The Argaric culture, named from the type siteEl Argar near the town of Antas, in what is now the province of Almería in southeastern Spain, is an Early Bronze Age culture which flourished between c. 2200 BC and 1550 BC. The Argaric culture was characterised by its early adoption of bronze, which briefly allowed this tribe local dominance over other, Copper Age peoples. El Argar also developed sophisticated pottery and ceramic techniques, which they traded with other Mediterranean tribes. The center of this civilization is displaced to the north and its extension and influence is clearly greater than that of its ancestor. Their mining and metallurgy were quite advanced, with bronze, silver and gold being mined and worked for weapons and jewelry. Pollen analysis in a peat deposit in the Cañada del Gitano basin high in the Sierra de Baza suggests that the Argaric exhausted precious natural resources, helping bring about its own ruin. The deciduous oak forest that covered the region's slopes were burned off, leaving a tell-tale carbon layer, and replaced by the fire-tolerant, and fire-prone, Mediterranean scrub familiar under the names garrigue and maquis.
Extension
Main Argaric towns
El Argar: irregularly shaped.
Fuente Vermeja: small fortified site, 3 km north of El Argar
Lugarico Viejo: larger town very close to Fuente Vermeja.
La Bastida : larger fortified site
La Almoloya : in the top of a plateau
Puntarrón Chico: in the top of a small hill, near Beniaján
Ifre : on a rocky elevation.
Zapata : 4 km. west of Ifre, fortified.
Cabezo Redondo : one of the biggest settlements, on a rocky elevation next to an old lagoon and salt evaporation pond.
Gatas : fortified town on a hill with remarkable water canalizations.
El Oficio : atop of a well defended hill, strongly fortified, especially towards the sea.
A meaningful element are the glass beads that are found in this culture and which have been related with similar findings in Egypt, Mycenaean Greece, the British Wessex culture and some sites in France. Nevertheless, some of these beads are already found in chalcolithic contexts which has brought some to speculate on an earlier date for the introduction of this material in southeast Iberia.
undergoes important changes, almost totally abandoning decoration and with new types. Textile manufacture seems important, working specially with wool and flax. Basket-making also seems to have been important, showing greater extent and diversification than in previous periods.
Funerary customs
The collective burial tradition typical of European Megalithic Culture is abandoned in favor of individual burials. The tholos is abandoned in favour of small cists, either under the homes or outside. This trend seems to come from the Eastern Mediterranean, most likely from Mycenaean Greece. From the Argarian civilization, these new burial customs will gradually and irregularly extend to the rest of Iberia. In the phase B of this civilization, burial in pithoi becomes most frequent. Again this custom seems to come from Greece, where it was used after. ca 2000 BC.
Related cultures
Los Millares: its antecessor culture.
Bronze of Levante: extending by the Land of Valencia: with smaller towns but very related to El Argar.
Mycenaean Greece: some cultural exchanges across the Mediterranean are very clear, with Argarians adopting Greek funerary customs, while Greeks also import the Iberian tholos for the same purpose.
Nuragic civilization: Cultural exchange and probably influenced the Nuragic people with their tholos.
