Ancient site · Settlement
El Argar
El Argar, on a flat hilltop near Antas in Almería, southeastern Spain, is the type site of the Early Bronze Age Argaric culture. Behind a wall stood rows of long rectangular houses, and more than a thousand graves were dug inside the houses themselves, many with bronze daggers, axes and ornaments.
The Argaric people were among the first in Iberia to use bronze widely, and some archaeologists think their society was ruled like an early state.
- Dates
- c. 2200–1500 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 37.25° N, 1.92° W
How we know
No writing existed; the dates come from graves and layers excavated since the 1880s.
Nearby sites
- Los Millares c. 3000–2000 BCE
- Dolmen of Menga built c. 3750–3650 BCE
- Atlantis (legend) Plato (c. 360 BCE) set it c. 9600 BCE
- Pont du Gard 1st century CE; used perhaps until the 6th century
- Su Nuraxi di Barumini tower 17th–13th century BCE; village to the 6th century BCE
- Carthage founded c. 814 BCE (traditional date); destroyed 146 BCE; Roman city to 698 CE
Related
- Argaric culture (El Argar) archaeological culture
- The world in 3000 BCE: The First Kings chapter