Hilltop sites and broken vessels: rethinking the later phase of the Cogotas I Culture (1450-1150 cal BC) in the Iberian Meseta

This paper constitutes a self-critical appraisal on the current understanding of the last centuries of the Cogotas I Culture in inland Iberia. Several socio-political processes posited for this context, such as demographic nucleation, craft specialization and social hierarchization fail to match adequately with the evidence used to test them. We compile the available contextual information on Cogotas I hilltop sites so as to assess their formation cycles. As a result, they are interpreted as seasonal aggregation places, the outcome of intermittent and reiterative occupations for ceremonial purposes. In addition, the 'cultural biographies' of several ceramic vessels retrieved from pits allow us to track similar prescribed and multi-phase gestures performed during their abandonment both in hilltop sites and in lowland pit sites. Both approaches highlight the unsuitability of any kind of dualistic and simplistic readings of the archaeological record and suggest other possible interpretations.