The First Kings of Iberia: The Argaric Culture
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
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In Bronze Age Iberia there was a powerful society that dominated the region for over six hundred years. This was a strictly hierarchical society ruled by powerful chieftains, or perhaps kings and queens, supported by a wealthy aristocracy, a labouring class, and slaves. They interred their dead with standardised grave goods that marked their age, sex, and social rank. The elite men were given copper and bronze weapons while the elite women wore gold or silver jewellery and sometimes beautiful silver diadems. They had trade links that extended across the Mediterranean to North Africa, the Aegean, and the Near East, and all the way across Europe to the Baltic. This is the amazing story of the bronze age rulers of Spain - what some have called the first state society in Western Europe - the El Argar culture.
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Sources
The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age: amzn.to/3ZXIGh0
The Archaeology of Bronze Age Iberia- Argaric Societies: amzn.to/3utMNbb
Political collapse and social change at the end of El Argar -Lull, Micó, Herrada and Risch
The La Bastida fortification: new light and new questions on Early Bronze Age societies in the western Mediterranean - Lull, Micó, Herrada and Risch
Bell Beaker Settlement of Europe: The Bell Beaker Phenomenon from a Domestic Perspective amzn.to/49gANc7
Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age-Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
Kinship practices in the early state El Argar society from Bronze Age Iberia: www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
www.la-bastida.com/
www.elargar.com/
The above links include affiliate links which means we will earn a small commission from your purchases at no additional cost to you which is a way to support the channel.
Thank you
Ancient Europeans for use of artwork: / ancienteuropea1
Video Chapters
00:00 The Argaric culture
02:12 Sponsorship
04:02 Where did they come from?
06:01 What is the El Argar culture?
11:03 El Argar burial customs
13:42 El Argar kinship practices
15:05 Women and leadership in Argaric society
18:08 Decline and fall of El Argar
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Thanks for watching!
Excellent video, Dan, I had no idea this culture existed! I've noticed you read "Únětice" with a "k". Únětice are a village near Prague and it's read with a "c" like in "cycling" or "cider" - Czech is an extremely hard language, so I don't blame you for mixing it up, and you've got the rest of the word quite right ;)
remember that they are forced to cooperate with police, so your DNA may help the police bring you or your family to justice if you ever commit a crime (or your child or uncle) :)
Did you see the Reuters article about King Tut having european DNA haplogroup in his Y chromosome?
You should read a book called Yorkshire Folk Talk, the vicar tells of the people of the east coast north of the Humber before the modern age and how they spoke and also his journey across to Denmark in the late 1800s to sample their language and compare it to what the locals spoke.
The closely built buildings in Spain is to keep out heat...
Dan, creators like yourself are why nobody misses The History Channel.
The History Channel is why nobody misses the History Channel
The History Channel no longer gives a damn about history
Well said
They should probably change the name of their channel.
The History Channel did everything but history! 🙂
It’s so good to get something for the general public that treats us as intelligent people, a presentation that is informed and well sourced, that gives us an overview without superficiality or sensationalism. I like that you give us sources in the information so that we can go further into something.
Dan is the best at this I've encountered on my long and wide journeys on TH-cam
Yes, and with professional self-restraint of bias or agendas.
@@notbobrosss3670 ???
Well said!!
As long as you like cultural marxism and loads of left wing propaganda!
As a spaniard i only ever learned this last year at the madrid museum of archeology, since then i wholeheartedly believe chalcolythic spain must have literally been the world of conan the barbarian
Y yo
Bueno, no hay que caer en lo absurdo.
@@c.a.s.anphorachiclana7434 ñiñiñi
Bueno, Conan se rodó en parte en Cuenca, jajaja
The movie was shot in the ancient kingdom of Almeria, I feel this proves your point :D
Hello everyone, I live a around 10k away from the main El Argar archeological site. It is great to see people bring light to how important and advanced the culture was and how important a piece of history this little and mostly forgotten area of Andalucia has, also having the first settlement from a foreign power a measly 15km or so to the east of El Argar in Villaricos, being first settled by the phoenicians, then conquered by the greek and lastly by the romans.
I'd like to use the opportunity to bring your attention to the state of consevation of these incredible sites. The El Argar site is nowadays little more than a few holes in the ground marked with construction tape and used for the dumping of plastics from the greenhouses around it, the phoenician and roman ruins have mostly been built over for tourist apartments while the Los Millares site is actually pretty well kept.
It is nice then to see these sites be talked about in the community, seeing how forgotten they are and how little love their remains are kept with even by the people that live here.
I mean, at least the good news with the plastic, is we'll be able to date the trash layers and sort out what belongs with what...
But yeah, disrespect for the past begins where disrespect for the present starts.
Aqui en Mallorca se construyo el aeropuerto encima de lo que entonces era la capital de la cultura talayotica en la isla, sin hablar de la cantidad de talayots en propiedad privada sin excavar o en estados lamentables que existen hoy dia.
Don't forget the oldest basketry, espadrilles and use of opium poppy, found in the Cueva de Murcielagos de Albuñol.
The true cultural inheritors are those people that appreciate the history, not those that live nearby or are related physically.
I feel you. I'm originally from the Canary Islands although I currently live in northern Spain. Pre-hispanic archaeological sites in Canary Islands are forgotten or have been destroyed to build touristic complexes 🙃 The tourist industry is more important than preserving our history and natural spaces, I guess. When there won't be any interesting and natural spaces in the islands, tourists will stop coming and the islands will become a graveyard for derelict ugly hotels and shopping centers 🙃✌🏻
I've never even heard of the El Argar culture and I probably never would were it not for you, Dan my man. Thank you as ever for the fantastic video about an underrated Bronze Age culture!
Publications about El Argar are almost exclusively in Spanish. The register used in them is certainly not easy to follow either.
@@richardcook5919 Times like this I regret only knowing English.
Thank you so much for this! Prehistoric and ancient Iberia is one of the most underrated historical topics of all. Original people of the Iberian peninsula and their wonderful art, their relations with Celts and Carthaginians, "the boring province" of the Roman Empire, the conquest by German tribes.
I don't get why these subjects don't get more attention, but your video is that much more valuable because of that.
Did youREALLY bring the tired and dimwit "underrated" Trope here?
@@briseboy Well, I think calling this topic underrated and underused is completely justified. Compare the amount of popscience content (books, videos on YT, TV shows) about ancient Greece, Rome, Britain, Mesopotamia or even China and India, to content about ancient Iberia. There's hardly anything.
I guess this is probably related to both the Spanish dark legend and that Spaniards are usually not very fluent in English. But in terms of archeology archeology and archeologists it's a treasure trove.
Yes of course the unknown for foreigners of Pre-foreigners cultures of Spain is impresive normally the civilizations for foreigner TH-cam videos in English begining in Román Era or another foreign culture is incredible no known autentic roots of Iberian Peninsula with Iberians ; Tartessians or Celts very advanced cultures demonstred in a large Archeological objects with Lady of Elche and many others objects or historical very important historical facts with Viriatus Hero Lusitanian or brave Iberian Numancia City agaisnt Rome in few exemples
There were hardly any "original Iberians" by the time of Celts. There were only Celt-Iberians and non-CeltIberians at that time. One being descended from the Celts and the others from an ancestral population similar to the Celts.
The original Iberian population was kind of wiped out by the Bell beaker invasions long ago.
Thanks for this video Dan. Fascinating stuff on a subject that barely gets any attention. I've been meaning to visit Los Millares for years, I'll have to add the sites of the Agaric Culture to my list. There was so much going on in Iberia during the Bronze Age
Cheers Pete, glad you enjoyed it. Yeah I was holding off making this until I could go to the sites but I couldn't wait any more. La Bastida should be a good visitor experience when it's all done.
You could add a visit to Cancho Roano and to La Motilla de Azuer
"Extinguishing the existing male lineages while taking wives from the existing Iberian population" is quite the euphemism
Indo european!
And people wonder what our ancestors did to the Neanderthals.
It seems the strategy hasn't changed
Ironically, over 1,000+ years later, the Spaniards did the same thing to the native men in the Americas.
@@TheBigdaddy64 their diseases did at least.
It's amazing how similar their architecture and art was to the ancestral people's where I live in the southwest US. Like the Anasazi, Sinagua, and others separated by 1,000s of years and an ocean.
It shows how similar the ingenuity of our ancestors was when they had to deal with similar resources and climate.
Really cool!
Exactly, because parts of Spain (and Portugal, where I'm from) have similar weather and geological characteristics to some US states like Arizona or parts of California and Texas. The wildlife differs, but thats about it.
@@TruthMatters9674Like in biological evolution there is a term called "convergent evolution" ... we can make an analogy that regardless of the time frame in a similar environment, culture ends adopting or reaching similar solutions.
Maybe they came here to Europe before. I’m saying this because of the name of mexico which can come from metxico (Meri and Txico) deities from all iberia. Meri and txico they are know nowadays as basque deities.
True. Kind of similar to that of some West African groups like the Dogon and Tellem (and the ancient towns of Djenne Jeno and Dia) too (and somewhat the Lobi, Gurunsi, Banana, and Soninke - also West African), who also lived/live in a semi-dry rocky environment). It's also like that of some ancient Middle Eastern towns like Jericho in Neolithic Anatolia.
I must say that's so cool.
When the people talk about Bronze Age, Mesopotamia and places close to this part of the World.
Nobody really talks about other places having Bronze Age.
A video like this is pure gold. The first proper summary of the El Algar culture. Thank you.
Both visits (to La bastida, the main city; and La Almoloya, the ruling place) are highly enjoyable. I strongly recommend to do both of them if one is travelling to Murcia region and is into archaeology/ancient history. Cheers from Spain! Un saludo, Mr. Davis. :)
No eres Español?
Sí, ¿por?@@Benito-lr8mz
Sí, ¿por? @@Benito-lr8mz
We are very lucky to have someone who covers cultures most other history youtubers don't mention. And to have such high quality videos that are very entertaining to listen to is wonderful. I'm happy every time I see one of these
That diadem style, silver with a disc shape makes me think it might depict the moon (in a stylised way).
Yes, me too. I keep trying to figure out which way up it should go, as the photo of the skull showed it moon “down” while illustrations showed it moon “up”. But maybe it varied according to whether someone was of childbearing age, or married or not - or maybe alive or not.
No, it was an artistic licence, it was used in the down position.@@eh1702
Excellent video as always, Dan. You offer your audience very precious insight into so many interesting topics.
The big bowl with the huge, almost-flat shoulder is technically very challenging for professional potters today, not just to construct, but to fire it without it collapsing. They perfected some impressive technique in that long timespan!
Change comes at a cost, and an unpredictable cost. If you produce the same 8 items over and over, you know exactly how much clay, what type and mix, and how much fuel is needed. Your broken old pots and firing breakage will also crush down to an exactly consistent grog!
You can send a specific number of people to quarry, carry back and process a known amount of clay, and a specific amount of fuel, and time and plan your firing economically.
Even your average breakage rate during firing will be known for each item, so you can predict your end quantity quite well.
Pottery uses a LOT of fuel. If they did this for hundreds of years, they had to have kept it sustainable. Being conservative with forms would enable them to create a virtuous cycle (and recycle) with very, very little wasteage of resources.
Did they have a few “insitutional” potteries (hence lack of decoration?) or did they regulate the forms people were allowed to make, as a way of promoting frugal use of common resources?
Great input!
just cut the crap , olalde , published his studies twice meaning he does not have a clue to Iberian gene pool , iberians today are not the iberians of 4000 years ago
@@robertolang9684
I think you replied to the wrong comment, mate.
@@robertolang9684 i am at a loss as to why this is a reply to what I said.
@@JustGrowingUp84 na all that crap is based in olalde studies that is just rubbish, he dna tested samples of 1400 in andaluzia calling them berbers , and most of that samples were male r1b , only females were mtdna berber, the guy was a joke , there is a sample j1 in ampurias that he even did not published the results , they distort the findings of the tests to suits they narrative like saying basques 100% iberian and then saying the iberians are different from basques carrying the same amount of iberian , ha ha ha
Dan Davis is in the top 3 of my favorite creators. I am always excited when a new one comes out. When I discovered him about a year ago I binged everything made already. Thank you so much Dan & everyone who contributes 💚
I couldn't agree more. Firmly in the top. The way he is able to transport me with his storytelling, honest accuracy, visuals and narration to the worlds and lives of peoples and cultures long past to a degree unequalled on TH-cam. Can't wait untill I can afford his books and be transposed accross time by this storyteller
Dan Davis, Cool Worlds, and Anton Petrov for me.
@@shantiescovedo4361 damn that's close to my top 3: Dan Davis, Cool Worlds and Isaac Arthur. If I am even able to honestly condense it to only 3 😅
@@jezusbloodie I think I have listened to almost every Isaac Arthur talk for the last three years, but I typically listen to him as a podcast, while I watch the others as TH-cam videos. Cool Worlds has a good podcast now as well. Dan has such a positive feeling to his videos and it makes me wish I could I could spy on these ancient cultures somehow.
@@jezusbloodie did you see there odd also a new Cool Worlds video today as well?
Hi Dan - I am an archaeology student at Oxford and I love your videos - the topics are so well researched, narrated, and visually represented that you often surpass the quality of a good lecture here. Keep up the great work!
I really appreciate these videos on Bronze Age central & western European cultures. So much of ancient history content focuses on Egypt/North Africa, The Levant & the Aegean. The UK & Europe are often left out until it involves Rome.
I visited Los Millares recently. Its insane how old it is. I have never felt something like that before.
Excellent video. Keep this quality content coming.
I studied the settlements of the Argar culture in Spanish Art History at the University. As it was an artistic subject, it consisted of describing the places, their timing, the reasons for their geographical position and their establishment on hills.I remember we also talked about the particular burial system inside the houses. The recent genetic discoveries that have allowed us to know about the extinction of male genetic lines throughout Europe had not yet taken place. Anyway the hypotheses of conquest by a nomadic people with a pastoral culture contrasts with the idea of a people focused on the defense of their territory halberd in hand and the cultivation of barley. A most interesting enigma this of the ancient Spanish "alabarderos".
Always looking forward to your book and videos, keep them coming!
thank you dan, your videos always make me happy
Your videos are so awesome man I don’t watch them as often as I would like but when I do I am amazed
So exciting! New Davis video!
Nice to have these videos back again, interesting as always!
I read about this culture in the UK Guardian 2 years ago. Fascinating. So good to get an update.
*I’ve never heard of these people or this culture. Shows how much our history is being suppressed. Thank you for bringing this to light, this kind of stuff is why I’m becoming an anthropologist. I love our peoples history. I’m a Spanish and German mixture and I love both sides of my family bc they are so completely different yet both equally beautiful.*
Nah your uneducated even feeding some evil force in your brain some phantom trying to keep you misinformed yeah you don't study enough
How was any of this being suppressed?
You've confused not being popular with suppression
Y vives en Islandia?🤔
It is not suppressed, it is merely something most people have very little interest in.
Great content as always.
Once again you bring the best info on old Europe! I'm so glad I subscribed to your channel! Keep up the great work! You rock!
Thank you! Great as always💫
Fascinating topic. I thank you for bringing it up
That's another 'early cultures' page needed on the History Files site then... Fortunately this one was already in preparation so it's timely enough that you publish such a superb, detailed video about now.
Thank you for making this video. I love your relaxing style of explaining everything.
Will definitely watch every one of your upcoming vids Dan.
Seen them all so far.
Magnificent expose.
Informative and to the point. Great video!
As always Dan, another glorious video, and with what is going on in the world, your videos are like a breath of fresh air for the mind and soul! 👏👏👏 wonderful ⚔️👌
Excellent stuff, as always. Hands down my favourite history channel on youtube. Keep it up!
Excelent and unique video. Thanks for sharing.
Bravo, Mr. Davis. Bravo. Your channel is a treasure as always and i can't wait for your next installment. Will definitely be annoying all my friends again by sharing this video as i share all your others in hopes that the enthusiasm i feel for your subject matter may be transferred to another eager for knowledge and of course entertainment. Thank you again, sir. Greetings from northern Florida!
Great ! I was so pumped the first time i hear about this culture
Another excellent production, thank you
I'm portuguese, this was awesome!! Thank you
I live about 50 mins from these sites in Murcia. I haven't visited yet, but I'm definitely going to go this summer. Thanks for the vid and inspiration to finally explore these sites. There are so many Roman sites to visit here in Spain that these pre-Roman sites get almost no attention.
As someone from the zone whos trying to set a story in this time, this video is absolutely wonderful and useful. Thank you so much for your work
Interesting as always :) Thank you Dan!
Love the content!
Beautiful video, thanks
Another Great video dude!!!!
This was quality! Looking forward to your Unetice video. I visited the Halle museum, last September and saw the Nebra sky disc and other artefacts including halberds.
Thank Dan. Another great one. More, more, more ...
These videos are absolutely killer. Amazing work
Another fantastic episode
What a great account of a culture I'd never heard of! Many thanks from Australia.
yay dan Davis uploaded
Excellent thank you for your hard work!
It's gonna be a good Sunday;] Thanks!
very good program, a fascinating study of an early culture
Fascinating, thank you, I had never heard of this culture.
Hadn't heard of the El Argar Culture before, very much enjoyed this. The Etruscans were big on their walled hill cities, i wonder if there was a connection? Beyond the obvious hard work that goes into your videos your enthusiasm for the topics is in your voice. Very well done!!!!
Excellent video! I was aware of the El Algar but knew very little about them, so this video is a fascinating and informative guide. It's interesting to speculate about how much influence the Minoans may have had on the El Algar culture considering the similarity between their buldings. Reminds me of the obviously Greek influence on the Hallstatt culture at Heuneberg.
I'm looking forward to seeing more on the Ùnetice Culture in the future too.
Thank u- ❤️ur videos!!
Good stuff, Dan, good stuff!
I can’t believe you’re covering my local area. So proud 🥺🥺🥺
Dan Davis out hear spitting hott hott fire 🔥
Hi Dan. I did my kit and, I'm 85% iberian. 12% Sardenian. 3% Finish.
I'm from Almería, and I've work in the archeology works from Los Millares. It's a pleasure to me to work in this kind of things.
Thank you for your work!!!
Frikin good vid man keep goin
Excellent video, Dan, I had no idea this culture existed! I've noticed you read "Únětice" with a "k". Únětice are a village near Prague and it's read with a "c" like in "cycling" or "cider" - Czech is an extremely hard language, so I don't blame you for mixing it up, and you've got the rest of the word quite right ;)
The German town name,
_AUJENTITZ_
it used to be much more common to read, in the earlier decades of that culture discovery and studies.
@@pendragonU that's because we were forced to use German as the official language during that period, the land, however, has always been Czech, and so were the archeologists, so what's your point?
The DNA giving us the genetic heritage told us so much about the culture and its history that we would have had to guess at. It is so useful and amazing that we can get that out of people's remains from so long ago and they can tell us about their ancestors and children.
I'm glad you also made the link with Minoans. This centralization of power is very similar.
I watch a lot of your stuff on TV, so I can never leav a comment. But, this is great stuff. Keep up the good work.
Been there twice. The view is fantastic and the hike not too bad.
I truly appreciate your content 😺🍻🖖
Love exploring this area. The obvious tourist traps like Fuentes Del Algar and Cuevas Del Canelobre are great, but there is so much more sitting out there on the hills waiting to be discovered.
Great video
I'm looking forward to how you bring this stuff to life in a future book!
very good description and analysis... grains=control
Muy buen documental. Gracias por activar los subtitulos.
Bronze age is the period when all the forests that stood around the Mediterranean sea were cut to provide fire to the forges, build houses and ships, make place for agriculture, etc.. Before that a continuous belt of trees was covering all these shores, a lot of cedar trees (Cedar of Lebanon type), nothing is left now!
After this period a civilization crash happened, for hundreds of years the sea people reigned by looting and devastating what was left.
Climate is also becoming more and more arid, but this might be coincidental, as it started at the end of the Holocene climatic optimum +6000 years ago (check the "exact" dates!) with the desertification of the Sahara, and it's still going on today.
That's actually a really interesting observation. Perhaps the sea peoples would not have been as successful as they were, had there been massive forests blocking their way. And for that matter, maybe the disease and strife that unleashed them would not have been as easily spread.
Wow! I had never heard of the Argar Culture.... Learned something new today...
Lo mejor que he visto de la cultura Argarica, muchas gracias.
Excellent! Even more interesting since I live in Spain .
Thank you!!
I can’t get enough of your videos, keep it up!! Also would like to look into your novels, how could I go about finding them?
Thank so much.
Hmmm ,Bronze Age halberds are an interesting item. If you have ever spared with one and explored the Bronze Age halberds properties you soon lean that hacking away with it like an axe is a rookie mistake and that they have a lot more going for them. Just the thing for for bypassing shields.
Pura vida Don Dan great part of history of my madre patria .pura vida great content
Never heard of them. This is so awesome!
La Dama De Elche: an image of one of the most beautiful women who ever lived.
I saw it and empathized with Pygmalion. The bust dates putatively from around 500BC, considerably later than this culture.
The contributions of Iberian peoples have been lost, forgotten, and ignored. The Tartessians may have invented the phonetic alphabet and passed it on to the Phoenicians during trading.
No, los tartesios tomaron el alfabeto de los fenicios. Eso es seguro, puesto que antes de la llegada de los fenicios a la península hay inscripciones fenicias en oriente. Es verdad que hay algunos charlatanes que consideran que las inscripciones alfabéticas que se hayan en monumentos megalíticos del bronce probarían una existencia anterior de la escritura en España. Es obvio que esas inscripciones son posteriores a los monumentos en sí. Y probablemente fuesen realizadas por los fenicios o por los propios tartesios.
Did anyone think that the silver diadem looked very much like sunrise? It would explain why it was upside down on a dead person. Representation of a sunrise in life and sunset in death.
Excellent documentary, Dan. It is interesting that the Tartessian culture ended abruptly as well many centuries later.
Great! Best Regards from Portugal!
Just top tier!
I always think of Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian whenever those R1b replacement guys come up in your videos. They seem pretty brutal.
There is also something else about R1B1. Rhesus disease. Populations where it is common have a relatively high incidence of rhesus-negative blood groups. If rh- women have a rh+ partner, (especially if he has a double inheritance of the relevant antigen) then these women they have a fair chance of an immune reaction - usually after the first pregnancy - which can severely affect subsequent pregnancies. Without modern medicine, that is. Her immune cells cross the placenta and start attacking the baby’s red blood cells.
So what if there were plenty of women that came along with R1B1 males, but took local partners (similar to how the Normans got their feet under the “peace” table after the Conquest). Over just a few generations, their lineages could well die out.
No doubt about it, they were…acquisitive and, er, forceful guys. But anyway, it’s a thought.
This was a great video. It was fascinating, and it's also one of those cultures that I'm glad isn't around anymore. XD
Clay/mud is such a beautiful and magical building material. Clay buildings just feel right.
Very well researched and unbiased. I'm Portuguese (from the south of the country) and so we share a similar history and genetic heritage with our Andalucian neighbors. I'd like to note how all of the Iberian male DNA was wiped out clean by the invading Yamnaya men, who also took over the women and killed the native men and their offspring.
Yamnaya culture a misterious culture is posibly the Ukraine-Russia región the "male ethnic clean" ocurred in vast part of Europe for this misterious culture
The researcher whose study was the base for that sensationalistic theory was so horrified that it was so misunderstood by the press (“they killed all men!”) that refuses to speak to the press again. He says that it never was a slaughter, but a slow, gradual process that lasted 500 years.
No signs on the hard facts Archaeological records proving such genetical shift by massacres or warfare. Most probably, and easier by economic advantages livestock breeders had, disease or social blockers and rural vs. urban remains found in different proportions. Scant number of remains in those centuries (only around 200 specimens from the 2 millions estimates that lived in 4 centuries in the whole peninsula)
Ancient ethnic cleansing models are mostly mythical.
Being shot down more and more by actual, real evidence.
It's a common mistake to think that "oh they killed all the males!" When male DNA becomes absent.
In reality; new blood type emergence/ differences seem to be the reason why Denisovans couldn't reproduce well with humans. Merging peacefully with them - explains why we have so much of their DNA in us. Many probably took humans as partners, but without modern science, wouldn't understand why the mother would miscarry and go into preeclampsia due to baby/mother blood type mismatch.
This is brand new research. Cutting edge.
Remember the ethnic cleansing story/rumor of the Neanderthal dissapperance? (Ironically, here in Iberia?)
Well, in today's Portugal the "last refuge of Neanderthals," they found mutations in Neanderthal DNA that made it impossible for male Neanderthals to have a male baby with a female human.
It doesn't take more than a few generations of living / merging together as a species for the male DNA to completely disappear.
So what about human on human, post advent of civilization migration and violence?
Ethnic cleansing is pretty rare in the ancient world. There are no crusades, not much religious fervor/hate... as pagans don't care what other pagans do and believe.
Migrants can bring new diseases to populations without immunity. Native Americans did not get wiped out by war. 94% of their population loss - credited to new epidemics.
Also -
The bronze age is an age of slavery. Very little ethnic cleansing ever existed when people were worth money to sell after battle.
Abolishing slavery - had the unfortunate side effect of popularizing ethnic cleansing. More holocausts have occurred in modern times than in the distant past, where it was anomaly.
Lastly, people in the crowd of ethnic cleansing have to explain one thing that they can't. It takes pretty much true psychopaths to commit mass murder. That's why Jews had to be sent off to camps, the average German soldier would absolutely refuse orders to make mass graves, and shoot civilians into them. Of those that obeyed, most of them killed themselves. In depression.
Our basic human psychology has never changed. Many Romans were ashamed/appalled at what happened to Carthage. Most Roman soldiers did not kill innocents - but the city caught fire, and it became an urban fire storm. Roman hatred was evident, but most couldn't bring themselves to commit mass murder.
I feel if the male DNA disappeared, for the bronze age, the most likely explanation is the slave trade.
Male slaves are the strongest and the most valuable. Underground mining in the ancient past was very unsafe.
That could be key to the mystery here. Bronze. Bronze itself.
For the first time in human history, hard rock, underground mining occurs - and must be sustained for modern life.
There's a new demand for robust slaves - in quantity. Just like in other cities of the bronze age, the captives become slaves.
If the healthiest males and females were shipped off to the mines that would explain pretty much everything.
The ones that are beautiful and delicate, those are kept by the captors.
Most of Europe has a little Iberian Ancestry, usually in the female side. The Iberian s populated much of the Atlantic seaboard, the 1st farmers. They were widely displaced by the Bell Beaker culture, but as in any mass displacement the fairer sex is allowed to live on in many cases.