History - Tartessos

Tartessos - 900 to 540 BC

by Gisela Radant Wood

For centuries Tartessos was as mythical as Atlantis and had just as many legends woven around it — but whether it was a city or an independent state, no one knows. The Greek historians Herodotus and Ephorus, plus Strabo the geographer, all wrote about Tartessos. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder indicated that Cádiz and Tartessos were really the same city but, although, the knowledge of early historians seems incomplete, they were all agreed that Tartessos existed.

Who were the Tartessians and where was Tartessos?

We have written records and significant archaeological finds in western Andalucia and Extremadura’s southern province called Badajoz on which to base our knowledge.

The roots of the Tartessians lie in the Bronze Age. Their civilisation was at its height from 900 BC to around 600 BC. 'Tartessians' is the collective name given to the peoples the Phoenicians first came into contact with when they explored inland from Cádiz. We do not know when they were first called 'Tartessians' but we do know the early Greek historians knew them by that name. It appears that at this time they were settled and established tribes who  lived mainly in the area of the modern province of Huelva,  extending to the Guadaquivir valley. Modern discoveries and a reinterpretation of writing discovered on stones and rocks have led experts in the field of linguistics and archaeology to think that the roots of the Tartessians being Celtic and part of the Atlantic Bronze Age. However this theory is still controversial.

There is archaeological evidence to support the theory that the Tartessians after 720 BC spread out from Cádiz and the Guadalquivir valley, further inland and eastwards towards Cordoba and perhaps Murcia. We do not know if this was a simple matter of trading or social interaction or whether it involved people migrating into these areas at this time. Gradually, but certainly after 600 BC, the Tartessians also spread north into Extremadura. There is archaeological evidence of the Tartessians settling in the fertile area to the south-east of the River Guadiana where they encountered other settled tribes.

The land was still sparsely populated then with no real borders between tribes or clans. The Tartessians simply settled down. There is no suggestion that they ever fought for land or conquered anyone else. Nor did they put to sea in search of trade routes.  In any event, they are recognised as being the first civilised people on the Iberian peninsula — but their culture came from contact with ‘outsiders’ and traders rather than being self-generated. The impact of the arrival of the Phoenicians, and the Tartessians regular contact with them moved the civilisation of these indigenous peoples forward at a rapid pace. 

The economic base, and main source of wealth for the Tartessians, remained agriculture and live stock, as it did for the rest of the peoples on the peninsula. We know a lot about what they grew through the discovery of seeds found in ceramic jars in various archaeological sites. They grew mainly cereals; barley, oats, corn and wheat. This was exactly the type of food the Phoenicians wished to have from their part in trade and they brought almonds, olives and vines to the area in exchange. The Tartessians also grew vegetables, collected honey a certain berry called, by Strabo, “kermesberry” from which they extracted a vermillion dye. (In reality, the name refers to a small insect which produces cochineal but Strabo did not know that). They had horses, donkeys and bullocks for helping with the agricultural work and for transportation. They also had goats, sheep, pigs and hens. In addition to providing meat, milk, cheese and eggs for food, and wool and skins for clothing, the animals were also, on occasion, sacrifices for the gods. Hunting, especially for deer and fishing in the rivers augmented the diet of the community.

Throughout the extended area settled and influenced by the Tartessians, people mined ore for silver, gold, copper and tin and traded them and we can be sure that they lived within reach of the mines they worked. The mining needed workers capable of great physical strength.  The mining  was open cast.  There was no subterranean mining because tools were still fairly simple and they found ores near the surface. Marble was also quarried and used in furniture and house decoration as well as for small boxes and other luxury items.

The metals extracted from the ores were shipped by the Phoenicians back to their cities in the east where their highly skilled craftspeople turned them into luxury items which were in turn traded back across the Mediterranean. Some metals were probably retained for craftspeople in the area to create items which were traded locally. These craftspeople may have been indigenous and trained by the Phoenicians, or were Phoenicians who settled here. Maybe both.

Local people would have gained enormously from the training given by the Phoenicians who were among the most accomplished peoples in the Mediterranean.

trade between the Tartessians and the Phoenicians

Clearly, in the beginning trade between the Tartessians and the Phoenicians was not equal. Although the Phoenicians obtained the raw materials and food they wanted, the Tartessians obtained, in exchange, goods of a far superior quality than they were able to make for themselves. These were desired by the newly-elite Tartessian ruling and religious classes. Their more luxurious possessions singled them out from the masses and reinforced their superiority but also it helped drive the economy. 

Trade with the Phoenicians and other Mediterranean peoples was an important source of economic activity. However, trade through intermediaries was also important. The Greeks also wanted to trade along the Atlantic coast and with metal-rich Tartessos but because the Phoenicians were already established in that area they mainly traded on the eastern side of the Iberian peninsula. They founded the port of Massalia, modern Marseille, around 600 BC.  Pytheas the Greek, reportedly,  travelled fro Tartessus to Cornwall looking searching for tin to mix with the copper to make Bronze. He also travelled to north coast of Germany in search of amber in around 325 BC.

A change in the east Mediterranean had an impact on the Tartessians. In 883 BC, Tyre, the most important city-state of the Phoenicians was conquered by the Assyrians. This was quite soon after their trade encounters with Tartessos began, but the Phoenicians were allowed to continue and  retain a certain autonomy. Nevertheless, they were no longer actually independent,  but under Assyrian control, and the Assyrian Empire was at the height of its power and  was also hungry for metals, especially silver. 

   The Phoenicians paid taxes to the Assyrians in precious metals. Silver was a prized metal because, at the time, it was used as an international currency or standard. The purity of the metal was tested in temples which, in addition to its role in religious life, also had a commercial purpose. Before money in the form of coinage was invented, silver was cast into bars or ingots and used internationally as well as in Assyria and Phoenicia. Around 700 BC, the abundance of silver caused its  value to fall and gold started to take over as the currency of choice. 

In 814BC, the Phoenicians founded Carthage, their most important independent city-state. Carthage had a fertile hinterland and would go on to be a power in its own right with implications for the Iberian peninsula within a few hundred years. Meanwhile, as already explained, the Phoenicians dominated the south and west of the Mediterranean while the Greeks dominated the north and east.

Tartessian Society

Tartessians were probably ruled by kings although we do not know the system the Tartessians had for choosing kings or whether kingship was even hereditary. Ancient legend, whose authorship is unknown, states that Gargoris was the first king of Tartessos and ‘discovered’ bee-keeping, honey and pioneered agriculture. He made many laws and forbade the aristocracy to work. In a time when tribes were still migrating looking for a place to settle, he gave the Tartessians stability. Various myths have been passed down about Gargoris having fathered a son, Habis, with his daughter whose name we do not know. Habis was abandoned by his father and brought up by a deer, just as legend has it that Romulus and Remus were raised by a she-wolf. The Tartessians were divided among seven cities just as Rome was built on seven hills. The similarities in legends between Tartessos and Rome is not surprising. The Romans carried their legends with them just as the Greeks and other cultures did before them.

Gerion is another legendary King of Tartessos who was supposed to have had a herd of cattle. One of the labours of Hercules was to steal the cattle. These two kings may be mythical and, although we have the stories about them, we have no tangible evidence they ever existed — but, maybe they did.

Although the Tartessians were, as far as we know, peaceable peoples they did have a warrior class. The more powerful warriors were at the head of the social structure but, gradually this system changed. From 700 BC to 500 BC Tartessos was a civilisation that had a hierarchical social structure. At the head of this was the King but, apart from the mythical kings, the only one we know about from historical writing is Arganthonius yet he claimed descent from the legendary kings — as if to legitimise his rule.

With the King and the warrior class at the top of society in Tartessos and the religious class next, then the skilled crafts peoples, all the rest of the remaining people were more-or-less equal. However, for the first time there was a source of wealth other than through hunting or agriculture. People could learn new skills and use them to make objects to trade. The rise of commercialism and consumerism changed lives. With the arrival of the Phoenicians and their ideas of how a society should be formed and should function this gradual change was replaced by a much faster evolution. Along with the rise of the ruling, kingly and religious classes, came the rise of the administrative class. 

Tartessian Religion

For much of the time the palace and the temple were joined and had unlimited power. Very often a king or a member of the royal family was also a priest or priestess. The king at these times took on a mantel of divinity. As already stated, the Phoenicians principally worshipped Melqart and Astarte and built temples to Melqart in all the colonies they founded. In this way they spread the cult of the worship of its gods and goddesses to its colonies and beyond. It is believed that Tartessians developed the cult of worship for these two divine figures as a result of the Phoenician practices. Several images of Phoenician gods have been found in Cádiz, Huelva and Sevilla and there is a good display in the Cádiz Museum.

We do not know a great deal about the religious world of the Tartessians. We do know, from buildings and artefacts left behind, that there were special places for religious worship where it was possible to bring a sacrifice that was offered to the gods to ask for something or to give thanks for something received. It is possible that the Tartessians, like the Phoenicians, sacrificed children although there is no evidence to reach any conclusion one way or another. It is certain, though, that in times of great danger or extreme need, the sacrifice to the gods would have to have been the very best the people could offer. What better than a child, a symbol of the life and future of the people? A sacrifice of this sort would have affected the whole community where, as in almost every other society, religion was an additional glue that kept the civilisation together. We do know it was not a male-dominated religion; goddesses were worshipped and women were priestesses. Their great respect for their dead leads us to think that the Tartessians believed in an after-life but we cannot say with any certainty what those beliefs were in actual terms.

Written Tartessian history does not exist after 540 BC. The ancient historians wrote nothing more about them and it seems they had disappeared. Probably, when the Phoenicians stopped coming, trade declined and the Tartessians left the area around Cádiz. Maybe the open cast silver mines were becoming more difficult to work and there was an economic crisis. Perhaps agriculture failed and there was drought or plague. We don’t know one way or the other and their end remains as mysterious as the legends surrounding their beginning.

What we do know is that over in the eastern Mediterranean, the Phoenicians were conquered in 538 BC by Cyrus the Great of Persia, the same who had conquered the Phocaeans (who were Greek) in 546 BC. The Phoenicians continued to trade, albeit with Persian overlords instead of Assyrian ones but their decline was inevitable and not long in coming. By 500 BC there were major problems in Phoenicia and its sea-faring and trading activities declined along with many of its colonies throughout the Mediterranean.  Cádiz was all but abandoned. Small Phoenician settlements along the Atlantic coast were also neglected and declined. To all intents and purposes the thriving Tartessian culture, established along the Guadalquivir, came to an end too. However, as we know from archaeological remains, it still flourished inland, north of the Guadalquivir and south of the Guadiana in Extremadura. 

It is believed that the remnants of the Tartessians gradually, either through reinvention or assimilation, became known as the Turdetani. Another tribe, often thought to be related to the Turdetani, were the Turduli. They lived to the north in the middle Guadiana basin. One possible location of their ancient capital is Badajoz and another is Reina further to the east but both are in the modern Badajoz province.

Strabo wrote that Turdetania contained a vast number of towns. He stated that there were two hundred, with the best known towns situated on the rivers, estuaries and the sea. If Strabo was accurate that would mean that the Turdetani were flourishing and strong — two hundred is a considerable amount of settlements for the times. However, we do know that they were a wealthy tribe with cosmopolitan manners used to dealing with merchants from all over the Mediterranean. In addition they were esteemed, by the later Romans, who thought they were the most intelligent of the Iberians. They made use of an alphabet, and were alleged to possess records of their ancient history, poems, and laws, all written in verse, that were six thousand years old. None of these writings have come down to us today. 

It is not known when Tartessian ceased to be spoken, but gradually the Turdetani and other peoples who lived around the Guadalquivir, completely changed over to the Roman way of life. In time, the older languages died out completely and were not remembered or recorded for posterity. The Turdetani had, for the most part, become Latins and received Roman colonists into their territory and in a relatively short time they all became Romans.

 

 

Next: Phoenicians to Carthaginians in Andalucia

Tartessos Archaelogical Sites in Andalucia

Most of the Phonecian sites in Andalucia were built on by later civilisations. Phoenician artefacts are preserved in Musums.

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