ORIGINAL PAPER Early metallurgy in SE Iberia. The workshop of Las Pilas (Mojácar, Almería, Spain) Mercedes Murillo-Barroso 1 & Marcos Martinón-Torres 1 & Mª Dolores Camalich Massieu 2 & Dimas Martín Socas 2 & Fernando Molina González 3 Received: 29 July 2016 /Accepted: 6 December 2016 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract Big narratives on the role of metallurgy in social change and technological innovations are common in archae- ology. However, informed discussion of these issues requires a contextualised characterisation of metallurgical technology at the local level in its specific social and technological con- texts. This paper approaches early metallurgy in Iberia from a technological perspective. We focus on the site of Las Pilas in the Vera Basin (Mojácar, Almería, Spain), where the whole metallurgical chaîne opératoire has been documented in situ through archaeological excavation of a third millennium BC context. The study includes microstructural, mineralogical and chemical analyses of ores, slag, technical ceramics and finished artefacts, as well as domestic pottery used for com- parative purposes. These results are discussed with reference to the archaeological context and evidence for other domestic activities and crafts. Our aim is to contribute to better charac- terise the early metallurgical tradition of Southeast Iberia, pay- ing particular attention to specific technological tools, knowl- edge and recipes that may allow future comparative ap- proaches to knowledge transmission or independent innova- tion debates. For this particular case, we demonstrate the di- rect production of arsenical copper in a low-scale, low-spe- cialisation, low-efficiency set up that involved the crucible smelting of complex oxidic ores in a context that suggests associations with cereal roasting and, indirectly, with basket and pottery making. Keywords Early metallurgy . Prehistoric technology . Arsenical copper . Slag . Iberia . Copper age Introduction Technology has traditionally been considered of essential im- portance in social change, given that key technological inno- vations have the capacity to cause profound social transfor- mations. However, we should be wary of possible assump- tions implicit in this premise: there is a tendency to relate technology to ‘progress’ and from this surmise that more com- plex technological systems equate to superior societies, which are typically seen as the source of the knowledge transmitted to ‘lower’ societies. In the realm of prehistoric metallurgy, V. Gordon Childe created a persuasive model whereby metallurgy was seen as a highly complex and socially transformative technology re- quiring full-time specialists. Metallurgy was thought to have been developed by the civilisations of the near east, from Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12520-016-0451-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Mercedes Murillo-Barroso m.murillo-barroso@ucl.ac.uk Marcos Martinón-Torres m.martinon-torres@ucl.ac.uk Mª Dolores Camalich Massieu dmassieu@ull.edu.es Dimas Martín Socas dsocas@ull.edu.es Fernando Molina González molinag@ugr.es 1 UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK 2 Departamento de Prehistoria, Arqueología, Antropología e Historia Antigua, Universidad de La Laguna Campus de Guajara, 38205 La Laguna, Spain 3 Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad de Granada Campus Universitario de Cartuja, 18071 Granada, Spain Archaeol Anthropol Sci DOI 10.1007/s12520-016-0451-8