Book contents
- The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean
- The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Mediterranean Introductions
- Insularity and Connectivity
- Mobility, Migration and Colonisation
- Hybridisation and Cultural Encounters
- Materiality, Memory and Identity
- Community and Household
- Life and Death
- 30 Beyond the General and the Particular: Rethinking Death, Memory and Belonging in Early Bronze Age Crete
- 31 From the Nineteenth Century to the Twenty-First: Understanding the Bronze Age Argaric Lifecourse in the Mediterranean ‘Far West’
- 32 Crossing Borders: Death and Life in Second Millennium BC Southern Iberia and North Africa
- 33 An Entangled Past: Island Interactions, Mortuary Practices and the Negotiation of Identities on Early Iron Age Cyprus
- 34 The Violence of Symbols: Ideologies, Identity, and Cultural Interaction in Central Italian Cemeteries
- Ritual and Ideology
- Index
31 - From the Nineteenth Century to the Twenty-First: Understanding the Bronze Age Argaric Lifecourse in the Mediterranean ‘Far West’
from Life and Death
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2014
Book contents
- The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean
- The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Mediterranean Introductions
- Insularity and Connectivity
- Mobility, Migration and Colonisation
- Hybridisation and Cultural Encounters
- Materiality, Memory and Identity
- Community and Household
- Life and Death
- 30 Beyond the General and the Particular: Rethinking Death, Memory and Belonging in Early Bronze Age Crete
- 31 From the Nineteenth Century to the Twenty-First: Understanding the Bronze Age Argaric Lifecourse in the Mediterranean ‘Far West’
- 32 Crossing Borders: Death and Life in Second Millennium BC Southern Iberia and North Africa
- 33 An Entangled Past: Island Interactions, Mortuary Practices and the Negotiation of Identities on Early Iron Age Cyprus
- 34 The Violence of Symbols: Ideologies, Identity, and Cultural Interaction in Central Italian Cemeteries
- Ritual and Ideology
- Index
Summary
The El Argar culture, spanning the years 2200-1500 Cal BC in southeastern Iberia's Bronze Age, is one of the best-known prehistoric periods in the western Mediterranean. This chapter first discusses traditional accounts of Argaric culture. It then talks about recent developments in research on the mortuary records that question long-established assumptions, examines hitherto unstudied practices and opens up new avenues for interpretation and analysis. The chapter also focuses on the re-evaluation of the warlike nature of Argaric societies, and assesses studies of commensality rituals in funerals. There are two main sources of archaeological evidence that allegedly illustrate the warlike nature of Argaric society: the emergence of specialised weaponry and the very characteristics of Argaric settlements in relation to their location and some of their structures, interpreted as defensive. Commensal pottery and animal bones found in burials are two major sources of evidence for the study of Argaric funerary commensality practices. Finally, the chapter examines works dealing with daily maintenance activities.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
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