Social Resistance in Bronze Age Iberia

Abstract This article contributes to current debates on interaction, expansion, and resistance in Bronze Age Europe and the Mediterranean by refining world-systems approaches through the analysis of large, uneven archaeological datasets. Focusing on Early Bronze Age Iberia (ca. 2200–1550 BCE), it examines interactions between El Argar, one of the most dynamic economic and political formations in prehistoric Western Europe, and the non-state communities occupying its northern periphery. Drawing on more than a century of archaeological research across an area in excess of 210,000 km 2 , the study combines statistical and spatial analyses of the distribution of the available evidence with archaeological interpretation. Results identify macro-regional north–south economic gradients alongside localised patterns of resistance and negotiation, revealing a long-lasting interaction zone characterised by settlement atomization, enrockment, selective exchange of metals and ivory, and elevated interpersonal violence. Rather than passive margins, peripheral communities actively constructed this borderland through economic autonomy, strategic interaction, and violent resistance. These findings refine world-systems perspectives while preserving the specificity of local dynamics.