On 07.12.2026 we present the 52nd session of our online lecture series with a contribution of
Álvaro Miranda García
(Universidad de Sevilla)
Journey to the West:
Greek imports in southern Iberian Peninsula during the 1st millennium BCE
The intensification of maritime exchange between the Western Phoenician–Punic communities and the Greek world throughout the first millennium BCE, as well as with other dynamic cultural and economic spheres such as the Etruscans, Iberians, and Carthaginians, facilitated the arrival of Greek products from both the Aegean and the central Mediterranean to the Phoenician–Punic port cities of southern Iberia and their hinterlands from the earliest stages of the Iron Age.
This paper provides an overview of the consumption of Greek pottery and other Greek products in southern Iberia through the case studies of the Bays of Cádiz (Gadir) and Málaga (Cerro del Villar/Malaka/Mainake), together with the maritime trade networks through which these goods circulated. Previously unpublished assemblages of fine wares and amphorae are examined alongside material already known from other sites and contexts. The arrival of these Greek products in the Far West had a profound social and economic impact on Western Phoenician communities, transforming patterns of consumption, reshaping social practices, and encouraging the adoption and adaptation of technological innovations related to production and transport.
The dynamics of the trade and consumption of Greek products evolved significantly throughout the first millennium BCE, shifting from relatively sporadic and selective imports to the widespread circulation of Greek goods, especially between the sixth and third centuries BCE. This process ultimately fostered what may be described as a Hellenization of taste, reflected not only in the increasing presence of imported items but also in the appropriation and reinterpretation of Greek material culture within local Phoenician–Punic societies.
To join the lecture: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85622764363?pwd=1eSCQsHHOA520wx3FiNK6L3RDDiOdY.1
(Meeting ID: 856 2276 4363 / Passcode: 253428)
