The Tartessus crisis and the problem of the 5th century b.C. in Turdetania

Abstract

The crisis of Tartessos in the Lower Guadalquivir originates transformations during the sixth century BC, with the end of the the Phoenician colonial economy and the orientalizing aristocracy, as well as in the internal conflicts which we interpret as the expression of violent movements against Phoenician population and local aristocracy. The new panorama was characterized by different socio-economic and political foundations that have left a distinct archaeological record of Early Iron Age defined by absences (necropolis, sanctuaries, luxury items) better than by the archaeological evidence. The Fifth century BC was defined by a double phenomenon of transformation and continuity: transformation in the political foundations of social coexistence –decay of the gentile aristocracy and emergence of civic values– and the consolidation of the cities-state, and continuity in the structures of the territories, although it was then that began to define the “boundaries” of the most important cities, including Carmo.