New insights into the production and circulation of metals in the Phoenician area: Cerro del Villar and the Málaga bay (southern Iberia) as case study.

Conference SIMEP. Social Interactions in Mediterranean Prehistory

Barcelona. Spain
Conference. 2024

The first half of the 1st millennium BC is characterised by substantial technological innovations in the western Mediterranean area, generally associated with the arrival of the Phoenicians, such as the development of iron metallurgy and the use of the cupellation process for extracting silver from argentiferous ores. Despite the increasing number of studies on Phoenician metalwork in the Iberian Peninsula, further investigation is required in certain geographical areas to gain a better understanding of the production and circulation of metals.

Located at the mouth of the Guadalhorce river, in the province of Malaga, Cerro del Villar (9th - 6th cent. BC) is one of the main Phoenician sites of the Iberian Peninsula. After the excavations directed by Prof. María Eugenia Aubet until 2003, a team led by the University of Málaga has recently resumed archaeological research at the site. In this context, new archaeometallurgical studies are also being carried out.

A preliminary study based on compositional and isotopic analyses of lead and copper ores and manufactured objects from the site is presented in this contribution. Samples were collected during archaeological prospection campaign in the mines of Llano de la Plata (Alhaurín de la Torre, Málaga) and new archaeological fieldwork in Cerro del Villar (2022-23). These data offer new insights into the role of the bay of Málaga in the dynamics of metal production and circulation between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean during the early centuries of the first millennium BC.

Archaeometallurgy. Phoenician. Copper-based alloy.