New Settlements in the Phoenician West: Los Castillejos de Alcorrín, Morro de Mezquitilla and Mogador

Abstract

The sites Morro de Mezquitilla at the mouth of the Río Algarrobo (Málaga, Spain), occupancy of which dates from the beginning of the 8th cent. B.C., and Mogador (Essaouira, Morocco), where the most distant of all known west Phoenician trading posts developed around the middle of the 7th cent. B.C., are both Phoenician foundations that belong to different epochs and geographical areas and interacted with a ›hinterland‹ of different character in each case. Los Castillejos de Alcorrín (Manilva, Málaga, Spain) is a settlement situated very close to the Phoenician­explored Mediterranean coast and on the periphery of the ›Tartessian‹ settlement area. From the perspective of the hinterland the settlement complements characteristics of early contact between the indigenous population and the Phoenicians. The excavations carried out at the three sites by the German Archaeological Institute in cooperation with Spanish and Moroccan partners respectively provide evidence of the diversity and complexity of the zones of contact between Phoenicians and the indigenous population in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and on Morocco’s Atlantic coast.