PHOENICIANS IN IBERIA AND TARTESSOS

The Phoenicians profoundly transformed life in southern Iberia and had an impact across the entire Peninsula from the early first millennium BC. They brought intense urbanization based on rectilinear architecture and urban layouts (rather than the local ‘oval’ dwellings), and new technologies and crops (vine, olive). They also brought the Phoenician script, introducing literacy and spurring the local development of several syllabaries (Palaeo-Hispanic scripts) for local languages. Religion was a structural element to the commercial expansion, reflected in the multitude of sanctuaries established in strategic positions and approached by ship, on promontories, estuary margins, and river banks. These were not simply areas of cultic activity but provided ‘liaison services’ for Phoenician commerce, offered capital, and maintained a depository of geographical knowledge. Phoenician colonies were established on offshore isles and estuary…