Tartessos And The Phoenicians In Iberia

This is the first book in English about the earliest historical civilization in the western Mediterranean, known as "Tartessos". It combines the expertise of its two authors in archaeology, philology, and cultural history to present a comprehensive, coherent, theoretically up-to-date, and informative overview of the discovery, sources, and debates surrounding this puzzling culture of ancient Iberia and its complex hybrid identity vis-à-vis the western Phoenicians.

During the first millennium BCE, complex encounters of Phoenician and Greek colonists with natives of the Iberian Peninsula transformed the region and influenced the entire history of the Mediterranean. One of the first books on these encounters to appear in English, this volume brings together a multinational group of contributors to explore ancient Iberia’s colonies and indigenous societies, as well as the comparative study of colonialism. These scholars—from a range of disciplines including classics, history, anthropology, and archaeology—address such topics as trade and consumption, changing urban landscapes, cultural transformations, and the ways in which these issues played out in the Greek and Phoenician imaginations. Situating ancient Iberia within Mediterranean colonial history and establishing a theoretical framework for approaching encounters between colonists and natives, these studies exemplify the new intellectual vistas opened by the engagement of colonial studies with Iberian history.

This is the first book in English about the earliest historical civilization in the western Mediterranean, known as "Tartessos." Endowed with extraordinary wealth in metals and strategically positioned between the Atlantic and Mediterranean trading routes at the time of Greek and Phoenician colonial expansion, Tartessos flourished in the eight-seventh centuries BCE. Tartessos became a literate, sophisticated, urban culture in southwestern Iberia (today's Spain and Portugal), enriched by commercial contacts with the Aegean and the Levant since at least the ninth century. In its material culture (architecture, grave goods, sanctuaries, plastic arts), we see how native elements combined with imported "orientalizing" innovations introduced by the Phoenicians. Historians of the rank of Herodotos and Livy, geographers such as Strabo and Pliny, Greek and Punic periploi and perhaps even Phoenician and Hebrew texts, testify to the power, wealth, and prominence of this westernmost Mediterranean civilization. Archaeologists, in turn, have demonstrated the existence of a fascinating complex society with both strong local roots and international flare. Yet for still-mysterious reasons, Tartessos did not attain a "Classical" period like its peer emerging cultures did at the same time (Etruscans, Romans, Greeks). This book combines the expertise of its two authors in archaeology, philology, and cultural history to present a comprehensive, coherent, theoretically up-to-date, and informative overview of the discovery, sources, and debates surrounding this puzzling culture of ancient Iberia and its complex hybrid identity vis-à-vis the western Phoenicians. This book will be of great interest to students of the classics, archaeology and ancient history, Phoenician-Punic studies, colonization and cultural contact.

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.

Twelve essays, written by various scholars and originally published in Spanish, explore the ways in which Phoenician colonization of the Iberian Peninsula was a function of Assyrian westward expansion. Selected articles include: The Phoenician Settlement of the 8th Century B.C. in Morro de Mezquitilla (Algarrobo, Malaga) by H. Schubart, Phoenician Trade in the West: Balance and Perspectives by M.E. Aubet Semmler, and The Ancient Colonization of Ibiza: Mechanisms and Process by J. Ramon.

Twelve essays, written by various scholars and originally published in Spanish, explore the ways in which Phoenician colonization of the Iberian Peninsula was a function of Assyrian westward expansion. Selected articles include: The Phoenician Settlement of the 8th Century B.C. in Morro de Mezquitilla (Algarrobo, Malaga) by H. Schubart, Phoenician Trade in the West: Balance and Perspectives by M.E. Aubet Semmler, and The Ancient Colonization of Ibiza: Mechanisms and Process by J. Ramon.

"Drawing on both literary and archaeological sources, this book offers an analysis of the Phoenicians in Iberia: their settlements, material culture, contacts with the local people, and their agricultural and cultural, as well as commercial, activities. It concludes that the Phoenician presence in Iberia gave rise to a truly western form of Phoenician culture, one that was enriched by and drew from contacts with the local population, forming a characteristic identity, still visible when the Romans arrived in the Peninsula." --Book Jacket.

The Phoenicians created the Mediterranean world as we know it--yet they remain a poorly understood group. In this Handbook, the first of its kind in English, readers will find expert essays covering the history, culture, and areas of settlement throughout the Phoenician and Punic world.