The first metallurgy in the Pityusic Islands (Balearic archipelago, Mediterranean Sea)
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ORIGINAL PAPER
The first metallurgy in the Pityusic Islands (Balearic archipelago, Mediterranean Sea) Pau Sureda 1,2 Received: 25 January 2018 / Accepted: 23 August 2018 # The Author(s) 2018
Abstract The islands of Ibiza and Formentera (the Pityusic Islands in the Balearic archipelago, Spain) were one of the last insular contexts to be colonised in the Mediterranean. The first settlement occurred during the second millennium cal BCE, probably by continental Bronze Age communities. During the first centuries of occupation (ca. 2100–1400 cal BCE), local material culture is defined in terms of the Bell-Beaker/Dolmenic and First Naviform periods. The Pityusic Islands have no mineral resources for producing copper or bronze objects locally, so the presence of metal objects dated to these periods necessarily indicates exogenous contact. Seven metal objects have been found in five archaeological sites located in both islands. Archaeometallurgical research conducted on these objects reveals the economic behaviour of these first settlers in acquiring these resources. In this respect, aspects of this behaviour, such as technological patterns and trade dynamics, are analysed. Keywords Bronze age . Pityusic Islands . Metal trade . Isolation . Island colonisation . Archaeometallurgy . Lead isotope analysis . XRF-ED
Introduction The development of metallurgy and the importance of metals from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age societies in the Western Mediterranean are evident from several perspectives. However, research has focused on major archaeological sites and contexts, such Los Millares, El Argar and the Bell-Beaker groups. Islands offer a number of advantages for studying prehistoric human societies (Evans 1973; Cherry 1990; Fitzpatrick 2004; Knapp and van Dommelen 2014; Dawson 2014; Cherry and Leppard 2017), especially as regards the possibility of identifying the influx of foreign elements. The first human settlement on the Balearic Islands is widely accepted to have occurred between 2470 and 2210 cal BCE (Aramburu-Zabala and Martínez-Sánchez 2015; Bover et al. 2016; Cherry and Leppard 2018). On the Pityusic Islands
* Pau Sureda [email protected] 1
Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio (Incipit), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Av. Vigo s/n., 15705 Santiago, Spain
2
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
(Ibiza and Formentera) (see Fig. 1), archaeological information for the early prehistoric settlers is dated to the end third and early second millennium cal BCE (Costa Ribas and Guerrero 2002; Ramis 2014) and is limited to just a few sites, including Avenc des Pouàs (Alcover 2008), Ca na Costa (Fernández et al. 1976; Topp et al. 1979; van Strydonck et al. 2005), Can Sergent (Costa Ribas and Fernández 1992), Cap de Barbaria II (Sureda et al. 2017a, 2017b), Cova des Fum (Topp 1988; Marlasca and López Garí 2015), Cova des Riuets (Marlasca 2008; López Garí et al. 2013 ) and Puig de Ses Torretes/Es Castellar (Costa Ribas and Guerrero
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