CIPOA 2 p. 587-600 © Maisonneuve, Paris, 2014 LOS PRIMEROS FENICIOS EN TARTESSOS * Sebastián CELESTINO PÉREZ CSIC, Instituto de Arqueología-Mérida Abstract: The recent archaeological findings in the city of Huelva have supposed an important turn in the investigation on the first contacts of the Phoenicians in the Iberian Peninsula, now dated in the last years from century X a.n.e. This circumstance allows us to consider a fluid commercial relation between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, through Straits of Gibraltar, before which until now it was possible to be defended. Nevertheless, in some areas of the interior of the peninsular southwest objects and cultural manifes- tations of clear Eastern origin are detected previous to the Phoenician pres- ence in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, which takes to us to propose a route of continental penetration previous to the Phoenician colonization from the south-east French, where some products of clear Cypriot origin would be introduced, case of the found ones in some deposits of the Portuguese Beira or the represented ones in the stelae of warrior. After the Phoenician coloni- zation of the peninsular southwestern coast a territory of more or less ho- mogenous culture will be formed that the Greeks denominated Tartessos, and that must be understood as the amalgam arisen between the powerful original culture of the Eastern Mediterranean introduced by the Phoenicians and the native, of Atlantic origin. Keywords: Tartessos, Phoenician colonization, Atlantic trade, pre- colonization En los últimos años se han producido en el suroeste de la Península Ibérica una serie de hallazgos que han obligado a reconsiderar algunos axiomas sobre la presencia de los fenicios en Tartessos. La principal novedad es que la ciudad de Huelva se convierte en el lugar donde primero se detecta la presencia fenicia en la península, antes incluso que en la propia Gadir (Cádiz) y en las colonias del sureste peninsular. Gracias al estudio de la ingente cantidad de materiales recuperados procedentes de las excavaciones de urgencia de Huelva, la llegada de los comerciantes fenicios debe adelantarse, como muy tarde, a los inicios del siglo IX a.n.e., si bien el fenómeno de la * Este trabajo se enmarca dentro del Proyecto de Investigación I+D HAR 2012- 36963 “Estudio arqueológico comparativo entre los territorios periféricos de Tarteso: los valles del Guadiana y el Tajo”.