Characterisation of the Early Iberian Culture horizon (6th-5th century BC) of the Vilars Fortress (Arbeca, les Garrigues, Lleida)

This paper stems from the need to fill the hiatus of knowledge of Early Iberian period (6th-5th centuries BC) in the Western Catalonian Plain based on the study of the Fortress of Vilars (Arbeca, les Garrigues). The notions advanced are based on the study of the urban development of the settlement between the Early Iron Age and the Early Iberian period and the analysis of the pottery (from a statistical perspective) appearing in the fortress throughout this period. The aim is to understand this period of change marked by technological innovations and cultural transformations that imply a flow of ideas between the autochthonous residents and exogenous peoples of the Mediterranean and how the ideas are reflected in the architecture and the artefacts.

Keywords: Early Iron Age, Early Iberian period, Catalonian Western Plain, Fortress of Vilars, urbanism, pottery.