Agasica cup; El Argar, second millennium B.C.

Agasica cup; El Argar, second millennium B.C.
Ceramic.
Measurements: 20 x 19,5 cm.
Cup of high foot with wide truncated cone base, partially hollow, and upper body of ovoid profile with a soft hull marking the point of inflection of the edge, slightly convex and invaded. The paste has a grayish-brown color and compact texture. The walls are thin, with blackish-brownish-reddish surfaces, smoothed by spatulate and with a burnished finish. There are several examples in the museum of Almeria, which show the same typology.
The culture of El Argar, developed in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula during the second millennium B.C. (c. 2200-1550 B.C.), constitutes one of the most advanced social systems of the Europe of the Bronze Age. It was characterized by a strongly hierarchical organization, fortified settlements on high ground and centralized control of metallurgical production, especially of arsenical bronze. Its material culture reveals a remarkable standardization, visible in the Argaric pottery, generally of thin walls, burnished surfaces and austere forms that stand out for their functionality and technical quality rather than for their decorative exuberance. Metallurgy reached an unprecedented degree of specialization, producing weapons (daggers, halberds, swords), tools and grave goods that indicate marked differences in status. Overall, Argaric art, sober and utilitarian, reflects a society oriented towards productive efficiency and social control, where aesthetic manifestations were subordinated to functionality and the prestige associated with metal.