THE TRANSITION TO A SOCIETY WITH A STATE IN THE SOUTH EAST OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA (6th–4th CENTURY BC)

Abstract

Summary. From the 6th century BC onwards the Iberian culture, with its strong and deep Mediterranean roots, developed along practically the whole of the east coast of Spain, in eastern Andalusia, and part of the Ebro valley, being most clearly defined between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. An example in the South East of the Iberian Peninsula is one of those which most clearly displays its character. This paper (a summary of my doctoral thesis, Madrid 1988) concentrates on the middle of the Segura basin, in what are known as the western and eastern districts of Murcia and the pre-coastal depression of Murcia. It is a region which has its own cultural and geographical identity, while offering a minimum of published data, sufficiently significant for bibliographical review, which makes it possible to maintain the historical hypothesis put forward.