The 'Maquiz Bronzes'. New proposals for their contextualisation within the historical process of Iliturgi

Abstract

Despite having become reference finds in the archaeological historiography of Spain, the so-called “Maquiz Bronzes” (Mengíbar, Jaén) still raise many questions as to their chronology and the context in which they were abandoned. This is in large part due to their chance find more than 150 years ago and the dearth of direct parallels on the Iberian Peninsula. Recent finds, such as those from the necropolis of Piquía (Arjona, Jaén), have highlighted the attribution of similar bronze objects to a funerary context and a late chronology of the early 1^st century BC. On the other hand, the analysis of the documentation conserved on the Mengíbar find provides quite a precise spatial context that allows us to place it on the eastern slope of the Cerro Maquiz hill, an area devoid of any occupational sequence prior to the 2^nd century BC. The relational study from the formal and functional perspectives, as well as the more complex evaluation of the site of the find, leads us to define new interpretative and contextual proposals for it, all integrated into the research dynamics focusing on the historical processes of the territory of Iliturgi.