Society and economy in the Late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age in the Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula: An approach from the archaeological sources

At the end of the Bronze Age, important changes took place among the communities of the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. These changes continue during the seventh and sixth centuries B. C and are characterized by a gradual formation of a warrior-type aristocracy. But this "elite" did not consolidate its power definitively until the early Iberian Period, establishing the social structure characteristic of the archaic states of the Iberian Period. Nevertheless, there are social differences among inland and coastal territories. In the inland areas (rivers Segre-Cinca, Guadalope and Matarrana-Algas) these differences are the result of local development of societies and, in the coastal areas the main changes take place in parallel with a Phoenician trade, integrating them in the Mediterranean world-system. The local response to this phenomenon was not homogeneous. Differences include chronology, settlement processes and distribution of wealth. We analyze here recent studies on this subject, including the issue of the Urnfield Culture and give special emphasis to the main archaeological contributions of the last decade.