Egypt
As the textual and archaeological record affirms, Egypt’s longstanding commercial relationship with Phoenicia was motivated by one dominant factor: the desire for Levantine timber. As history records, one of her primary targets was the forest reserves located behind Byblos in the valley of the Nahr Ibrahim and the adjacent slopes of Mount Lebanon. Extensive tracts of cedar, fir, pine, oak, and juniper were, in fact, broadly available along the entire length of the Lebanon range from Sidon north to Tripoli and, beyond, along the slopes of the Jebel Ansariye. Of the various Lebanese hardwoods harvested in antiquity, cedar was the most highly sought after for its girth, durability, and fragrance. Financial gain for the Phoenicians lay not only in the marketing of the wood itself but in the varied employment it provided Phoenician artisans, traders, and seamen.
Tyrian commercial activity in the Nile delta is well attested, historically. As the southernmost of mainland Phoenician ports, Tyre enjoyed a close commercial and political relationship with Egypt, beginning in the Late Bronze Age, as the Amarna Egyptian royal correspondence with the Phoenician city-states reveals. Such commercial orientation is further evidenced by the city’s construction of a southern, artificial harbor, entitled the Egyptian, in the ninth century BC. Phoenician commercial presence in Egypt is later attested, in the period of the Achaemenid dynasty (538-332 BC), by the presence of a Tyrian commercial establishment, known as the Camp of the Tyrians [Hdt 2.112], at the Egyptian capital Memphis.
Cyprus
As discoveries of Phoenician pottery along the island’s southern and western coasts clearly reveal, from the eleventh century onward Cyprus served a strategic role as an entrepcot for Phoenician westward trade within the Mediterranean. The archaeological and epigraphi-cal record from Kition confirms a date around the midninth century BC for the earliest Phoenician settlement on the island. Evidence so far produced for earlier Iron Age occupation remains inconclusive.
As the historical record confirms, Kition (Pun. Kt(y)) formed the urban nucleus and epicenter for Phoenician settlement on Cyprus, which was confined elsewhere to small commercial communities or trading posts within existing towns. A Tyrian foundation, Kition ultimately became a self-governing entity, perhaps as early as the late eighth century BC. The city’s early coinage bears witness to the existence of an independent Phoenician city dynastic line by the early fifth century BC.
An important Cypriot settlement in the Late Bronze Age, Kition (situated at present-day Larnaka) was occupied by the Phoenicians (after a period of abandonment lasting some 150 years) in the ninth century. The ancient Phoenician walled city remains largely unexcavated, with the exception of the Kathari sanctuary complex situated in its northern periphery; the latter was erected upon an earlier, Late Bronze Age temenos precinct. Recent excavations on the Bamboula hill, Kition’s southerly harbor district, have yielded remains of the city’s port facilities built during the classical period.
One of the largest and most active of Phoenician communities on Cyprus outside of Kition was situated at the southerly coastal port of Amathus, a native Cypriot foundation. Phoenician commercial presence there is evident from the quantity of early imported
Phoenician ware found in the city’s numerous chamber tombs. The recent discovery of what appears to be a local Phoenician cremation cemetery along the city’s southern shore reveals that a substantial and prosperous resident community of Phoenician traders was established there by the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
The growing number of Phoenician inscriptions found throughout Cyprus affords an accurate indication of the extent of Phoenician settlement on the island, much of it tied directly to transit trade (Amathus, Paphos, Lapithos) and the copper industry. Phoenician involvement in the copper trade is affirmed by the number of Phoenician-influenced sites (Tamassos, Golgoi, Idalion, Meniko, Alassa) located inland on the spurs of the copper-rich Troodos range. As the archaeological evidence suggests, the Phoenicians at Kition were involved in their own commercial initiatives, particularly in the Tyrrhenian basin (Sardinia, Etruria), where Cyprus had traded earlier in the Late Bronze Age.
Rhodes
Like Cyprus, Rhodes’ strategic position along the coasting route from the Levant to the Aegean rendered it an ideal transit station and secondary point of departure for Phoenician commerce. Finds of Phoenician luxury items (ivories, Tridacna shells, gold and silver jewelry) dating to the late eighth and seventh centuries attest to such trade. Besides its role as a transit station, Rhodes apparently served as a regional production center for Phoenician goods, among them trinkets and luxury items in faience (including scarabs, incised vessels with low-relief decoration, and anthropomorphic unguent vases). Beginning in the late eighth century BC, Rhodian Phoenician factories also exported ceramic unguent flasks in a local fabric imitating Cypriot and mainland pottery types.
Material evidence for Phoenician settlement on the island prior to the Hellenistic period remains ephemeral. The presence of infant burials in amphorai at the archaic necropolises of Kameiros and Ialysos points to the existence of resident Phoenician communities in these localities.
Crete
Phoenician presence on Crete was first intimated by the discovery, in 1884, of a cache of Orientalizing bronzes in the Zeus Cave on Mt. Ida. Subsequent finds have corroborated this fact. The discovery of a Phoenician inscribed bronze bowl at Teke near Knossos, datable on archaeological grounds to c. 900 BC, provides the earliest and most dramatic evidence thus far. Recent excavations at Eleutherna and in the region of Knossos have yielded luxury goods of Oriental and
Orientalizing workmanship equal in quality to the Idaean finds.
Phoenician presence along Crete’s southern coast has been documented by recent excavations at Kommos, which have uncovered a Phoenician-style three-pillared shrine as well as quantities of imported Phoenician pottery. Such evidence underscores the primacy of Crete as a transit point for Phoenician maritime trade. Metal prospecting served as a catalyst for Phoenician involvement on Crete. The island is rich in phosphorous-bearing iron ore, deposits of which were undoubtedly worked in antiquity; recent excavations at Kommos have revealed the presence of one such iron-working center.
As the literary and archaeological record reveals, the island of Crete stood on a southern Aegean Phoenician commercial route (skirting the Greek mainland) that was aimed at the central and western Mediterranean. Focal to such transit trade was Phalasarna, Crete’s westernmost harbor, the direct departure point for ships traveling north to the island of Kythera and the southeastern Peloponessus. Recent excavations have shown that the Cretan port facility contained a rock-cut holding basin, or kothon, of Phoenician variety. Kythera itself was associated in antiquity with the Phoenicians; according to Herodotus (1.105), the island’s chief sanctuary of Aphrodite Ourania was founded by them.
The Aegean
As on Cyprus and Crete, Phoenician trade with the northern Aegean was propelled largely by mining interests and the metals trade. Herodotus (6.47) informs us that the Phoenicians had settled on the island of Thasos with this objective; the Greek historian claims to have seen their extensive mining operations along the southeastern side of the island, the site of a Phoenician temple to Herakles; excavations conducted by the French have exposed the location of these mines. From Thasos, the Phoenicians, in all likelihood, prospected on the opposing Thracian mainland, in the area of Mount Pangaeum and the Strymon River, where rich gold and silver deposits were later tapped by the Thasians themselves and by foreign Greek entrepeneurs. Judging from ancient classical sources, the Phoenicians enjoyed commercial relations with the neighboring north Aegean islands of Samothrace and Lemnos; according to Homer, the latter received the gift of a decorated ‘Sidonian’ silver krater (II. 23.741-45).
The distribution of various ceramic, stone, and faience imports from the eastern Mediterranean (Rhodes, Cyprus, and the Syro-Phoenician mainland) allows us to trace the existence of a Phoenician commercial channel to the Greek mainland through the central Aegean. As the archaeological evidence reveals, this route passed in a northwesterly trajectory from Rhodes via Kos and the central Cyclades (Naxos, Delos, Syros) to the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. Delos’ centrality to such trade is evident not only from the quantity of its early Oriental imports, but also from the island’s later commercial importance to the Phoenicians in the Hellenistic period. Aegina’s role as an entrepcot for eastern trade should come as no surprise. Its central location in the Saronic Gulf, with direct access to both Attica and the northeastern Peloponnesus, rendered it an ideal depot for Oriental goods entering Greece. As imported finds indicate, Greek coastal centers such as Corinth, Eleusis, and Argos formed major recipients of such Aegean trade in the late eighth and seventh centuries, either directly or through the intermediary of an island center such as Aegina. Another, more northerly, terminus for Oriental trade was the island of Euboea off the central Greek mainland, as recent excavations have shown.
Sicily
As for early Phoenician contact with Sicily, Thucydides (6.2.6) provides a brief but informative account: in his words, the Phoenicians had originally established themselves all around the island on promontories and offshore islets, which were used as posts for trade with the native Sicels. With the arrival of Greek colonists, the Phoenicians abandoned most of these settlements, focusing their attentions on Motya, Solunto, and Panormus in the northwest. The historical veracity of Thucydides’ account has been confirmed by excavations at Motya, which have revealed early evidence of Phoenician occupation around 720 BC, shortly after the foundation of the earliest Greek colonies of Naxos (734 BC) and Syracuse (733 BC). As Thucydides implies, the Phoenician withdrawal to the northwestern corner of Sicily was a calculated move, aimed at consolidating control of its most strategic commercial interests on the island; the region was the closest access point to Carthage and the North African mainland. Northwestern Sicily also represented the closest point of departure for mineral-rich, southern Sardinia and for trade north with Campania and Etruria, offering an alternative to passage through the Greek-controlled Straits of Messana.
The archaeological remains at Motya afford a unique opportunity to trace the urban evolution of a Phoenician city - from its beginnings as an early, unwalled settlement to its commercial height in the fifth century. Excavations by the Italian authorities have targeted specific areas of the island settlement, including portions of its harbor and commercial and residential quarters. Material evidence for Phoenician colonial presence in Sicily outside of Motya remains scant. Unfortunately, little is known archaeologically of the Phoenicians’ main settlement at Palermo (Grk. Panormos), a fair-weather harbor situated alongside a natural inlet within a large bay (known today as the Conca d’Oro). The ancient walled city, which now lies buried beneath Palermo’s historic inner district, stood on a small hill (Paleapoli) originally flanked by two small waterways: the Kemonia and Papireto. Its western portion was marked by an acropolis (now occupied by the Palace of the Normans), beyond which stood an extensive extramural cemetery in use from the late seventh through the third centuries BC.
Sardinia
Owing to its mineral wealth (in copper, iron, and silverbearing lead ores), Sardinia served early on as a magnet for Levantine trade. The early appearance of iron technology suggests that the exploitation of this metal may have served as a catalyst (along with copper) for early Phoenician contact, leading to close interaction with the native nuraghic population, whose active cast bronze industry and emergent urban character may be tied to Oriental presence on the island.
The earliest direct archaeological evidence for Phoenician colonization of Sardinia is furnished by a monumental inscribed stele from the southern coastal site of Nora, dated epigraphically to the end of the ninth or early eighth century BC. The stele’s discovery at Nora is not fortuitous; the site’s peninsular location along the western shore of the Bay of Cagliari rendered it both an ideal landing stage for Phoenician trade and a convenient coastal access point to the neighboring Iglesiente plateau with its abundant deposits of iron and silver-bearing ores. Phoenician commercial activity within the Gulf of Cagliari appears to have been well established by the seventh century BC. Focal to control of the region was the port of Cagliari (Pun. Krly) on the Tuvixeddu promontory. The Phoenician establishment of Cuccureddus near Cape Carbonara at the gulf’s eastern extremity may have played a similar role as a regional trade center.
As archaeology has revealed, by the seventh century BC, the entire southwestern coast of Sardinia (from the Bay of Cagliari west to the Gulf of Oristano) was literally dotted with Phoenician emporiums, largely founded on abandoned early nuraghic settlements. Aside from Nora, the earliest traces of Phoenician occupation, dating back to the mid-eighth century, may be found at modern-day Sulcis (Pun. Slky) on the islet of Sant’Antioco in the Gulf of Palmas, which served as the primary loading port for the mineral wealth of the Iglesiente region. Connected to the mainland by a partially man-made isthmus (attributable to Phoenician engineering), Sulcis’ early commercial growth is attested by the eighth century date of its tophet precinct and by the recent discovery of an early Phoenician necropolis in the region of Portoscuso on the adjacent mainland.
Another early major Phoenician coastal foundation was the port of Tharros on the isthmus of Cape San Marco in the Gulf of Oristano. Situated, like Nora, on a narrow promontory with multiple harbors, the city controlled access, through the Campidano plain and Tirso river valley, to an agriculturally rich hinterland. As archaeology has revealed, the city functioned not only as an international port, but as a regional distribution center for a variety of products, including stone funerary sculpture, terracottas, and metal and faience jewelry.
The seventh and succeeding sixth centuries marked a period of territorial consolidation within Phoenician Sardinia, as existing settlements developed and new foundations were established at river arteries on the coast (Bithya, Bosa, Villaputzu) as well as inland (Othoca, Pani Loriga, Monte Sirai) for defensive and commercial purposes. Of the strategic defensive centers, archaeology has fully exposed the site of Monte Sirai, a fortified hilltop settlement established by Sulcis to control and monitor access to the Iglesiente region and Campidano plain.
Central Italy
Like Sardinia, Phoenician interest in central Italy was motivated primarily by the metals trade; the wealth of the Etruscan cities also rendered them profitable commercial markets for Phoenician goods. The earliest and clearest evidence of Phoenician presence in Italy may be found on the island of Pithekoussai (modern Ischia) off the coast of southern Campania. An early Euboean foundation, the island housed an active community of Phoenician traders by the late eighth century BC, as finds of Phoenician pottery (some with graffiti) attest. In all likelihood, the islet, situated strategically en route to coastal Etruria, served as a ‘free port’ at which native Greeks and Near Easterners mingled freely.
The primary objective of Phoenician trade in Italy was, however, the northern Etrurian heartland with its ore-rich deposits of copper, lead, iron, and silver. Geological surveys have, in fact, shown that the present-day region of northwestern Tuscany, comprising the island of Elba and the opposing mainland between the Ombrone and Cecina Rivers, was extremely rich in silver-bearing ores. From an early date, this mountainous district, the Colline Metallifere, attracted Phoenician prospectors, commerciants, and artisans, who left in their wake a variety of luxury goods, including ornate vessels in repousse silver, produced locally by resident Phoenician craftsmen. Imported pottery finds suggest that the flourishing northern Etruscan coastal cities of Populonia and Vetulonia may have formed primary bases of operation for the Phoenicians, whose knowledge of Etruria’s mineral resources may have been gained from earlier Cypriot entrepreneurs.
Malta
In contrast to Sicily and Sardinia, the Maltese archipelago, consisting of the principal islands of Malta (Pun. ’nn) and Gozo (Pun. Gwl), occupied a very different functional niche for the Phoenicians. Unlike its larger neighbors to the north, Malta possessed little in the way of natural resources. Agricultural potential, confined to two small alluvial plains in the north and south, was extremely limited, while mineral wealth was lacking. Malta’s attraction for the Phoenicians lay in its geographic situation midway between two primary Phoenician commercial routes - to the north, along the southern coast of Sicily, and to the south, along the North African littoral; from an early date, the island probably served as a refueling point and servicing station for Phoenician merchant ships sailing west through the Mediterranean.
As burial finds and inscriptions have documented, Phoenician presence on the Maltese archipelago was fairly widespread by the late eighth century BC. While Phoenician necropolises have been found throughout both of the main islands, modern construction has severely limited archaeological exploration of habitation levels. As in Gozo, with its interior highland settlement (at Victoria) and southern coastal port (in the bay of Mgarr), Phoenician occupation on the main island of Malta was centered in two zones - to the north, on a central highland plateau, and in the southeast, around the large bay of Marsaxlokk and its neighboring inlets. From the size and extent of its surrounding necropolises, the northern hill town located inland at Rabat-Mdina apparently formed the main urban nucleus. With its natural harbors, the region around Marsaxlokk functioned as the center of commercial trade, a fact evident both from the density of surrounding indigenous settlements and from the presence of two major Phoenician sanctuaries to Melqart and Astarte. The latter temple, implanted on the site of an earlier Chalcolithic complex at Tas Silg, has yielded a wealth of evidence for Phoenician cult, including several hundred ceramic plates bearing dedications to Tanit and Astarte.
North Africa
The story of the Phoenicians in North Africa, or ancient Libya, is clearly centered on the northern Tunisian headland around the Bay of Tunis and its environs. It is here, at the southern apex of the Tyrrhenian triangle, that the two earliest and most important Phoenician cities, Carthage and Utica, were founded along a temperate and protected coastal stretch of North Africa, situated on the transit route to the central Mediterranean and the far west. According to ancient historical accounts, Utica, located at the mouth of the fertile Bagradas (Medjerdeh) river valley, was founded first - some 287 years before Carthage. The classical sources are in agreement about the city’s early foundation, which followed shortly after the establishment of Cadiz in 1104/3 BC, a date assigned to a period 80 years after the Trojan War (Velleius Paterculus, Hist. Rom. 1:2,1-3). Skepticism, however, has persisted over the validity of such an early date for Phoenician presence in North Africa, which is yet to be substantiated by the archaeological record. At Utica itself, no trace of the Phoenician settlement has yet been found, while the city necropolis has yielded tombs datable no earlier than the seventh century BC. Modern topographical analysis has, in fact, revealed that the city, today located some 12 km inland, was originally situated on a coastal promontory with an adjoining islet.
By contrast, ongoing archaeological research conducted over the past half decade has yielded much new information about Carthage (Pun. Qarthadasht, ‘new city’) and its urban, industrial, and defensive character. In fact, recent excavations carried out on the Byrsa, the city acropolis, have yielded architectural vestiges dating back to the mid-eighth century - slightly more than 50 years shy of the city’s traditional foundation date (813 BC). Based upon the results of stratigraphic soundings within Carthage’s settlement area and the topographical evidence of its surrounding extramural burials, an accurate sense of the physical extent of the city and its environs can now be had, revealing an occupied settlement of more than 24 ha (60 ac).
As for Phoenician commercial presence further east along the North African coast, the archaeological record is scant. Practical navigational considerations may have figured largely into the equation. The strong west-east current that runs along the North African littoral from the Strait of Gibraltar to Port Said made a westerly coastal advance toward Carthage from Egypt extremely problematic. So, too, did the buffeting winds, hazardous shoals, and poor visibility encountered along the barren 300 mi coastal stretch of central
Libya known as the Syrtis. In the face of such difficulties, Phoenician sailors from the eastern mainland heading for Carthage and points beyond may have opted for a more direct westerly route via the open seas.
Such circumstances help to explain why, despite ancient historical claims, the eastern Tunisian and Libyan coasts have yielded little archaeological evidence for Phoenician occupation. Indeed, with the exception of Hadrumetum and Leptis Magna, both reputed Phoenician foundations, the great cities of the Sahelian littoral, the Gulf of Gabes, and Tripolitania are marked by later settlement strata originating in the Punic period. Leptis Magna (Pun. Lpqy) alone has yielded evidence of permanent construction associated with its seventh century origins. Yet, even here, doubt persists as to the nature of the incipient settlement; according to a recent interpretation, the early stone construction found on virgin soil near Cape Hermaion served as a warehouse for a seasonal entrepcot; permanent settlement did not begin until the late sixth century under Carthaginian initiative.
The record of early Phoenician settlement west of the Tunisian headland is equally scant. In fact, the entire coast of western Tunisia and eastern Algeria (from Bizerte (Cap Blanc) to Oran) has produced little evidence for occupation prior to the fifth century BC. Culturally and chronologically, the many emporiums dotting the Algerian coastline from Hippo Regius (Annaba) westward to Gunugu (Gouraya) reflect the growing regional influence of Carthage. The sites themselves and their Punic toponyms, which are often prefixed by ’y (Pun. for ‘island’) or Rus (meaning ‘cape’), underscore their functional significance as emporiums for Punic coastal trade. It is only in the extreme west of Algeria, along the Oranian coast, that material evidence of earlier (seventh to sixth centuries) Phoenician occupation may be found - at Les Andalouses, west of Oran, and at Rachgoun, a coastal islet situated near the mouth of the Siga (Tafna) River, where an inland necropolis and coastal settlement have yielded evidence for Phoenician occupation extending back to the seventh century BC.
Ibiza
Situated off the eastern coast of Spain, the island of Ibiza (Pun. ’ybsm, ‘isle of the balsam tree’) in the Balearic archipelago formed a natural port-of-call for Phoenician craft plying the Mediterranean to and from the Strait of Gibraltar. Excavation in recent years has confirmed that the island was settled by Phoenician colonists from the Atlantic straits. By the mid-seventh century, an early foothold was established on the peninsula of Sa Caleta along Ibiza’s southwestern coast for trade with Sardinia and the Iberian coast. In addition to shipping, mining interests (silver and iron) appear to have promoted the settlement, a modest entrepcot of limestone-and-mudbrick residences and warehouses. After a brief occupation of some 50 years, the settlement of Sa Caleta was abandoned, its population transferred to the hill of Puig de Vila overlooking the larger bay of Ibiza a short distance to the east, with its ancient port facility, the emplacement of which is marked by abundant finds of late seventh century Phoenician pottery. Salvage excavations undertaken in the early 1980s on the lower slopes of the adjacent hill of Puig des Molins (later site of Ibiza’s vast Punic necropolis) have uncovered the remains of the settlement's archaic cemetery, marked by several dozen cremation pithoi burials.
Ibiza's strategic placement for early Phoenician trade has been elucidated by scattered finds of Phoenician pottery along the northeastern coast of Spain - in Alicante province (Pefia Negra de Crevillente, Los Saladares) and Castellon (Vinarragell) and, further north, in the delta of the Ebro River in southern Catalonia. Such finds, dating from the later seventh and early sixth century BC, suggest that Ibiza had served as a conduit for western Phoenician trade with the northern Spanish interior and with southern France, valued outlets for tin arriving overland from the north Atlantic regions of Cornwall and Brittany.
Spain
Archaeological investigation in recent decades has revealed a great deal about Phoenician settlement in the Iberian peninsula, the westernmost stage of Phoenician Mediterranean expansion. Memory of early Phoenician involvement in southern Spain has been preserved in the accounts of classical authors, whose writings clearly reveal that Phoenician colonial activity in the region was driven by one overriding motive - the acquisition of ores and precious metals. The Spanish peninsula, in fact, forms one of the richest sources of raw minerals (gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin) in the entire Mediterranean. The Tyrian settlement of Cadiz - in close proximity to the mineral-rich Huelva district and Guadalquivir valley - underscores the Phoenicians' abiding interest in gaining access to such resources.
Ancient Cadiz (from Pun. Gdr, 'wall’ or ‘fortified citadel') was founded on a series of offshore islands in the sheltered Bay of Cadiz beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. As recent geologic and archaeological investigation has shown, the early Phoenician settlement was centered on the small northern islet of Erytheia, the present heart of nineteenth century Cadiz. In antiquity, this islet was separated from the larger, southern island of Kotinoussa by a deep, narrow channel, the Bahia-Caleta, which served as Cadiz’ original harbor. Like its mother city Tyre, the early Phoenician settlement at Cadiz, which lies unexcavated, appears to have been an extremely compact one, covering no more than 25 ac, encompassing the city’s three primary sanctuaries to Astarte, Baal Hammon, and Melqart. The latter, renowned in antiquity for its oracle, may be localized on the present-day islet of Sancti Petri, where a group of ancient bronze statuettes depicting male deities was discovered in 1984. The city necropolis of Cadiz was situated apart from the settlement on the opposite bank of the Bahia-Caleta channel - in the area of Puertas de Tierra, where numerous burials, the earliest dating to the fifth century BC, have been uncovered.
Tyrian involvement in the Tartessian silver trade has been elucidated in recent years by archaeological research. As demonstrated, Phoenician activity focused in two regions: the western area of the province of Seville and the mountainous region of Huelva beyond. In the former, the trade in metals followed a route ending directly at Cadiz via the mouth of the Guadalquivir. Early on, Cadiz established an enclave on the northern shore of the Guadalete estuary at the indigenous Tartessian settlement of Castillo de Dofia Blanca, which served as the island city’s continental port and transit station for mainland trade; excavations conducted there over the past two decades have revealed extensive traces of Phoenician presence. As archaeological research has demonstrated, silverbearing lead ores (perhaps from the silver mines at Aznalcollar in the Sierra Moreno) were processed and subsequently smelted at the native Tartessian sites of Tejada la Vieja and San Bartolomei de Almonte, respectively. Phoenician activity at Tejada is evinced by the urban character of the native walled settlement, which housed stone-built warehouses and facilities for the grinding and washing of the ores.
The richest deposits of gold - and silver-bearing pyrite ores were, however, to be found in the mountains of Huelva, in the inland region of Rio Tinto, the site of the most extensive mining operations in antiquity. Modern survey of the surviving traces of silver slag, estimated at roughly 6 000 000 tons, reveals the monumental scale of mining activity conducted in the Iron Age. The presence of two indigenous neighboring hill settlements (Quebranthuesos and Cerro Salomon) confirms that the process of mining and extraction fell in native hands. Phoenician involvement in such mining operations is now well documented by excavations at Cerro Salomon, where a small settlement, marked by imported Phoenician pottery, revealed obvious traces of metalworking. Transported in ingot form down the Rio Tinto, the silver was processed at the native coastal port of Huelva, where excavations have revealed the emplacement of actual smelting furnaces dating to the eighth to seventh centuries BC.
It is along the Andalusian coast east of Gibraltar, however, that the Phoenicians appear to have concentrated their settlement efforts, beginning in the eighth century BC. Archaeological investigation over the past three decades has, in fact, documented the existence of a series of compact, closely spaced settlements with adjacent necropolises along the coasts of Granada, Malaga, and Almeria, all strategically situated on low coastal headlands within sheltered bays or inlets. Their positions - on riverine estuaries such as the Guadalhorce, Guadalmedina, Velez, and Algarrobo - ensured access to the surrounding agriculturally rich interior, which represents some of the most fertile farmland in all of the Iberian peninsula. It was with an eye toward local exploitation of such natural resources (including timber) that the majority of such settlements, including Cerro del Villar, Toscanos, Moro de Mezquitilla, and Chorerras, were founded on a coast that was largely undeveloped and sparsely inhabited at the time of the Phoenicians’ arrival. Unlike their Levantine mainland equivalents, the Phoenician settlements of the eastern Andalusian coastal plain appear small and unpretentious, totalling only a few acres (2-3 ha) with correspondingly small populations: what the archaeological record reveals, in fact, is a series of centrally administered commercial enclaves rather than full-fledged towns. With its three-aisled warehouse facility, Toscanos, the best documented of such archaeological sites, well illustrates this point. In addition to farming and cattle breeding, Toscanos’ economic activities consisted of purple-dye manufacture and metallurgy (both copper and iron).
As for Phoenician settlement west along the Strait of Gibraltar, attention may be drawn to Gorham’s Cave, a grotto extending some 30 m into the Gibraltar Rock along its southeast side. As recent excavation of its upper stratum reveals, the cave apparently served as a Phoenician shrine. Over the years, ongoing archaeological research has yielded a large quantity of Phoenician and Punic finds deposited between the eighth and third centuries BC, including copious faience amulets and scarabs of Egyptian and Egyptia-nizing variety, glass core-formed vessels, and Phoenician red slip pottery. The importance of the Gorham’s Cave grotto may also be explained by the natural defensive position provided by the Gibraltar Rock and by the safe anchorage it afforded in the Bay of Algeciras on its western side.
World History
