The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade

182 Pages·1993·18.932 MB·English

by  Aubet, María Eugenia

THE PHOENICIANS
AND THE WEST
Politics~ colonies and trade
MARIAEUGENIA AUBET
Uniuersid<1d Aut6noma of Barcelon,z
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY
MAR Y TURTON
1993
M
CAMBRIDGE
V
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published hy the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
~o West 2oth Street, New York, NY 100II-~2II, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Victoria 3166, Australia
Originally published in Spanish as Tiro y las Colonias Fenicias de Occidente
by Ediciones Bellaterra 1987
and© 1987 Ediciones Bellaterra, S.A.
First published in English by Cambridge University Press 1993 as
The Phoenicians and the west: politics, colonies and trade
English translation© Cambridge University Press 1993
To the memory of my parents
Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
A c<~talogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Aubet, Maria Eugenia.
[Tiro y !as colonias fenicias de Occidente. English]
The Phoenicians and the West: politics, colonies and trade I
Maria Eugenia Aubet: translated from the Spanish by Mary Turton.
p. cm.
Translation of: Tiro v !as colonias fenicias de Occidente.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN o 521 4II41 6
r. Phoenicians. 2. Western Mediterranean-History. 3· Tyre
(Lebanon)-History. I. Tide.
DS 8r.A8p3 1993
909' .0974926-dc20 92-8161 CIP
ISBN o 521 41141 6 hardback
Contents
List of figures page xi
~~~~ ~
Acknowledgements xv11
Introduction I
Who were the Phoenicians? 5
I
2 Phoenicia during the Iron Age 22
so
3 The bases for the expansion in the Mediterranean
4 Phoenician trade: exchange mechanisms and organization 77
5 The great political institutions: the palace and the temple II9
6 The routes of Phoenician expansion into the
Mediterranean I33
7 The Phoenicians in the west: chronology and
historiography I67
8 The Phoenician colonies in the central Mediterranean I85
9 The colonies of the far west: Gadir and the silver trade 2I8
IO Concluding thoughts 277
Appendixes
I Phoenician Iron Age archaeology 28 5
II The journey of Wen-Amon to Phoenicia 296
III Oracles against Tyre 303
IV The settlements of the central Mediterranean 3II
Bibliography 317
Index 345
I
Figures
I Near East page 6
2 Eastern Mediterranean I3
3 Phoenicia l4
4 Plan of Tyre (after P. M. Bikai, The Pottery of Tyre,
Warminster, I978, plate LIX) 28
5 Aerial view of Tyre, I935 29
6 Aerial view of Tyre, I938 30
7 Southern Phoenicia and the territory of Tyre JI
8 The island of Tyre- bronze bas-relief from the gates of
Balawat (ninth century BC) (after E. Gubel (ed.), Les
Pheniciens et le monde mediterraneen, Brussels, I986,
fig. I 3) 32
9 Bas-relief at the palace of Sargon in Khorsabad (eighth
century BC) 33
IO Flight of King Luli of Tyre-Assyrian bas-relief from
Khorsabad (early seventh century BC) (after R. D.
,..;-·
Barnett, 'Phoenicia and the ivory trade', Archaeology
9:2, I956, 87---97) 34
II Phoenician ivory from the royal palace of Samaria
(eighth century BC) 39
I2 Plan of the temple of Astarte in Kition 43
IJ The Assyrian campaigns in the Near East 47
I4 Variables of the Phoenician expansion in the west 53
ss
IS The colonies of Tyre in the Bay of Haifa
I6 Phoenicians bringing tribute to the king of Assyria -
bas-relief from the palace of Asurnasirpal II in Nimrud
(859-839 BC) (after R. D. Barnett, 'Illustrations of Old
Testament History', The British Museum, London,
I966) 7I
I7 Phoenician ship - bas-relief from the palace of
Sennacherib in Nineveh (c. 700 BC) 93
I8 Tyrian trade in the Near East (in Ezekiel) IOI
Xl1 List of figures List of figures X!ll
. l';) Phoenician silver bowl from Idalion, Cyprus (eighth 50 Phoenician pottery from La Cruz del Negro, Carmona
century BC) I07 (seventh century BC) 2.31
2.0 Phoenician silver bowl from Praeneste, Italy (seventh 51 Silver smelting furnace (calle del Puerto) 2.39
century BC) II2 52 Bronze jug from the necropolis of La Joya, Huelva 242
2.[ Cherubim- Phoenician ivory from Nimrud I2) 53 Phoenician amphora from El Carambolo (seventh
22 Phoenician expansion into the Mediterranean I34 century BC) 2.44
-1 )' Limits from which land can be seen in the 54 Phoenician pottery from Mogador (seventh century BC) 245
Mediterranean I43 55 Astarte-bronze statuette, El Carambolo (eighth century
24 Aerial view of Sidon, 1934 1)2 BC) 246
2.5 Aerial view of Carthage 154 )6 View of the acropolis at Lixus 248
26 Marine currents in the western Mediterranean 1)6 57 The Phoenician colonies in eastern Andalusia 2)0
];7 Prevailing winds in the western Mediterranean 158 ss View of Almunecar 252
2.8 Shipping routes in the Mediterranean 161 59 The Phoenician colonies on the mouths of the Ve!ez and
East-west routes in the western Mediterranean I62 the Algarrobo 254
Z.:';)
30 The west-east routes in the western Mediterranean 164 6o The Phoenician settlement at Cerro del Villar and its
}I Bronze statuette of Reshef from Selinunte I75 territory 255
32- Phoenician deities-bronze statuettes found in the sea at 6I Red varnished Phoenician pottery from T oscanos
Huelva I76 (eighth-seventh century BC) 2)8
.n The Nora stele I8o 62 Plan ofTo scanos 260
3-# The Phoenician colonies of the central 63 View of the triangular pit and ashlar wall, T oscanos 261
Mediterranean 19I 64 Plan of the warehouse at T oscanos 262
3) Plan of Carthage 192 6) Bronze thymiaterion from Cerro del Pen6n, T oscanos 263
}6 Alabaster vase from the necropolis of Junon, Carthage 66 Grave goods from Tomb I at Trayamar (seventh century
(seventh century BC) I93 BC) 268
37 Early pottery from Carthage 194 67 Grave goods from Tomb 20 at Almunecar (seventh
38 Pottery from the deposit in the tophet at Carthage century BC) 269
(eighth century BC) 195 68 Tomb I at Trayamar 271
J9'' Plan of Motya 201 69 Pottery from the necropolis at Khalde 288
40 The Phoenician colonies in Sardinia 203 70 Pottery from Tyre (eighth century BC) 292
41 Plans of Tharros, Nora, Sulcis and Bithia 204
42 Early pottery from the tophet at Sulcis 206
43 The tophet at Sulcis 213
44 The tophet of Salammbo, Carthage 213
45 Phoenician colonies and T artessian settlements in the
south of Spain 219
46 The bay of Cadiz today and alternative models for a
reconstruction of the ancient archipelago 224-5
47 Aerial view of Cadiz 227
48 Reconstruction of the island of Cadiz and position of
the principal archaeological remains 228
49 Proto-Aeolian capital from Cadiz 229
I
i
I
Tables
I
r Phoenician chronologies page 17
2 Kings of Tyre, Assyria and Israel 44
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the generous collabo
ration of many people. In the first place, I should like to acknowledge
the enthusiastic assistance and the patience and invaluable collabor
ation of Marla Jose Aubet, Josep Fontana and Vicente Lull, to whom,
through interminable discussions, I am indebted for criticism, advice
and suggestions that have been of inestimable value in my investi
gations.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to lngrid Gamer-Wallert, Gustav
Gamer, Milagros Gil-Mascarell, Juan Maluquer de Motest, Sabatino
Moscati and Manuel Pellicer for their stimulation and the interest they
have always shown in this work.
To Manuela Barthelemy, Anna Maria Bisit, Concha Blasco, Eric
Gubel, Hans Georg Niemeyer, Rafael Puertas, Wolfgang Rollig, Diego
Ruiz Mata, Javier Teixidor and Hermanfrid Schubart I owe infor
mation and material almost invariably given with no thought of self
interest and which has considerably facilitated the work of investi
gation.
Lastly, I should also like to express my gratitude to the German
Archaeological Institute in Berlin for having given me the opportunity
to work in the specialist libraries in Germany during the year 1986.
My thanks to all of them.
For permission to reproduce published material the publishers wish to
thank the following:
Paul Geuthner, Paris, figures 5, 24 and 25; Dr Nina Jidejian, figure 6;
Musee du Louvre, figure 9; De Boccard, figure rr; Thames and
Hudson, figure r2; The British Museum, figures 17 and 2r; Dr Annette
Rathje, figure r9; 'L'Ermo' di Bretschneider, figure 20 (from F. Poulsen,
Der Orient und die friihgriechische Kunst, 1968); Professor Dr
Wilhelm Schiile, figure 23; Dr D. Joaquin Ruiz de Arbulo, figures 26,
27, 28, 29, 30; Professor Vincenzo Tusa, figure 3I (from the Museo
Nazional di Palermo); Dr In grid Gamer-Wallert, figure 32;Archaeologia
XVIII Acknowledgements
Fenicio-punica-Universira degli Studi di Cagliari, figure 33; Les Publi
cations d' Art et d' Archeologie, figures 36 and 37; Editions J. Picard,
figure 38; Professor Piero Bartoloni, figure 42; Professor Jose Luis
Escacena Carrasco, figures 46, 47, 48; Deutsches Archaologisches Insti Introduction
tut, Madrid, figures 49, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68; Dr D. Jesus Fernandez
Jurado, figure sr; Professor Dr Juan Pedro Garrido, figure 52; Museo
Arqueologico de Sevilla, figure 5s ; Professor Dr H. G. Niemeyer, figure
62; Or D. Manuel Pellicer, figure 67; Direction Generale des Antiquites,
a
Lebanon, figure 69 (from Saidah, 'Fouilles Khalde', Bulletin Musee de
Beyrouth, vol. xx, 1967); Dr Patricia Bikai, figure 70. Nowadays anyone intending to embark for the first time on a study of
the Phoenician colonization of the Iberian Peninsula or keen to know
the state of archaeological investigation in that field will come up
against three types of difficulty: one of a technical nature, another of a
methodological nature and a third concerning the question of subjecti
vity in reading the historical testimony.
Among the difficulties of a technical or instrumental nature, it is
worth pointing out the lack of up-to-date reports which provide a
critical assessment of the archaeological data obtained in the last
fifteen years in the western Mediterranean. The vast literature that
exists on the question is scattered in a multitude of articles in specialist
journals or in the proceedings of meetings not always accessible to
students of the ancient world. Lastly, there is the relative confusion in
the way the terminology in use is handled: the words 'Phoenician',
'Punic' and 'orientalizing' are bandied about indiscriminately without
establishing clear differences between them, or at times contradictory
or incoherent terms are used, such as 'Iberico-orientalizing',
'Phoenicio-Punic' or 'Punico-archaic'. Obviously this does not help to
make things easy for the reader, since behind this terminological
confusion lie much more complex methodological and conceptual
problems.
As regards the difficulties of a methodological nature, it must be
emphasized that a reconstruction of the history of Phoenician trade in
the West or in the Mediterranean in general must of necessity be based
on two types of documentary sources or instruments of analysis, which
I' very often disagree with each other: the written testimonies handed
down to us by the classical historians, and the archaeological record
proper. The divergences between these two categories of data raise a
~
host of difficulties for investigators and these are not always easy to
resolve. Thus, for example, the discrepancies that occur between the
I
historical dates given by the classical historians and the chronology
established by archaeological investigation have fuelled, among other
i
I
2 The Phoenicians and the west Introduction 3
things, the prolongation of a controversy already endemic among the immense economic potential of their territory. Thanks to the 'eastern
orientalists, which began in the last century, concerning the dating of miracle', it is thought, T artessos set about exploiting its abundant
the·first Phoenician foundations in the far west. mineral and agricultural resources.
The classical sources are of vital importance in an analysis of the On the other hand, the treatment meted out to the Phoenicians in
Phoenician question if they are handled prudently. It must not be the classical texts, and even today on the part of some historians, does
forgotten that certain legendary aspects concerning Phoenician coloni not exactly give us an impartial and objective picture of their historical
zation in the far West were picked up by Greek and Roman historians and cultural standing. In a way it is understandable that, for political
many centuries after the events took place and the only contemporary reasons, the classical authors branded the Phoenicians as pirates, as
written sources for the Phoenician diaspora-the Assyrian annals and cunning navigators, and held them responsible for introducing greed
the biblical texts-make no mention of anything that happened further and luxury into Greece. It is equally acceptable that the Romans
away than the island of Cyprus. Even so, the classical texts contain should show outright hostility towards them, speaking of 'perfidious
valuable information concerning the Phoenician expansion westwards. Punica', its proverbial cunning, its disloyalty and low moral sense.
It is on how these sources are managed that the historical reconstruc What is less understandable is the reason why even today some
tion of the past depends to a large extent. Archaeology, on the other historians insist on the poor quality of Phoenician art, its lack of
hand, provides us with information that is basically empirical, a kind originality, and that, unlike the Greeks, the Phoenicians were more
of general framework that can be used as a starting point for working interested in making profits than in producing poets, artists and his
hy:~theses. Nowadays any explanation of the Phoenician colonial torians.
phenomenon is likely to be analysed on the basis of new theories and However, the Phoenicians' principal legacy to the history of the west
from new methodological perspectives. Given that hypotheses cannot - the alphabet - is now unanimously acknowledged. The signs and
advance without some previously determined theoretical framework, names used by the Phoenicians to designate the letters of the alphabet
we:do not claim in this book simply to revise or update the subject of alef, bet, and so on -have been preserved down to our own day,
-the Phoenicians in the west, but rather to raise a series of questions thanks to the mediation of the Greek world.
-~.lhout the whole matter and, as far as possible, to give pertinent The Phoenicians did not just give us a system of writing, they
"aaswers as well. incorporated the Iberian Peninsula into the Mediterranean trade routes
The third difficulty presented by a study of the Phoenicians in the far of the period, which for more than two hundred years tied many
~tern Mediterranean lies in the inevitable subjectivism, not to say Mediterranean territories into an organizational structure and to
~logy, of those interpreting the data. The role played by the Phoeni certain institutions that were basically oriental. For a long time, the
cbieaenns in the west has rarely been judged objectively. At times, they have Phoenicians were the principal intermediaries between east and west
considered to have had very little effect on the internal cultural and this role of mediators smoothed out to a considerable extent the
dynamics of the native Spanish communities, and their socio-cultural socio-economic imbalances which existed previously between those
-· _ importance in the process of development that was to culminate in the states said to be 'civilized' and the 'barbarian' peoples. At the time of
· ·;cic:i:~·0QfTartessos in western Andalusia has been played down. Logi the Phoenician arrival in the Iberian Peninsula at the turn of the eighth
i;i-lr>;;this leads to an over-valuation of the part played by indigenous century BC or a little earlier, the indigenous Andalusian communities
lnerians or of the specific influence of the later Greek colonization in were deeply rooted in prehistoric economic structures. When the
nurturing the economic power of T artessos. Phoenicians left, at the beginning of the sixth century BC, the Peninsula
At other times the Phoenicians are ascribed more importance than was an integral part of that 'history' that bore their mark, and the
they had in reality and they are portrayed as the only protagonists in indigenous cultural process had, by acculturation, acquired other ways
the cultural process which gave rise to the Tartessian cultural complex. of attaining more complex, in other words more 'modern', socio
This view undervalues the indigenous peoples in favour of the idea that economic levels.
the Phoenicians arrived in a territory inhabited by a few passive, This book will attempt to bring the reader and the student interested
receptive communities- the Tartessians- who were unaware of the in the Phoenician question a synthesis of the present state of
4 The Phoenicians and the west
investigations and an outline of new hypotheses about the Phoenicians
and their colonial enterprise in the west. z
The study covers the colonial period proper, that is to say the
,ancient horizon of the eighth to sixth centuries BC. Consequently, we Who were the Phoenicians?
shall not deal here with the so-called Punic horizon of the sixth to third
centuries BC, a period in which many of the old colonial enclaves came
into the political orbit of Carthage. In reality, the Punic period corres
ponds to a quite distinct socio-political context, in which the geo
political circumstances of the western Mediterranean experienced con
siderable transformations which would demand a separate study of
their own. THE NAME: CANA 'ANI, PHOlNIKES, POENI
To enclose or define the function and category of the Phoenician A study of the terminology used to define a community or population
settl:ements in the west and Andalusia within a particular macro is a question that goes far beyond a simple exercise in historical
economic and historical model requires, logically, an analysis of those erudition when, as in the case of the Phoenicians, not all the ethnic,
political and economic factors in Phoenicia in general, and in Tyre in linguistic, geographic or cultural implications appear with sufficient
particular, which would have made this diaspora to the west possible clarity. The theme of the name by which antiquity knew the Phoeni
orwould have fostered it. In our judgement, only a critical examin cians provides a starting point of undeniable importance for determin
ation of the economic, political and social situation of the city state of ing the features that identifY this eastern population.
Tyre-mainly responsible for the colonization - and of its mercantile The name by which history knows the Phoenicians is a word of
policy could help us to gauge the category and economic function of Greek origin, which appears for the first time in the period of Homer
the centres in the west. That is why we give priority to a study of the and Hesiod-in the ninth to seventh centuries BC-and has no known
political and economic situation in the Phoenician cities before, during equivalent in the eastern languages.
and after the period of expansion through the Mediterranean. The original name phoinix and its derivatives, the feminine phoinissa
The question of who the Phoenicians were seems to us a good and the plural pholnikes, are a Greek invention and nobody but the
st:Kting point if we are to place the circumstances that prompted this Greeks used the term to designate this eastern people and certain
people to organize a commercial enterprise on such a scale at the cultural features connected with them. The word used to designate the
beginning of the first millennium BC in their historical and geo country of the phoinikes, Phoinlke, comes rather later, and refers to
graphical context. Consequently, the first chapters are devoted to the coastal territory between Aradus (Arvad) and Mount Carmel with
~sing the identity of the Phoenician people, starting from ethnic, boundaries corresponding roughly to those of modern Lebanon
linguistic, geographical and historical factors. These are followed by a (Fig. I).
secrion devoted to the way in which the Phoenicians organized their The root of phoinix is neither Phoenician nor Semitic, and at present
trade: and navigation during the period of colonization, so as to be able the linguistic problem of the origin of the Greek word has not been
fi:trnUyto tackle the study and interpretation of the colonial enclaves in solved. What does seem to have been verified is that the Phoenicians
i•··cemral Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula, equipped with never called themselves 'Phoenicians'. Already in antiquity, the Greeks
the el:ements appropriate to forming a judgement. were trying to find an explanation for the origin of the name, connec
ting its ethnic meaning with other semantic equivalents of the same
word. Among other meanings of phoinix we would single out that of
'red', a colour that was probably an allusion to the purple textile
industry, for which the Phoenician cities were famous in Homer's time.
According to this etymology, 'Phoenician' would be derived from
the Greek phoinos, a word of Indo-European root indicating 'red',