In Focus - Discover Spain: Experience the Best of Spain - page 573

The Phoenicians
To the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the dramatic limestone ridge at Gibraltar, to-
gether with Jebel Musa in Morocco, were the Pillars of Hercules and represented
the limits of the known world. But the Phoenicians, who came before them, knew
differently. From their base on what is now the southern coast of Lebanon, the sea-
faring Phoenicians were the first of the ancient civilisations to rule the Mediter-
ranean. Not restricted by the narrow Straits of Gibraltar, they continued on along the
Atlantic coast and, in the 8th century BC, established the port of Gadir, the site of
modern Cádiz in southwestern Andalucía. Around 700 BC the colonists introduced
iron-making technology and the Phoenician-influenced culture that developed was
very likely the fabled Tartessos, mythologised by later Greek, Roman and biblical
writers as a place of unimaginable wealth. Sadly, no traces remain.
One of the Phoenician ports, Carthage, in modern-day Tunisia, grew to be a for-
midable Mediterranean power in its own right. They unwittingly gave their name to
Cartagena, where to this day the Carthaginians and Romans fight mock annual
battles in the festival of Carthagineses y Romanos.
The Celtic North
Around the same time as the Phoenicians brought iron technology to the south, the Celts
(originally from Central Europe) brought it - and beer-making - to the north when they
crossed the Pyrenees. In contrast to the dark-featured Iberians, the Celts were fair. Celts
and Iberians who merged on the meseta (plateau; the high tableland of central Spain) are
known as Celtiberians. Celts and Celtiberians typically lived in sizable hill-fort towns called
castros .
Greeks and Romans
In the 7th century BC, Greek traders arrived along the Mediterranean coast and
brought with them several things now considered quintessentially Spanish - the
olive tree, the grapevine and the donkey - along with writing, coins, the potter's
wheel and poultry. But the Romans, who ruled Hispania (as Roman Iberia was
known) for 600 years until the 5th century AD, would go on to leave a far more last-
ing impression. By AD 50, most of Hispania had adopted the Roman way of life.