‘Pre-urban’ settlement patterns and internal organisation of autochthonous sites at the outset of the Iron Age between the southeast of Iberia and the Strait of Gibraltar.

Abstract

Abstract: This article delves into the themes of settlement patterns, internal organisation and architectural traditions of the indigenous communities of the eastern half of southern Iberia at the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age transition. The results point to both continuity and change with respect to the Late Bronze Age, the changes stemming from the influence of the founding of Phoenician settlements in the region throughout the 10th-9th centuries cal BC. A first aspect worth highlighting among the autochthonous groups was their interest in establishing a political control over the areas both along the coast and the main inland communication routes. A second aspect was the emergence of both rural villages and the construction of settlements surrounded by walls containing acropoleis with buildings of local architectural tradition coexisting with others inspired by oriental traditions. Yet the internal organisation of these settlements is on the whole characterised by a continuity rooted in the Late Bronze Age. This diverse panorama must be understood in general terms in the framework of the internal dynamics of the different local communities characterised by the emergence of aristocratic societies linked to oppida that will dominate the political landscape in the 6th century BC.