The Argaric phenomenon in southeast Iberia emerges in the early Bronze Age as densely inhabited hilltop towns and fortified settlements. Archaeological data indicates a florescence of metallurgy, craft specialization, and stratified burial practices from sites such as La Almoloya (Pliego), La Bastida (Totana) and Cerro del Morrón (Moratalla). Radiocarbon dates spanning 2192–1000 BCE frame a long arc of social transformation: earlier communal burial traditions give way to intramural tombs and differentiated grave goods that suggest increasing social inequality.
Material culture — fine pottery, bronze tools, and sealed storage — points to intensified control of resources and landscape. El Argar (La Almoloya) in particular yields monumental domestic architectures and elite burials containing rich assemblages. Limited evidence suggests exchange networks with other Iberian groups and Mediterranean contacts, but the scale and directionality of those ties remain debated. The genetic sampling of 82 individuals concentrated in Murcia allows a regionally focused view of population continuity and change, while acknowledging that these sites capture only part of a diverse Iberian mosaic.
