Los punzones metálicos en los contextos funerarios argáricos: los casos de Fuente Álamo (Cuevas de Almazora, Almería) y la Cuesta del Negro (Purullena, Granada)

Abstract

The Bronze Age in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula begins with the Argar Culture which is characterized by burials in the living areas, usually under the floor of the houses. Always interments in a curved position, they can occasionally be accompanied by grave goods. It is in the analysis of this last where, in this article, an approach to the variety of metal awls is realized from a morphometrical analysis of the documented cases in the graves at the sites of Fuente Álamo (Cuevas de Almanzora, Almería) and La Cuesta del Negro (Purullena, Granada). The results show that the characteristics of these objects show that they are not identical although they are usually integrated under the same group called awls and that these differences have a strong relationship with the category of the deceased’s social status, as has usually been referred from other indicators (the grave goods, the burial container or the buried).