Tartessus is one of the many archaeological mysteries that beset scholars. Mentioned several times in antiquity, was placed in Spain, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. Tartessus, a city founded in prehistoric times by an Iberian population, which is almost nothing left because of the profound Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula, is mentioned in many classic texts and even in the scriptures. However, apart from some limited news, the story of Tartessus is largely unknown. The study of civilization Tartessus from a reference in the Critias Plato:
"His (Atlas) and sister born after him, who had touched the far side of the island towards the Pillars of Hercules, in that region now that stretch of sea is called Gadir was called Eumelus, which in their language is said Gadeirus: and his name was able to call themselves that country. "
In that area was located in the city of Gades, now Cadiz, in the Platonic text which gave its name to Gadir (or, according to Plato, the opposite). The city of Gades was founded by the Phoenicians of Tyre around 1100 BC, on an island 30 km south-west from Tartessus. Gades was a commercial colony, which maintain relations with its trading nearby town of Tartessus, extremely rich in raw materials, including the Silver was very important. One of the earliest references to Tartessus found in the Bible, in which the books of Kings, 22, reads:
"The king (Solomon) had in the Red Sea, the fleet of Hiram, and the fleet of ocean-going ships, and every three years the fleet of ships from Tarshish brought gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks. "
antiquity, Tartessus was considered very rich and prosperous. The city of Tartessus, which was located near the Strait of Gibraltar, has traded with Europe than with Africa and was little known to the Greeks. The first to arrive at Tartessus were the Phoenicians as evidenced by this Strabo's song, taken from the "Geography" (Book III, 2.14):
"I contend that these places have reported about the Phoenicians: they occupied it since before Homer and the best regions of Iberia and Libya continued to be owners of those sites as long as the Romans did not broke the rule. Again, these are evidence of the wealth of Iberia: the Carthaginians, who conquered the region by force under the command of the boat, historians say, they found that the inhabitants of the dishes used Turdetania and pithoi (jars for food) of silver. One can therefore understand how the people of this area, especially the leaders, are renowned for being long-lived thanks to the exceptional situation where some live [...] call the current Carteia Tartessus.
The Carthaginians conquered the city before the invasion of Tartessos of Hamilcar Barca (in 237 BC) in Spain, namely in the sixth century BC However, the Phoenicians practiced the coast of Spain even before I Of Tartessus millennium BC and its civilization were very few artifacts, found during excavations of Professor Adolf Schulten in Erlangen, with the help of the geologist and archaeologist Bonsor Jessen, in the twenties of the twentieth century. Archaeologists in 1923 found themselves a ring with strange inscriptions, with similar characters and greek alphabet Etruscan, then find a block of masonry, which according to Schulten, demonstrated the existence of two cities, one of the third millennium BC and the other of fifteen hundred BC. The excavations were interrupted because of the excessive height of the water table and to archaeologists, therefore, came to the conclusion that the city of Tartessus were to be sunk. The Phoenicians arrived in the area of \u200b\u200bTartessos around 1100 BC and founded the colony of Ha-Gadir (classical Gadir, now Cadiz), located at the time on an island and became, later, a peninsula. Here
cme describes Pliny in Natural History: Book IV 0.119-120:
"But the end of the Betic, 25 miles from the entrance of the strait, is the island of Cadiz long as Polybius writes, 12 miles wide and 3. [...] The island houses a city with inhabitants of Roman citizenship, called Augustana Giulia city of Cadiz (Gades). From the side that looks to Spain, about 100 steps, there is another island ... where before there was the city of Cadiz. E 'call ... Giunonide by the natives. Timaeus says that the biggest island is called by them Cotinus, but our people call tarts, and the Carthaginians Gadir, which is the word for "hedge" in Punic.
After the conquest of Carthage, not of Tartessos heard from again.
You keep talking about Tartessus in Herodotus (Book I, 163), but the description that he makes is, of course, his contemporary:
"Once in Tartessus became very Friends of the king of that name was Tartessus Argantonio, who ruled for 80 years, and lived around 120 years. To him the Focei became so dear that first asked them to leave their country and settle in the land where they wanted, and then, because he could not persuade them, since they know that the Medes were growing in power and gave them money for belts the city walls. It gave no savings, the circuit of the walls of Focea measure in fact quite a few stages, and that's it of large stones and well connected. "
In this step, it reconfirmed the position of Tartessos (Book IV, 152):
" E because the wind never stopped blowing, through the Pillars of Hercules (the Sami) Tartessus reached under the guidance of a god. "
Herodotus confirms the general idea that Tartessus was an extremely rich and that the main goods traded it was silver. Tartessus was mentioned almost as a myth, but its civilization was real. In the area Tartessus lived a population of highly evolved, certainly influenced by the city: the Turdetani. Strabo, in his "Geography" (Book III, 1.6), gives some interesting information about this civilization:
"The region takes its name from the river or Betica Turdetania of its inhabitants and residents, Turdetani, are also known as Turduli, and some suggest the same people with two names, while others think of two different people, among them There is also Polybius, whereby Turduli live in the north along with Turdetani, but now between the two peoples, there is no difference. These are considered the most learned among the Iberians, so that you are writing and keep written chronicles of their early history, and read poems in verse, old, say, 6000 years, the other Iberians you are writing, but not one form, or indeed of a single language. "
I Turdetani (or Turduli) lived in the area of \u200b\u200bTartessos, which, as mentioned, was situated at the mouth of the river Betis (Guadalquivir). I Turdetani possessed an alphabet and a long historical memory, demonstrating a highly advanced civilization. In the south-eastern Spain was found (away from Tartessus, but also belonging to the Hispanic culture) is a large statue that was dubbed "the Lady of Elche." The statue is a true work of art, carefully finished, thanks to the great skill of its author. As has been written (Book III, 2.11):
"Not far from Castal is the mountain which is said to be born Betis called Silvery, because of the silver mines that are found there. It seems [...] the ancients called the Betis Tartessus and Gadeira, with all the neighboring islands, Erytheia. [...] Since the river has two sources, it is said that once, in the middle ground, there was a town called, as the River, Tartessus, the region is called Tartesside, occupied today by Turduli. Instead Eratosthenes says that the region adjacent to Calpe called Tartesside Erytheia and was called "Fortunate Islands".
Here is remembered as Tartessus mining area. In addition, the city is described as "land between two rivers", echoing the myth Lucky Island, a land to the west, identified with Atlantis. The Fortunate Islands, in addition, in ancient times were identified with the Canary Islands, also referred to as the remains of Atlantis.
Tartessus then was viewed in antiquity as a place of immense wealth and earnings, heir to a prosperous and advanced civilization, which preceded the Celtic invasions. Advancement culture of the area, according to Strabo, dates back to 6000 BC, and perhaps civilization in the Western part of Spain was more ancient than has ever been said. The position of Tartessos Atlantic area, its extreme antiquity and the reference to Plato's Atlantis lands near the Pillars of Hercules suggest that Tartessus itself derives from the Atlantic civilization known under the name of Atlantis. In fact, Atlantis, which extended its territories to Egypt and Greece (and, of course, Spain) was probably founded on the coast of the Iberian colonies, including Tartessus for the mining trade. After the destruction of Atlantis and the end of civilization Previous Tartessus must have been isolated, but, because of the abundance of raw materials and sufficient economic independence, managed to maintain their cultural identity, derived from Atlantis. Until Tartessus remained isolated from the populations of the Mediterranean, was not affected by conflicts. With the arrival of the Phoenicians, the first, and the Greeks, then, the city ended up being rival of Carthage and was presumably destroyed by this. By the end of Tartessos, that culture "Atlantis" which still survived disappeared, leaving only a few fragments of his memory.
however, was not yet provided answers to some questions. The vessels Tartessus, despite the disappearance of Atlantis bridge to the "opposite continent ', continued to head to the Americas? The Carthaginians, retracing the routes mapped out by the sailors Tartessus, ocean voyages, at least until reaching the Azores? The connection between Atlantis and Tartessus is very likely and, if one day the city of Tartessus were found, would provide the first real evidence of the mythical Atlantis.
Greeks with the word Tartessus indicated the far West, from which came the metals. In a second time the name was located in southern Spain (Andalusia), a region which also is mentioned in the Bible as Tarshish, and with which even Solomon would keep trade relations. And 'certain that the Phoenicians were the domain of the Mediterranean in the eighth century BC, after a victorious struggle against Tartessus. These could even briefly, during the battles between Tyre and Assyria, to have some dominance. But, re-established the Phoenician colonial empire, the Tartessus was subdued until the sixth century BC, when it took over the Mediterranean landscape in thalassocracy mouth. At this happened, then, the dominance of Carthage, which destroyed around 500 BC Tartessus seems that the ancient civilizations of Tartessos since prehistoric times were highly developed. The excavations carried out by Schulten and Bouse, while revealing significant traces of that civilization, did not arrive to discover the remains of the great city described by the Periplus of Avieno, it is a dire Ona Maritima, localizzata in non ben precisato point, vicino al Guadalquivir delta.
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