Science News Study challenges long-held idea that warrior groups replaced male population of Iberian Peninsula around 4,200 years ago Instead, it posits a scenario in which groups with Steppe ancestry mixed with reduced-sized local populations.
A New Perspective on the Transition from Copper to Bronze Age
The research led by scientists of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Murcia has analysed the transition from collective burials in Copper Age to individual/sacrilegious burials on single or double tombs within El Argar society in Southeast Iberia.
To test this hypothesis, the team examined a large sample of radiocarbon dates (C-14) from human bones from different types of graves and found 2 important things. These changes first occurred rapidly, from communal to individual tombs. Second, and more importantly, a peak in the number of buried dead was recorded between 2550/2400 BCE and then a sudden decrease at 2300/2250 BCE.
These data support the idea of a population in southeast Iberia that was experiencing demographic contraction before the arrival of groups with Steppe-related genetic components. These guys when they showed up in the area, c. 2200-2000 BCE, either mixed with local small groups or took over uninhabited lands — rather than wiping out the native male population at sword point.
Questioning the Invasion Story
The results of the study challenge current theory that population with ‘Steppe ancestry’ went west from regions around the Black Sea and hunted over Western Europe up to Iberian Peninsula.
According to Camila Oliart, researcher at the UAB and co-author of the study: “In the case of Iberia it is suggested that men from the East coming to West were perhaps privileged in access to women and that, as a result, they would have discriminated or eliminated local males; which is an invasive interpretation with very high impact on media although possibly too fast “.
Rather, the researchers suggest an alternate historical scenario, which does not include killing off all of the men and enslaving local women after a supposed conquest. The inhabitants of southern Iberia “were limited in number at the end of the Copper Age and they absorbed some groups presenting Steppe genetic makeup but there is no evidence to support a great invasion,” explains Llorente.
Conclusion
The new study refutes the ancient notion of a brutal intrusion from the Eastern Steppe to all corners of Iberia and suggests instead targeted interactions that culminated in the sudden transition from Copper to Bronze Age. Based on such evidence as radiocarbon data and wider demographic patterns in the area, the researchers argue that the end of the Copper Age was not a sudden, calamitous event but rather the result of a long-term shrinkage of regional populations. This lays out a far more nuanced picture of cultural and genetic exchange back then, rather than the mere invasion now envisioned. Additional investigations would be needed to better understand this crucial period in Iberian history, the researchers say.
