In search of silver, it moved to the Phoenicians nearly 3000 years to the West, from the Eastern Mediterranean sea to the Atlantic ocean. Israeli researchers reconstruct from the in-depth analysis of silver to the spread of this group of finds to the West. The Phoenician country of origin was the Levant – the Eastern Mediterranean coast from present-day Syria through Lebanon to Northern Israel. The earliest Phoenician settlements on Sardinia and in the South of the Iberian decreased Peninsula, clearly on the silver production, writes the Team Tzilla Eshel, University of Haifa, in the “Proceedings” of the US National Academy of Sciences (“PNAS”).
The Phoenicians are mainly producers, traders and sailors famous, which expanded their trading network in the early first Millennium BC to the Atlantic ocean and on the coasts of southern Europe and North Africa, settlements founded. When and why did the Phoenicians establish these Connections, be controversial, the researchers write.
the silver of the Phoenicians came from Anatolia and Sardinia
to clarify, analyzed them by isotope analysis of silver objects from the three early settlements in the North of Israel: Dor, Akko, and A Hofez. From these studies do not derived the origin of the silver, which occurs in the Phoenician country.
The finds from Dor, the oldest of the three localities, come from the second half of the 10. Century before Christ. At the time, the ores used come according to the authors, mainly from the Anatolian Bolkardag in the Taurus mountains and the Aegean sea island of Santorini. Some of the researchers were the ores from the Iglesiente area in the southwest of Sardinia.
the silver of Akko, a settlement from the 10. and 9. Century before Christ, came from Anatolia and Sardinia. In Sardinia silver was extracted by the method of the Kupellation, which was probably introduced by the Phoenicians, with the help of lead, and then to the Levant by ship.
A chain of settlements along the transport path
The origin of the precious metal, however, changes in the course of the 9. Century, such as the analysis of the findings from A Hofez shows that only 2 of the 29 objects have the signature of Anatolian ores. All the remaining pieces come from the Iberian Peninsula. There, the Phoenicians enriched, especially silver-containing Jarosite with a lead, to extract the precious metal by Kupellation. The lead was brought from different locations to the production sites. In 6 of the 29 objects comes from Linares in present-day Andalusia. The lead of the rest of the 21 objects comes from various other places in present-day South-West Spain.
“These results, another explanation for the density of the Phoenician settlements in the early 8. Century before Christ, along the rivers and coastlines in southern Iberia”, the researchers write. “These served as stations for the Transport of lead.” The silver from A Hofez evidence for the earliest Phoenician presence on the Iberian Peninsula, writes the Team. This silver dominated the Phoenician market, therefore, for more than a century.
The findings of A Hofez showed that the silver production with the earliest Phoenician settlements, either accompanied – or even preceded, writes the Team. “Iberian silver was possibly the most important, and probably the earliest reason for Phoenician activity on the Peninsula,” they emphasize.
More about
pre – and early history of the Mediterranean development exchange
Rolf Brockschmidt
Later, takes the origin of the silver changed again: From the 7. Century before Christ, the silver was according to the authors, from Lavrio, in southeastern Greece. Walter Willems (dpa)
