Phoenician Colonization Research Articles

Exploring handmade pottery traditions and Early Iron Age Iberian networks through the site of La Fonteta (Alicante, Spain)

The Phoenician colony of La Fonteta in southeastern Iberia holds significant importance for understanding Phoenician settlement patterns in the region. While previous research has primarily focused on wheel-thrown ceramics indicative of the new technological advancements and trade networks implemented after the Phoenician arrival, handmade ceramics have been somewhat overlooked despite their prevalence in the Early Iron Age (EIA) contexts. Our study, based on the analysis of 36 individuals from recent excavations at La Fonteta, sheds light on the technological aspects (temper choice and estimated firing temperature) and mobility patterns associated with handmade ceramics in this context. Contrary to previous assumptions, our findings indicate that handmade ceramics played a crucial role in regional and broader exchange systems, possibly with limited ties to wheel-thrown ceramics. Moreover, regional mobility seems to have been prominent, likely stemming from local networks and technological frameworks established during the preceding Late Bronze Age (LBA) period.

An Archaeometric Analysis of Black-Appearing Iron Age Glass Beads from Vinha das Caliças 4 (Portugal)

Phoenician colonisation of the Iberian Peninsula in the 1st millennium BCE introduced many novel and luxurious goods to the local populations of the Western Mediterranean. Among them, black-appearing glass beads are characteristic of indigenous female burials in Southern Portugal during the 6th century BCE. This study presents the results of the first comprehensive archaeometric investigation of black-appearing glass from Vinha das Caliças 4 (Portugal), and of black-appearing glass from the Iberian Peninsula in general. A multi-analytical approach employing Stereomicroscopic observation of manufacture and use traces, VP-SEM-EDS, μ-XRD, and LA-ICP-MS was used to cover a wide range of questions regarding technology and provenance. All analysed samples are natron glass. All samples of black and white beads are characterized by high Zr and low Sr values typically ascribed to the use of Egyptian sands. A comparison of the results of previous studies from the same site clearly demonstrates at least two geochemical provenances for Phoenician-traded glass beads, located in the Levantine region and Egypt, respectively. Furthermore, different colours of glass in individual polychrome beads exhibit similar trace element patterns, which might suggest these beads could have been produced close to glassmaking sites/regions.

Agriculture at the Phoenician site of La Fonteta (Alicante, Spain)

The Phoenician settlement of La Fonteta (Alicante, Spain) was founded in the late 8th cent bc at the mouth of the Río Segura. It has provided one of the most complete archaeobotanical records of all Phoenician Mediterranean sites which points to an agricultural system based on cultivating cereals, pulses and a wide variety of fruits such as grape, fig and pomegranate. These crops then spread to the surrounding indigenous settlements. Apart from integrating new crops, these local and regional indigenous sites progressively began to take part in a Mediterranean-wide network characterised particularly by trade in agricultural produce. The agricultural system of La Fonteta was not new to the Iberian Peninsula, as there is evidence that it arrived earlier at Phoenician colonies along its Mediterranean coastline. One of the most relevant aspects of the archaeobotanical record from La Fonteta is that it represents crafts there, as a large part of the remains correspond to plants which were burnt as fuel in its numerous metal working furnaces.

Beyond “Volute Capitals”: Materials, Meaning, and Adaptations of a Phoenician Motif

ABSTRACT The stylized volute motif is attested throughout the Levant and in areas of Phoenician settlement or cultural influence. Much of the debate of this motif has focused on the volute’s appearance in Israelite monumental architecture (the so-called Proto-Aeolic capital). This article provides a fresh discussion of the motif’s depiction within Phoenician art and iconography through various media, including ivory and sculpture. The architectural versions in stone derive from a much larger repertoire in portable media and in wood, which included inlaying techniques and color patterns not easily transferable into stone. This essay stresses the symbolic meaning of the volute motif and its adaptability by other Mediterranean cultures, from Israel and Cyprus to Iberia. The volute, moreover, has the quality of an otherworldly hybrid entity, strongly associated with hybrid creatures and other stylized vegetal motifs invoking eternal regeneration, which explains the use of the motif in funerary and sacred contexts.

The Great Arab Revolt, Palestine and a Phoenicianist Civilizing

After a brief overview of the development of the Mexican Mahjar press during the first three decades of the 20th century, this paper addresses two crucial debates of the migrant transregional public sphere in the 1930’s and 40’s. The first documented diasporic mobilization around the Great Arab Revolt in British Palestine (1936-1938). The political and social crisis that the Revolt articulated in the Mashriq triggered a storm of press coverage in the Mexican Mahjar which effected a qualitative shift in representation. Palestine was radically transformed. Initially cast as a geography of recreation characterized by natural beauty and Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land, it became the axis of a heated debate around ‘the Palestine question’ and its moral geography. In this process, ways of representing Jewish populations also changed. They ceased to be understood through an Ottoman history of coexistence of religious traditions in the Mashriq, resignified as a homogeneous people, vector of the imperialist project of European Zionism. Coverage of the Revolt elicited no echo from the mainstream Mexican press or interlocution from the Phoenicianist Maronite migrant notability. The debate failed to engage the Mexican Mahjar with Palestinian ‘Arab futures’, except perhaps in the modality of spectacle. In contrast, in the economically difficult and politically impoverished climate in the wake of the Great Depression, the second key debate was a decade-long conversation across the migrant community and Mexican ideologues of mestizaje about the desirability, or not, of Mashriqis as permanent residents of Mexico and the limits to their integration into the mestizo nation. Notables mobilized modernist Nahda narratives to appropriate ancient Phoenician colonization of the Mediterranean, situating Arab migrants in Mexico as partners to local Spanish descent (criollo) elites in a common civilizing effort over mestizos and Amerindian populations.

Holocene coastal evolution and environmental changes in the lower Río Guadiaro valley, with particular focus on the Bronze to Iron Age harbour ‘Montilla’ of Los Castillejos de Alcorrín (Málaga, Andalusia, Spain)

AbstractPhoenicians were the first to systematically develop the area surrounding the Strait of Gibraltar at the end of the 9th century B.C. Following pioneering studies in the Río Guadiaro estuary (Málaga/Cádiz) in the 1980s, a German‐Spanish cooperation project focussed on the role of indigenous people in the Phoenician colonisation trading networks at Los Castillejos de Alcorrín (Manilva, Málaga), one of the most important Early Iron Age settlements in southwestern Iberia. In the recent past, combined with systematic archaeological surveys, geoarchaeological research embedded in the interdisciplinary project ‘Archeostraits’ aimed at (i) deciphering palaeoenvironmental and coastal changes in the surroundings of Los Castillejos de Alcorrín throughout the mid‐ to late Holocene; (ii) constraining palaeoenvironmental conditions during early Phoenician colonisation; and (iii) better understanding human–environment interactions during the Final Bronze and Early Iron Age (i.e., end of 9th and 8th centuries B.C.). Coring transects along the Río Guadiaro allowed for differentiating successive palaeoenvironments and for establishing a chrono‐stratigraphy for the Holocene sedimentary infill of the valley. Based on these results, the deposition of shallow marine sands, overlying deltaic deposits of alternating sand and mud, and the subsequent development of lagoonal conditions in the lower Guadiaro valley took place before the Phoenicians established the first settlements along the coast.

Long-term human impact and forest management in the Phoenician and Roman city of Utica (Tunisia) (900 BC−500 AD)

Human Colonization of new lands implied historically the diffusion of new plant species and the exploitation of local plant resources and forests by human communities. Phoenician colonization in the 1st millennium BC had important consequences in Mediterranean agriculture and the exploitation of vegetation in colonized areas. Later, Roman agriculture introduced new changes. The anthracological analysis or charcoal analysis of the archaeological record of the site of Utica can inform us about the long term transformations in vegetation in North Africa. The original vegetation, consisting mainly of Pistacia lentiscus, would see its population reduced due to the implantation of non-intensive olive production in Phoenician and Punic periods. Nevertheless, since the Roman Imperial Period there was a strong decline of natural vegetation, in correlation of the important increment of olive trees, which indicate the presence of intensive oil production, mainly to be exported to Rome. Furthermore, the appearance of walnut trees presents novel data regarding the expansion of arboriculture throughout the Mediterranean in hand with the Phoenicians during the 1st millennium BC. The anthracological analysis of Utica presents important information regarding the natural vegetation that existed when the Phoenicians arrived, and the transformation that happened throughout time, corresponding to the management of the surrounding landscape during the Phoenician, Punic, and Roman periods.

Investigating Plant Micro-Remains Embedded in Dental Calculus of the Phoenician Inhabitants of Motya (Sicily, Italy).

Plant records reveal remarkable evidence about past environments and human cultures. Exploiting dental calculus analysis and using a combined approach of microscopy and gas chromatography mass spectrometry, our research outlines dietary ecology and phytomedicinal practices of the ancient community of Motya (Sicily, eight to sixth century BC), one of the most important Phoenician settlements in the Mediterranean basin. Micro-remains suggest use or consumption of Triticeae cereals, and animal-derived sources (e.g., milk and aquatic birds). Markers of grape (or wine), herbs, and rhizomes, endemic of Mediterranean latitudes and the East, provide insight into the subsistence of this colony, in terms of foodstuffs and phytotherapeutic products. The application of resins and wood of Gymnosperms for social and cultural purposes is hypothesized through the identification of Pinaceae secondary metabolites and pollen grains. The information hidden in dental calculus discloses the strong human-plant interaction in Motya’s Phoenician community, in terms of cultural traditions and land use.

Sicily Before the Greeks. The Interaction with Aegean and the Levant in the Pre-colonial Era

AbstractThe relationship between Sicily and the eastern Mediterranean – namely Aegean, Cyprus and the Levant – represents one of the most intriguing facets of the prehistory of the island. The frequent and periodical contact with foreign cultures were a trigger for a gradual process of socio-political evolution of the indigenous community. Such relationship, already in inception during the Neolithic and the Copper Age, grew into a cultural phenomenon ruled by complex dynamics and multiple variables that ranged from the Mid-3rd to the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. In over 1,500 years, a very large quantity of Aegean and Levantine type materials have been identified in Sicily alongside with example of unusual local material culture traditionally interpreted as resulting from external influence. To summarize all the evidence during such long period and critically address it in order to attempt historical reconstructions is a Herculean labor.Twenty years after Sebastiano Tusa embraced this challenge for the first time, this paper takes stock on two decades of new discoveries and research reassessing a vast amount of literature, mostly published in Italian and in regional journals, while also address the outcomes of new archaeometric studies. The in-depth survey offers a new perspective of general trends in this East-West relationship which conditioned the subsequent events of the Greek and Phoenician colonization of Sicily.

Archeometric characterization of indigenous LBA/EIA pottery from SW Iberia

ABSTRACT In this paper we establish a baseline for the chemical and petrographic characterization of indigenous LBA/EIA funerary urns from south-western Iberia. In this we focus primarily on the morphological category of biconical vases, one of the most iconic vessel types known from Tartessian burial sites. In comparison to other types of ceramic urn vessels from archeological sites of the Orientalizing period in Andalusia, biconical vases are relatively rare, but are generally recognized as the earliest type of funerary vessel within the Tartessian sequence, clearly pre-dating the introduction of new ceramic technologies in the wake of the Phoenician colonization. Eleven samples of biconical vases from the key site of Setefilla are analyzed through XRF and thin-section petrography, in order to determine the chemical composition and technological properties of the samples. To contextualize the results from the chemical analyses, sixteen further samples from other hand-made vessel types, also from Setefilla, are likewise analyzed through XRF. The results indicate a high level of homogeneity in the make-up of biconical vases and a somewhat different chemical signature from other types of hand-made vessel. It remains to be established if minor variations that exist in the petrographic make-up of biconical vases follow a chronological gradient or if they are related to other factors.

La metalurgia de influencia fenicia en el centro de Portugal. Tres puntas de flecha de arpón lateral de Monte Fiegueiró (Ansião)

This paper presents the results of a study carried out on three previously unpublished Iron Age socketed arrowheads with spur from Monte Figueiró –Central Portugal–, a site located between the Tagus and Mondego rivers. This region is of the utmost importance to understanding how Mediterranean influences penetrated along the Iberian Atlantic coast and up to the inland Portuguese territories, through Phoenician traders, since the Early Iron Age –8th century bc–. The socketed arrowheads with spurs, originally produced in the South-eastern end of Europe, namely in the Black Sea area, are virtually unseen in the Portuguese territory, where only another similar item has been found at Castro Marim –South Portugal–, in contrast with Spain, more specifically with the Guadalquivir region, where they are quite frequently found. Therefore, the occurrence of the three socketed arrowheads from Monte Figueiró is a challenging discovery, since Central Portugal is a peripheral area with respect to the Iberian regions that underwent an actual Phoenician colonisation. Based on this assumption, this paper will not focus just on typological and technological issues, but it will go a bit further, also reflecting on what these three artefacts can reveal about the interaction between indigenous inland communities from Central Portugal and Phoenician traders.

The founding chronology of the Phoenician Malaka: research on the site of the Rectory of the University of Málaga

Between the years 1998 and 2002 an archaeological activity was carried out in the old building of the Correos (Post and Telegraph House) of Malaga, as part of the rehabilitation work necessary for its use as the seat of the Rector’s Office of the University. The systematic study of the materials corresponding to the deepest levels of the sequence, attributed to the Phoenician archaic period, allows their dating before c . 625 BC, which makes them, to this day, the oldest known context associated to ancient Malaka. In addition to this piece of chronological data, the site stands out because of the magnitude of its architecture, located immediately to the first coastline of the time. The assemblage is of great interest to study the dynamics of the Phoenician settlement of the bay of Malaga from the foundation of La Rebanadilla, located in the neighboring estuary of the Guadalhorce River, dated in the second half of the 9th century BC.

El desarrollo de las competencias sociales y cívicas en Ciencias Sociales: itinerario didáctico por los restos fenicios de Almuñecar (Granada)

En el presente trabajo se propone un itinerario didáctico por los restos fenicios de la localidad de Almuñécar (Granada) dirigido a estudiantes de 1º de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO). A través del mismo ponemos especial interés en el desarrollo de las competencias sociales y cívicas (CSC). El legado histórico y patrimonial de Almuñécar es más que evidente, sin embargo, se constata la existencia de recursos/bienes que son insuficientemente conocidos y aprovechados desde un punto de vista didáctico. Se diseña, mediante el uso de un SIG, una cartografía con los principales Puntos de Interés Didáctico con presencia de restos arqueológicos. Además, se pretende trabajar una serie de actividades mediante un cuaderno de campo que permitan conocer el pasado fenicio de la ciudad, la importancia histórica de las colonizaciones fenicias, fomentar valores de sensibilización y de conservación, y elaborar un producto final para solicitar a las autoridades responsables actuaciones encaminadas a poner en valor el patrimonio histórico local.

Plata semirrefinada para los plateros de la Edad del Hierro en el Mediterráneo: un mecanismo para identificar la plata ibérica

Un fragmento de lingote de plata descubierto recientemente en el yacimiento fenicio de La Rebanadilla (Málaga) ha sido investigado mediante isotopos de plomo y análisis elemental.El lingote recuperado en los niveles inferiores del yacimiento, se fecha potencialmente entre fines del siglo XI y el IX a.C., situándose en cronología similar a algunos depósitos de hacksilver del área del levante mediterráneo.La edad de la corteza calculada a partir de los isotopos de plomo y la composición señalan que el lingote fue obtenido de minerales de Edad Hercínica con concentraciones altas de bismuto.Esta signatura es compatible con la de la Faja Pirítica del suroeste de la península ibérica, en particular con la de las antiguas minas de la zona de Riotinto.Se propone que la plata de este lingote fue obtenida de las jarositas argentíferas de Riotinto, donde sufrió solo un primer refinado mediante copelación, conservando un alto contenido en plomo antes de ser comercializado hacia La Rebanadilla, que pudo ser un lugar potencial para su transporte hacia los territorios fenicios en el Mediterráneo oriental. Las implicaciones del transporte de plata sin refinar son discutidas en relación al comercio de la plata por los fenicios durante la Edad del Hierro en el Mediterráneo y la dificultad de identificar la plata ibérica en el registro arqueológico.

Origen y secuencia de las más antíguas fíbulas en la Península Ibérica

In the present study, a very large amount of Iberian fibulae are identified, organized, and accounted for. The very most of these fibulae come from Spanish and Portuguese sites and museums, as well as some others come from the Eastern Mediterranean in spite of their Iberian origin. In principle, they all are dated before the Orientalizing Phenomenon (c. 750 BC), therefore Late Bronze Age stage. The starting point of this study is the recent statement by some researchers who propose a 13th cent. BC emergence for the fibulae of the elbow family. This proposal entails an Iberian origin for the fibula – the “Granadan approach”. The study consists of two main parts. The first one is an analysis focused on morphological and stylistic criteria, finding contexts, and foreign parallels. The entire set of fibulae is classified one by one in seven groups: asymmetric violinbow family, elbow family, looped family, curved-bow family, pivotal family, double-spring family, and Coimbra type. Once the typological classification is clear, it is argued that only elbow and looped families are trustful Iberian, Late Bronze Age items, while the rest of them must be considered uncertain regarding their nature and chronology. The second part contains a synthesis to clarify the filiation of the entire series of the Iberian fibulae. This is, a critical study focused on the origin of the every family and type, their evolution, and the formal and technical relationships each other. The results confirm an Alpine origin for the fibulae – therefore, foreign origin for the Iberian examples –, a connection between polities of Iberia and abroad before the Phoenician colonization (mainly those from Sicily and the Eastern Mediterranean), and the interaction of communities within Iberia.

People from Ibiza: an unexpected isolate in the Western Mediterranean.

In this study, we seek to understand and to correlate the genetic patterns observed in the population of the island of Ibiza in the Western Mediterranean basin with past events. Genome-wide genotypes of 189 samples representing 13 of 17 regions in Spain have been analyzed, in addition to 105 samples from the Levant, 157 samples from North Africa, and one ancient sample from the Phoenician Cas Molí site in Ibiza. Before the Catalans conquered the island in 1235 CE, Ibiza (Eivissa) had already been influenced by several cultures, starting with the Phoenicians, then the Carthaginians, followed by the Umayyads. The impact of these various cultures on the genetic structure of the islanders is still unexplored. Our results show a clear distinction between Ibiza and the rest of Spain. To investigate whether this was due to the Phoenician colonization or to more recent events, we compared the genomes of current Ibizans to that of an ancient Phoenician sample from Ibiza and to both modern Levantine and North African genomes. We did not identify any trace of Phoenician ancestry in the current Ibizans. Interestingly, the analysis of runs of homozygosity and changes in the effective population size through time support the idea that drift has shaped the genetic structure of current Ibizans. In addition to the small carrying capacity of the island, Ibiza experienced a series of dramatic demographic changes due to several instances of famine, war, malaria and plague that could have significantly contributed to its current genetic differentiation.

Pantelleria Island as a centre of production for the Archaic Phoenician trade in basaltic millstones: New evidence recovered and sampled from a shipwreck off Gozo (Malta) and a terrestrial site at Cádiz (Spain)

New discoveries of flat Archaic querns recovered from the cargo of a Phoenician shipwreck at a depth of 110 m in Xlendi Bay (Gozo, Maltese Islands) dated to ca. 7th century BC and millstone fragments found at Cerro del Castillo (Cádiz, Spain) from Phoenician material between 7th and 6th century BC share the same petrographic texture and geochemical composition. The four samples consist of vesicle-rich grey basaltic lavas with a moderate porphyritic index and a microcrystalline intergranular groundmass. Major and trace elements distributions of the investigated artifacts highlight a provenance from Pantelleria Island, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and Cape Bon (Tunisia). This rules out other important widespread sources of basic volcanic rocks that were also used for millstones in ancient times, such as Etna volcano, Iblei Mountains and the Levant. Due to its barycentric position in the Sicily Channel, Pantelleria Island could therefore have represented one of the main supplying area of volcanic millstones for the Phoenicians. The provenance from Pantelleria was already documented for other volcanic millstones in Phoenician sites and Carthaginian settlements of Sicily (e.g. Motya and Entella) and Tunisia (e.g. Utica and Carthage) and those found in the shipwreck of El Sec (off the coast of Mallorca), dated to ca. 4th century BC. The new millstones from Pantelleria discovered in (i) an older shipwreck cargo (i.e. Xlendi Bay) and (ii) the most westerly Phoenician settlement of Gadir (nowadays Cadiz, ca. 1500 km far from Pantelleria) point to widespread Phoenician trade in Pantellerian basaltic rocks in the Archaic Period. Pantelleria Island can therefore be considered as a nodal point for trade in volcanic millstones, many centuries before the Hellenistic people and the Romans would largely exploit the basaltic lavas from Etna and Iblei Mountains for the same purpose.

Metalurgia fenicia en el sureste ibérico: el taller del Cabezo Pequeño del Estaño (Guardamar, Alicante)

Resultado del proyecto de investigación que se desarrolla desde 2014 en el Cabezo Pequeño del Estaño, se presenta el hallazgo de un edificio de planta circular, con una arquitectura excepcional, que ocupó un espacio destacado dentro del entramado urbano del poblado fenicio. El mobiliario y los objetos localizados en la excavación arqueológica han permitido reconstruir su funcionalidad, concretamente la metalurgia de la plata. La constatación de esta actividad pone de manifiesto el prestigio tanto del edificio en sí, como de los artesanos que lo emplearon a lo largo del s. VII a.C.

Agricultural resources on the coastal plain of Sidon during the Late Iron Age: archaeobotanical investigations at Phoenician Tell el-Burak, Lebanon

With regard to Near Eastern archaeobotanical investigations, Lebanon is still underrepresented. Archaeobotanical data have been obtained from only a few excavation sites, mostly from the Phoenician settlement of Tell el-Burak. The site is situated on the southern coastal plain of Sidon, between Sidon and Tyre. Continuous sampling throughout six seasons of excavations have enabled the detailed investigation of the archaeobotanical material from the site. Due to the fine stratigraphic resolution there, it is possible to examine the development of agricultural resources through the 400 years of Phoenician occupation. Additionally, systematic sampling has allowed investigation of the spatial distribution of botanical remains within certain building structures. The combination of the archaeological results with the data from the charcoal and seeds reinforces the assumption that Tell el-Burak was established by the city of Sidon or the nearby city of Sarepta as a production and trade centre for wine and possibly olive oil. The agricultural resources of grapes and olives were most probably cultivated in the immediate vicinity of the settlement and probably along the western slopes of the hill country further inland.

¿Fondos de cabaña o depósitos rituales? Sobre un tipo de contextos materiales del bronce final y comienzos de la Edad del Hierro en el sur de la Península Ibérica. El depósito de cortijo Riquelme (Almería)

Cortijo Riquelme is a Late Bronze and Early Iron Age’s archaeological dump in the South East of the Iberian Peninsula which belongs to the so called pithouses. This traditional interpretation has been rejected by recent critical studies. Following this positions, the paper analyzes the mentioned dump, which mainly contained Late Bronze and very ancient Phoenician imported pottery, showing the introduction of Phoenician wine and the service for its consumption. A comparison is done with other similar dumps distributed in the South of the Iberian peninsula from Late Bronze Age, though the majority are dated during the early centuries if the 1st millennium bc, coinciding with the Phoenician colonization. Another Mediterranean dumps from Crete, Cyprus, Sicily and North Africa related with feasts help to propose an interpretation for the dump of Cortijo Riquelme and others of the same type, in which the ritual deposit of the containers used in feasts should contribute to the formation of dumps, in a context of increasing competition of local elites in processes of social differentiation.