Producir, consumir, comerciarterritorios y alfarerias del bronce final al hierro antiguo en el sureste ibérico

Abstract

This thesis develops a thorough examination of the pottery and ceramics that characterized the communities settled in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (13th/12th – 6th/5th centuries BC). However, understanding ceramics as a social construct closely linked to the cultural environment that surrounds it, this thesis carries out a deep analysis of the different historical and territorial dynamics that conditioned the development of this period. These two axis articulate the research presented here in an interrelated way, a necessary orientation to analyze a period characterized by the evolution of local communities and the consequences that began because of the intercultural encounters that took place at the end of the 2nd millennium and the first half of the 1st millennium BC. Based on a review of previous publications about this timeperiod, a methodological approach has been implemented to generate new data that contributes to a rereading of the aforementioned subjects, as well as adopting a theoretical position more in line with the importance of the endogenous communities within the framework of colonial situations. From the direct study of ceramics to archaeological spatial analysis and fieldwork, we have been identifying a diversity of realities that reveal the complexity of this period due to the multiple responses and the high variability that occurs between each settlement, although they belong to the same cultural horizon. Nevertheless, among these research methods the archaeometric techniques stand out for their importance. These are essential to move beyond macroscopic considerations and to define clay preparations, technological patterns and potter’s gestures that allow the precise characterization of areas of provenance and ceramic workshops. Regarding the results presented in this thesis, what stands out is the identification from specific cases of general processes that are developed in a transversal way in the region. This multi-scalar approach aims to differentiate macro-scale phenomena from micro-level scenarios. This is the case, on the one hand, with the territorial and cultural processes that led to the transition period between the postargaric period and the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the reorganization and consolidation during the recent Late Bronze Age of the territories that would determine the dynamics of the following periods, the motivations that the Phoenician colonizers could have with respect to Iberian Southeast, or the reorientation of the autochthonous settlements and colonial environments in the transition period that begins with the end of the Early Iron Age. On the other hand, the cross-sectional studies developed on the potteries at a morphotypological and functional level have revealed the possibilities that ceramic repertoires have regarding identity phenomena. These attitudes are reflected in positions of resistance with regard to change and the continuity in the use of traditional forms and techniques, in addition to the selective capacity of potters and consumers to adapt and adopt foreign objects, technologies and concepts to the point of integrating them as their own, as has been demonstrated from archaeometric analyzes. Taking all this into consideration, a huge range of possibilities related to production strategies, commensality, diets or socialization is revealed, showing that ceramics are only an instrument to reach those who conceived, made, transported and consumed these clay made objects. In conclusion, this thesis aims to be an update on this period of continuous transition that, in our opinion, cannot be understood in an isolated manner. For the Iberian Southeast, the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age mark an exceptional and complex period due to the number of actors and the mixture of cultures and identities that converged in the region. However, this situation should not be understood in negative terms, but as a exemplification of the capacity for response, adaptation, evolution and resilience that these communities –both those that directly connect with the societies of the Late Bronze Age, as well as those with colonial roots that had stayed to live and die there–, were able to develop before a historical conjuncture marked by continuous and profound political, social, economic and cultural changes.