SURVEYING FOR EARLY MINING REMAINS IN SOUTHEAST IBERIA

摘要

The Iberian Peninsula is well known for its rich and varied mineral deposits. Yet very few archaeological fieldwork projects have paid systematic attention to evidence for early mining activities there. While western Iberia in recent years has seen some increase in research on prehistoric mining, in most other regions a dearth of data persists, particularly in the southeast, where only the Roman mining operations around Cartagena have been the object of systematic study. This is despite the fact that the Los Millares and El Argar cultures of the Chalcolithic and Earlier Bronze Age in southeast Iberia, and their respective copper and bronze industries, have long been a focus of scholarly interest. On the other hand, there is no shortage of hypotheses linking the introduction and early development of metallurgy in the area to an increase in social complexity and the eventual rise of stratified societies during the third and second millennia BC.