THE BAJO DE LA CAMPANA SHIPWRECK AND COLONIAL TRADE IN PHOENICIAN SPAIN Mark E. Polzer F rom ancient times to the present, the Phoenicians have been renowned as sailors, explorers, and maritime traders extraordinaire-"men famed for their ships" (Odyssey 15.415). And yet, despite their maritime exploits and colonial adven- ture, which dominated much of the Mediterranean during the first half of the first millennium B.C., there has been sparse evidence of them from the sea-from shipwrecks. 1 This quirk of archaeology has been addressed in part by the investiga- tion of two sites in southeastern Spain: the remains of two small boats that sank off Playa de la Isla, Mazarr6n, in the second half of the seventh century B.C. (see "The Phoenician Ships of Mazarr6n" in this volume, pp. 243-44), and the Phoenician shipwreck at Bajo de la Campana . Between 2008 and 2orr, the Institute of Nautical Archae- ology's (INA) Claude and Barbara Duthuit Expedition to Bajo de la Campana excavated the remains of an Iron Age (ca . 600 B.c.) shipwreck off La Manga, approximately 30 kilometers northeast of Cartagena, in southeastern Spain. 2 The site was discovered at least as early as 1958 by commer- cial salvage divers, and in subsequent years by recreational divers, who picked up additional archaeological material, much of which was eventually turned over to the Ministry of Culture of Spain. 3 After their own inspections of the site in 1972 and 1988, ministry archaeologists determined that the recovered artifacts represented at least three ancient ship- wreck assemblages, the oldest material belonging to a Phoe- nician context of the late seventh or early sixth century B.C. 4 INA initiated the current investigation of the site in 2007 with a signed agreement of cooperation with Spain's Minis- try of Culture. Its exploratory survey of the site revealed that it still contained significant remains, including a more diverse assemblage of materials than previously suspected: several elephant tusks, lead ore, ingots of tin, a double-ended wood comb, two small lumps of raw amber, fragments of various ceramic vessels, and pine nuts and pinecone scales. These finds foreshadowed the cargo uncovered in the subsequent four seasons of excavation: raw materials-ingots of tin and copper, mineral lead, amber, and elephant ivory-and an assortment of manufactured products and luxury goods. Conservation and analysis of the recovered artifacts are incomplete and ongoing, but information and preliminary interpretations are contributing new details on the regional circulation of goods and interactions with indigenous popu - lations by Phoenician colonists on the Iberian Peninsula. Th e Site Bajo de la Campana (the Bajo) is a small, submerged basaltic outcropping situated 4 kilometers from La Manga, a thin spit of land separating the Mar Menor, Europe's largest lagoon, from the Mediterranean Sea. The outcrop rises from a bot- tom depth of about 16 meters to within a meter of the water's surface, while the sea bottom falls away from the base of the rock at a gentle 17-degree gradient. At the western limit of the site, a large fissure, or crevice, cuts through the rock and opens onto the seabed ( fig. 3.72). When excavations began, the crevice was fill ed with rocks and boulders of all sizes, along with gravel and finer sediment. The fissure under- cuts the base of the Bajo to form a shallow recess, also filled with sediment and boulders. The early finds taken from the site reportedly came from the crevice and recess, and much more material was recovered there during the excavation. The rest of the artifacts were scattered over about 400 square meters of the rocky bottom extending downslope from the Bajo. Demolitions and military activity during the twentieth century along with the turbulent and exposed conditions of the shallow site resulted in the highly fragmentary and scat- tered disposition of the wreckage and the dearth of hull or other wood remains. They also left most of the preserved artifacts broken or damaged. However, the dispersal patterns of the heavier materials, such as metal ingots, ore, and ele- phant tusks, provide some indication of how the ship sank and came to rest on the bottom, and of what happened to the wreckage over the ensuing two and a half millennia. 5 The Finds Th e Bajo de la Campana site yielded its archaeological trea- sures begrudgingly, and the full scope of material types and goods did not become known until the very last days of