Agricultural development and social evolution in South-East Spain

The Copper to Bronze Age sequence in southeast Spain clearly reveals a process of evolution towards greater social inequalities and conflict. These changes are associated with the development of metallurgy and of capital intensive subsistence production. This article reviews the principal dimensions of current debate on the dynamics of this evolution: whether the roles of the emergent elites in Copper and Bronze Age societies be seen as managerial or exploitative and whether the opportunities for management/control depended on the growth of the metallurgical industry or on agricultural intensification.