Tomb 80 of La Almoloya (Pliego Murcia). Example of a typical burial from the Argaric Bronze Age. Credit: ASOME-UAB. (CC BY-ND).

A new study has raised questions over the theory that a violent invasion of the Iberian Peninsula took place in the Late Prehistory

A study by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Murcia (UM) challenges the theory that warrior groups with a ‘Steppe’ genetic component originating from Eastern Europe violently replaced the male population of the Iberian Peninsula some 4,200 years ago.

Instead, the study presents a different scenario, in which groups with ‘Steppe’ ancestry mixed with other demographically weakened locals.

In the paper, the research team explored how society and populations changed in southeast Spain 4,200 years ago, during the transition from the Copper to the Bronze Age.

To this end, they focused on one of the best-known aspects of this transition: the shift from communal burials in the Copper Age to the single and double tombs of the Bronze Age El Argar society.

The team looked at a large sample of radiocarbon (C14) dates from human bones discovered in these different types of graves.

The first result of the analysis is chronological and suggests that the change from communal to individual tombs happened quickly.

But it is the second result that has arguably greater implications. By examining a large sample of radiocarbon dates from human remains in southeast Iberia, they observed a peak in the number of buried dead during 2550-2400 BCE, followed by a sudden drop in 2300-2250 BCE.

The authors interpret this data from a demographic perspective.

Rafael Micó, professor at the UAB and co-director of the Mediterranean Social Archaeoecology Research Group (ASOME-UAB), which carried out the study, said: “It is likely that the inhabitants of southeastern Iberia were already very few, around 4,300 or 4,200 years ago, just before the arrival of populations with new genetic components, labelled ‘Steppe’.

The archaeological site of Gatas (Turre, Almería), where one of the oldest known Argaric tombs was found. Credit: ASOME-UAB. (CC BY-ND).

“When individuals with Steppe ancestry were found in southeastern Iberia, around 2200-2000 BC, they simply mixed with small local groups or occupied uninhabited areas.”

Along with these results, the team also cites previous archaeogenetic studies that point to the absence of a ‘male bias’ among peninsular groups with Steppe ancestry.

Cristina Rihuete Herrada, also professor at the UAB and co-author of the study, explained: “This allows us to propose a different historical scenario, which does not contemplate invading hordes of ‘Steppe’ warriors who would have annihilated the local men and formed a male elite with exclusive access to local women.”

Social disruptions

4,200 years ago, between the Late Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age, major social disruptions occurred in Central and Western Europe.

Archaeologists are still debating over their exact sources, and explanations range from drought to large-scale violent migrations or the spread of contagious diseases.

Camila Oliart, UAB researcher and co-author of the study, said: “In recent years it has been argued that populations with what is known as ‘Steppe ancestry’ migrated westwards from the region around the Black Sea, aided by the horse and wheel as new technologies, and brutally raided Western Europe.

“In the case of Iberia, it has been suggested that men arriving from the East had preferential access to women and discriminated or eliminated local males, in what is a very impactful ‘invasionist’ interpretation in the media, but perhaps also a too hasty one.”

In the study now published, the research team outlines a context that may have important implications for understanding the transition between the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age in south Iberia 4,200 years ago, and in the southeast in particular.

Over the two centuries prior to this date, the social landscape may have been quite far from that of a thriving Copper Age. It was probably characterised by smaller settlements and low population density.

Declining local dynamics

From this perspective, the ‘collapse’ of the Copper Age 4,200 years ago was not a rapid, massive and disruptive event affecting a densely populated and powerful society, but the culmination of two centuries of declining local dynamics.

This new scenario does not involve the mass elimination of men or the subjugation of local women after an alleged conquest, as the study points out.

Miguel Valério, UAB researcher and co-author of the study concluded: “The inhabitants of southern Iberia were already few in number at the end of the Copper Age and mixed with groups of Steppe genetic ancestry without the need for a large-scale invasion.

“We should start to consider alternative explanations.

“We cannot ignore the fact that violence was an ingredient of social life in the Copper Age, but so far nothing proves that its end was the consequence of a generalised conflict between genetically distinct populations.”

The research is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports,