Tartessos

Tartessos

Approximate area of extent and influence of the Tartessian civilization.
Period	Bronze Age and Iron Age 12th century BC to 5th century BC
Ethnicity	Pre-Indo-European  Tartessians
Language	Tartessian (hypothesis)
Cities	Spal (Seville) Onoba (Huelva) Olissipo (Lisbon) Ossonoba (Faro) Conobaria (Las Cabezas de San Juan) Nabrissa (Lebrija) Mastia (Cartagena)
Region	Western Andalusia, southwest of the Iberian Peninsula
Present-day correspondence	Spain Portugal Gibraltar
Related	Turdetani Turduli Conii

Tartessos (Ancient Greek: Τάρτησσος Tártēssos, Latin: Tartessus) is the name by which the Greeks knew what they believed to be the first civilization of the West. A possible heir of the Atlantic Late Bronze Age, it developed in the triangle formed by the present-day provinces of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz, on the southwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in that of Badajoz, during the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. It is presumed to have had as its axis the river Tartessos, which may have been the one the Romans later called Baetis (Guadalquivir). However, some authors place it at the confluence of the mouths of the Odiel and the Tinto (river of Huelva), since it is known that important remains lie buried beneath the city of Huelva itself. The core of the Tartessian country has also been placed around the Barbate River (Porlan, 2015).

Tartessos influenced the lands of the interior and the Portuguese Algarve. The Tartessians presumably developed a language and writing distinct from those of the neighboring peoples and, in their final phase, received cultural influences from the Egyptians and the Phoenicians.

The first historical source that alludes to Tartessos is found in the work of Hecataeus, in the 6th century BC, who was considered by ancient authors to be a logographer, a term that defined historians before the times of Herodotus and Thucydides. Hecataeus mentions several Tartessian cities, while Herodotus (the next relevant source) speaks of King Arganthonios (whose name is believed to mean (The man or lord) of silver), who ruled for more than 100 years, and of his countless wealth, wisdom and generosity. A later one dates from the 4th century AD, from the Roman writer Rufius Festus Avienus, who wrote a work titled Ora maritima, a poem describing the Mediterranean coasts. This work would be dated around the 4th century BC. Avienus said of it that it was a "periplus," that is, a coastal navigation voyage carried out by a Greek or Carthaginian sailor who, setting out from the coasts of Britannia or Cornwall (England), reached Massalia (present-day Marseille). As a result of that voyage, the places visited by the unknown sailor are narrated, providing the oldest information about the Iberian Peninsula.

Origin

Treasure of El Carambolo, Archaeological Museum of Seville.

Much has been written about the origin of the Tartessian culture, yet nothing is certain so far. Among the main currents would be the indigenist and the colonialist:

• According to the most recent research, this culture formed from the evolution of the local populations heirs of the Bronze Age of the southwest of the peninsula, an evolution that reached its climax when they began to interact with the Phoenician trading posts on the coast.
• According to others, Tartessian culture would be the exclusive result of the acculturation of the natives by the Phoenicians. This theory is supported by the chronologies of colonization and by archaeological remains, such as burnished pottery with lattice decoration, red-slip pieces and religious representations, which clearly refer to Eastern gods such as Astarte, Baal or Melqart.

Regarding the origin of the Tartessians themselves, and within the framework of the diffusionist theories so fashionable until the 1970s, it has even been said that they arrived in the peninsula with the Sea Peoples, or even that they might have been Indo-European peoples, precursors of Celtic culture, or people coming from the steppes north of the Caucasus, who settled on the prehistoric substratum. Or that they might have brought with them the Neolithic, agriculture and livestock farming from the Near East and given rise to the Argaric culture and that of the Urnfields.

Extent

Tartessos in the Iberian Peninsula

The original core of Tartessian culture comprises approximately the territory of the present-day provinces of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz. Two especially important areas were the mining centers of the Tinto and Odiel rivers and the agricultural and pastoral plain of the Guadalquivir. These were the most densely populated zones, and from them Tartessian influence would extend during the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age over a good part of the rest of Andalusia and Extremadura, as well as the Portuguese Algarve and Alentejo.

Some important settlements on the coast were Asta, Nabrissa, Spal, Onoba, Ossonoba, Olissipo and Mastia, while in the interior Corduba, Carmo, Astigi, Carambolo, Tejada la Vieja, Setefilla and Cancho Roano (Badajoz) stand out.

In a final phase (6th century BC), a migration northward took place for unknown reasons, populating the Guadiana valley and even the Alcudia Valley, as shown by the Tartessian sites of Cancho Roano and El Turuñuelo.

Chronology

Late Bronze Age (1200 BC–900 BC)

Appearance of stable settlements in which an incipient social hierarchization can be seen. The first Tartessian villages date from this final stage of the Bronze Age. They are composed of houses with an oval or circular floor plan, built without a defined spatial organization. They were located in strategic places where they dominated the land routes and the agricultural and mining resources of the region. Some of the important settlements of this period are:

Setefilla (Seville) Carmona (Seville) La Tablada (El Viso del Alcor, Seville) Montemolín (Badajoz)

El Berrueco (Cádiz) Llanete de los Moros, Montoro (Córdoba) Colina de los Quemados (Córdoba) Onuba (Huelva)

Proto-Orientalizing stage (900 BC–700 BC)

Still within the Late Bronze Age, there is an increase in metal objects and goldsmithing, as well as in population. The villages known through archaeology, such as El Carambolo, are small in size, with circular or oval huts whose walls were built with branches and mud. Society became increasingly stratified, with power concentrated in military elites whose archaeological evidence is the warrior stelae.

On the other hand, around 800 BC the first Tartessian influences can be seen in eastern Andalusia, in addition to the intensification of large-scale silver exploitation in the area of Río Tinto.

Orientalizing stage (700 BC–650 BC)

Melqart, bronze statuette (Seville).

Already in the Iron Age, it coincides with the socio-cultural peak and the construction of walls in some villages such as Tejada la Vieja. The founding of the Phoenician trading enclaves brought about a process of acculturation and the adoption of techniques such as the potter's wheel, the techniques of filigree and granulation in goldsmithing, as well as a taste for Eastern luxury models. In the funerary world, too, cremation prevailed over inhumation.

Late stage (650 BC–500 BC)

Characterized by the reign of the only historical monarch: Arganthonios. Around the year 600 BC the Phocaean Greeks established colonies in Andalusia, as evidenced by the numerous Greek objects present in Tartessian culture. At the Battle of Alalia (535 BC, Corsica) the Greeks were defeated by a coalition formed by Carthaginians and Etruscans, so that Tartessos was left without an important trading ally.

At the end of the 7th century BC, coinciding with the arrival of the first Greek pottery, silver production was reduced in the Huelva region and the metallurgical centers were abandoned. In the second half of the following century Huelva went into decline, while the walls of Tejada were reinforced. Phoenician trade and imports were drastically reduced, and the princely tombs of the Guadalquivir valley disappeared.

Disappearance of Tartessos (500 BC)

Peoples that emerged from the disappearance of Tartessos.

Map of the Tyrrhenian Sea with Etruscan, Greek and Punic-Phoenician cities.

Tartessos disappeared abruptly from history: after the Battle of Alalia (535 BC), fifteen years after the death of Arganthonios, in which the Etruscans and Carthaginians allied against the Greeks, there are no more written references.

One of the possibilities is that it was swept away by Carthage after its victory over the Greeks, to make it pay for its alliance with them. Or by Gadir, a Phoenician metropolis that could have aspired to control the metals trade. Or perhaps by the peoples of the Meseta. Carthage thus became the undisputed master of the Western Mediterranean. With the route to Iberia cut off, the Phocaeans ceased trading with Tartessos, which was slowly consigned to oblivion.

The Greek defeat left the Tartessians without their allies and exposed to Punic attack. The entire empire of Tartessos must have collapsed after the fall of its capital, and the same fate befell Mainake (Málaga), the Greek city founded under the protection of Tartessos. Thus Carthage took control of the Western Mediterranean, and most of the Iberian Mediterranean coast came under its influence.

This Punic dominion would be maintained in these lands until Carthage confronted Rome for hegemony in the Western Mediterranean in the Punic Wars, being totally defeated in 146 BC. This would mark the arrival of the Romans in the Iberian Peninsula, where they found a region called Turdetania in which the descendants of the Tartessians lived. They would call this region Baetica, and the river Tartessos that crossed it they would call the river Baetis.

But explanations of an economic nature have also been given: when Massalia managed to reach the British tin sources by land and Gadir itself reached them by sea, the Tartessian monopoly would have collapsed, which would have caused a plunge in revenues and a whole series of internal consequences that would lead to the internal decline of the kingdom and its dissolution. The possibility of the exhaustion of the mineral veins, the main source of its commercial wealth, has also been considered.

In any case, the centers of political and economic power shifted toward the periphery of the Tartessian area, concentrating in oppida such as Carmona or Cástulo, which would give rise to the peoples of the Turdetani, the Turduli, the Turduli Oppidani and the Conii.

Toponymy and Colonization

Extent of the Tartessian settlements.

There are pre-Roman Tartessian toponyms, among which those formed with ipo, an element supposed to mean "city," -urgi and -uba stand out.

The distribution of these toponyms is not random; rather, their geographical and cultural framework reflects a Tartessian "colonization" confirmed by archaeological finds, which can be compared with Etruscan colonization.

More than 50 toponyms formed with ipo are known in the southwest of the peninsula. Among them stand out Olissipo (Lisbon), Baesippo (Barbate), Collipo (San Sebastián de Freixo, Leiria), Ilip(o)la (Niebla), Irippo (Alcalá de Guadaíra), Orippo (Dos Hermanas), Ostippo (Estepa), Seripa (Serpa, Portugal), Aipora (Sanlúcar de Barrameda), Laepo (Lepe), Epora (Montoro, Córdoba) and Iponuba (Baena).

Among the toponyms in -urgi stand out Conisturgi (Medellín) and Isturgi (Andújar), and among the toponyms in -uba stand out Corduba (Córdoba), Onuba (Huelva) and Ossonoba (Faro).

During the Orientalizing Period numerous settlements were founded to control the network of land communications that arose, parallel to the sea route that ran from Gadir to the estuaries of the Sado and the Tagus by way of Onuba (Huelva), Ossonoba (Faro), Ipses (Vila Velha, Alvor) and Lacobriga (Lagos).

The differences shown by the various types of anthroponyms in their geographical dispersion, and in relation to the Orientalizing road system and the archaeological remains found in some towns, make it possible to propose that these "colonial" foundations correspond to various phases, characterized by different toponyms spread over different areas and at different dates.

To a first phase seem to correspond the toponyms in -urgi, perhaps used in the Late Bronze Age, in the middle valley of the Guadiana and the Upper Guadalquivir. In parallel, a maritime colonization from the Tartessian Gulf can be seen, evidenced by the toponyms in -uba. This expansion toward the Atlantic would have reached Onuba before the 10th century BC and from there Ossonoba, while toward the Mediterranean it would reach Salduba (Estepona) and Maenoba (Vélez-Málaga).

A second phase of colonization would be represented by toponyms beginning with Ipo-, which appear outside the core zone. The towns in Ipo- spread mostly to the east of the Genil, although there are also some towns in Ipo- to the west of the Guadalquivir, such as Iporca (Constantina, Seville), I(po)tuci (Aldea de Tejada, Huelva) and Ipses (Vila Velha, Algarve), which would control the routes of this Orientalizing colonization.

The third phase, the main and most characteristic one, would correspond to the toponyms ending in -ipo, all of them located on the periphery of Tartessian colonization, reaching as far as Collipo (Leiria, Portugal) along the Atlantic coast.

Sites

Model of Cancho Roano, in Zalamea de la Serena (Badajoz).

Some important sites that could be considered Tartessian are:

• Aliseda, in the province of Cáceres
• Asta Regia, in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz)
• Cancho Roano, in Zalamea de la Serena (Badajoz)
• El Carambolo, in Camas (Seville)
• Cerro Salomón (Huelva)
• The necropolis of La Joya, in the city of Huelva
• La Tablada, in El Viso del Alcor (Seville)
• Tejada la Vieja, in Escacena del Campo (Huelva)
• El Turuñuelo, in Guareña (Badajoz)
• Carmona, in the province of Seville; moat, dwellings, wall and bastions.

The site of Cancho Roano, located in Zalamea de la Serena (Badajoz), remains an enigma: it may have been a palace or a place of worship, or it may have fulfilled both functions, in addition to being a market and funerary sanctuary. Only its first stages would be associated with the Tartessian world. Its structure shows the Eastern influence on Tartessos: a forecourt with towers on the wings of the migdal type, a lateral staircase, a transverse hall, rooms with chamber and antechamber, a central space, storerooms, a second floor intended for storage and dwelling, a geometric layout, the use of adobe, pseudo-orthostats and, very probably, a terraced roof. These architectural formulas point to the North Syrian area and perhaps northern Phoenicia rather than to Mesopotamia, southern Syria or Canaan, since they seem to derive from the North Syrian palaces of the beginning of the 1st millennium, whose most characteristic element is the bît-hilani, or columned portico opening onto a throne room with its longitudinal axis parallel to the façade, which may be considered the origin of the Persian apadana and of the iwan of Sasanian and Islamic architecture.

Tejada la Vieja in Huelva.

Cerro Salomón was a mining village established in the 7th century BC at the headwaters of the Río Tinto. Mining tools, lamps, bellows and crucibles have been found there. Its inhabitants extracted gold, silver and copper, smelted the ore and sent it downriver to Onuba (Huelva) in the form of ingots or unrefined. This Tartessian port functioned as the center of a network of settlements, and metallurgical activities were also carried out there. Other settlements devoted to metallurgy and located near the mines would be San Bartolomé de Almonte and Peñalosa.

Tejada la Vieja is located in the Huelva municipality of Escacena del Campo and was inhabited between the 8th and 4th centuries BC. It controlled the route used to carry the minerals obtained in the mines of Aznalcóllar to the port of Gadir. The walled perimeter and the structures of the dwellings are well preserved.

Tartessos

Tartessian bronze known as the "Carriazo Bronze," which represents the Phoenician goddess Astarte as goddess of the marshes and estuaries. The object is in the Archaeological Museum of Seville and is one of the best-known Tartessian works.

The first reference to Tartessos that some have wished to see comes from its identification with the name Tarshish that appears mentioned in the Bible, but many authors consider that it refers rather to some port on the Red Sea or to a type of ship that traveled toward that area.

For the Greek sources, Tartessos was a state governed by a monarchy, established in a country rich in agricultural and livestock products and in minerals such as gold, silver, tin and iron. But there is no proof that a city called Tartessos existed, since none has been found that can be identified as such. The various ancient sources are at times contradictory among themselves, and it has not been possible to reconcile them with archaeological data.

Classical and Byzantine sources indicate that the capital would be located along the course of the Tartessos/Guadalquivir, a river which until well into the Roman period flowed into the Ligustine Lake, now silted up and turned into the marshes of the lower Guadalquivir. The Guadaíra, which today is a tributary of the Guadalquivir, was then an independent river of some size and flowed out right at the confluence of the Guadalquivir with the Ligustine. In the area of the mouth there were then several branches, one of which still formed two successive lagoons in the Seville of the 16th century. Between these branches several islands would be defined, to which the cited writings refer.

The arrival of the Phoenicians and their establishment in Gadir (present-day Cádiz) perhaps stimulated its projection over the surrounding lands and cities, the intensification of the exploitation of the copper and silver mines (Tartessos became the main supplier of bronze and silver to the Mediterranean), as well as navigation to the Cassiterides islands (the British Isles), from which they imported part of the tin needed for the production of bronze, which they also obtained by washing stanniferous sands.

Orientalizing pottery, Carmona (7th century BC)

One hypothesis supported by some classical references is the identification of Gadir with Tartessos. According to this theory, Tartessos would be the generic name for a region in which the only city of any size in the area would be Phoenician Gadir. Since Gadir means walled enclosure, in order to identify clearly where the goods came from, the Phoenicians might have begun to use expressions such as "from the city in Tartessos," thus causing the confusion in the sources. This would be consistent with the fact that there are sources that speak of the city and yet no archaeological remains of it are found.

Interpreting the periplus of Avienus, Adolf Schulten searched for it without success at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, on an island between two branches of the river. His theory about the city of Tartessos was highly controversial, and many dismissed it as fanciful. He believed that the city could be in the Doñana reserve, a thesis endorsed by the discovery of the Tartessian Stele of Villamanrique, which took place on 22 March 1978 at the place called Chillas (located in Villamanrique de la Condesa, Seville, a town bordering the National Park) by two of its residents (Mr. Manuel Zurita Chacón and Mr. Manuel Carrasco Díaz). This unique archaeological inscription in stone, from the 6th century BC, which documents indigenous writing for us, is preserved in the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Seville.

José Chocomeli Galán searched for Tartessos at Asta Regia, in Mesas de Asta, where the test pits carried out indicate the existence of great archaeological potential related to an important Tartessian settlement.

Following the Doñana hypothesis, the CSIC researchers Sebastián Celestino and Juan Villarías Robles, the University of Huelva professor Antonio Rodríguez-Ramírez and the historian Ángel León carried out, from the summer of 2005 to that of 2008, a geophysical, surface and aerial-photography campaign in the area of the Marisma de Hinojos, where satellite photographs and subsoil samples suggest that there could be anthropic remains, whose dating is so far unknown. During the 2009 campaign the first fieldwork began, resulting in important discoveries concerning the geology of Doñana. The most interesting conclusions that can be drawn from the published work (Rodríguez-Ramírez et al., 2014, 2015) refer to the intense neotectonics of the area, such that the Tartessian paleogeography would lie several meters deep beneath the present topography. That is why surface surveys in Doñana have never found Tartessian remains. The project is still ongoing.

More recently (2015) the philologist Alberto Porlan has put forward the thesis that the core of Tartessian civilization lay in the region of the Strait of Gibraltar. According to him, it would occupy approximately the entire basin of the Barbate River and the Atlantic coast of the strait between Cape Trafalgar and Tarifa. Its capital would be located on a river island upstream of the now drained La Janda lagoon, about four kilometers north of the present-day town of Benalup. To reach these conclusions he has relied on the study and interpretation of the classical sources, such as the Ora maritima of Avienus.

System of government

The classical literary tradition says that their form of government was monarchy and that they possessed laws written in verse on bronze tablets since time immemorial; Strabo speaks of 6,000 years before his time, a figure that could in reality refer to years or lunar months (some 500 years). It is possible that the Phoenicians favored the concentration of power in a king, since that way it was easier for them to establish trade exchanges. The monarchy of Tartessos can be divided into two large groups: the mythological kings and the historical kings.

Mythological kings

• Geryon: First mythological king of Tartessos. According to certain myths he was a three-headed giant, or at least one with three bodies from the waist up, who herded his great herds of oxen on the banks of the Guadalquivir. The myth says that one of the twelve labors of Heracles was the theft of the oxen of Geryon. The legend also says that Geryon was a giant who was defeated by Heracles and over whom he built the Tower of Hercules, in A Coruña. However, this point clashes with other views that place Geryon on the island of San Sebastián in Cádiz, a city that was also founded by Hercules and which seems more geographically related to the kingdom of Tartessos.

• Norax: Grandson of Geryon and son of Erytheia, he conquered the south of Sardinia, where he founded the city of Nora. (See Nora Stone).

• Gargoris: First king of the second Tartessian mythological dynasty, king of the Curetes. He invented beekeeping and trade.

• Habis (Habidis): Unacknowledged bastard son of Gargoris, the fruit of incest with his daughter. He escaped several times from the death ordered by his father with the help of the beasts. He was suckled by a doe until he became a man and was afterward acknowledged by his father. He discovered agriculture, yoking two oxen to a plow. He formulated the first laws, divided society into seven classes and forbade the nobles to work. Under his reign a social system was established in which a few lived at the expense of the labor and misery of a poor majority. It is said that he divided the kingdom into seven cities.

About these last two monarchs the Tragicomedy of Gargoris and Habis was written, which mentions a social system based on the exploitation of man by man, born after the discovery of agriculture. They are mythological figures whose real existence is as doubtful as that of Heracles.

Historical kings

Arganthonios is the only king of whom there are historical references. According to Herodotus he lived 120 years, of which he reigned 80. Schulten calculated that he may have reigned between 630 BC and 550 BC. He fostered trade with the Phocaeans for 40 years in order to break the monopoly held by the Phoenicians. He even offered to let those who emigrated to the West settle permanently in his kingdom when the Persians were pressing on the Greek cities of Ionia. Although they declined the offer, they received from Arganthonios a cargo of silver to reinforce their walls. After him, mentions of Tartessos disappear.

Economy

Jug of Valdegamas (6th century BC), from Don Benito, Badajoz (M.A.N.).

The fundamental basis of the wealth of Tartessos was metallurgy and the export of the ores of gold, silver, copper, tin, iron and lead. Gold was abundant in the rivers of the south and west of the peninsula; silver, in Huelva and the upper course of the Guadalquivir. Copper and tin were obtained from the western peninsula and from Britain. Iron metallurgy must have been introduced by the Phoenicians, who knew it thanks to their relations with the Hittites. The metallurgical centers were not only near the mining areas but appear distributed throughout the whole territory. Tools were melted down again once they deteriorated. The processes used to obtain silver consisted of the smelting and cupellation of gossan rocks, which indicates good metallurgical knowledge.

Trade routes were a key factor for the Tartessian economy. Their ships sailed the Atlantic as far as the present-day British Isles and went up a good part of the course of the rivers Tartessos (Guadalquivir) and Anas (Guadiana). They also used land routes that reached the Tagus and the center of the Meseta. Along all of them circulated the rectangular metal ingots that were afterward exported to the Near East through Phoenician and Greek merchants. The main beneficiaries of this trade were these same merchants, but also the local elites, who fostered the process of acculturation and the increase in social hierarchization, both well represented in the princely tombs of the necropolis of La Joya. In exchange for metals they received jewels, ointments, oil and wine, as well as fabrics and other manufactured products. This barter was very important, since it facilitated the exchange of cultural and religious aspects.

Agriculture, livestock farming and fishing were also very important. They specialized above all in the cultivation of cereals, using techniques imported from the Phoenicians, without neglecting vegetable gardens and fruit trees.

Material culture

In Tartessos abundant metal objects were made which, on the one hand, had Eastern influence but also great originality. In bronze, the beaked jugs stand out, similar to Greek ones but pear-shaped instead of ovoid. Spits more than a meter long, elbow-type fibulae and belt plates with hooks were also made; the Carriazo Bronze, which represents the goddess Astarte, deserves special mention. In bronze or silver, circular ewers with two handles were made, an entirely native element. Silver goldsmithing was very abundant, and in the Turdetanian period ordinary objects such as basins or barrels were made from it. Of native origin is the technique of metal inlay, carried out with gold, silver or copper. The Phoenicians would introduce the techniques of granulation and soldering. The best examples of the level reached by Tartessian jewelry are the pieces belonging to the treasures of Aliseda, El Carambolo and the farmstead of Ébora: pectorals, belts, diadems, bracelets or earrings, all made of solid gold. Some gold candelabra were also found in Lebrija, which have been interpreted as ritual elements belonging to some temple, perhaps imitating Eastern censers. As for iconography, two doves flanking a bull's hide are typical, like those found at the site of El Turuñuelo, near Guareña (Badajoz).

In ivory and bone, small luxury boxes or caskets were made to keep perfumes or ointments. From the shells of the Guadalquivir clam, carved toilet objects were made. The pottery includes plain, spatula-smoothed, burnished or decorated pieces, but always handmade. This local pottery coexisted with Eastern imports made on the fast wheel, small in size and of high quality, which would also be imitated by Tartessian potters.

They also imported from Eastern or Gaditan workshops prestige articles manufactured with ivory, gold and silver, cut glass, bronze jugs, statuettes of this metal dedicated to Astarte, aryballoi and alabastra containing essences and cosmetics, fabrics, necklaces, glass beads and trinkets.

Religion

There are very few data, but it is supposed that, like that of the rest of the peoples of the Mediterranean, it was also a polytheistic religion. It is believed that they may have worshipped a goddess resulting from acculturation by the Phoenicians, Astarte or Potnia. There may have been a male Phoenician deity, Baal or Melqart. Phoenician-style sanctuaries have been found at the site of Castulo (Linares, Jaén). Votive offerings have been found at various points in Andalusia and in other more distant places, such as Salamanca, whose exact origin is not known. In the religious aspect, Phoenician acculturation was uneven, not influencing all places equally.

Language

Reproduction of the Stele of Bensafrim, showing an inscription in what is believed to be the language of Tartessos.

There is a series of grave slabs found in the Algarve, the Alentejo and the lower Guadalquivir that contain inscriptions in an unknown language with a mixed syllabic-alphabetic script read mainly from right to left. Some have wished to see in them a representation of the Tartessian language, although the greatest concentration of the inscriptions is in southern Portugal, while they are in fact scarce and peripheral in the Tartessian territories, which raises serious doubts in this respect. From the Tartessian language (as yet unknown) the language spoken by the Turdetani could have derived, judging by the references of Strabo, who says of them that they were descendants of the Tartessians and that they had writings and laws more than 6,000 years old.

Interpretations

According to Aubet, the Tartessian "Orientalizing" period must be interpreted in the context of an indigenous elite situated at the top of a hierarchical society that controlled its own economic resources. Faced with the exotic socio-cultural stimuli from the Levant that the Phoenicians offered them, it responded by adopting their ideology and integrating itself into their trade circuits, which spanned the entire Mediterranean.

Historical references

• In the Bible there are references to a place called 'Tarshish', also known as 'Tarsis':
  • In the First Book of Kings: "For King Solomon had at sea ships of Tarshish together with the ships of Hiram. The ships of Tarshish came once every three years and brought gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks." (Old Testament, 1 Kings 10:22). At present, some believe that Solomon was not referring to Tartessos but to the port of Aqaba, on the Sinai peninsula.
  • In a text of the Prophet Ezekiel (27:12) (6th century BC) it is said that Tyre traded with Tarshish, and in this case it is possible that it does refer to Tartessos, since Phoenicia had already made contact with them.
  • The Book of Jonah 1:3 (8th century BC) says: "But Jonah rose up to go to Tarshish, away from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa and found a ship that was about to sail for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went aboard to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of Yahweh."
• On the Nora stele (9th century BC), found in Sardinia and written in Phoenician, a Cypriot navigator thanks the god Pumay for having reached his home TRŠŠ safe and sound. The acronym TRŠŠ has been related by many specialists to Tarshish (Tartessos). But it is also interpreted as temple of the cape and mine or foundry, making a more than possible reference to Sardinia itself, which was exploited by the Phoenicians for its mineral wealth.
• On the stele of Esarhaddon (7th century BC) the name Tarsis appears, but there are doubts as to whether it really refers to Tartessos, since the Assyrians apparently had no relations with the Western Mediterranean.
• The poet Stesichorus (6th century BC) mentions Tartessos in his Geryoneis, which narrates the tenth labor that Eurystheus assigned to Heracles, which consisted of killing the giant Geryon, who ruled in a kingdom near Tartessos. It is considered the first Greek reference to Tartessos.
• Anacreon in 530 BC refers in one of his works to the wealth and political complexity of the Tartessian kingdom.
• The historian (logographer) Hecataeus of Miletus (550 BC – 476 BC) refers to Tartessos as a kingdom or country, citing several of its cities.
• Herodotus speaks of King Arganthonios, and of the relations of Tartessos with Greece:

...a Samian ship, whose master was Colaeus and which was bound for Egypt, was driven off course to the island of Platea; the Samians entrusted the whole matter to Corobius and left him a store of provisions for a year. They themselves, having set out from the island with a great desire to reach Egypt, were carried off course, swept along by the east wind; and, the wind never ceasing to blow, they reached the Pillars of Hercules and, guided by a god, arrived at Tartessos. This trading place was unexploited at that time, so that on their return these Samians made with their cargo the greatest profit ever obtained by any Greek of whom we have exact information, except for Sostratus, son of Laodamas of Aegina, for no other can be compared with him. From their gains the Samians set aside the tithe, six talents, and ordered a bronze vessel to be made in the shape of an Argolic krater.

• Ephorus of Cyme (Scymnus, 162) writes that the capital Tartessos was two days' journey (1,000 stadia) from the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar). By this name he identified a kingdom, the river that crossed it and the capital of the kingdom located at its mouth, which according to some modern authors would today coincide with Huelva, but according to others with the river Tartessos or Baetis (Guadalquivir) itself, if the capital of Tartessos lay somewhat farther upstream, closer to Coria del Río or the ancient mouth.
• When the traveler Pausanias visited Greece in the 2nd century BC (Paus. Desc. 6.XIX.3) he saw two chambers in a sanctuary at Olympia which the people of Elis claimed were made of Tartessian bronze. Pausanias also writes about Tartessos:

"They say that Tartessos is a river in the land of the Iberians, reaching the sea by two mouths, and that between these two mouths lies a city of the same name. The river, which is the longest in Iberia and is tidal, was called in more recent days Baetis, and there are some who think that Tartessos was the ancient name of Carpia, a city of the Iberians."

• In the treaty between Rome and Carthage of the year 348 BC, mention is made of "Μαστια Ταρσειον" (Mastia of Tarseion), a city that possibly refers to present-day Cartagena, which marked the limit that Rome could reach in the Iberian Peninsula:

The treaty is drawn up in these terms: "On these bases there shall be friendship between the Romans and the allies of the Romans and the Carthaginians, Tyrians, Uticans and their allies. Beyond the Kalón Akrotérion and Mastia of Tarseion, the Romans may not take booty, nor trade, nor found cities. If the Carthaginians should seize any city in Latium not subject to the Romans, they shall keep the money and the captives but shall give up the city. If the Carthaginians should seize people with whom the Romans have made a treaty, even if they are not under the dominion of the Romans, they shall not bring them into Roman ports, and if any should be brought in and a Roman should take charge of him, he shall be set free. The Carthaginians shall likewise refrain from this; if, on the contrary, anyone should do it, he shall not be prosecuted privately, but it shall be considered a public offense. In Sardinia and in Libya no Roman shall trade or establish settlements (nor shall he approach), except to take on provisions or to repair his ships. If he is carried there by a storm, he must leave within five days. In the part of Sicily subject to the Carthaginians and in Carthage, a Roman may sell and do everything that is lawful for a citizen. The Carthaginians shall have the same right in Rome."

• Strabo mentions the City of Tartessos and places it on an island between the two branches of the mouth of the river of the same name, which he identifies with the Baetis.
• Pliny the Elder and Marcus Junianus Justinus speak of Tartessos, but in a confused and imprecise manner.
• José Pellicer de Ossau placed Tartessos as one of the possible locations of Plato's Atlantis. This theory is reinforced in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, in which the Greek philosopher Plato places the mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean, near Gadeira and the Pillars of Heracles.
• Greek and Roman sources referring to Tartessos: Tartessos in the Iberian Peninsula, the Greek mythical traditions, the myth of Geryon and the tenth labor of Hercules, Gargoris and Habis, Stesichorus (silver roots of the River Tartessos), Anacreon (longevity of its Monarch Arganthonios), Hecataeus (speaks of a certain Helibyrge of the City of Tartessos), Herodotus (Tartessos as an emporium of great wealth beyond the Pillars of Hercules, as well as its relations with the Phocaeans), Ephorus, Aristophanes, Strabo (Tartessos as city, river, region and center for the trading of silver and metals) and Avienus. Numerous historical reconstructions have been made of Tartessos, artificially embellished through the use of late literary documentation, often alien to the native world of the peninsula.

Possible identification as "Tarshish" or "Atlantis"

Since the classicists of the early 20th century, biblical archaeologists have often identified the toponym Tarshish in the Hebrew Bible with Tartessos, although others connect Tarshish with Tarsus in Anatolia or with other places as distant as India. Tarshish, like Tartessos, is associated with great mineral wealth (the Iberian Pyrite Belt).

In 1922, Adolf Schulten gave currency to a view of Tartessos that made it the Western and wholly European source of the legend of Atlantis. A more serious review, by W.A. Oldfather, appeared in The American Journal of Philology. Both Atlantis and Tartessos were believed to be advanced societies that collapsed when their cities were lost beneath the waves. The supposed additional similarities with the legendary society make a connection seem feasible, although practically nothing is known of Tartessos, not even its precise site. Other Tartessian enthusiasts imagine it as contemporary with Atlantis, with which it might have traded.

In 2011, a team led by Richard Freund claimed to have found solid evidence of the location in Doñana National Park, based on underground and underwater surveys and the interpretation of the archaeological site of Cancho Roano as "memorial cities" rebuilt in the image of Atlantis. Spanish scientists have rejected Freund's claims, alleging that he was sensationalizing his work. The anthropologist Juan Villarías-Robles, a collaborator of the National Research Council, said that "Richard Freund was a newcomer to our project and appeared to be involved in his own very controversial issue concerning King Solomon's search for ivory and gold in Tartessos, the well-documented settlement in the Doñana area established in the first millennium BC," and described his claims as "fanciful."

Simcha Jacobovici, involved in the production of a documentary on Freund's work for the National Geographic Channel, claimed that the biblical Tarshish (which he believes is the same as Tartessos) was Atlantis, and that "Atlantis was hidden in the Tanakh." This, however, is widely disputed by most of the archaeologists involved in the project. The enigmatic Lady of Elche, an ancient bust of a woman found in southeastern Spain, has been linked to Atlantis and Tartessos, although the statue shows clear signs of having been made by later Iberian cultures.

See also

• Tartessian language
• Iberians
• Phoenicians
• Turdetania
• Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula
• Mastia of Tarseion
• Archaeological zone of Setefilla
• Treasure of El Carambolo
• Carriazo Bronze
• Candelabra of Lebrija
• Jug of Valdegamas

Bibliography

• Abad, Lorenzo (1979). "Consideraciones en torno a Tartessos y los orígenes de la cultura ibérica". Archivo Español de Arqueología (in español). 52 (139–140). Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas: 175–193.
• Almagro-Gorbea, Martín; Blázquez Martínez, José María (1996). Ideología y poder en Tartessos y el mundo ibérico (in español). Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia. p. 174.
• Arteaga, Oswaldo (June 1984). Homenaje a Luis Siret (1934-1984). Actas del Congreso, Cuevas del Almanzora (in español). Consereja de Culura de la Junta de Analusia. ISBN 9788450535112.
• Aubet, M. E. (1990). El impacto fenicio en Tartessos: las esferas de interacción (in español). Mérida: La cultura tartésica y Extremadura. pp. 29–44.
• Aubet Semmier, María Eugenia (2009). Tiro y las colonias fenicias de occidente (in español). Barcelona: Bellaterra. p. 424. ISBN 9788472904484.
• Bendala, M. (1977). "Notas sobre las estelas decoradas del S. O. y los orígenes de Tartessos". Habis (in español). 8: 177–205.
• Blázquez, José María (1975). Tartessos y los orígenes de la colonización fenicia en Occidente (in español). Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca. p. 447. ISBN 9788440086112.
• Caruz Arenas, A. (1969). La localización de la ciudad de Tartessos (in español). Barcelona: V Simposium Internacional de Prehistoria Peninsular. pp. 347–368.
• Carriazo, Juan de Mata (1973). Tartesos y el Carambolo: Investigaciones arqueológicas sobre la protohistoria de la Baja Andalucía (in español). Madrid: Dirección General de Bellas Artes, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia [Patronato Nacional de Museos]. p. 730.
• Cerqueiro Daniel, Daniel (2002). Las naves de Tarshis, o, ¿Quiénes fueron los fenicios? (in español). Buenos Aires: Ediciones Pequeña Venecia. p. 180. ISBN 9789879239131.
• Chocomeli, José (1940). En busca de Tartessos (in español). Valencia: La semana gráfica. p. 66.
• Correa Rodríguez, José Antonio (1985). Consideraciones sobre las inscripciones tartesias (in español). Salamanca: Actas del III Coloquio sobre Lenguas y Culturas prerromanas de la Península Ibérica. pp. 377–395.
• Eiroa García, Jorge Juan (2010). Prehistoria del mundo (in español). Barcelona: Sello Editorial Sociedad Limitada. p. 1081. ISBN 9788493738150.
• Fernández Jurado, Jesús. Tartessos y Huelva (in español). Vol. 3. Huelva Arqueológica. pp. 101–121.
• Fernández Flores, Álvaro; Rodríguez Azogue, Araceli (2007). Tartessos desvelado. La colonización fenicia del suroeste peninsular y el origen y ocaso de Tartessos (in español). Córdoba: Almuzara. p. 286. ISBN 9788496710733.
• Maluquer de Motes, Juan (1990). Tartessos (in español). Barcelona: Ediciones Destino. ISBN 84-233-1893-1.
• Martín de la Cruz, J. C. (1984–1985). "Problemas en torno a la definición del Bronce Tardío en la Baja Andalucía" (PDF). Cuadernos de Prehistoria (in español) (11–12). Universidad Autonómica de Madrid: 205–215. ISSN 0211-1608.
• Olmos, R. (1986). Los griegos en Tartessos: replanteamiento arqueológico-histórico del problema (in español). pp. 584–601.
• Porlan Villaescusa, Alberto (2015). Tartessos. Un nuevo paradigma (in español). Sevilla: Libros de la Herida. ISBN 978-84-942024-5-2.
• Ruiz Mata, Diego (1994). "Fenicios, tartesios y turdetanos". Huelva Arqueológica (in español) (XIV): 325–367. ISBN 84-8163-102-7.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
• Schulten, Adolf (1945). Tartessos (in español). Madrid.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Torres Ortiz, Mariano (2002). Tartessos (in español). Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia. p. 477. ISBN 9788495983039.

External links

• Restauración de piezas de la Necrópolis de La Joya (Huelva) por el IAPH (video, in Spanish).
• News on Tartessos research in the press: La huella de Tartessos conduce a Doñana (2007) and La civilización perdida (2010) (in Spanish)
• Tartessos, Mastia y las rutas comerciales de la antigüedad (in Spanish)
• Fuentes griegas y romanas referentes a Tartessos (in Spanish)
• Notas en torno a la aculturación en Tartessos (in Spanish)
• Memoria de España - Tarteso, reino legendario (RTVE documentary, in Spanish).
• Aunión, J.A. (17 April 2017). "Una excavación en Badajoz descubre un edificio tartésico único en el Mediterráneo occidental". El País (in español). Madrid. Retrieved 17 April 2017.