BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age on the Iberian Peninsula saw a shift in mortuary customs from mainly inhumation to cremation of the deceased. The poor preservation characteristic of cremated skeletal remains has hindered molecular analyses (isotope analyses, ancient DNA) of the Iberian Final Bronze and Iron Age communities of Iberia. Incidentally, a limited number of young children, often newborns, were exempt from the predominant cremation ritual, in favour of intramural inhumations inside buildings at certain settlements. The discourse surrounding the mean- ing and interpretation of this particular burial rite has developed over a long time in Iberian archaeology but has always been hampered by the limited anthropological, archaeological, and molecular data from these intramural inhumations. Here, we study the genomes of 37 intramurally buried children found in three Early Iron Age settlements, dated between c. 800–450 BC. Population genetic analyses on the newly reported individuals extend our understanding of ancient Iberia by revealing previously unsampled genetic diversity as well as showing a lesser influence of Mediterranean ancestry than on previously published Iron Age individuals from northern Spain. We also provide insights into the sex and biological relatedness of the children, and in so doing, elucidate differ- ent aspects of the intramural burial ritual and building use in settlements. More broadly, the genetic data from these individuals fill an important gap in the archaeogenetic record of northern Spain and offer a unique opportunity to study the genetic makeup and population changes from the Bronze Age to Antiquity., This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union¿s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 851511). It has also been supported by the research project »Convergence and interaction between complex Bronze Age societies« from the Academia program of the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) of the Catalan Government and the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation (PID2020-112909GB-100).

The Early Bronze Age in Europe is characterized by social and genetic transformations, starting in the early 3rd millennium BCE. New settlement and funerary structures, artifacts and techniques indicate times of change with increasing economic asymmetries and political hierarchization. Technological advances in metallurgy also played an important role, facilitating trade and exchange networks, which became tangible in higher levels of mobility and connectedness. Archeogenetic studies have revealed a substantial transformation of the genetic ancestry around this time, ultimately linked to the expansion of steppe- and forest steppe pastoralists from Eastern Europe. Evidence for emerging infectious diseases such as Yersinia pestis adds further complexity to these tumultuous and transformative times. The El Argar complex in southern Iberia marks the genetic turnover in southwestern Europe ~ 2200 BCE that accompanies profound changes in the socio-economic structure of the region. To answer the question of who was buried in the emblematic double burials of the El Argar site La Almoloya, we integrated results from biological relatedness analyses and archaeological funerary contexts and refined radiocarbon-based chronologies from 68 individuals. We find that the El Argar society was virilocally and patrilineally organized and practiced reciprocal female exogamy, supported by pedigrees that extend up to five generations along the paternal line. Synchronously dated adult males and females from double tombs were found to be unrelated mating partners, whereby the incoming females reflect socio-political alliances among El Argar groups. In three cases these unions had common offspring, while paternal half-siblings also indicate serial monogamy or polygyny.

The transition between the Late Copper and the Early Bronze Age in Central and Western Europe saw large-scale social disruptions ca. 2200 cal BCE ('4,2 ka event'). Their source is much debated, and scholars have addressed the problem from various disciplinary perspectives. One account points to the westward migration of populations with Pontic-Caspian 'Steppe' ancestry, possibly favoured by the spread of infectious diseases, but the question remains open. In southeast Iberia, the shift from communal burial practices in the Copper Age to single and double tombs in the Bronze Age offers a reliable diagnostic feature for the transition. To investigate social and demographic changes in this region during the late 3rd millennium BCE, we resorted to new C14 dates from human bone samples originating from both kinds of funerary contexts. Our statistical analysis indicates that most probably the changes in funerary rituals in southeast Iberia were fast. It also implies that the local populations had dropped in numbers before 2200 cal BCE, so that the presence of 'Steppe ancestry' ca. 2200-2000 cal BCE could be the result of their admixture with neighbouring peoples. Finally, we suggest that more high-precision C dates and archaeogenetic analyses from this transitional period are crucial for addressing the formation of Bronze Age societies.

The Early Bronze Age in Europe is characterized by social and genetic transformations, starting in the early 3rd millennium BCE. New settlement and funerary structures, artifacts and techniques indicate times of change with increasing economic asymmetries and political hierarchization. Technological advances in metallurgy also played an important role, facilitating trade and exchange networks, which became tangible in higher levels of mobility and connectedness. Archeogenetic studies have revealed a substantial transformation of the genetic ancestry around this time, ultimately linked to the expansion of steppe- and forest steppe pastoralists from Eastern Europe. Evidence for emerging infectious diseases such as Yersinia pestis adds further complexity to these tumultuous and transformative times. The El Argar complex in southern Iberia marks the genetic turnover in southwestern Europe ~ 2200 BCE that accompanies profound changes in the socio-economic structure of the region. To answer the question of who was buried in the emblematic double burials of the El Argar site La Almoloya, we integrated results from biological relatedness analyses and archaeological funerary contexts and refined radiocarbon-based chronologies from 68 individuals. We find that the El Argar society was virilocally and patrilineally organized and practiced reciprocal female exogamy, supported by pedigrees that extend up to five generations along the paternal line. Synchronously dated adult males and females from double tombs were found to be unrelated mating partners, whereby the incoming females reflect socio-political alliances among El Argar groups. In three cases these unions had common offspring, while paternal half-siblings also indicate serial monogamy or polygyny., This study was supported by the Max Planck Society and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program Grant 771234-PALEoRIDER (to W.H.), European Union-NextGenerationEU, Ministry of Universities and Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, Margarita Salas from University of Zaragoza (to V.V.-M.) and María Zambrano from Autonomous University of Barcelona (to M.V.), Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness projects HAR2017-85962-P and PID2020-112909GB-I00 (to C.O., C.R.-H., E.C.B., V.L., R.M., and R.R.); AGAUR-Ajuts per a Grups de Recerca de Qualitat 2017SGR1044 (to C.O., C.R.-H., E.C.B., M.V., V.L., R.M., and R.R.); and ICREA Academia program (to R.R.). I.O. is supported by the grant "Ayudas para contratos Ramón y Cajal" funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by "ESF Investing in your future".
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age on the Iberian Peninsula saw a shift in mortuary customs from mainly inhumation to cremation of the deceased. The poor preservation characteristic of cremated skeletal remains has hindered molecular analyses (isotope analyses, ancient DNA) of the Iberian Final Bronze and Iron Age communities of Iberia. Incidentally, a limited number of young children, often newborns, were exempt from the predominant cremation ritual, in favour of intramural inhumations inside buildings at certain settlements. The discourse surrounding the mean- ing and interpretation of this particular burial rite has developed over a long time in Iberian archaeology but has always been hampered by the limited anthropological, archaeological, and molecular data from these intramural inhumations. Here, we study the genomes of 37 intramurally buried children found in three Early Iron Age settlements, dated between c. 800–450 BC. Population genetic analyses on the newly reported individuals extend our understanding of ancient Iberia by revealing previously unsampled genetic diversity as well as showing a lesser influence of Mediterranean ancestry than on previously published Iron Age individuals from northern Spain. We also provide insights into the sex and biological relatedness of the children, and in so doing, elucidate differ- ent aspects of the intramural burial ritual and building use in settlements. More broadly, the genetic data from these individuals fill an important gap in the archaeogenetic record of northern Spain and offer a unique opportunity to study the genetic makeup and population changes from the Bronze Age to Antiquity., This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 851511). It has also been supported by the research project »Convergence and interaction between complex Bronze Age societies« from the Academia program of the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) of the Catalan Government and the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation (PID2020-112909GB-100).

The Balearic Islands were colonised around the transition from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age, not earlier than 2300 cal bce and certainly much later than any central or eastern Mediterranean islands. The number of archaeobotanical records is low and consists mainly of cereals and a few pulses. We present here new results of our long-term study of Son Fornés, an archaeological site on Mallorca which was occupied since the beginning of the Iron Age Talayotic period (~ 850 cal bce) and until Roman times (123 bce onwards), in the Balearic Islands. In the Talayotic period of Son Fornés Hordeum vulgare var. vulgare (hulled barley) and Triticum aestivum/durum/turgidum (free-threshing wheat) were the main cereals grown and Vicia faba (broad bean) was the main pulse, while Avena sp. (oats) is considered to have been a weed but was nonetheless consumed and was probably in an early phase of being domesticated. For the subsequent post-Talayotic (ca. 550 − 250 bce), Classic I and Classic II, the Republican Roman occupation period (from 123 bce onwards) the databases are weak, displaying hulled barley as the main crop and broad bean as the main pulse. The archaeobotanical records of Ficus carica (fig), Olea europaea (olive) and Vitis vinifera (grapevine) represent wild or cultivated and domesticated forms. Prunus dulcis (almond) and Pinus pinea (stone pine) were found on Eivissa (Ibiza), pointing to a Phoenician introduction to the islands, while Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) and Castanea sativa (chestnut), found on Menorca, might have been brought in by the Romans. The number of crops being used on the Balearic Islands was limited when compared to sites of similar periods on the European mainland or the central and eastern Mediterranean islands. According to carbon isotope results of Δ13C, hulled barley grew under damper conditions than free-threshing wheat. The high δ15N values indicated that both crops were well-manured with animal dung during the entire occupation period.