Changing Social Relations in the Mediterranean Copper and Bronze Ages

New virtual approach to the study of metallurgy through the analysis of slice marks from the Chalcolithic site of Zanjillas (Torrejón de Velasco, Madrid, Spain)

“…These changes would have thus contributed to the modification of the production systems, increasing productivity and revitalising trade relations in search of new routes for the acquisition of the raw materials required to manufacture the new metal artefacts (Blake & Knapp, 2005;Carter & Philip, 2006;Roberts et al, 2009). Second, the emergence of metallurgy would have also triggered social changes as people had to engage in increasingly specialised tasks, which would have also contributed to an increasing social complexity (Carter & Philip, 2006;Chapman, 2005;Roberts et al, 2009;Rowan, 2018). Nevertheless, despite the importance of metallurgy to the development of prehistoric societies, metal remained as a scarce, highly valuable, and reusable element for a long time, which would explain its sparsity in the Chalcolithic archaeological record (Ackerfeld et al, 2020).…”

“…Regardless of its origin and dispersion, metallurgy was not limited to a technological change but involved additional aspects that permeated daily life from different perspectives, including the economy, the ideology, the social organisation, and the culture of past populations (Carter & Philip, 2006; Chapman, 2005; Montero Ruiz & Murillo Barroso, 2016; Murillo Barroso, 2020; Roberts et al, 2009; Rovira, 2004; Rowan, 2018). The first metallurgical evidences are, in fact, not usually linked to functional activities but are rather associated with ornamental uses (Maddin et al, 1991), and ritual and funerary contexts (Budd & Taylor, 1995; Dolfini, 2014; Kienlin, 2014), where metal objects appear as symbolic elements linked to social elites (Hanks & Doonan, 2009; Hansen, 2013; Klimscha, 2013).…”