercourse has high salt content, almost 10g per litre, while the drinking water does not exceed 0.5g per litre. Did the exploitation of salt influence the location of the site? Let us see what the excavations have contributed to solving this and other questions.

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Tira del Lienzo (below) and the hill occupied by Cabeza Gorda, both indicated by arrows.

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TIRA DEL LIENZO THE FIRST BUILDINGS

TIRA DEL LIENZO

THE FIRST BUILDINGS

OF TIRA DEL LIENZO

Tira del Lienzo was inhabited over more than four centuries, roughly between 2000 and 1550 BCE. The sequence of strata reveals two major phases of construction, each with minor remodelling. To get an idea of how much effort was put into the foundation and the successive architectural remodelling, we must bear in mind that almost all the construction material had to be hauled to the hilltop. There would have been hundreds of cubic metres of stone, clay, lime, wood and esparto. Taking advantage of the site’s natural materials was not a good option. Tira del Lienzo occupies a hill formed by soft limestone that is easy to work, but of low quality as a construction material. On the other hand, the rocky crust that crowns the top of the hill is formed by boulders joined together by a highly resistant natural carbonate cement that makes it very difficult to extract and build walls with it. Thus most of the stones used for this purpose were collected around the Sisquilla area, where we can still find loose rocks similar to those used in the Argaric period. The mortar to work on these rocks came from the marl formations of the plains. It was also necessary to provide wooden posts and beams. The study of the charred remains indicates that the Aleppo pine was the preferred tree, while mastic trees, olive trees and rosemary provided the branches to complete the walls and roofs. Posts and beams were fixed with esparto cord. Finally, the walls were plastered with lime, the same as at La Bastida.

Collection of stones recovered in collapse levels.

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The foundation of Tira del Lienzo dates back 4000 years, at around 2000 BCE. The first construction was the perimeter wall, which still has small bastions or projections preserved in the southeast and northeast corners.

TIRA DEL LIENZO

Gypsum formations in the surroundings of Tira del Lienzo.

Maybe similar elements were also present in opposite corners, but the erosion has erased their traces. The main access was on the eastern slope, which could be reached by ascending a path from the base of the hill. Also, there was a secondary door 40 cm wide on the north part of the wall. At some points inside the enclosure and just above the geological substrate, we find remains of poorly preserved walls, as well as other scattered remains of the first communities that inhabited the hill. Shortly after this, a series of buildings that have been partially preserved under the more recent constructions were built. The ones better conserved are distributed on

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AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

the northern slope, attached to each other. These are rectangular rooms between 8 and 10 m2, which had workbenches around the walls. There were also two, carefully made, circular hearths made of clay. The smallest was located on the northern slope, while the one on the southern slope had a diameter of 1.5 m.

Remains of charred wood beams.

The largest building (H1) was probably also built at this time. It is a rectangular construction surrounded by open spaces for passage. It had solid stone walls placed on the limestone crust that crowns the hill. Unfortunately, the western end has disappeared due to erosion. However, if its limits included all the bare limestone outcropping

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Architectural remains of the first phase of Tira del Lienzo, between c. 2000-1900 BCE. The central building was probably also built at this time and, like many other later ones, was affected by later constructions (in grey).

TIRA DEL LIENZO - CIMA FASE I Totana [Murcia]

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today, the enclosure would have exceeded 12 m in length and occupied about 100 m2. It could be reached through a door about 70 cm wide on the eastern facade. Who lived in H1 and what did they do inside it? It is difficult to answer for now since the subsequent remodelling erased all traces. However, perhaps from the beginning, it assumed such an exceptional economic-administrative role, that we were able to trace it from the preserved remains. The objects from the first occupations are scarce, mostly pottery vessels and stone tools. Only one whole grinding stone and four other fragments have been preserved, although it should be noted that they are all made of volcanic rocks, that is, high-quality raw materials used

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AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

Fireplace found in space H15.

Fireplace in room H20.

Estructura de combustión

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Views of the stone adze found within H14. Although copper axes were gaining in importance, stone adzes were still used to work wood.

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to produce flour very effectively. Other instruments, such as adzes, were used to cut and prune trees, or for carpentry. No metal objects were found, but two whetstones from rooms H14 and H18 indicate that copper knives or daggers were used.

Sharpening stones of Tira del Lienzo. Perforated ones could be tied to the forearm.

The shortage of artefacts contrasts with the quantity of botanical remains. From the beginning, we observed a wide area of black soil behind the bastion on the northeast corner of the perimeter wall. When excavating this area, named H2, we discovered that it was a barn with hundreds of litres of seeds. Although a part was stored in pottery vessels, most had to be stored in sacks or baskets. We were able to identify a great variety of species. Besides the ever-present barley, at least a quarter of the deposit contained wheat. Even more surprising are the abundant flax seeds, which have excellent nutritional properties. Since these seeds have a high oil content, they ended up being compressed by the fire that burned down the settlement at the end of its first phase of occupation.

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If we consider the dimensions of the barn and the number of seeds recovered, we realise that the volume of food is much higher than what the few inhabitants of Tira del Lienzo would have needed. Therefore, it is very likely that they were resources in transit, being transported from the village communities of the valley to the central settlements controlled by the ruling class.

Excavation of two vessels of the barn H2.

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AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

Under a wall of the second construction phase appeared rooms H16 and H17, with clear signs of fire.

Compact mass formed by flax seeds (above) and charred cereal seeds (below) from the H2 barn.

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[·9·]

TIRA DEL LIENZO THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

TIRA DEL LIENZO

BUILDING A COMPOUND

TO STORE AND PRODUCE

One hundred years after its foundation and after suffering a fire, around 1900 BCE the settlement was remodelled. Seven rooms were built on the northern and eastern slopes, attached to the central building H1. This arrangement is somewhat similar to that of the constructions of the previous phase but has a slight change of orientation towards the north. We can still go through the alley that separated the large central building from the radial units, walking from the old entrance on the southwest flank to a small square located in front of the door. Most of the rooms were accessed from this alley. In several sections, there are narrow openings and steps to the ground level, which is paved with a very compact clay. The usable space of the rooms varies from 14 to 27 m2. In total there would be a minimum of 147 m2 available if we consider only the areas covered by the sections of preserved walls. Inside we have found relatively few objects of stone and bone, which happen to be very common in the workshops of La Bastida or La Almoloya. Room H9 had a hearth, while H7 may have had an oven. Therefore, we assume that most of the rooms were used to store perishable goods such as food. The north orientation of all rooms supports this interpretation, as it provides a cool environment.

Alley between the central building (right) and the storage rooms (left).

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Room H7 is quite interesting, as it yielded an amazing deposit of mastic seeds (Pistacia lentiscus). The traditional uses of these wild fruits are more related to their medicinal than their nutritious properties. They are known to work as an anaesthetic for toothache, insect bites, wounds and lung conditions. Moreover, due to the presence of tannin, these fruits have astringent, tonic and stomach effects,

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Plan of the second phase of Tira del Lienzo, between c. 1900 and 1775 BCE.

TIRA DEL LIENZO - CIMA FASE II Totana [Murcia]

“Idol” of stone found next to the deposit of mastic seeds.

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thus being very suitable for the treatment of diarrhoea. The disorders of the digestive system were a matter of concern for the Argaric populations. Scientific analysis detected intestinal parasites in the individual known as “the Galera mummy”, discovered in the settlement of Castellón Alto in Granada. As expected in the societies before the invention of antibiotics, part of the infections that were the main cause of death had their origin in the stomach and intestines. In short, the deposit of mastic tree seeds may indicate that we have found a prehistoric “pharmacy”, the place where highly sought medicinal remedies were prepared.

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THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

An elongated plaque of reddish schist, about 34 cm long and 7 cm wide, was also found near the mastic seeds. It has a notch that looks like a neck in its upper part, which seems to separate a “body” from the “head”. We know of similar objects from the old excavations at the sites of Fuente Vermeja, El Argar and Fuente Álamo (Almería), and also at La Bastida. While the absence of use wear raises some uncertainty to its function as a tool, the suggestion of an anthropomorphic figure hints that it may be a small stele or “idol.” Unfortunately, the part where the facial features might have been recorded has not been preserved. It would not be surprising to find an idol in this “pharmacy” since the necessary knowledge to heal is so hazardous and sophisticated that in many societies the border between magic and medicine becomes ambiguous. In addition to medication and treatments, trusting in the supernatural abilities of healers is often indispensable.

Mastic seeds found in room H7. This fruit has positive effects in curing digestive system problems.

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View of the north wall with bastion and radial rooms in the foreground.

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TIRA DEL LIENZO

ARCHAEOLOGY

AND EARTHQUAKES

View of the wall of room H10, in front of the central building. The displacement between both sections has allowed us to determine the seismic activity of the Alhama fault (one of the most active in the Iberian Peninsula) during recent millennia.

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By observing the walls of the warehouses from the small square, we will notice that the two jambs of the last door are not aligned. The displacement of about 20 cm would make it impossible to close the door. This enigma acquired unsuspected importance when the team of geologists from the universities of Barcelona and Salamanca investigating the Alhama fault presented the conclusions of their study. Tira del Lienzo is crossed by the Alhama fault, which was responsible for the tragic and devastating earthquake of Lorca in 2011. One of its branches passes precisely through the door of one of the rooms and reaches the wall of the central building. The displacement measured between the walls, combined with the age of the building, allows an estimate of the average lateral speed of this branch at about 0.03 mm per year. Moreover, the fractures observed in different parts of the site suggest

THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

that there was an important earthquake (of a magnitude between 6.3 and 6.5) towards the end of, or shortly after the Argaric. In this way, archaeology provided unexpected help in understanding some of the natural hazards that threaten us.

THE LARGE CENTRAL

BUILDING H1

The large building on the hilltop was used from sometime around the twentieth century BCE and went through changes such as the construction of low benches and platforms next to the base of some walls. H1 is quite different from the radial rooms. There we found many stone artefacts, ceramics and other materials that have been decisive in understanding the economic and political role of Tira del Lienzo. The most prominent find is a set of seven stone artefacts used for metalworking. Four are anvils and forging hammers, while the remaining three are polishers and sharpeners. Five of these objects were concentrated in a sector of just over one-metre square. Nearby we found three large grinding stones, two of them suitable for grinding cereals, due to their excellent mechanical properties. They were made of lamproite, a volcanic rock from the Barqueros area more than 20 km away from Tira del Lienzo. After reassembling the most complete grinding stone, it weighed 80 kg and was almost 80 cm long. This gives an idea of the great effort invested in the equipment of the H1 building. Near the entrance we found flint blades and flakes that can be related to the production of sickles. To the left of the entrance, there were three carefully crafted loom weights in an area illuminated by natural light. Among the pottery, the remains of three small pots and several

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N 2m

Plan of the central building (H1) of Tira del Lienzo.

fragments of cups stand out, all of them being of great quality due to their intensely burnished, thin walls. This set of pots was completed with a carinated bowl and a larger pot. All these findings testify to the implementation of different work processes related to the preparation and consumption of food, clothing and metallurgy. The quality of the tools indicates that the working conditions here were better than normal. Especially revealing are the metallurgical tools, given the importance of metal in the development of inequalities in the Argaric communities. Thanks to a thorough microscopic examination of all the surfaces, we detected traces of foreign material on some of the tools. At first, we thought this material could be copper because this metal was identified on certain stone artefacts deposited in tombs of the Bronze Age in central Europe. However, the analysis of the Tira del Lienzo samples made at the University of Vienna (Austria) gave us a big surprise: it was silver!

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THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

Anvil / Hammer Sharpener Grinding stone Lithic artefact Loom weight Flint

Limit of preserved area

Distribution of the artefacts in the central building.

Forging tool. The square marks the point where silver residues were identified.

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Silver diadem that was found encircling the skull of the woman from tomb 454 of El Argar (Antas, Almería).

Selection of pottery, lithic and clay tools found in the central building (H1) of Tira del Lienzo. The intense fire that destroyed the town around 1775 BC is the cause of the fragmentation of materials, especially grinding stones

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Burnished pottery cup with the mouth and the carination lined with silver sheets. It was part of the grave goods of tomb 38 of La Almoloya (Pliego, Murcia).

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Scene of forging electrum vessels depicted in the tomb of Rejmira, vizier and governor of Thebes during the 18th Egyptian dynasty (15th century BC). We can observe the use of tools that are similar to those found in Tira del Lienzo.

As we saw at La Bastida, silver played a prominent role in the Argaric economy, perhaps for its exchange value or its use as a primitive currency. The raw material came from the eastern foothills of Sierra Morena, about 200 km away, as the crow flies. Additionally, silver was sometimes used for the manufacture of distinctive objects of the ruling classes, in particular, the diadem, which only appears in a small group of female graves. The size of the anvils and hammers of Tira del Lienzo, as well as the type of use wear traces they show, suggest that they were used to make silver sheets. The most famous objects made from this material are precisely the diadems, an exclusive ornament used by upper-class women since approximately 1750 BCE, during the last centuries of the Argaric period. The chronology of the Tira del Lienzo goldsmith’s workshop seems to be slightly earlier, although we are still waiting to confirm this.

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Silver sheets could also have been used to make containers, like the ones used by the ruling classes of the Aegean, the Middle East and Egypt at that time. The famous tomb 38 of La Almoloya (Pliego, Murcia), where we also found a diadem, has confirmed that this exclusive tableware was also used by the Argaric elites, although with a touch of originality: instead of containers made entirely of silver, the Argaric people lined certain areas of the ceramic pots with sheets of this metal. Although we still have to confirm the chronology of both instruments on stone and ornaments on silver, there is no doubt that this was a precious material that was not available to the majority of the population. In Tira del Lienzo, we have documented the first workshop dedicated to silver-working in western Europe, which undoubtedly underlines the uniqueness of the site. However, there was still more to discover.

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Reconstruction of the interior of the central building of Tira del Lienzo.

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Aerial view of two semi-subterranean storage structures H21 (top) and H22 (bottom).

H22 enclosure from the west.

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THE WAREHOUSES

IN THE PLAIN

The surprises in Tira del Lienzo extend to the low plain bordering its western slope, next to the Sisquilla watercourse. Here, the natural and archaeological deposits were disturbed by a modern gypsum quarry, but fortunately five contiguous rooms and a large furnace have been preserved. One of the most striking aspects is that these rooms are semi-underground. The natural substrate formed by gypsum and marls was excavated to build them. Next, the side slopes were clad with masonry walls that rose above ground level and then the area was roofed. Finally, the inner face of the walls was coated with a thick and compact insulating layer of mortar. The apsidal room (H22) is undoubtedly the most interesting. Unlike the adjoining rooms, H22 has a narrow

THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

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Storage structures after consolidation.

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Warehouses and oven (F1) next to the Rambla Sisquilla.

TIRA DEL LIENZO - PIE DE MONTE FASE II Totana [Murcia]

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Furnace cross section (F1). A level of charred seeds rests on a clay floor and is covered by a collapse, possibly from the oven vault.

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THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

corridor that gives access to a 3.20 m by 1.90 m chamber with two fairly tall side benches built in stone. It is one of the few Argaric buildings that was carefully paved. As if that were not enough, the roof is also unusual because in the preserved height of 1.40 m we can start to see the beginning of a dry-stone vault. Everything seems to indicate that the goal was to create a dry, fresh and dark environment (the small entrance was oriented to the sunset), similar to that of a traditional cooler. Nothing like this has ever been discovered in any other Argaric site. The H22 room, like its neighbouring rooms, was completely empty. Since it did not burn down, the plant remains that might have been stored here have not been preserved. However, it should not be ruled out that it was a store for salt, which is an indispensable and valuable resource for prehistoric societies because of its role in food preservation and livestock rearing. The waters of the Sisquilla contain a high concentration of salt that could be extracted by heating in containers, as they did in Villafáfila (Zamora) around the same time. We suspect that the location of Tira del Lienzo facilitated the exploitation of salt. A hearth or oven with a diameter of two metres, south of the H22 room, provided more clues as to what was stored at the base of the hill. We recovered barley seeds in the burned layer on this hearth. We know that roasting not only favours the preservation of cereals, but it is also a step in the brewing process. In Egypt, for instance, the texts describe roasting’s importance for food. In short, we can imagine that food, beverages and/or salt were stored in the warehouses next to the Sisquilla waterfront.

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TOMBS:

FEW AND SCATTERED

Tomb nr. 2 is a cist made of gypsum slabs.

The two cists (tombs 1 and 2) located a few metres from H22 probably belong to the same phase. Unfortunately, since they were plundered, we know nothing about the buried individuals except the fact that they contained adults. What we do know is that they were not allowed to be buried at the top of the hill, where we only found two graves, under the floors of rooms H8 and H4. The first (grave no.3) contained the remains of a child between 12 and 14 months old and the second (grave no. 4) a 7- or 8-year-old boy or girl. Both bodies were deposited inside containers that were broken at the base and ended up being recycled as funerary urns. Only the oldest child was accompanied by offerings. Even so, these were very modest: a pair of bowls and a leg of a sheep or goat. The unusual shortage of burials suggests that most of the people who lived in Tira del Lienzo did not have the right to be buried there. The movement of food, water, construction materials and firewood, among other goods, required the work of many people. Perhaps the inhabit-

General view of one of the plundered cist tombs at the base of Tira del Lienzo (tomb nr. 1).

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ants of the scattered low-lying villages participated in these tasks, and some of them might have been buried in the robbed cists we mentioned above. Probably a very small group of people were permanently resident on the hill. We assume that some members were engaged in basic production and maintenance tasks, while others probably carrying weapons, protected the stored goods. Moreover, the quality of many of the tools suggests the presence of craftsmen and/or administrators from the middle and upper classes, none of whom were buried here. That is why we believe that they travelled for periods of time to Tira del Lienzo to perform

Inside of the urn of tomb nr. 4 with the remains of the infant deposited on its right side and the pottery vessels.

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THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

Details of the interior of tomb nr. 4.

certain tasks, and then their bodies ended up resting in places like Cabeza Gorda or even La Bastida. In short, Tira del Lienzo was not a “normal” city but a place to which a part of the population went only at certain times.

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Pottery bowls deposited in the children’s tomb nr. 4 excavated on the summit of Tira del Lienzo.

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Vessels found in one of the rooms on the summit of Tira del Lienzo.

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TIRA DEL LIENZO

FIRE, RECONSTRUCTION AND FINAL ABANDONMENT

OF TIRA DEL LIENZO

In the eighteenth century BCE, a fire destroyed Tira del Lienzo. We do not know if it was an accident or the consequence of a violent confrontation. In other Argaric settlements such as Gatas and Fuente Álamo (Almería), there were also fire episodes at that time. A javelin tip found in a superficial level of Tira del Lienzo suggests that the site was not exempt from the violence practised by the Argaric and its state society. The great similarity of pottery dishes, metal objects and funerary rituals between settlements indicates shared learning and contacts. But this does not rule out the struggle between centres of power to expand their territories, nor the use of violence to maintain the privileges of the elite. As mentioned before, the defensive architecture and the quality and quantity of the goods stored in Tira del Lienzo suggest the presence of an armed group. Either way, after the fire the structural complex was rebuilt following the same urban pattern, but some of the rooms were divided into two and the warehouses at the base of the hill were probably abandoned. Although ero-

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THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPOUND FOR STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

sion has destroyed the upper strata of the large central building, this was probably still in use at this time. Considering the few materials found in the most recent levels of the site, the function of the complex as a storage area for food and other goods in transit does not seem to have changed. And the movement of products usually requires instruments for measuring and managing them. It is only a hypothesis, but maybe a small metallic object had something to do with these activities. It is a small flat bar made of copper, a metal that did not occur in the surroundings of the site and was not melted there either. It lacks traces of use or damage, and it is not a small ingot. We can speculate that it is either a weight or an element to measure a certain quantity of products, which is, as we know, the birth of the concept of “currency”.

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Copper javelin tip (16.1 g) from Tira del Lienzo.

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Small piece of copper (4.5 g) found in H9. The imprints on its surface suggest that it was possibly wrapped in some type of organic material.

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[·10·]

TIRA DEL LIENZO WHAT WAS TIRA DEL LIENZO?

TIRA DEL LIENZO

WHAT WAS

TIRA DEL LIENZO?

In archaeology it is easier to say what things are not. Tira del Lienzo was not a small self-sufficient community of farmers, nor was it the residence or villa of a powerful family. Rather, it seems to be a compound dedicated to producing, storing and managing a significant volume of goods, of which only a small part were consumed on-site. If capitals such as La Bastida were supplied by a form of taxation, then it is not surprising to find intermediate centres for the control and management of goods. Tira del Lienzo is the most extensively documented of such sites, but others such as Barranco de la Viuda (Lorca, Murcia)4 and Cabezo Pardo (San Isidro, Alicante)5 probably performed similar functions. In these places, the goods were accumulated, managed and sometimes transformed by a small group of warriors, specialists and administrative personnel, before being sent to centres such as La Bastida. The relationship of Tira del Lienzo with the ruling class (which was the biggest beneficiary of this economic system) is evident in the goldsmith’s workshop in the H1 building. Here they manufactured silver objects that ended up being deposited in some of the richest tombs in

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WHAT WAS TIRA DEL LIENZO?

the higher-lying settlements. The variety of stored food, as well as the excellent quality of the grinding stones and pottery, indicate also that a good part of its inhabitants, even if they did not reside here permanently, enjoyed superior living conditions. The almost complete absence of graves suggests that the few people with fixed residence lacked the right to be buried there, while those in charge of the administrative complex had a different permanent residence. Warriors or guards, skilled craftsmen and administrative personnel would labour for seasons of variable length to guarantee the supply of the Argaric elites within the territory of La Bastida. Tira del Lienzo offers a unique opportunity to look into the birth of bureaucracy. In the Argaric society, things moved more than people, following an orderly flow that benefited only specific groups. The administration was established here as the necessary mediator of this movement.

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[·11·]

LA BASTIDA Y TIRA DEL LIENZO THE END OF AN ERA

THE END

OF AN ERA

The Argaric society disappeared around 1550 BCE. Some important settlements, such as Fuente Álamo and Gatas (Almería) or La Almoloya (Murcia), were burnt down. A few were occupied again by different communities, known to us as the “Late Bronze of the Southeast” and “Villena Horizon” (referring to Cabezo Redondo in Alicante, one of the most important settlements from now on). Other Argaric sites were finally abandoned. Despite showing no significant signs of destruction by fire, La Bastida was abandoned. It is possible that the population was declining and that the inhabitants had the opportunity to leave with the lightest of their possessions. We still do not have precise dates for the end of Tira del Lienzo’s occupation. In the most recent levels, there are partial signs of destruction and evidence of a less extensive, later occupation. Like La Bastida, Tira del Lienzo never again had a significant human occupation. The collapse of the Argaric is still a mystery today. It is hard to explain why such an extensive territory occupied by a network of long-lasting settlements collapsed so quickly. We rule out the hypothesis of an invasion of pastoralists from the interior of the peninsula. Current thought suggests a combination of social and environmental factors caused the end of the Argaric. First, the concentration of political power and economic inequalities increased from 1750 BCE, worsening the living conditions of most

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of the population. Then the depletion of soils after continued exploitation for centuries, the dependence on barley monoculture and the lack of subsistence alternatives aggravated the situation. The outcome was a revolution that ended the existing system and erased all traces and memories of its existence. About a thousand years after the end of the Argaric, the state and civilisation were brought back to the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, their territorial organisation avoided most of the places occupied in the Bronze Age. The system that gave meaning to La Bastida and Tira del Lienzo was something unique and unrepeatable.

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NOTES 1.

La Bastida was declared a site of Cultural Interest in 2005 (Official Gazette of the Region of Murcia nr. 241, decree 112/2005). In the delimitation of the protected area, the nearby deposits of Juan Clímaco (Copper Age) and Las Anchuras (Old Bronze) were also included in the delimitation of the protected area.

Archaeological Museum of Murcia, Archaeological Museum of Almeria, National Archaeological Museum (Madrid), Royal Museums of Art and History (Brussels, Belgium), Museum of the University of Ghent (Belgium), Municipal Archaeological Museums of Cartagena, Lorca and Mazarrón and Arrese Museum (Corella, Navarra).

The current list includes those of El Oficio, Fuente Álamo, Peñón de la Reina (Almería), Castellón Alto (Granada), Peñalosa (Jaén), llleta deis Banyets (Alicante) and one recently discovered in La Almoloya (Murcia).

4. Medina, J. and Sánchez González, Mª. J. (1999), “Excavación en el poblado argárico del Barranco de la Viuda (El Hinojar, Lorca), X Jornadas de Arqueología Regional, pp. 17-18. 5.

López Padilla, J. A. (ed.) (2014), Cabezo Pardo (San Isidro, Alicante). Excavaciones arqueológicas en el yacimiento de la Edad del Bronce. Museo Arqueológico de Alicante, Alicante.

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SOURCE

OF FIGURES

• ILLUSTRATIONS: Ricardo Egoscozaba

• PHOTOS OF WORKERS IN LA BASTIDA: John D. Evans Fund LB78A and Martínez Santa-Olalla Fund (MAN): 1973_58_FF-484 (18) -001

• PHOTOGRAPH OF CERRO DE JUAN CLÍMACO: Francisco García Malina

• PHOTO OF THE SIRET BROTHERS PERFORMING EXPERIMENTAL GRINDING OF CEREALS: Archive of the Musée Royaux d‘Art et d‘Histoire - Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst in Geschiedenis, Brussels

• PHOTO OF TIRA DE LIENZO FROM THE SOUTH: Jesús Sesma

• PHOTOS OF TECTONIC TRACES: Marta Ferrater (2015)

• AERIAL PHOTOS: Cartomur (1945), Ginés Martínez Hernández (2011, 2013)

• CABEZA GORDA: Cist: Archaeological Museum of Murcia; Skull: Mateo García (published in Totana in images. Totana City Council, 1999); Sword: Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ)

• LOS CIPRESES: Precioso (2003), La musealización de un yacimiento prehistórico: El Parque Arqueológico de “Los Cipreses” (Lorca, Murcia)

• AN XVIII DYNASTY EGYPTIAN FORGE SCENE: Modified from J.P. Mohen (1992), Prehistoric Metallurgy. Masson, Barcelona

• The rest of the graphics (photographs, drawings, 3D models, maps) are the result of the work of the scientific team of the Bastida Project

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

OF LA BASTIDA AND TIRA DEL LIENZO • Delgado-Raack, S., Lull, V., Martin, K., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2014), “Die Silberschmiede von Tira del Lienzo, Totana, Prov. Murcia, im Kontext der El Argar Metallurgie”, en Meller, H., Risch, R. y Pernicka, E. (eds.), Metalle der Macht-Frühes Gold und Silber. Metals of power - Early gold and silver, 2. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt - Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle, pp. 577 – 592.

• Delgado-Raack, S., Lull, V., Martin, K., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2015), “The silversmith’s workshop of Tira del Lienzo (Totana, Murcia) in the context of lberian Bronze Age metallurgy”, Archaeometry, doi: 10.1111/arcm.12198.

• Delgado-Raack, S., Lull, V., Martin, K., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2015), “Espacios de forja en El Argar. El edificio central de Tira del Lienzo (Totana, Murcia)”, MARQ, Arqueología y museos, 6, pp. 45-64.

• Ferrater, M., Silva, P.G., Ortuño, M., Rodríguez-Pascual, M.A. and Masana, E. (2015), “Archaeoseismological analysis of a Late Bronze Age Site on the Alhama de Murcia Fault, SE Spain”, Geoarchaeology, 30, pp. 151-164.

• Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2009), “El yacimiento arqueológico de La Bastida (Totana): pasado y presente de las investigaciones”, Cuadernos de la Santa, 11, pp. 205-218.

• Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2011), “”Proyecto La Bastida”: economía, urbanismo y território de una capital argárica”, Verdolay, 13, pp. 57-70.

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• Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2013), “La fortificación de La Bastida y los orígenes de la violencia militarizada de Europa”, Cuadernos de la Santa, 15, pp. 247-254.

• Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2014), “The La Bastida fortification: new light and new questions on Early Bronze Age societies in the western Mediterranean”, Antiquity, 88, pp. 395-410.

• Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete-Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2015), “La Bastida - Eine Bronzezeitliche Stadtbefestigungn im westlichen Mittelmeerrau”, en Meller, H. Y Schefzik, M. (eds.), Krieg - eine archäologische Spurensuche. Begleitband zur Sonderausstellung im Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale), (Halle 6 de Noviembre - 22 de Mayo de 2015). Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle, Halle, pp. 307-308.

• Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete Herrada, C. and Risch, R. (2015), “La gestión del agua durante El Argar: el caso de La Bastida (Totana, Murcia)”, Minius, 23, pp. 91-130.

• Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete, C., Risch, R., Celdrán, E., Fregeiro, M.I., Oliart, C., & Velasco, C. (2016), “ La Ruta Argárica y el Proyecto Bastida”. In: I Jornada de Arqueoturismo y Ecoturismo. Tierra de Íberos. El patrimonio como generador de estrategias e ideas para el desarrollo territorial. Múrcia: Integral, sociedad para el desarrollo rural, pp. 32-52.

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• Celdrán, E. & Velasco, C. (2018), “ Figurillas zoomorfas de arcilla halladas en La Bastida (Totana, Murcia).”. In: Los Toros de El Argar. Figurillas de arcilla de la Edad del Bronce. MARQ. Museo Arqueológico de Alicante, Alicante, pp. 294-304.

• Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuete, C., Risch, R., Celdrán, E., Fregeiro, M.I., Oliart, C., & Velasco, C. (2018), “ Diez años de “Proyecto Bastida” (2008 - 2018): El retrato emergente de una ciudad prehistórica.”, En: XXIV Jornadas de Patrimonio Cultural de La Región de Murcia, Murcia, pp. 317-329.

• Molero, C., Celdrán, E., Velasco, C., Fregeiro, M.I., & Valerio, M. (2018), “ Sinergia entre investigación arqueológica y difusión cultural. La experiencia del “Proyecto Bastida” y la asociación ASBA (Totana, Murcia)”. In: A. Galán Pérez & D. Pardo San Gil (eds.), Las Profesiones del Patrimonio Cultural. Competencias, formación y transferencia del conocimiento: relexiones y retos en el Año Europeo del Patrimonio Cultural, GE-IIC y ACRE, Albacete, pp. 294-304.

• Knipper, C., Rihuete-Herrada, C., Voltas, J., Held, P., Lull, V., Micó, R., Risch, R. & Alt, K.W. (2020), “Reconstructing Bronce Age diets and farming strategies at the Early Bronce Age sites of La Bastida and Gatas (southeast Iberia) using stable isotope analysis”, PLOS ONE 15(3): e0229398. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229398

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SCIENTIFIC TEAM DIRECTION Vicente Lull, Rafael Micó, Cristina Rihuete Herrada and Roberto Risch (Departament of Prehistory, UAB)

LABORATORY Lourdes Andúgar, Eva Celdrán, Selina DelgadoCOORDINATORS Raack, Mª Inés Fregeiro, Camila Oliart and Carlos Velasco (UAB)

RESEARCH PATHS ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING CHARCOAL ANALYSIS FAUNAL ANALYSIS ANALYSIS OF PLANT REMAINS ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS OF BOTANICAL MATERIALS ANALYSIS OF POTTERY CONTAINERS

Mireia Celma (UAB) Lourdes Andúgar (UAB) Hans-Peter Stika (Universität Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Alemania) Jordi Voltas (Universitat de Lleida) Carles Velasco (UAB)

COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF POTTERY PASTES

David Gómez-Gras (Departament de Geologia, UAB)

ANALYSIS OF ORGANIC RESIDUES IN POTTERY VESSELS

Elena Molina (UAB) and Antoni Rosell (Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, UAB)

ANALYSIS OF MINERALS AND METAL OBJECTS

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Eva Celdrán (UAB) and Joaquín Pérez

Nicolau Escanilla (UAB); Ernst Pernicka (Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Heidelberg, Alemania); Benoît Mille and David Bourgarit (Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, París); Erica Hanning (Germany Mining Museum, Bochum, Alemania); Gert Goldenberg (University of Innsbruck, Austria)

LITHIC ANALYSIS OSTEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ISOTOPIC AND DNA ANALYSES ON HUMAN REMAINS

FORENSIC FACIAL APPROXIMATION RADIOCARBON DATING CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

Selina Delgado-Raack and Mireia Ache (UAB); Ignacio Martín Lerma (Universidad de Murcia) Mª Inés Fregeiro and Camila Oliart (UAB) Kurt Alt (Center of Natural and Cultural History of Teeth, Danube Private University, Krems, Austria) and Wolfgang Haak (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Alemania) Joana Bruno (UAB) Ronny Friedrich (Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum für Archäometrie, Mannheim, Alemania) Franziska Knoll and Friederich Schiller (Institut für Ur-und Frühgeschichte, Universität Jena, Alemania)

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY Ginés Martínez; Grupo Anainte (Murcia) and Hábitat Serea (Murcia)

STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY Carles Velasco (UAB) and José Antonio Soldevilla 3D MODELLING Daniel Méndez (Revives) CONSERVATION AND Claudia Molero (UAB); Magdalena Escalas; Pedro ARCHAEOLOGICAL Navarro; Bernat Burgaya and Margalida Munar RESTORATION (RestArq, Mallorca); Mercedes Ibáñez ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD Jordi Aguelo (UAB) TECHNICIAN TOPOGRAPHY Antonio López LABORATORY ASSISTANTS Alejandro Cayuela, Fernando Martínez, Jacinto Martínez and Francisco Romera

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We appreciate the contribution of all the scientific and technical personnel who have been part of the “Bastida Project” between 2009 and 2012: Amaranta Pasquini, Antonio López Meca, Beatriz Almandoz, Bernat Burgaya, Camila Oliart, Carles Velasco, Carlos Martínez, Carolina Godoy, Claudia Molero, Dylan Cox, Ekhine García, Elena Melina, Elena Torres, Eva Celdrán, Jesús Bellón, Joaquín Pérez, Jordi Aguelo, Jordi Hernández, José Antonio Soldevilla, Lourdes Andúgar, Magdalena Escalas, Margalida Munar, Mª Inés Fregeiro, Mireia Ache, Mireia Celma, Néstor Gracia, Nicolau Escanilla, Paula Paredes, Raúl Díaz, Rocío López, Roger Sala, Selina Delgado, Sylvia Gili and Sonia Lozano. Our gratitude extends to the people who over the years have dedicated their efforts to assist in the excavations and various laboratory tasks: Hadji Abdellah, Noureddine Aloui, El Khamiss Aloui, Mohammed Aloui, Juan Ambit Palacios, Leo Luis Andrade Chango, Juan Antonio Andreo Cayuela, Diego Andreo Maldonado, Oswaldo Patricio Arévalo Mejía, Jesús Barrionuevo Hinojosa, Ahmed Belhadj, Aamar Belkhatir, Antonio Belmonte Belmonte, Carlos lván Berrones Delgado, Bartolomé Boti Tudela, Mohammed Bouchnafa, Kaddour Boumedine, El Houssine Boumedine, Ali Busnaba, Juan Antonio Campoy Martínez, Ángeles Cánovas Baños, Ignacio Cánovas Campo, Juan Cánovas Campo, Antonio Cánovas Cánovas, Bernabá Cánovas Sánchez, Ernesto Luis Cauda Michellini,

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Alejandro Cayuela García, Miguel Cayuela Martínez, Delfín Cazarla Poyato, Driss Chayeb, Abderrahmane Chihbi, Pedro Cortés Marín (Chico), Manuel Cortés Ramírez, Juan Francisco Costa Martín, Juan Crespo Andreo, Ornar Dahmani, Zoubir Dahmani, Julio Manuel Delgado Astudillo, José María Díaz Fernández, Lakhdar El Farh, Houcine El Herch, Ahmed Elbaghadi, Irineo Encinas Antesana, Antonio Fernández Fernández, Juan Gallardo Garro, Fabricio García, José García Cánovas, José García Romero, Francesc García Sánchez, Domingo García Ruiz, Carlos Gauchet Cayuela, Nelson Gavilanes Benabides, Mohammed Ghorrafi, Carlos Giobanni, Juan Gómez Cayuela, Mario Gómez García, Melchor Gómez Tudela, José González Ureña, Ramdane Hadji, Ahmed Hourmi, Jilali Kaddouri, Ahmed Kharbouch, Mustafa Lamar, José Ángel López Berna! (Chungui), Lola López Esmeralda, Bernardo López Quiñonero, Alfonso Lorca Gómez, Sandro Luiz Barrero, Pedro Marín Arias, José Marín Maya, Ascensión Marín Méndez, Ginés Marín Sarabia, Jesús Martínez Baella (Grillo), José Martínez Costa, Bartolomé Martínez Fernández, lldefonso Martínez García, Pedro Martínez Gázquez, Jacinto Martínez Martínez, Fernando Martínez Molina, Juan Pedro Martínez Mora, Salvador Martínez Sánchez, Francisco Martínez Vélez, Tomás Mellado, Carlos Méndez, Raúl Merino Albares, El Hassane Messaoudi, Francisco Monte Torroglosa, Antonio Moreno Moreno, Antonio Moreno Muñoz (“Pía”), Juan Moreno Tudela, Antonio Muñoz Fernández, José Muñoz Marín, Vicente Muzo Llundo, Pedro Navar-

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ro Díaz, Juan Carlos Nieto Nieto, Brahim Ouraghi, Luis Paredes Quituña, Juan Pedro Perelló Olivat, Isabel Pérez Andreo, Antonio Pérez Ruiz, Segundo Andrés Ponbosa Camacho, Leoncio Prado, Luis Quinapanta, Víctor Quinapanta Moposita, Mimouin Rami, Miguel Requena Martínez, Juan Pedro Reverte Fernández, Orlando Rocha Cayo, Ariel Rodríguez Maida, Salvador Romera Martín, Francisco Romera Zamora, Clemente Romero Fernández, Víctor Romero Terrazas, Ana Ruiz Ruiz, María Dolores Ruiz Zuñega, Clemente Sánchez, Antonio Sánchez López, Francisco Sánchez Muñoz, Gregario Sánchez Nieto (“Chiquet”), Fina Sánchez Puerto, Elvira Santa Cruz, Luis Santiago Muñoz, Isabel Segura Ruiz, Abdelkader Smaili, Mohamed Temmani, Manuel Rigoberto Valdez Romero and Zuobir Wahabi. Finally, we would like to thank the large group that has voluntarily and selflessly collaborated throughout these four years of work: Adriana Pérez, Aida Romera, Alessandra Pische, Alicia Mejías, Alma Salinas, Ana Celdrán, Ana Finnegan, Anna Berrocal, Athina Doukaki, Christian Falanga, Erik Moog, Felipe García Miñarro, Gerai Puig, Guillem Salvador, Helena Valtierra, Henar García, Hendaya Serrano, Íngrid Blanch, Irene Gaya, Iris Bautista, Isabel Orozco, Joana Bruno, José Manuel Navarro García, Juan Panné, Laura Jiménez, Laura López, Llucia Bosch, Lorena Juárez, Margalida Rivas, Marina Martínez, Marta Sánchez, Mateu Xavier Maria, Miguel Valério, Montserrat Menasanch, Neus Roca, Pedro Ortiz Mármol, Vesna Vuckovic and Rocío Gómez.

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LA BASTIDA AND TIRA DEL LIENZO [TOTANA·MURCIA] RUTA ARGÁRICA 1. ARCHAEOLOGICAL GUIDES

Articles inside

SCIENTIFIC TEAM

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

STORAGE AND PRODUCTION

11. THE END OF AN ERA

NOTES

10. WHAT WAS TIRA DEL LIENZO?