Redefining the role of metal production during the Bronze Age of south-eastern Iberia. The mines of eastern Sierra Morena

Luis Arboledas-Martínez; Eva Alarcón-García

doi:10.4312/dp.45.11

Authors

Luis Arboledas-Martínez University of Granada, Department of Prehistory and Archaeology
Eva Alarcón-García University of Granada, Department of Prehistory and Archaeology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.45.11

Keywords:

Bronze Age; South of the Iberian Peninsula; Prehistoric mining; Copper; Silver; Archaeo-mining surveys; Excavation; Lead isotope analysis.

Abstract

Researchers have traditionally paid little attention to mining by Bronze Age communities in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. This has changed recently due to the identification of new mineral exploitations from this period during the archaeo-mining surveys carried out in the Rumblar and Jándula valleys in the Sierra Morena Mountains between 2009-2014, as well as the excavation of the José Martín Palacios mine (Baños de la Encina, Jaén). The analysis of the archaeological evidence and the archaeometric results reveal the importance of mining and metallurgical activities undertaken by the communities that inhabited the region between 2200 and 900 cal. BC, when it became one of the most important copper and silver production centers during the Late Prehistory of south-eastern Iberia.

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Author Biographies

Luis Arboledas-Martínez, University of Granada, Department of Prehistory and Archaeology

Luis Arboledas-Martínez (PhD 2007, University of Granada) is a contract researcher in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology of the University of Granada (Spain). His research has focused on the study of ancient mining and metallurgy in the Western Mediterranean from a Landscape Archaeology perspective. This includes a variety of areas ranging from archaeo-mining and the metallurgy of ancient mining landscapes to the social-territorial organization and cultural promotion of mining heritage.
Eva Alarcón-García, University of Granada, Department of Prehistory and Archaeology

Eva Alarcón-García (PhD 2010, University of Granada) is a contract researcher in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology of the University of Granada (Spain). Her research interests include gender archaeology and daily life activities during the Bronze Age. She has carried out archaeological fieldworks in different sites in the south of Iberia