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.

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Table of Figures
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 - Settlement topography
  • Introduction
  • The key Phoenician sites
  • Morro de Mezquitilla
  • Almuñécar
  • Chorreras
  • Casa de Montilla
  • Toscanos
  • Adra
  • La Fonteta
  • El Cabezo Pequeño del Estaño
  • Cerro del Villar
  • The oldest Phoencian settlements in Spain
  • Chorreras in the eighth century BC
  • Toscanos in the eighth century BC
  • The seventh century: housing and urban change
  • New seventh-century foundations in Iberia
  • Other sites with Phoenician material in the hinterland
  • The Phoenicians in Portugal: Atlantic trading circuits
• 2 - Cemeteries
  • Introduction
  • Cerro de San Cristóbal
  • Parallels
  • Cinerary urns
  • The date of the burials
  • Other burials at Almuñécar?
  • The necropolis at Lagos
  • The necropolis of Toscanos
  • Shaft graves in Iberia: an evaluation
  • Chamber tomb burials
  • Phoenician funerary rituals
• 3 - Gadir (Cádiz)
  • Introduction
  • Gadir in the ancient sources
  • The foundation myth of Gadir
  • Melqart, the Divine King
  • The origins of Melqart
  • Religion and the Phoenician colonial process
  • Erytheia
• 4 - The Phoenician settlements and their hinterland
  • Introduction
  • The natural environment: landscape and climate
  • The Phoenicians and the environment: the role of the Costa del Sol sites
  • The Phoenician site of Cerro del Villar: an example of cereal cultivation
  • Occupation of the rural hinterland: the evidence from El Villar
  • Conclusions
  • Commercial agriculture? The Phoenicians and wine
  • Phoenicians and Iberians: commercial contacts only?
  • Agricultural colonization? The Wagner and Alvar model
  • The palaeo-topography of the ‘interior’ of Tartessos
  • Conclusions
• 5 - Metals
  • Introduction
  • Evidence for metal-working in the Phoenician sites
  • The role of iron in the economy of the Phoenician settlements
  • The Iberian Pyrite Belt
  • The Huelva Hoard and the pre-Phoenician metal trade in Iberia
  • The origins of silver production in Huelva
  • Cupellation
  • Transportation of the ore and development of specialist metallurgical centres
  • The Guadalquivir as a route for Phoenician trade
  • Differing forms of economic exploitation in Iberia?
• 6 - The sixth century: crisis or transition?
  • The Greeks in Iberia
  • Samians in Iberia?
  • The Phocaeans
  • Greek material in Huelva
  • Crisis in the silver trade
  • Internal factors
  • External factors: the Assyrians
  • Carthaginians in Iberia and the fall of Tyre
  • The role of Carthage
  • Settlement change in the Iberian peninsula in the sixth century
  • Atlantic Iberia and north Africa
  • Crisis or reconfiguration? The evidence from the Vélez valley
  • The foundation of Málaga
  • The hinterland of Cádiz in the sixth century
  • Changing economic patterns: the rise of the fish-sauce trade
• Appendix: Phoenician pottery–the Far Western sphere
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Supplementary bibliography
• Glossary of technical terms
• Index