Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "TARTISSOS Ancient city SPAIN".
Town on the Cortijo de El Rocadillo near the Guadarrangue area, in
the S Roque district on the bay of Algeciras, the S coast of Hispania Ulterior.
Although it is Phoenician or Punic in origin, as its name indicates, there are
few remains of these cultures. In antiquity it was called Karteia and Herakleia,
since its foundation was attributed to Herakles according to Timosthenes of Rhodes.
Strabo (3.1.7-8) stated that in Timosthenes' time, ca. 280 B.C., its circuit wall
and arsenals were visible.
Part of this wall has been uncovered, as well as Campanian ware A,
B, C, and Hispano-Carthaginian silver coins. However, most of the remains are
Roman, the oldest from the Republican period. The Roman foundation dates from
171 B.C. when it was called Colonia Libertinorum (Livy. 28.30.3). There are frequent
references to the city, some stating that it was the site of the legendary Tartessos
(Strab. 3.151; Paus. 6.19.3; Mela 2.96; Plin. 3.7; and Sil. Pun. 3.396). The port
was of great importance in both the Iberian and the Imperial age according to
Strabo and the author of De Bello Hisp. (26.1-37.1-2), who calls it navale presidium.
In 46 B.C. the squadron of Accius Varo took refuge in Karteia when pursued by
Caesar's ships under Caius Didius, and Cn. Pompeius embarked in the same port
after the defeat at Munda (De Bello Hisp. 26.1-17, 1-2), when the partisans of
Caesar in Karteia compelled him to leave the city. On the death of Cn. Pompeius,
Sextus Pompeius returned to Baetica, and Karteia, which had declared itself for
Pompey, again surrendered to him (Cic. Ep. 15.30.3).
Remains include the Roman wall, the theater, the baths, part of a
monumental building with Corinthian columns and bull protomes (apparently a temple);
the supposed Capitolium; remains of the salting basins for the manufacture of
garum; and finds of sculptures, inscriptions, coins, and pottery.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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 Cadiz. 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
Cadiz (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 Cadiz was founded by Phoenician traders. They established a
series of trading posts on the coast of the Straits of Gibraltar: Sexsi (Almunecar),
which contains the oldest Phoenician necropolis in Spain, dating from 700-670
B.C., Los Toscanos (Malaga), 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 Musee 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.
J. M. Blazquez, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
An ancient town in Spain, and one of the chief settlements of the Ph?nicians, probably the samearshish of Scripture. The whole country west of Gibraltar was called Tartessis.
Tartessus (Tartessos, Herod. i. 163; Tartessos and Tartesos, Diodor. Siculus, Frag. lib. xxv.), a district in the south of Spain, lying to the west of the Columns of Hercules. It is now the prevailing opinion among biblical critics that the Tarshish of Scripture indicates certain localities in the south of Spain, and that its name is equivalent to the Tartessus of the Greek and Roman writers. The connection in which the name of Tarshish occurs in the Old Testament with those of other places, points to the most western limits of the world, as known to the Hebrews (Genes. x. 4; 1 Chron. i. 7; Psalms, lxxii. 10; Isaiah, lxvi. 19); [p. 1107] and in like manner the word Tartessus, and its derlivative adjectives, are employed by Latin writers as synonymous with the West (Ovid, Met. xiv. 416; Sil. Ital. iii. 399; Claud. Epist. iii. v. 14). Tarshish appears in Scripture as a celebrated emporium, rich in iron, tin, lead, silver, and other commodities; and the Phoenicians are represented as sailing thither in large ships (Ezek. xxvii. 12, xxviii 13; Jerem. x. 9). Isaiah speaks of it as one of the finest colonies of Tyre, and describes the Tyrians as bringing its products to their market (xxiii. 1, 6, 10). Among profane writers the antiquity of Tartessus is indicated by the myths connected with it (Strab. iii. p. 149; Justin, xliv. 4). But the name is used by them in a very loose and indefinite way. Sometimes it stands for the whole of Spain, and the Tagus is represented as belonging to it (Rutilius, Itin. i. 356; Claud. in Rufin. i. 101; Sil. Ital. xiii. 674, &c.). But in general it appears, either as the name of the river Baetis, or of a town situated near its mouth, or thirdly of the country south of the middle and lower course of the Baetis, which, in the time of Strabo, was inhabited by the Turduli. The Baetis is called Tartessus by Stesichorus, quoted by Strabo (iii. p. 148) and by Avienus (Ora Marit. i. 224), as well as the town situated between two of its mouths; and Miot (ad Herod. iv. 152) is of opinion that the modern town of S. Lucar de Barameda stands on its site. The country near the lower course of the Baetis was called Tartessis or Tartesia, either from the river or from the town; and this district, as well as others in Spain, was occupied by Phoenician settlements, which in Strabo's time, and even later, preserved their national customs. (Strab. iii. p. 149, vii. p. 832; Arr. Exp. Alex. ii. 16; App. Hisp. 2; Const. Porphyrog. de Them. i. p. 107, ed. Bonn.) There was a temple of Hercules, the Phoenician Melcarth, at Tartessus, whose worship was also spread amongst the neighbouring Iberians. (Arr. l.c.) About the middle of the seventh century B.C. some Samiot sailors were driven thither by stress of weather; and this is the first account we have of the intercourse of the Greeks with this distant Phoenician colony (Herod. iv. 152). About a century later, some Greeks from Phocaea likewise visited it, and formed an alliance with Arganthonius, king of the Tartessians, renowned in antiquity for the great age which he attained. (Herod. i. 163; Strab. iii. p. 151.) These connections and the vast commerce of Tartessus, raised it to a great pitch of prosperity. It traded not only with the mother country, but also with Africa and the distant Cassiterides, and bartered the manufactures of Phoenicia for the productions of these countries (Strab. i. p. 33; Herod. iv. 196; cf. Heeren, Ideen, i. 2. § § 2, 3). Its riches and prosperity had become proverbial, and we find them alluded to in the verses of Anacreon (ap. Strab. iii. p. 151). The neighbouring sea (Fretum Tartessium, Avien. Or. Mar. 64) yielded the lamprey, one of the delicacies of the Roman table (Gell. vii. 16); and on a coin of Tartessus are represented a fish and an ear of grain (Mionnet. Med. Ant. i. p. 26). We are unacquainted with the circumstances which led to the fall of Tartessus; but it may probably have been by the hand of Hamilcar, the Carthaginian general. It must at all events have disappeared at an early period, since Strabo (iii. pp. 148, 151), Pliny (iii. I, iv. 22, vii. 48), Mela (ii. 6), Sallust (Hist. Fr. ii.), and others, confounded it with more recent Phoenician colonies, or took its name to be an ancient appellation of them.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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