Mountains of Silver and Rivers of Gold

The Phoenicians in Iberia

Ann Neville

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781782974369
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Archéologie

The traditional picture of the Phoenicians in Iberia is that of wily traders drawn there by the irresistible lure of the fabulous mineral wealth of the El Dorado of the ancient world. However, a remarkable series of archaeological discoveries, starting in the 1960s, have transformed our understanding of the Phoenicians and allow us to glimpse a picture of life in the Far West that is far richer, and more complex, than the traditional mercantile hypothesis. Drawing on literary and archaeological sources, this books offers an in-depth analysis of the Phoenicians in Iberia: their settlements, material culture, contacts with the local people, and activities; agricultural and cultural, as well as commercial. It concludes that the Phoenician presence in Iberia gave rise to a truly western form of Phoenician culture, one that was enriched and drew from contacts with the local population, forming a characteristic identity, still visible on the arrival of the Romans in the Peninsula.

1

Settlement topography

Introduction

The Greek and Roman historical tradition is quite explicit in placing the start of Phoenician expansion in the far west in the late twelfth century BC, with the foundations of Gadir and Lixus, beyond the Straits of Gibraltar in Spain and Morocco respectively, as well as that of Utica in Tunisia. After over thirty years of intensive research and excavations in these areas, conventional archaeology is equally categorical in asserting that there is still no incontrovertible proof of any permanent Phoenician settlement in the Atlantic and the western Mediterranean basin much before the eighth century BC.¹

The archaeological record places the earliest Phoenician occupation in Iberia on the Andalusian coast, where a dense network of small settlements has been found along a coastal strip, covering the modern provinces of Cádiz, Málaga, Granada and Almería as far north as Alicante (Fig. 1.1).² This area shows continuous Phoenician occupation over 200 years, from the beginning of the eighth century until the mid-sixth century; some settlements continue under Carthaginian influence, and display a marked Punic character right down to the Roman period. From this central area of settlement, the Phoenicians expanded to occupy other parts of Iberia during the eighth and seventh centuries, reaching the coasts of Portugal, Alicante and the Balearic Islands, as well as Algeria, and Atlantic Morocco in North Africa.

Some of these sites were known and referred to by the classical authors, but the scale of Phoenician settlement in Iberia has only become clear with the start of sustained archaeological investigation from the 1960s onwards. We have a number of references to Cádiz among the ancient authors, as well as quite detailed accounts of its topography. This is undoubtedly due to its economic importance and peculiar location, on the Atlantic, on the edge of what was terra incognita for the Greeks and, for a long time, also for the Romans.³ The other Phoenician sites on the Mediterranean coastline, and the Atlantic, passed largely unremarked by classical historiography, as the most important conflicts in the region, namely the Second Punic War and the Roman civil wars, took place elsewhere. We have therefore to rely for our information on geographers such as Strabo, who dedicated Book III of his Geography to Iberia, and Avienus, who wrote a periplus of the Spanish coastline, as well as on the Elder Pliny. All preserve valuable information concerning the origin of these sites, and Strabo gives us the story of the foundation of Cádiz, as told by the inhabitants of that city. However, neither Strabo nor Pliny claim to be exhaustive in their description of the settlements and peoples of southern Spain, and in general mention only those Phoenician foundations which were still prosperous cities in their own day.⁴ Thus, while the evidence from the ancient texts provides us with some useful information, for a historical reconstruction of the Phoenician enclaves in Iberia our primary source is the archaeological data.⁵

The key Phoenician sites

Before discussing any of the settlements in detail, let us start with a brief survey of all the sites in Iberia which show signs of Phoenician occupation during the eighth century BC.⁶

Morro de Mezquitilla

The earliest known Phoenician site on the Mediterranean coast of Spain is that located at Morro de Mezquitilla, in the province of Málaga. It lies on a hill rising some 30 m above sea level, just to the east of the mouth of the Algarrobo river, and some 300 m away from the modern coastline (Fig. 1.2). Here six phases of Phoenician settlement have been identified, ranging from approximately 800 BC (Phase I) to the sixth century BC (Phases V–VI), making its foundation roughly contemporary with that of the Phoenician Castillo de Doña Blanca in Cádiz.⁷

Almuñécar

The next area to be settled by the Phoenicians was at Almuñécar, in the province of Granada, known to us from its coins of the Roman era as F(irmum) I(ulium) SEXS, or in its Neo-Punic issues as sks (Fig. 1.2).⁸ Strabo refers to a failed attempt by the Phoenicians to establish themselves at Sexs before they eventually settled at Gadir soon after the Trojan war (3. 5. 5). Although the existence of the Phoenician colony of Sex or Ex somewhere on the Andalusian coast between Málaga and Almería was well documented in the classical sources, its location was discovered only with the chance find of a cemetery situated on the slopes of the Cerro de San Cristóbal, a promontory 1 km to the north-west of Almuñécar castle, in the ancient centre of the town. This cemetery consisted of some twenty shaft graves, containing cremations in large alabaster urns of Egyptian origin. It was the first Phoenician necropolis to be discovered in Spain, and gave rise to renewed archaeological and historical interest in this area. The cemetery was dated by its excavator to the first half of the seventh century BC, based on the discovery of two Protocorinthian kotylai in tomb 19B,⁹ but this dating was subsequently modified, on the basis of the analysis of the forms of Phoenician pottery found in the tombs, to a time somewhere between the very late eighth and the late seventh centuries BC.¹⁰ Initial excavations in the ancient centre of the town revealed materials which dated back only as far as the sixth century; but more recently various areas of settlement in and around the ancient centre of Almuñécar have been located which can be firmly dated to the eighth century.¹¹ The earliest settlement levels were found at various points on the hill of Cerro de San Miguel, in the old centre of the town, among them at El Majuelo (underneath a Roman fish-sauce factory), where abundant Phoenician red slip ware was found. In accordance with the relative chronology devised by H. Schubart which establishes chronological progression according to the increase in width of the rims of Phoenician red slip plates, the El Majuelo plates, with their narrow rims, can be dated to the first half of the eighth century.¹² Phoenician red slip pottery dating to the early eighth century was also found in another part of the Cerro de San Miguel, at the Plaza Eras del Castillo. But what is especially interesting is that at both these locations Phoenician pottery was found alongside indigenous Late Bronze Age pottery, and in Eras del Castillo the indigenous pottery made up some 98% of the total. Thus it seems clear that the earliest Phoenicians who came to Almuñécar chose to live in an already established indigenous settlement; on the basis of the archaeological evidence, they soon became a dominant part of the population, giving a semitic name to the new mixed settlement.¹³ According to a geological research programme of the German Archaeological Institute, ancient Almuñécar was located directly on the ancient coastline, along the shores of an open maritime bay. This would make Sexi conform to the settlement pattern adopted by the Phoenicians in Iberia, who generally preferred sites directly adjacent to the ancient coastline. It originally took the form of a peninsula jutting out to sea between two bays, providing two sheltered harbours, and flanked on either side by the rivers Seco and Verde–as we will see, a characteristically Phoenician location.¹⁴

Fig.1.1 Phoenician settlements in Iberia

Key: 1 Sa Caleta; 2 Ibiza; 3 Guardamar/El Estaño; 4 Villaricos/Baria; 5 Adra (Abdera); 6 Almuñécar (Sex); 7 Chorreras; 8 Morro de Mezquitilla; 9 Toscanos/Alarcón/Peñon; 10 Malaka; 11 Cerro del Villar; 12 Montilla; 13 Cerro del Prado; 14 Cádiz (Gadir); 15 Castillo de Doña Banca; 16 Tavira; 17 Cerro da Rocha Branca; 18 Abul; 19 Alcaçova; 20 Quinta de Almaraz ; 21 Santa Olaia

Chorreras

Datable to the middle of the eighth century BC is the settlement of Chorreras, situated on a rocky coastal promontory less than 1 km east of Morro de Mezquitilla (Fig. 1.2). This site is interesting for two reasons. Unlike many other Phoenician sites, it was not subsequently reoccupied after its abandonment by the Phoenicians; so excavations can reveal more of the ancient site-plan than is normally possible. Also it was occupied for a very limited period of time, with only one habitation level, dating from roughly 750 to 700 BC. This relatively short period of occupation, before the final, apparently peaceful, abandonment of the settlement, means that here we can observe the eighth-century habitation structures and artefacts unencumbered by the subsequent building which we find on other sites. For this reason Chorreras is one of the best examples available of the urban structure and material culture of an eighth-century Phoenician site in Spain.¹⁵

Casa de Montilla

Equally shortlived was the settlement at Casa de Montilla, near San Roque on the Mediterranean coast of the province of Cádiz (Fig. 1.2).¹⁶ Here an indigenous Late Bronze Age site was located at the mouth of the river Guadiaro which provided a direct link with the Guadalquivir valley via Ronda. In the second half of the eighth century this site came into close contact with the Phoenicians: Phoenician pottery, chiefly amphorae, has been found in large quantities at the settlement. Most of the Phoenician pottery comes from a zone 125 m away from the indigenous site; almost no local pottery was found, and the materials are wholly Phoenician in character. This area has been interpreted by the excavators as a small Phoenician colony, founded close to the indigenous site and occupied for some fifty years before being abandoned c. 700 BC.

Fig. 1.2 Phoenician and indigenous settlements in Mediterranean Andalusia during the eighth to sixth centuries

Toscanos

Some 7 km west of Morro de Mezquitilla is the Phoenician settlement of Toscanos, on the bank of the Vélez river, near the coast (Fig. 1.2). The settlement on the summit of the hill of Toscanos was undoubtedly the central nucleus of Phoenician occupation around the former maritime bay which existed between Cerro del Mar, the hill on the other side of the Vélez river, and the hill of Toscanos. The ancient remains situated on these hills were once thought to be those of the Phocaean colony of Mainake mentioned in the ancient sources.¹⁷ The settlement at Toscanos is one of the best known Phoenician sites in Spain, having been excavated by the German Archaeological Institute from 1964 until the mid-1980s. These excavations revealed an occupation of the site dating from c. 730 BC to somewhere in the first ...