Integrating Bioarchaeology and Chronology at Los Melgarejos to Understand Ditched Enclosures in Copper Age Iberia

In Iberia, ditched enclosures appeared during the Copper Age (late fourth to third millennium bc ). These sites are linked by their circular organization, communal labour investment, and complex temporality, but vary markedly in their distribution, function, and scale. Though archaeological attention has focused on ‘mega-sites’, an assessment of small-scale enclosures in marginal environments is key to understanding the social dynamics that facilitated their emergence. Here, the authors present results from Los Melgarejos (Getafe, Spain), the first Iberian Chalcolithic enclosure (3 ha) to be extensively documented, with all structures and seven per cent of the enclosure ditches excavated. Bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, isotope analyses (δ 13 C co , δ 13 C ap , δ 15 N), and radiocarbon dating are employed to compare lived experiences of diet, stress, trauma, and funerary ritual at small- and large-scale enclosures. Comparisons with the mega-site of Marroquíes reveal similarities in lived experience and ritual practice, as well as regional differences in dietary isotopes, highlighting the utility of multiscalar comparisons for understanding prehistoric lifeways

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bioarchaeology · Bronze Age · Chalcolithic · Chronology · Geography · Archaeological and Historical Studies · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Paleopathology and ancient diseases

• New Dates for the Emergence of the Megalithic Phenomenon on the Iberian Plateau

  Open Access•Rosa Barroso Bermejo, Primitiva Bueno-Ramírez et al.•Cambridge Archaeological Journal•2026

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