Probing into the halberd found buried with two skeletons at La Bastida in south-eastern Spain. This Bronze Age fortress may have represented the height of European political and military culture in its time, approximately 2200 BC. The fortress exhibits architectural elements found 400 to 800 years later in the military architecture of the Hittites and Mycenaeans.

The fortification has walls two to three meters thick (six to ten feet) built with large stones and lime mortar. The original height of the defensive wall was six or seven meters (20-23 feet tall). The wall was supported by thick pyramid based towers and six have been discovered along a length of 70 meters (231 feet) although the full perimeter of the fortification is 300 meters (990 feet). the entrance to the enclosure was a passageway built with strong walls and large doors at the end held shut with thick wooden beams.