The HUM-274 research group was created in 1989 with the aim of studying the communities that lived in the south of the Iberian Peninsula during recent prehistory.

Their main lines of research have focussed on the study of different types of social organisation, their production systems, the environment in which they developed as well as their transformations in space and time.

Furthermore, the group has undertaken, as lines of work, the dissemination and social role of archaeology, the conservation of archaeological sites, and statistical and computer techniques for the study and processing of archaeological data.

Lastly, the programme of systematic archaeological excavations should be mentioned, which are carried out by the group at very important prehistoric sites such as Los Millares (Santa Fe de Mondújar, Almería), Peñas de los Gitanos (Montefrío, Granada), Cerro de la Encina (Monachil, Granada), Castellón Alto (Galera, Granada), Peñalosa (Baños de la Encina, Jaén) and la Motilla del Azuer (Daimiel, Ciudad Real).