On the Nature of Phoenician Commerce in the Lower Ebro Basin: An Endogenous Perspective

Many studies have tried to explain the nature of Phoenician commerce in the western Mediterranean and the reasons that led these traders to exchange their products in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. However, scholarship has often ignored the indigenous societies in the area. Recent evidence from the lower Ebro River Basin has identified an endogenous explanation for the commerce between the Phoenicians and indigenous groups: These exchanges seem to have been concentrated in areas where the presence of complex societies is attested prior to the arrival of the foreign merchants. The Phoenicians met the local elite’s demand for prestige goods, specifically amphorae from the southern Iberian Peninsula created for the commensality practices of the local elites. These long-distance contacts are attested throughout the Ebro Basin, at different levels of intensity, from the river mouth, via Aldovesta, to the mining area of Molar-Bellmunt-Falset, and a peripheral area in the region of Matarranya.