This is episode 4 called First Iron Age: Tartessos, Phoenicians and Greeks and in this episode you will learn:

Show notes

• The emergence of Tartessos in the Guadalquivir Valley area, the literary references and the possible location of their capital
• The importance of mineral resources for the rise of Tartessian culture, that is a confluence between native and Phoenician cultures
• The findings of El Turuñuelo led by Sebastián Celestino and Esther Rodríguez
• The political system and myths of Tartessos
• A quick overview to Tartessian history, from their rise to their fall in the 5th century BC
• Where did the Phoenicians come from, where did they build their colonies and in what did they base their power
• The peaceful collaboration between Tartessians and Phoenicians
• What did the Phoenicians bring to Spain
• The fall of Phoenician power after the fall of Tyre in 573 BC
• The Greek Phocaean colonies like Emporion or Rhodes in eastern Spain (Catalonia and Valencia)
• How and why were the Greek colonial expeditions organized
• The rise of Emporion

Script

I’m David Cot, host of The History of Spain Podcast, and this is episode 4, called First Iron Age: Tartessos, Phoenicians and Greeks. In this episode you will discover the fascinating and mysterious Tartessian culture, and the Iberian colonies of Phoenicians and Greeks. Subscribe to the podcast to not miss an episode!

The waves of Indo-European immigrants, and later Phoenician and Greek colonists, changed the ways of living, brought new technologies, new religious beliefs and burial customs, and many other things that changed the societies that populated the Iberian Peninsula. The Iron Age started in Iberia in 700 BC, with important regional differences.

<figure class="aligncenter"><figcaption>Map showing the location of Tartessos / Tartessian culture</figcaption></figure>

Around the Guadalquivir Valley a new culture emerged in 1000 BC, the Tartessian culture, that lived in a very fertile land suitable for agriculture and rich in mineral resources. The Tartessos have been a matter of deep investigation because they are surrounded by mystery. I mean, some even argue that the Greek myth of Atlantis was based on the fall of the Tartessos! In the Bible the word Tarsis is mentioned multiple times, and although it could have different meanings like long distance maritime trade or a type of precious stone, Tarsis could mean the land of the Tartessos. It’s mentioned in the Old Testament that the ships of Solomon and Hiram travelled to Tarsis in the 10^th century BC and that they returned loaded with gold, silver and ivory, among other things. In the Greco-Roman sources we have more confusing information about them. According to some authors Phoenicians founded the Tartessian culture, in relation to their location some said that their capital was in Cádiz while others said it was nearby, and that Tartessos was the name of the main city and not their region of influence.

The mainstream academic thought nowadays is that Tartessian culture is a confluence of native and Phoenician cultures. The most likely location of the capital of Tartessos is Huelva, in the west of Cádiz and Seville, as its red-colored river called Río Tinto contains high levels of iron and other heavy metals, and the nearby area has mines of copper, silver, gold and tin. Furthermore, the estuary of the Guadalquivir River was located more in today’s inland in the first millennium BC, and there’s a theory that locates the city of Tartessos in a delta of the river that is now underground.

What is clear is that the Tartessians were important producers of gold and silver. We not only have literary references about their mineral wealth, but also archeological evidence that confirms it. We have treasures of gold and silver that were decorated in detail, tools for extracting and working metals, beautiful religious artifacts… You should go and search it in Google Images to see how incredible their works were or visit thehistoryofspain.com where I will post some images.

<figure class="aligncenter"><figcaption>Tartessian Treasure of El Carambolo</figcaption></figure>

The Tartessians preferred small but dispersed towns rather than big urban concentrations. The location of Tartessian towns was based on the location of resources, like close to mines, or fertile lands, or rivers, which suggests that they had a complex and integrated economic system in the area of Western Andalusia. The lack of walls and weapons, and the easy-to-access location of towns suggests that their society was pacific and focused on trade instead of conquest.

The problem to learn more about Tartessos is that the cities that historians consider to be the most prominent of the civilization are Cádiz, Huelva and Seville. All of them are important cities of Spain so archeological research is complicated, because apart from the modern city we have the Medieval and Roman cities underground before the Tartessian cities. In fact, the majority of archeological findings of Tartessos have been found in what’s considered the Tartessian area of influence, in the interior rural region of Extremadura, along the Guadiana river. There are the spectacular rests of El Turuñuelo for instance, that is a very big and at least two-floor building that has yet to be totally excavated. The building was burned and sealed at the end of the 5^th century BC, when Celtic tribes were invading the region. Archeologists led by Sebastián Celestino and Esther Rodríguez have found more than 50 sacrificed animals, half being horses, the bones of an adult man, and architecturally advanced structures, that only with 15% of the site excavated! In all Tartessian urban structures there were sanctuaries, and it’s important to mention here that sanctuaries were not only religious centers, but also commercial centers. A sanctuary was a neutral zone were merchants and customers had their interests protected by divinities. Furthermore, Tartessian altars were very unique, since those altars had the shape of a skin of bull spread out, and they could be found both at sanctuaries and homes.

Their political system was probably a confederacy of city-states ruled by several hereditary monarchies. Their religious beliefs and myths were quite complex, as advanced as those of the Greek civilization, and Tartessian mythology was influenced by Oriental ideas brought by the Phoenicians. You see, they had a pastoralist vision of the origin of humanity. The Tartessian people believed that their mythologic founder Geryon had three heads and that he had a herd of oxen. Yeah, this Geryon is the same that appears in Greek mythology, in the 10^th work of Heracles aka Hercules. Later, King Gargoris founded the second dynasty and taught the Tartessians how to collect honey and trade. He was the father of Habis, a so