The author discusses the archaeological evidence for an Aegean Minoan maritime colonization of southeastern Iberia.
The primary causal factor for this was the development of the alloying technology of arsenical copper. The alloy's
hardness and castability made the woodworking tools of the saw, bow drill, and lathe possible. These tools set the stage
for the invention of the first planked wooden ships with keels in the Aegean that set out on voyages of exploration
early in the 4th Millennia B.C. in search of the prestige metals of gold and silver resulting in the Los Millares
culture in southeastern Spain.
Los Millares, Andalusia, Spain - Reconstruction
The discourse begins with the first archaeological evidence of human travel on the open sea before 9000 B.C. and
continues with the development of the Aceramic Anatolian and Natufian Neolithic package, the radiation of the Aegean
Neolithic package, the rise and fall of the Millaren culture, the Atlantic Tin trade with Britain during the Bronze
Age, and ends with the catastrophic collapse of the El Argar culture in about 1350 B.C.
The First Evidence of Human Travel on the Open Sea
before 9000 B.C.
The earliest archaeological evidence of human transport over the rough open sea that is known to me is the Akrotiri
Aetokremnos rock shelter occupation site on the southern coast of Cyprus (Swiny 2001). The remains of the site
associate humans with the burnt bones of the pygmy hippopotamus. Before this time Cyprus was inhabited only by the
indigenous Pleistocene fauna. The minimum distance from the coast of Cyprus to the mainland of Anatolia is 69 km. The
undeniable deduction is that some form of raft or boat must have been used to transport the humans to the site.
Akrotiri Aetokremnos is dated to the late Pleistocene in the 10th millennia B.C.
A raft is a device that relies on the floatation of the material (typically wood) used to construct it. For any given
carrying capacity a raft is much heavier and more unwieldy when compared to its boat equivalent. This makes them
extremely difficult to directionally navigate in the current and winds of the open sea. A typical boat relies on its
shape to provide buoyancy from the water it displaces and minimize the lateral forces of the current and wind on its
hull as it moves through the water. This allows its crew to more effectively control and maintain a predetermined
course. If you want to reliably paddle or row a craft to a destination and return, you need the control that some form
of a boat provides.
The early maritime explorers of Cyprus may have used boats constructed with a skeleton of wood covered with sewn
animal skins, but boats of this kind are much more vulnerable to the rough and stormy conditions of the open sea than
well-built wooden ones. Skin boats work well enough in rivers and near land along the coast, but one split seam can
be deadly when out at sea far from land. It is possible that strong sea-worthy wooden boats sculpted with stone tools
and fire and stitched together with the fibers of hemp or yew wood were navigating the eastern Mediterranean Sea well
over 11,000 years.
The Development of the Anatolian Aceramic Neolithic Package
11000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
The basic assemblage that comprised the Neolithic package developed between 11000 B.C. and 7000 B.C. in places
like Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) in the Levant among the Natufians and Pinarbasi in southwestern Anatolia. This was an
amazingly innovative and creative period in human recorded history. For the first time large groups of people came
together in an interdependent way to solve their problems of survival and to improve their quality of life by
settling permanently in areas of natural abundance. The specialization of productive labor that spread its benefits
to everyone is perhaps the greatest revolution in human socialization.
In about 10200 B.C. houses were being built in Hallan Çemi Tepesi in eastern Anatolia where they used stone incised
bowls and made extensive use of wild plants and animals. The site has some of the earliest evidence of possible pig
domestication. The settlement of Cayönü was formed in 8500 B.C. in southeastern Anatolia and developed elaborate
buildings with terrazzo floors. They used awls and fishhooks of cold-hammered native copper, and show the earliest
evidence of the possible use of flax to weave linen textiles. At about this same time Nevali Cori built monumental
stone structures that were probably shrines. After 8000 B.C. Asikli Höyük became a real town surrounded by a city wall
with a large obsidian industry. Over the next 2,000 years these trends toward urbanization culminated in the
settlements of Çatal Höyük and Can Hasan in Anatolia.
While maintaining the Mesolithic practices of hunting, fishing, and gathering they began to systematically
cultivate crops of wheat, barley, rye, flax, legumes, peas, and vetch (faba beans). They domesticated sheep, goats,
pigs, and dogs and would begin the process of domesticating cattle (Bos Taurus) which provided them with a stable
and reliable source of food, raw materials, and labor for the fields. The domestication of the large Anatolian Aurochs
would be completed sometime between 6500 and 6000 B.C. Their toolkit included flint and obsidian blades and bladelets,
polished stone celts (axes), grinding stones and mortars, and harpoons and fish hooks of bone. The Anatolians developed
stone and mud brick architecture, basketry, and works of leather and the Natufians had stone shaft straighteners
indicating the use of spears or archery.
The Origin of the Aegean Minoans
7000 B.C.
By 7000 B.C. the Neolithic culture at Çatal Höyük that worshipped the Mother Goddess and Sacred Bull spanned
Anatolia from Çayönü in the east to Hacilar in the west and boldly reached over the sea to Khirokitia on Cyprus
and, more profoundly, to the hill of Kephala (Knossos) on the Aegean island of Crete. The Knossos settlement
near the coast of north-central Crete represents the origin of the Minoan civilization. Before this time Crete
was, like Cyprus before Akrotiri Aetokremnos, uninhabited by humans. There can be no arguments of any indigenous
development here. This is unquestionably a case of Anatolian maritime pioneer colonization. The boats they used
must have been built of solid wood and quite durable with a cargo capacity of, at least, a few tons in order for
the crew to transport their domesticated sheep, goats, provisions, and passengers. None of the domesticated
animals the Anatolians brought with them to Crete had ever existed on the island before.
The Development of Large Durable Wooden Ships
7000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
At the time the first settlers set foot on Crete, the island was carpeted by vast ancient forests of old-growth
Cypress trees. Many of them were over 40 meters in height with very thick trunk diameters. It must have been
a very arduous and time-consuming task for woodcutters to take down one of these trees with their polished stone
axes. Cypress is an excellent wood for boat building and is still used for that purpose today. It is relatively
strong yet light and flexible and is naturally repellent to insects. Its best feature from the point of view of a
crewman of a Cypress boat in distress out at sea is that the wood floats in water. Under normal conditions a
Cypress boat or ship will not sink. A person alone out at sea far from land stands little chance of surviving, but
if they could cling to their swamped, yet still floating, ship they have a good chance of eventually making it to
safety.
The Aegean Sea has over 1,400 islands and islets, many of which are within sight of one other. This makes it a
natural incubator for naval and maritime technological development. The strong north winds and uncompromising gales
of the Aegean are well known and must have been quite a challenge for any ancient boat builder. Given the rigors of
the Aegean and the abundance of huge Cypress trees, human innovation, over the next 1,000 years, must have
transformed the vessels of the initial colonization into large rugged sea-going stitched wooden ships that were
capable of transporting their newly domesticated cattle in wooden pens.
Ferriby Boat Reconstruction - Half Scale
~1800 B.C., North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, England, UK.
They were probably similar to the Ferriby Boats from Britain dated to about 1800 B.C. They were constructed of
thick Cypress planks sculpted with fire and stone tools (axe, adze, chisel, awl, etc.) and stitched together with
yew fibers. Theoretically, some of these strong durable boats could have easily exceeded 30 meters in length and may
have used a sail made of animal hide. With or without the use of the sail, they were powered primarily by human muscle
working the oars and tiller. A 30 meter ship of this type could have been propelled by well over thirty oars and
carried a cargo of 30 to 50 tons.
The Radiation of the Anatolian Neolithic Package in the Aegean
7000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
By 6800 B.C. the Argissa settlement appeared in Thessaly on the mainland of Greece. It was soon followed
by establishment of Sesklo in about 6500 B.C. together with the Araptepe-Bekirlertepe settlement north of the Bay
of Izmir in the eastern Aegean. Within about five hundred years (6500 B.C.) of the settlement of Knossos the Anatolian
Neolithic package had moved into the Mesara Plain of south-central Crete. The seaport settlement of Kommos was
founded on the coast to the west of the plain at about this time. The settlements of Nea Nikomedeia in northern
Greece and Karanovo in Bulgaria and Thrace appeared in about 6200 B.C. In the timeframe of 6000 B.C. Emporeio on the
island of Chios in the eastern Aegean was founded, but Khirokitia on Cyprus and Pinarbasi in Anatolia seem to have been
abandoned. Hacilar in southwestern Anatolia would continue on for another 1,000 years of occupation before
finally collapsing. Also, the Neolithic Package reached the Franchthi Cave settlement on the Argolid Gulf in the
Peloponnese in about 6000 B.C. Franchthi Cave had been occupied for at least 14,000 years before the arrival of the
Neolithic.
The Development of Pottery
6600 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
Pottery began to appear in Thessaly and Catal Hoyuk around 6500 B.C. The invention of pottery solved several problems
for the Neolithic people. It enabled them to securely store large volumes of water and other liquids in something
other than a laboriously made stone vessel or flask or bladder of sewn animal skins. Water is quite heavy and a
bladder's ability to securely and reliably hold it is limited. It also allowed them to store grain and other food
products much less expensively while keeping them relatively free from contamination and insects. Once pottery found
its way to Crete among the builders of the cattle-carrying ships, they must have immediately realized that they
could now economically provision their vessels for significantly longer voyages without exhausting their supplies
of water and food.
The Aegean Neolithic Package
6000 B.C.
The invention of pottery, the domestication of cattle, and the development of large durable wooden ships completed
the Aegean Neolithic assemblage that would soon spill into Europe through exploration, colonization, and the assimilation
of the local Mesolithic peoples by two main routes. The southern route was predominantly taken by shipping from
the Aegean that worked their way west along the northern coastlines of southern Europe using the Mediterranean Sea
as a highway. The northern route rapidly spread into central Europe using the Danube river basin as its highway. The
southern radiation is known as the Cardium Pottery or Cardial culture after the incised Aegean pottery carried on
their ships, much of which was imprinted with the shells of the marine mollusk Cardium edulis.
The northern Danubian expansion of the Aegean Neolithic is mainly represented initially by the Karanovo culture and
then by the almost simultaneous appearance in about 5600 B.C. of the Vinca, Cucuteni, and Linear Pottery cultures in
southeastern Europe. All four of these cultures were based on the Aegean Neolithic package and directly linked to
it. While the Karanovo, Vinca, and Cucuteni generally remained in the southeast, the Linear Pottery culture led the
advance up the Danube into central Europe. Mysteriously, after a rapid advance over the next few hundred years the
Aegean Neolithic's march to the northern coast of Europe was suddenly halted and the southern route's advance also
stopped after reaching the Atlantic coast of Iberia (Portugal). The only viable explanation for this is that there
must have been large populations of Mesolithic people inhabiting the coastal regions of northern and western Europe
that actively resisted any further colonization, assimilation, or acculturation (Price 2000).
The Aegean Neolithic (Cardial) Package arrives in Iberia
5600 B.C.
The first archaeological evidence of Aegean settlement in Iberia is the appearance of shards of Cardium incised
pottery around 5600 B.C. (Price 2000). This pottery is also referred to as Cardial or Impressed Ware. Much of
it was imprinted with the shell of the marine mollusk Cardium edulis. Cardium pottery has been found from the Levant
in the eastern Mediterranean to the Atlantic coast of Iberia (Portugal). When the Aegean Neolithic package arrived
in Iberia it included the same stone and bone tools, cultivated crops, and breeds of domesticated sheep, pigs and
cattle when it started its advance a few hundred years earlier (Zilhão 2001, Pereira 2006, Kennett 2006). The
settlement of the Iberian coastlines seems to have been a relatively non-violent process of both pioneer maritime
colonization and inland diffusion to the indigenous peoples until the sudden halt of its advance on the Atlantic
coast.
Cardium Pottery, La Sarsa Cave, Valencia, Spain
The Iberian settlers lived in caves, rock shelters, and open-air settlements like La Darga in Catalonia (Price 2000)
with structures estimated to be 3 to 4 meters high with several hearths. In Cabecicos Negros they built small
structures made of stone and mud with roofs of vegetation. They used tools of bone, polished stone axes, wood
diggers, sickle blades, and stone hand mills. They produced stone projectiles, pottery, basketry, leather work,
and produced flour with their mills. Textile production was limited to small looms, as evidenced by weaving
thread separators, similar to the backstrap type.
The Age of Pure Copper
8500 B.C. to 4000 B.C.
Copper is one of the few metallic elements that exists in its pure form in nature (Native Copper). It is much more
commonly found combined with other elements in the form of oxide or sulfide mineral ores. The oxide ores include
Azurite, Cuprite, and Malachite while the most abundant sulfide ore is Chalcopyrite. Tools of pure copper can be
hardened by reheating (annealing) and hammering, but there is a limit to the degree of hardening that can be achieved.
A copper axe would have been superior to its polished stone equivalent only while it retained its sharp edge. If
freshly sharpened copper axes were rotated in to replace those dulled from the pounding, the work required for
chopping down a tree would have been significantly reduced when compared to axes of polished stone. Implements
of pure copper would have been valued as tools, but regular sharpening during usage would have been required thus
reducing the life of the tool. A subtle but very important property of tools of copper is that they are recyclable.
When worn out they can be returned to the furnace and recast anew. But a harder, tougher metal tool that held its
edge indefinitely would have been the dream from the beginning.
Several isolated finds of copper objects have been discovered from before the 6th Millennia B.C. The earliest artifact
of pure copper known to me is a 2.3 cm pendant found in the Shanidar Cave located in northeastern Iraq that is dated
to 9500 B.C. (Hummel 2004). The pendant was shaped by cold-hammering native copper and could have been carved with
stone tools. Many objects of cold-hammered copper have been found in Cayönü in southeastern Anatolia including awls
and fishhooks dated to about 8500 B.C. A single copper bead was discovered in Nevali Cori that has been dated from
8500 to 8000 B.C. Asikli Höyük produced several copper beads (8000 - 7500 B.C.) made from rolled thin sheets of
native copper (Yalçin 2000). Several copper beads like those at Asikli have been unearthed at Çatal Höyük dated to
about 6750 B.C. (Mellaart 1967). A 14.3 cm long copper awl was found in Balomir, Romania in a context dated before
6000 B.C. (Mulhy 1996). All of this culminated in the discovery (6000 - 5900 B.C.) of a large mace head of cast
native copper in the Anatolian settlement of Can Hasan (Yalçin 1998).
Evidence of extensive copper working in a fully developed form has recently appeared in the Neolithic Vinca settlement
of Prokuplje in southern Serbia. The unpublished site has been dated to 5500 B.C. by archaeologist Julka
Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic from the Prokuplje Museum and Dusan Sljivar of Serbia’s National Museum. This was not just the
cold-hammering of native copper. It included the extraction of copper oxide ores from a mine located on the nearby
Mlava river. The ores were transported to a local copper smelting workshop and melted for casting. The tools found
included a chisel, a two-headed hammer, and an axe. By comparison the copper artifacts found at Hacilar in southwestern
Anatolia in 5300 B.C. were nothing more than a few beads and pieces of pins. It appears that the origin of organized
metallurgy may have taken place in the Neolithic Balkans. Between 4500 and 4000 B.C. Balkan metal workers were mining
copper ores in underground shafts and galleries and they had discovered how to smelt the sulfide ores of copper as
well. They were producing hundreds of axes and adzes (Betancourt 2006). The Balkans looms large over the entire Aegean
Neolithic period with respect to the development of metallurgy.
Metallurgy developed at a later time on Crete. There is no evidence known to me of copper, or any other, mining on the
island in ancient times. Copper-bearing ores have been discovered in modern times but they are very insignificant and
uneconomical. All metals had to be imported to Crete by ship either as mineral ores, processed metal, or finished
products. Chrysokamino is a copper smelting site on the Bay of Mirabello in northeastern Crete excavated in 1996-97
with dates beginning in 4500 B.C. (Johnson 1996). The source of the ore smelted at Chrysokamino has not been
definitively identified by provenance studies (Betancourt 2006). The nearest possible sources are Laurion in Attica
and the island of Kythnos in the Cyclades. The site is an isolated, windswept place ideal for smelting operations.
The wind would heat the furnace and blow the fumes away from the workers. During this period many new settlements
were established in the eastern part of the island and in the south-central Mesara plain.
The Prestige Metals - Gold and Silver
Besides Laurion in Attica, Macedonia and Thrace are the only areas where significant deposits of gold can be found in
Greece. The Balkans have a relative abundance of gold and silver ores especially in southern and western Bulgaria and
some areas of Serbia. Silver deposits are quite rare in Greece except again for Laurion. Copper is much more commonly
distributed throughout the region when compared to gold and silver and availability should not have been a factor in
its development and production except in places like Crete which had no useful mineral ores at all.
Varna Necropolis - Elite Grave Goods
4500 to 4000 B.C., Varna, Bulgaria
Gold beads have been excavated in Dimitra in eastern Macedonia and are claimed to be from 5500 to 5250 B.C. If confirmed
they could be some of the earliest gold objects yet discovered (Betancourt 2006). A disk of gold has been found at
Ftelia on the northern coast of the island of Mykonos dated from 5000 to 4500 B.C. (Facorellis and Maniatas 2002).
Objects of gold make their appearance in a very opulent way especially in the period from 4250 to 4000 B.C.
in the Balkans. The Varna necropolis on the eastern coast of Bulgaria has hundreds of graves. Just four of the most
lavish ones contained some 2,200 golden objects (Renfrew 1986). This is an indication of the immediate and great
value placed on gold by the elites of the period. Many of these objects were disks and pendants of the "ring-idol"
design with a perforation in the center. This seems to have been a common theme in the Aegean and Balkans at this
time.
Many objects of gold and silver have been unearthed in the Aegean from 4500 to 3500 B.C. This was the period when
gold and silver metallurgy emerged to robustly develop throughout the region. The evidence includes gold pendants from
Theopetra cave, Anavissos, and Platomagnoulia on the mainland of Greece. Silver pendants appear in Alepotrypa cave
in the Mani peninsula, Amnisos cave on Crete, and the cave of Euripides on Salamis. A hoard of silver jewelry was
discovered in Gournes in Central Crete in an Early Minoan I cemetery that included bracelets and 168 beads.
The Age of Arsenical Copper
4000 B.C. to 2500 B.C.
Most of the Early Bronze Age was actually an age of arsenical copper (Betancourt 2006) and the distinction should be
made for the sake of clarity. The advent of the controlled mixing of an alloying element (arsenic) with copper in an
effort to make their tools harder was a great advance in tool making. Not only did it make their tools much harder,
the alloy melted at a lower temperature and its greater fluidity made the casting of complex and finely shaped
molds practical. This led to the realization that they could now for the first time cast tools like the drill head and
saws with sharp, hard teeth for cutting wood and stone that would stand up much better in a production environment.
This was the beginning of a revolution in stone and wood working and especially ship building. The alloy of arsenical
copper (nominally 1% to 6% arsenic) was related to the development of furnace technology and to the use of copper ores
and not native copper (Lambert 1997).
Finds of arsenical copper have been made throughout the Aegean and especially on Crete - the island with no metals of its
own. Four artifacts, a dagger and three needles, surfaced in Thaurrounia cave in Euboia with an average 3.12% arsenic
content (Mangou-Ioannou 1999) dated to about 4000 B.C. (Sampson 1996). Some 16 artifacts with an arsenic content of
1% to 6% have been found in an Early Minoan context in Hagia Photia on Crete (Gale 1990). These may be the earliest
in the Aegean besides those in the Thaurrounia cave. Poros, a harbor town for Knossos on Crete, was an important
center for the production of arsenical copper during the Early Minoan period (Betancourt 2006). Daggers have been
found in the Cyclades, Hagia Triadha, and the Pyrgos cave associated with Early Minoan pottery. Long daggers,
saws, knives, chisels, and fishhooks have been recovered from the many tholoi on the Mesara plain at this time. Nine
artifacts with an average of 2.9% arsenic were discovered in Petromagoula in Thessaly dated from 3700 to 3300 B.C.
(Johnson 1999). Eight artifacts from the palace hoard of Arslantepe level VIA in eastern Anatolia showed an average
of 4.16% arsenic (Hauptmann et. al 2002).
Since the 1980's the Skouries foundry site on the Cycladic island of Kythnos was associated by pottery and radiocarbon
dated charcoal found in the slag to the first half of 3rd Millennia B.C. The lead isotope analysis of the ores and slag
done at that time suggested that the "fingerprint" matched many objects found in the Cyclades and the copper based
artifacts found in the Minoan Mesara tombs (Platanos, Marathokephalo, Hagia Traidha, Koumasa, Kalathiana, Hagios
Onouphrios, Porti) (Gale 1990) and those at Hagia Photia (Stos-Gale 1999). But this came into serious question in the
1990s by the Laboratory of Archaeometry at Demokritos in Greece when it was established that the results of Gale could
not be repeated by succeeding investigations. Therefore the location of the source(s) of the mineral ores used in "any"
of these copper artifacts is presently unknown (Betancourt 2006). It appears that all the copper ores smelted at Kythnos
were not mined on the island.
The Invention of the Planked Wooden Ship and the Beginning of the Minoan Mediterranean Empire
Sometime after 4000 B.C. the first effective woodcutting saws were cast in arsenical copper. This revolutionized
woodworking in general and shipbuilding in particular. There must have been attempts to cast saws with pure copper
but the difficulty of casting such a thin piece and the amount of sharpening required would have negated their use
in a production environment. When the new saws came into use on Crete it allowed them to cut planks of wood with a
consistent thickness to almost any length and width they desired. The shipbuilders must have soon realized that
if they could edge-join the planks they could make much lighter yet still strong hulls for their ships. A lighter
ship can carry more people, provisions, and cargo than an equivalent ship made by sculpting planks with the axe and
adze.
In the beginning they were probably stitching the planks together with yew, but in time they invented or adopted the
use of the bow drill and lathe so they could more securely mate the plank edges of their hulls with locked mortise and
tenon joinery. They would have to cut the round holes for the binding pegs using a drill and cut the smoothly rounded
sides of the pegs on the lathe to fit them snugly into the locking holes. This very strong wood joinery technique is
still widely used today. These large, lighter ships capable of long distance travel would have placed greater importance
on the use of the sail as a supplementary source of power to increase their efficiency.
Great distances can be traveled by rowing ships primarily powered by human muscle if their average speed is sustained
over time. If you assume that such a ship could maintain an average velocity of eight kilometers per hour, which is a
brisk walking pace for most humans, and maintain it constantly around the clock by rotating the work at the oars in
shifts among the available men on board, the ship would travel 192 kilometers in 24 hours. The rowing distance between
Kommos, Crete and the southeastern coast of Spain is approximately 2,400 kilometers. This distance could be traveled
in 12.5 days using these parameters. The manpower requirements of such a ship would be, at least, double the number
of oars to be worked. A ship with 40 oars would probably need to be manned by something like 100 crewmen to maintain
a good constant rowing pace.
Once the first of their large planked Cypress ships took to the seas there was nothing anywhere else in the
world that could compete with them either economically or militarily. The Aegean Minoans were the first true masters
of ship construction and the use of the movements of the Sun and North Star(s) to determine their latitude were
well understood allowing them to confidently navigate on the open sea. Their skills in navigation were not exceeded
until John Harrison’s invention of the marine chronometer in the 18th century A.D. that allowed ships at sea to
accurately determine their position’s longitude. The Minoan technological maritime and naval advantage was so great
that they would eventually come to dominate and impose their will on all shipping in the entire Mediterranean Sea
including the Black Sea. Their commercial shipping was probably unopposed, except by pirates, anywhere they traveled
in the Mediterranean until the massive eruption of the Theran volcano (Santorini, Greece) in about 1630 B.C.
The First Minoan Settlements in Southeastern Iberia
3800 B.C. to 3200 B.C.
The western Mediterranean area is much more heavily mineralized than in the east except in the Balkans and
northern Greece. Over time they would come to a place in the west that provided them with all the valuable mineral
ores that they had so little of and could ever desire. That place was Iberia. It is one of the most heavily
mineralized places on earth with an abundant supply of the prestige metals of gold and silver as well as copper and
tin that is still being mined to this day.
The new Cypress ships must have been a source of amazement wherever they were sighted by the coastal Neolithic
peoples. During the time since the completion of the spread of the Aegean (Cardial) Neolithic package, local and regional
coastal maritime trading was active as well as the influx of new settlers every year from the eastern Mediterranean.
The Minoans probably began exploring the shores of the Mediterranean for mineral ores between 3900 and 3700 B.C. and
arrived on the eastern coast of Iberia during this time. At least one person on these ships of exploration would have
been keenly observing the beaches and rivers along the coast for the glittering signs of alluvial gold in the sands
and sediments. If gold was found at the mouth of a river they would know that somewhere up that river would be the
quartz-bearing ores that produced it. The same would be true for silver with its mineral ores of Argentite and
Acanthite and the brightly colored ores of copper (Azurite, Cuprite, and Malachite).
Aside from their ships, the use of metals, and their Mesaran Crete funerary practices they would have used the same
Neolithic agro-pastoral technological package as the indigenous Iberians. When they surveyed the river basins of Almeria
in southeastern Spain they found everything they were looking for. For several centuries they probably would have been
satisfied to sift the alluvial sediments for metals and established settlements in the river basin areas. Eventually,
they would have moved up to the inland sources of the alluvial metals to form permanent mining settlements and that's
exactly what they did. By 3200 B.C. many of the fortified towns of the Aegean Minoan colony (Los Millares culture) had
been founded and all of them were directly linked to mining operations or their defense (Almizaraque - Silver,
El Barranquete - Gold, El Tarajal - Gold and Silver, Los Millares - Copper, Los Pilas - Gold, etc.).
The Question of the Origination of Metallurgy in Iberia
Before the early radiocarbon dates for the Millarens were confirmed, many scholars mistakenly believed that the culture
was the result of Mycenaean colonization and associated their tholos tombs with the famous shaft graves at Mycenae
in Greece from the Late Bronze Age. The Myceneans would not come onto the scene until much later. So it
is understandable that many of today's scholars believe that Iberian metallurgy was an independent invention of the
indigenous Neolithic people. But this can't be correct.
Besides the obvious selection of settlement sites directly associated with the Eastern Mediterranean prestige metals of
gold and silver, there appears to be no discernible period for the exclusive use of purified copper by the Millarens as
seen in the east where it truly did originate. In about 3200 B.C. Otzi the Iceman was still using the old technology of
pure copper (axe head - 99.7 % pure copper) while the Millarens were working with the advanced Aegean alloy technology of
arsenical copper. This does not speak well for the indigenous origination of Iberian metallurgy. While artifacts of
relatively pure copper are found among the Millarens they appear to be contemporaneous with those of arsenical copper. The
Millarens seem to have bypassed the "Age of Pure Copper" and began with, at least, a basic understanding of the alloy
technology of arsenical copper from the beginning. Twenty-seven copper artifacts from the Los Millares site have been
found to contain an average of 2.3% arsenic and sixteen objects from El Malagon had a concentration of 1.7% arsenic
(Lambert 1997). The most probable conclusion from this evidence is that there was no indigenous origination of metallurgy
in Iberia. It was the direct result of Minoan maritime exploration and pioneer colonization.
The Millaren Tholoi of Iberia
Los Millares Tholos Tombs - Present Day
Many of the towns and settlements of the Millarens had cemeteries consisting of tholos (beehive) tombs. Los Millares
had a necropolis of some 90 tholoi built in the distinctive style of the Early Minoans of the Mesara plain in
south-central Crete that were used by the elites of the society. The first evidence of tholos building techniques is
the mud brick "Tholoi of Arpachiyah" of the Halafian culture in northeastern Syria which lasted for about seven
hundred years in the 6th Millennia B.C. But they appear to have been used for domestic or ceremonial purposes and not
as tombs. The next appearance of tholos construction is in Lebena in southern Crete in the 4th Millennia B.C. This was
at a time when caves and rock shelters served as the primary means of burial of the dead on the island. Tholoi became
the only commonly used method for burial in southern Crete for well over 1,000 years with some tombs still being used
into the Late Bronze Age.
Los Millares Tholoi - Sectional
A typical Cretan tholos tomb was circular, constructed of unworked fieldstones, and built above ground. The interior
walls were corbelled to slope inward in an arched beehive-shaped fashion to enclose the space near the top. How the roof
was capped is still a matter of debate. A passageway led to a small doorway that consisted of a trilithon of two
vertical standing stones capped by a horizontal lintel. The door opening was closed with a slab of stone on the
exterior. Rectangular rooms or annexes were often built adjacent to the outside wall of the tombs.
The appearance of Minoan tholoi among the Millarens is certainly more than just a curiosity. The idea of the spontaneous
origination of this very unique style of funerary structure in Spain at the same time they were being built and commonly
used by the Aegean Minoans on Crete is highly improbable. This is additional strong evidence for the colonization of
southeastern Iberia by Minoan maritime pioneers in search of wealth.
The Extent of the Minoan’s Western Exploration
There is no reason for the Minoan explorers to have halted their endeavors in southeastern Iberia. Their new ships
were certainly more capable of traveling in the ocean that the stitched boats that reached the Atlantic coast of
Iberia during the Aegean (Cardial) Neolithic period. They would have simply continued to methodically scour the
Atlantic coastlines and river valleys for evidence of metals to the north and south once they had passed through the
"Pillars of Hercules". Notably, there is evidence from the analysis of alluvial sediments that the vast Rio Tinto
copper, silver, and gold mines in southwestern Spain, north of Huelva on the Atlantic coast, began to be worked
during the 3rd Millennia B.C. (Nocete 2005). The nearby, smaller Sao Domingos and Tharsis mines that are quite close
to Rio Tinto may have also been discovered at this time. It is highly probable that the Rio Tinto ores were
originally mined by the Millarens, but I know of no archaeological finds at the site. After 5,000 years of mining,
the Rio Tinto area is one of the most cratered, destroyed, and polluted places on earth.
Apparently they found no metallic ores of interest south of the Pillars of Hercules along the northwestern African coast.
But the sediments of the northern coastlines of western Europe would have yielded the alluvial evidence of abundant
metal ores. They may have discovered the gold, silver, and tin in Brittany in northwestern France before making the
discovery of gold, tin, and other metals in southwestern Britain and Wales. Even though the superior alloying
properties of tin with copper were unknown at this time its availability should have noted by the explorers. Also,
there were deposits of gold, silver, and copper in Ireland. The explorers may have discovered the Canary, Madeira,
and Azore islands and traveled far beyond, but I know of no archaeological evidence to support this. How far the
Minoan voyages of discovery went north from the Pillars of Hercules along the coastlines of Europe can only
await future archaeological evidence.
The Los Millares Culture
3200 B.C to 2600 B.C.
Los Millares - Present Day
The "Los Millares Culture", also known as the "Culture of the Thousands", eventually covered an area of about 20,000
square kilometers along the southeastern coast and possibly the lands to the west around the Rio Tinto mines north of
and including the modern city of Huelva on the southern Atlantic coast. The town of Los Millares was a large copper
mining settlement of over 1,000 people about 17 km north of Almeria on the southeastern coast near Santa Fe de Mondújar
that was discovered in 1891 by Luis Siret. It was protected by several outpost forts and used concentric rings of
defensive stone walls. There must have been considerable resistance to this foreign incursion from the indigenous
peoples.
Los Millares - Present Day
The period of 3000 B.C. to 2600 B.C. was the height of the Millaren Culture. There was an expansion of the town's walls
and fortifications. There is evidence of trade with the east from the remains of pottery, hippopotamus ivory, and
ostrich eggshells. The distribution of accumulated wealth would have been uneven from the beginning and led to the
development of social stratification and economic elites that justified their status with rituals and symbolism. The
hierarchical nature of the society was demonstrated by the privatization of property and the presence of prestige
objects found in the graves of the elite. There is evidence for the existence of an early form of nation state with
centrally controlled commercial networks.
The Rise of the Bronze Age and the Fall of the Millarens
2600 B.C. to 2200 B.C.
True bronze (copper with 6% to 15% tin) began to rise to dominance over arsenical copper as the metal of choice among
the Aegean Minoans by 2600 B.C. and became one of the essential ingredients of their economy. Many scholars believe
that the change to bronze from arsenical copper was because of the arsenic's poisonous effects on humans and this may
be true to an extent, but bronze is a superior metal and is significantly harder than arsenical copper. Tin is rare
and sparsely distributed geographically relative to the sources of gold, silver, and copper. Cassiterite and stannite
are the main mineral ores of tin. Cassiterite is the primary (oxide) ore of tin and like gold can be found in alluvial
settings. Stannite is a secondary sulfide ore of tin. The ores of tin are very rare in the eastern Mediterranean. The
only known source of cassiterite in the area was the mining town of Kestel-Göltepe in the Taurus mountains of
south-central Turkey. It was occupied and supplying tin to the east from 3290 B.C. to 1840 B.C. when the ores became
uneconomical or ran out. Cassiterite was abundant in the west in places like central and western Iberia, Brittany in
northwestern France, and especially Cornwall in southwestern Britain.
During the period of 2600 B.C. to 2400 B.C. there were signs of stress beginning to appear in the Millaren culture. Their
fortifications were reinforced and enlarged to their maximum extent indicating violent encounters or war with the
neighboring peoples from the west and north of them. It was in this period that the first Maritime Bell Beaker pottery
appeared among the Millarens. The pottery spread quickly throughout the region on the existing maritime trade
networks. By 2400 B.C. the social stress facing the Millarens began to worsen into a crisis and the large settlements
began to depopulate. The graves of the elites were increasingly accompanied with weapons indicating the violent
nature of the time. By 2200 B.C. the town of Los Millares was abandoned after a sequence of catastrophes (probably
large-scale warfare). There is evidence of widespread fires and damage to the fortifications. But amid the
destruction, the first settlements of the El Argar arose to take their place. The period began with the use of bronze
in the Aegean in 2600 B.C. and ended in 2200 B.C. with it being used by the Beaker people in Britain.
The Western European Bell Beaker Peoples
The whole of Iberia was populated with different groups of Beaker people by 2600 B.C. that faced the borders of the
Millarens in the southeast. If there was a war involving the Millarens it may have been a civil war rooted in the
hierarchical nature of the society, but it was more probably a war with one or more of the Iberian Beaker groups over
access to resources. The Bell Beaker Package of technologies most probably originated in Iberia sometime after
3000 B.C. and over time spread northward along the Atlantic and Mediterranean maritime trade routes into the coastal
regions of France, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and eastward into the interior of central Europe. These
were the people that erected the first stones at Stonehenge in about 2600 B.C.
The earliest known copper mining in the British Isles was in Ireland at Ross Island in Killarney in about 2400 B.C.
It is interesting to note that the three small knife blades found in the grave of the Amesbury Archer near Stonehenge
in southern Britain dated to about 2300 B.C. were cast with purified copper that came from France and Spain. This is
the same technology used in Otzi the Iceman's axe head almost 1,000 years earlier. Britain was still in the "Age of
Pure Copper" in 2300 B.C., but by 2200 B.C. bronze was available and in use. There was, essentially, no "Age of
Arsenical Copper" in Britain and by 2000 B.C. bronze was being used in Brittany and Ireland. A short time later the
huge deposits of copper ore at Great Orme near Llandudno in northern Wales began to be seriously mined in about 1860 B.C.
The El Argar Culture and the Atlantic Tin Trade with Britain
Just as in modern times where oil is a primary commodity necessary for the functioning of the world economies, tin was
a primary commodity in the Bronze Age. There were three sources of tin available to the Aegean Minoans before
1840 B.C. - the tin from faraway northeastern Afghanistan, ores from the Kestel-Göltepe mines in south-central Turkey,
and the vast amounts of tin in the west (Iberia, Brittany, and Cornwall). In about 1840 B.C. the Kestel-Goltepe mines
shut down and tin from the west became more important. The Minoans would have totally monopolized the supply of western
tin into the eastern Mediterranean with their navy and shipping.
The nearest tin ores available to the Millarens in 2600 B.C. in Iberia were in the areas of Cardenas and Madrid in central
Spain (mindat.org). The stress that began to build in the Millaren society at that time may have been due to their attempts
to gain access to these resources of tin. The Beaker groups affected by this policy may have been highly resistant to any
incursions into what they considered their lands. Rather than have the Millaren colony fall to its complete destruction
in 2200 B.C. and be faced with the inevitable loss of Iberia's vast mineral wealth the Aegean Minoans may have come to their
aid militarily to sustain the flow of metals. An influx of settlers from the burgeoning populations of the east may have
reinforced the surviving Millarens to found the new settlements of the El Argar and advanced to secure the sources of tin
in the Iberian interior by military force.
El Argar - Penalosa - Fortified Town Reconstruction
It could be just a coincidence but the fall of the Millarens, the rise of El Argar, and the first use of bronze in
Britain occur at about the same time - 2200 B.C. This may have been due to the beginning of a Minoan Atlantic tin
trade with Cornwall in Britain (the Cassiterides?) based from their Iberian El Argar colony to supply the markets of the
eastern Mediterranean. The Minoan leadership in the Aegean would have to be strongly centralized, unified, and effective
in order to implement these aggressive and sustained policies. They may have secured the supply of metals they desired
but the friction and hostility that had been long brewing among the Iberian Beaker peoples would have been greatly
exacerbated and smoldered into an evolving conflagration.
The shutdown of the Kestel-Göltepe mines in 1840 B.C. may have been due to the Minoans flooding the market with cheap tin
from the west or the mines may have simply run out of tin. Whatever the case the Minoans controlled the price of tin in the
eastern Mediterranean until something completely extraordinary occurred. In about 1630 B.C. the huge Theran (Santorini, Greece)
marine volcano in the south-central Aegean Sea exploded with such colossal violence that it nearly destroyed the Minoans
in the Aegean. The social dynamic constructed on economic imperatives had continued to build until the bubble was burst by
the volcanic eruption that changed the world.
Several decades after the eruption the Mycenaeans from mainland Greece conquered the surviving Minoans in Crete and
assumed control of the western maritime trade networks of metals from the west. The Iberian El Argar were incorporated and
continued to function as an Aegean colony under the Mycenaeans. The Motillas (forts) of the Bronze of Levante culture
like the Motilla del Azuer in La Mancha were probably Mycenaean era defenses for a “Tin Road” connecting the inland tin
mines of Cardenas and Madrid with their ports in the southeast. The Mycenaean El Argar era lasted for about two hundred
and fifty years until its catastrophic collapse in about 1350 B.C.
W. Sheppard Baird
Created: June 20, 2007.
Updated: December 9, 2007.
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Copyright © 2007 W. Sheppard Baird
All Rights Reserved
