TARTESSOS,
SW Spain.
By Tartessos the literary sources mean a city, a river, and a region. Avienus (
Ora maritima 85.270, 290, 297) calls it a rich city surrounded by walls and watered by a river. For some
authors (Avienus,
Ora maritima 85.269-70; Just. 44.4.14;
Plin. 4.120, 7.156; Sall.
H. 2.5; Val. Max. 8.13.4) Tartessos
is identical with Cádiz. For others (App.
Hisp. 63;
Plin.
3.7) it is Carteia. It was on an island (Schol. of Lycophron 643), in the middle of the ocean (Schol. of the
Iliad 8.479), or near the Pillars of Hercules (Steph. Byz. voz. Tartessos). Tartessos is localized at the mouth
of the river of the same name (Avienus,
Ora maritima
284-90; Steph. Byz. voz Tartessos;
Paus. 6.19.3), between the two arms of the river (Poseidonius in
Strab. 3.140, 148). It was two sailing days distant from Cádiz (Scymn.,
Ephebos 161-64). The description of Stesichorus (
Strab. 3.2.11) on the sources of the river Tartessos agrees to an astonishing degree with the origin of the Rio Tinto in the Cueva del Lago (Cave in the
Lake) (Avienus,
Ora maritima 291-95). Scymnus (162),
in describing the river Tartessos, mentions tin, but none
of the rivers identified with Tartessos contains tin. The
only river that could attract attention because of the
peculiar substance contained in it is the Rio Tinto.
The Tartessos region probably embraced the whole S
part of the Iberian Peninsula S of the Sierra Morena
as far as Mastia Tartessiorum, the E border of the kingdom of Tartessos (
Strab. 3.2.11). This entire region was
under the cultural influence of the Phoenicians, and then
of the Etruscans and Greeks, beginning in 1100 B.C. when
Cádiz was founded by Phoenician traders. They established a series of trading posts on the coast of the Straits
of Gibraltar: Sexsi (Almuñecar), which contains the
oldest Phoenician necropolis in Spain, dating from 700-670 B.C., Los Toscanos (Málaga), dating from the 8th-6th
c. B.C., and the necropolis of Cabezo de la Esperanza
(Huelva); both the latter have produced Phoenician material of the 7th-6th c. B.C. The Phoenicians and Greeks
traded with the S of the Iberian peninsula and established
an orientalized culture such as that existing in Etruria,
Carthage, and N Africa. This culture, called Tartessian
and of Phoenician origin with Greek and Etruscan influences added, is known through a great and varied quantity of archeological material now distributed through a number of museums in Spain and the U.S.A., and in the
British Museum, London, and the Musée St. Germain,
Paris.
About 630 B.C. Kolaios of Samos traveled to Tartessos
and took home riches estimated at 60 talents; the wealth
in metals was the attraction behind the Phoenician and
Greek trips to Tartessos. With one tenth of these riches
the Samians made an Argolic style caldron which they
placed in the Heraion of Samos (
Hdt. 4.152). Two ivory
pieces like those from Carmona, confirming such journeys, have been found in Samos. Pausanias (
6.19.2, 3-4)
refers to a chamber from the treasury of Myron in Olympia weighing 13 tons, made of Tartessian bronze, according to the Elians. The Phokaians established relations with King Argantonius (670-550 B.C.) of Tartessos, who
gave them money to erect a wall around Phokaia (
Hdt.
1.163); later they founded Mainake on the Malaga coast
(
Strab. 3.4.2). Tartessos was governed by kings, some
of whose names are known, such as Theron (Macrob.
Sat. 1.20.12), Habis (Just. v.4), who taught agriculture,
promulgated laws, and finally converted himself into a
god. Other legends, such as the references to the cattle of
Gerion (
Strab. 3.148) and the wealth in gold and silver
of his father (
Diod. 5.17.4), clearly show the two axes
of the economy of Tartessos: metals and cattle. Another
king was Gargoris, mentioned in the myth of Habis.
Many poems and laws in Tartessos were written in verse,
and the Tartessians claimed they were 6000 years old. A
syllabic writing with Greek vowels was developed ca. 700
B.C. Tartessian culture disappeared in the beginning of
the 5th c. B.C.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. García y Bellido,
Historia de España.
España Protohistórica (1952) 281-308
MPI; M. Gómez Moreno, “La escritura bástulo-turdetana (primitiva hispánica),”
Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos 69
(1961) 879-948
MI; J. M. Blázquez,
Tartessos y los orígenes de la colonización semita en Occidente (1968)
MPI; J. Maluquer et al.,
Tartessos y sus problemas (1969)
MPI; id.,
Tartessos (1970)
MPI.
J. M. BLÁZQUEZ
