By
Ignacio Montero Ruiz (contents author)
José Suárez Padilla (contents author)
Summary
Founded in the first half of the 8th century BC, the settlement of Cerro del Villar (Malaga, Spain) was a Phoenician enclave in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. This colony constitutes one of the largest Phoenician settlements in southern Iberia and its hinterland represents one of the first areas in southern Iberia with evidence of stable Phoenician presence, standing out as a strategic hub for understanding colonial dynamics, Mediterranean innovations and their impact in the local communities. In this contribution we present new elemental and lead isotopic results of the metallurgical assemblage from Cerro del Villar, including lead and copper-based artefacts (ingots, casting debris…). Furthermore, lead ores surveyed in the nearby Llano de la Plata (Alhaurín de la Torre, Málaga) mining district are also included in our study. The results suggest the use of different supply sources. Thus, along with resources whose exploitation is well attested in those chronologies, such as those of Sierra de Gádor (Almería), the new data also suggest the use of the nearby resources of the Llano de la Plata, located at 14 km from Cerro del Villar. These new lead isotope analyses are the first to be obtained in the SCAI analytical services of the University of Malaga, so the instrumentation and protocol used are also described in this contribution.
Keywords
Lead isotopes analysis. Archaeometallurgy. Phoenician colonization. Iberian Peninsula. Iron Age.