Phoenician Archaic burials in the South of the Iberian Peninsula (centuries IX-VIII BC)

Abstract

We approach the study of the most ancient Phoenician tombs known up to the present in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, which can be given a chronology that ranges from the end of the 9th century to the 8th century BC. These already reach a total of 21 burials with a total of 23 individuals deposited inside graves and, especially, pits, which are distributed in half a dozen sites. In all the cases the ritual was incineration, with a majority of secondary incinerations and some examples of double burials, although the ustrina where these cremations were made have not been excavated. They offer a very homogeneous set of burial goods mostly consisting of eastern origin objects, with the exception of the Egyptian amulets and some indigenous hand-made pottery vessels.