settlements

Evidence of specialized pottery workshops operating 4,000 years ago in southeastern Spain has been uncovered by archaeologists, fundamentally challenging previous assumptions about Bronze Age El Argar society. The research reveals that most pottery recovered from major El Argar settlements was not produced locally, but rather manufactured at dedicated production sites located far from political centers. This discovery provides compelling evidence of a sophisticated, hierarchically organized state system operating in the Iberian Peninsula during the Early Bronze Age (2200-1550 BC). The research team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona analyzed pottery from key El Argar administrative centers including Tira del Lienzo and Ifre in Murcia province. According to the study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, most ceramics originated from