A new study disputes the theory that Steppe warriors violently replaced Iberian males 4,200 years ago, suggesting instead a peaceful integration with an already weakened local population.
A new study from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the University of Murcia questions the idea that fighting groups with “Steppe” ancestry got rid of the men who lived on the Iberian Peninsula 4,200 years ago.
Instead, it shows that these groups mixed with local populations that were already less densely populated. This gives us a more complex picture of the genetic changes.
The study team looked at how society and populations changed in southeast Spain 4,200 years ago, when the Copper Age ended and the Bronze Age began. The paper was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
In order to do this, they looked at one of the most well-known parts of this change: the change from community burials in the Copper Age to single and double tombs in the Bronze Age El Argar society. The group studied a lot of radiocarbon (C14) dates from bones of people found in these different kinds of graves.
Key Findings: A Demographic Shift
The first result of the study is a timeline that shows how quickly the change happened from group tombs to private tombs. But it could be argued that the second finding is more important.
By looking at a lot of radiocarbon dates from buried human bodies in southeast Iberia, they saw that the most people were buried between 2550 and 2400 BCE, and then there was a sudden drop between 2300 and 2400 BCE.
The writers look at this data from the point of view of demographics. “It is likely that there were not many people living in southeastern Iberia around 4,300 or 4,200 years ago, right before groups with new genetic makeup showed up and were called “Steppe.”
“When people with Steppe ancestry were found in southeastern Iberia between 2200 and 2000 BC, they just mixed with small local groups or lived in places that no one else lived,” says Rafael Micó, a professor at the UAB and co-director of the ASOME-UAB Mediterranean Social Archaeoecology Research Group that did the study.
Along with these results, the team also points to earlier archaeogenetic studies that show there is no “male bias” among Steppe-related groups in South America.
Cristina Rihuete Herrada, also a professor at the UAB and co-author of the study, says, “This lets us propose a different historical scenario, one that does not involve hordes of invading “Steppe” warriors killing all the local men and making a male elite who could only date local women.”
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A period of abrupt change, but with a progressive ‘steppe’ genetic influence
Between the Late Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age, 4,200 years ago, there were big changes in society in Central and Western Europe. They may have come from a drought, large-scale violent migrations, or the spread of diseases that can infect others. Archaeologists are still arguing about the exact cause.
“Recently, it has been argued that people with what is called “Steppe ancestry” moved west from the area around the Black Sea, helped by new technologies like the horse and wheel, and attacked Western Europe violently,” says Camila Oliart, a researcher at UAB and co-author of the study.
“In the case of Iberia, it has been said that men who came from the East had easier access to women and discriminated against or killed local men. This is a very powerful “invasionist” interpretation in the media, but it may also be too hasty.”
A Decline in Local Societies Before Steppe Arrival
Researchers have now released a study that describes a setting that may help us better understand the change from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age in south Iberia 4,200 years ago, especially in the southeast.
In the two hundred years before this date, society may not have been at all like it is now during the Copper Age. Smaller towns and a low population density are likely what made it unique.
From this point of view, the “collapse” of the Copper Age 4,200 years ago was not a sudden, huge, and upsetting event that hit a society with a lot of people and a lot of power. Instead, it was the end of two hundred years of things getting worse in the area.
The study points out that this new situation does not involve killing a lot of men or putting local women down after an alleged conquest. It was not hard for people from the Steppe to mix with people from southern Iberia because there were not many of them living there at the end of the Copper Age.
Miguel Valério, a researcher at UAB and co-author of the study, says, “We should start to think about other explanations.” “We can not deny that violence was a part of life in the Copper Age, but there is no proof yet that the end of it was caused by a general war between genetically different groups of people.”
In spite of this, the team stresses the need for more precise radiocarbon dating and genetic testing on human remains from the latest Copper Age burials and the oldest Bronze Age (El Argar) burials. In the end, they said, “Such data is absolutely crucial to get a better sense of the nature, scale, and speed of the changes taking place in the formation of Bronze Age societies.”
For the study, about 450 radiocarbon dates from people buried in tombs from the Copper Age and Early Bronze Age in Almería (Camino del Molino), Murcia (Cerro de la Virgen, Panoría), Jaén (Marroquíes Bajos), Seville (Valencina de la Concepción), and Évora (Perdigões) were looked at.
A study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports on September 8, 2024, by Rafael Micó, Eva Celdrán Beltrán, Joaquín Lomba Maurandi, Camila Oliart Caravatti, Cristina Rihuete Herrada, and Miguel Valério looks at how social changes happened over time using radiocarbon datasets. The study is about the Copper and Early Bronze Ages in Southeast Iberia.
Researchers at ASOME-UAB Rafael Micó, Camila Oliart, Cristina Rihuete Herrada, and Miguel Valério are part of the study’s writers. Also from the University of Murcia are Eva Celdrán Beltrán and Joaquín Lomba Maurandi.
