Ancient writers saw Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean from the twelfth century BC on. Archaeological research tells a different story. Although journeys in search of raw materials may have taken place in the early Iron Age, evidence for permanent settlements is not convincing before the eighth century BC, when the Greeks were planting their first colonies on the shores of southern Italy and Sicily (Figure 11.7)
The oldest securely dated Phoenician object from the western Mediterranean is the Nora Stele, found in 1773 near Pula, ancient Nora, on Sardinia. The inscription on the stele commemorated the building of a temple to the god Pmy (Pumay), who is associated with Kition, the Cypriot city, and Pygmalion, a king of Tyre. From epigraphic criteria, this inscription has been dated to the late ninth century BC. However, this stele is a solitary find. Remains of Phoenician settlers at Nora begin later, in the seventh century BC. Intriguing though it is, the Nora Stele by itself cannot demonstrate widespread Phoenician settlement in the western Mediterranean in the late ninth century BC.
The Phoenician expansion to the west was led by Tyre. The explanation often given is the desire of the Tyrians to escape the continuing pressure of the Assyrians on their city life, and to answer the Assyrian demands for raw materials. This may well be true, but is only part of the story. According to M. E. Aubet, the causes must have been many, including the restrictions of the narrow coastal plain that formed the Phoenician heartland; agricultural shortages;
Figure 11.7 Phoenician expansion in the central and western Mediterranean
Overpopulation; the need for raw materials that could be transformed into luxury items, such as jewelry, silver and bronze vessels, and carved ivory; and the ability, with their ships and seamanship, to organize long-distance commercial ventures.
Tyrians first settled on Cyprus, where they founded the city of Kition on the southern coast (Figure 11.1). The traditional date of the foundation is 820 BC. According to legend, the founders were escaping from internal political conflict. Even when Assyrians and then Persians conquered the island, Kition would remain a culturally Phoenician city through the fourth century BC. The nearby city of Amathus, some 35km to the west, would also have a strong Phoenician component, but in a culturally mixed population.
Further west, Phoenician settlements have been attested on Malta (valued as a stop for ships), Tunisia, western Sicily (notably the town of Motya, an island), Sardinia (with sources of copper, iron and silver-bearing lead ores), Ibiza in the Balearic Islands, and the coastal areas of southern Spain (Figure 11.7). As in the homeland, promontories and offshore islands were favored locations for settlement. These towns were intended primarily as trading posts, centers from which the commerce in raw materials could be conducted. The motives were thus different from the Greeks, also entering the central Mediterranean in the eighth century BC; the Greeks established colonies well furnished with land for agriculture. We shall focus here on two of these cities, Gadir (modern Cadiz) and the greatest of the Phoenician foundations, Carthage.
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