Tracing social inequalities in the Early Iron Age

Abstract

The excavation of the settlement of Punta de Muros was a breakthrough in our knowledge of the Early Iron Age of the Iberian Peninsula. The development of new multidisciplinary research has broadened our understanding of the site and clarified several facts about the emergence of fortified landscapes. This paper synthesizes these advances and focuses on the development of social inequality trends within a non-hierarchical society between the 6th and the 4th centuries BC. The reflection of these changes in the archaeological record will be addressed, focusing on what forces triggered these internal transformations and to what extent we can define the emergence of social inequality.

Keywords

• Early Iron Age
• NW Iberia
• Europe
• Prehistory
• social change