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The power-off phase of pulsed low-pressure plasmas (the so-called afterglow) in noble gases is a rich field for both fundamental and application oriented research. The physics of these plasmas is complex and involves various processes: Initially, electrons cool rapidly to temperatures close to the gas temperature by evaporative cooling. At sufficiently high plasma densities the low kinetic electron energy strongly enhances three-body recombination into Rydberg states. Finally, subsequent collisional-radiative decay leads to emission of radiation and populates the metastable states of the atoms. The various steps are investigated experimentally and are compared to analytical models. This allows us to follow all steps throughout in a single experiment involving diagnostics of electron density, metastable density, and emission. Excellent agreement with the models is achieved. The mechanisms included are: (i) for electrons, balance between evaporative cooling and Coulomb collisions with ions leading to thermalization; (ii) consistent combination of re-ionization and microfield reduction of the ionization energy in the recombination rate; (iii) adiabatic balance of recombination and collisional and radiative de-excitation; and (iv) radiative population and diffusional and pooling collisional loss of metastable levels. Although the experiment is carried out in argon, the underlying physics is generally applicable for the afterglow of high-density low-pressure discharges in atomic gases.