Image Credit: Jerónimo Roure Pérez, CC BY-SA 4.0

Specialized Potteries Reveal El Argar Organized Society

A new study by researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) shows that El Argar pottery, produced around 4,000 years ago, came from specialized workshops strategically located near specific clay deposits — not within the main political centers as once believed.
Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the study found that most ceramics from El Argar’s main hubs, such as Tira del Lienzo and Ifre in Murcia, were made in the coastal mountains of southeastern Spain. Using geochemical and spatial analyses, archaeologists surveyed more than 5,200 km² and compared 140 clay samples to pottery fragments from four major El Argar sites.
Their findings indicate a centralized, hierarchical production system, with distinct settlements specializing in standardized items like cups and jars made from a specific red clay. This organization points to a coordinated economic and social structure extending beyond local communities.
“The homogeneity of the pottery suggests supra-local planning and control,” said Roberto Risch, who led the study. The results challenge previous views that each settlement made its own pottery, revealing instead a regionally interconnected economy that reflects the El Argar civilization’s complexity and hierarchy.

Published on: 10-11-2025

Source: Autonomous University of Barcelona