Abstract
Important discoveries over the past 15 years in the coastal area between Huelva and Málaga in Spain have illuminated the beginnings of the eighth-century BC Phoenician diaspora into the Western Mediterranean. Here, the authors combine Bayesian modelling of recently published radiocarbon dates with the latest archaeological data to investigate the Phoenician presence in southern Iberia. Their assessment of its significance for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in the Western Mediterranean contributes not only to understanding the integration of the Phoenicians into local communities, but also to apprehending the mechanisms of colonisation and pre-colonial situations elsewhere in protohistoric Europe and other world contexts.
Highlights
In the early first millennium BC, the Late Bronze Age communities of southern Iberia occupied hilltop settlements that were often fortified
There is some chronological overlap between this period and the Early Iron Age A: recent fieldwork and material typologies have shown that Gadir, the earliest Phoenician settlement of ‘colony’ type in the region, was first occupied in the closing years of the ninth century (Torres Ortiz et al 2014)
Some were perhaps Phoenician districts associated with Indigenous centres, within which Levantine merchants settled on a permanent basis
Summary
In the early first millennium BC, the Late Bronze Age communities of southern Iberia occupied hilltop settlements that were often fortified. In the late ninth and early eighth centuries BC (based on ceramic typology), a mud-brick building was erected on the upper part of the hill (Figure 2B) This building is interpreted as a Phoenician temple or sanctuary (Fernández Flores et al 2020), perhaps dedicated to Astarte, as suggested by the nearby presence of a bronze statuette of Astarte with a Phoenician inscription on its base, and the existence of seashell floors. But still within the second half of the ninth century BC, La Rebanadilla witnessed considerable changes (phase III), including the construction of a rammed-earth enclosure delimiting an area of around 2ha This space enclosed a series of rectangular buildings separated by streets. Both lines of evidence appear to confirm that the Phoenician quarter at Huelva was established in the ninth century BC, probably in its second half
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