I recently had a fun time playing the as the Turdetani in the Imperium Universalis mod for EU4. If you don't know who they are (like I did until I looked them up), they were the successors of a relatively advanced people that inhabited pre-Roman Iberia, at the mouth of what is now called the Guadalquivir river. The Romans would later call this river the Baetis, but before that it, was known to them and the Greeks as the Tartessos, named after a great city by the same name which once stood at its terminus. Between two mouths of the river was a lagoon, and somewhere in that lagoon on an island existed the city of Tartessos.
Tartessos was the capital of a kingdom that existed since the mists of prehistory. Tartessos was said to be rich in metals, and the 4th century BC Greek historian Ephorus described "a very prosperous market called Tartessos, with much tin carried by river, as well as gold and copper from Celtic lands". Unlike many other societies of the Iberian peninsula, Tartessos was highly urbanized with many cities dotting the eponymous river valley.
During the later part of their history, they would come into contact with Phoenician (later, Punic) merchants which had an important influence on their culture. Much of the Tartessian economy relied on exporting silver to the Phoenician merchants, who would ship it back to Tyre and other Phoenician cities, where it would be used to pay off nearby empires who demanded silver as tribute, or for trade. Tartessos was so known for its silver that when Greek and Roman authors would tell stories its last king, they would call him "Argantonio", meaning "the silver man".
Like I said, though, the Tartessians had a "last" king. The kingdom would not last forever. The Tartessians were quite friendly with the Greeks, and Argantonio was even said to have invited Greek refugees from the Persian conquest of the Ionian city-states to set up colonies in his kingdom. The Carthaginians - now the primary center of Phoenician civilization since the fall of Tyre - saw Greek merchants as competition. And because the mineral wealth of the Tartessians was so vital to Mediterranean trade, they didn't want the Greeks moving in on that. This boiled over into the Battle of Alalia, a naval engagement which resulted in the Greeks being cut off from their route to Iberia.
Then, around this time... Tartessos disappears from the historical record. The capital city of Tartessos has never even been found. How could an urbanized civilization disappear so quickly without leaving behind a trace? Some theorize that the Carthaginians simply occupied Tartessos, now isolated without allies. Still, the river on which the city is said to have stood only has one mouth today, the eastern one. The area is rife with marshland and sandbars and has shifted its flow several times. The city itself was thought to have been lost to flooding, and it's been speculated that the myth of a rich, faraway Atlantic city being flooded to destruction inspired the myth of Atlantis.
At any rate, this all happens hundreds of years before the start date of Imperator: Rome. At that point, Tartessos is likely a thing of the past, Punic merchants dominate the local trade, Celts have invaded, and various "sucessor" peoples inhabit the region. Tartessian language (an unclassified language with its own written script) is still used sporadically in the area, by peoples such as the Turdetani. The situation at that time looked something like this:
So this brings me to the recent screenshot of the Imperator map, which shows the Iberian Peninsula, now colored in with oodles of tribes and colonies.
I noticed two tags on the map, "Tartessia" and "Turdetania" (underlined in red), around where Tartessos used to be. "Turdulia" is also the north representing the Turduli. There are also Carthaginian footholds in the south, and also a small purple tag that probably represents Gadir, a major Punic merchant colony. However there's also a very small tag that looks like a city-state, between Tartessia and Turdetania. My guess as for where the Baetis/Tartessos/Guadalquivir river would be puts this city-state at the mouth of the river.
What is this city? Could this be some kind of Tartessos successor, a Punic colony, or something else?
Or maybe...
THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS?
The people demand answers! You can't hide the truth for long, PDS!
Tartessos was the capital of a kingdom that existed since the mists of prehistory. Tartessos was said to be rich in metals, and the 4th century BC Greek historian Ephorus described "a very prosperous market called Tartessos, with much tin carried by river, as well as gold and copper from Celtic lands". Unlike many other societies of the Iberian peninsula, Tartessos was highly urbanized with many cities dotting the eponymous river valley.
During the later part of their history, they would come into contact with Phoenician (later, Punic) merchants which had an important influence on their culture. Much of the Tartessian economy relied on exporting silver to the Phoenician merchants, who would ship it back to Tyre and other Phoenician cities, where it would be used to pay off nearby empires who demanded silver as tribute, or for trade. Tartessos was so known for its silver that when Greek and Roman authors would tell stories its last king, they would call him "Argantonio", meaning "the silver man".
Like I said, though, the Tartessians had a "last" king. The kingdom would not last forever. The Tartessians were quite friendly with the Greeks, and Argantonio was even said to have invited Greek refugees from the Persian conquest of the Ionian city-states to set up colonies in his kingdom. The Carthaginians - now the primary center of Phoenician civilization since the fall of Tyre - saw Greek merchants as competition. And because the mineral wealth of the Tartessians was so vital to Mediterranean trade, they didn't want the Greeks moving in on that. This boiled over into the Battle of Alalia, a naval engagement which resulted in the Greeks being cut off from their route to Iberia.
Then, around this time... Tartessos disappears from the historical record. The capital city of Tartessos has never even been found. How could an urbanized civilization disappear so quickly without leaving behind a trace? Some theorize that the Carthaginians simply occupied Tartessos, now isolated without allies. Still, the river on which the city is said to have stood only has one mouth today, the eastern one. The area is rife with marshland and sandbars and has shifted its flow several times. The city itself was thought to have been lost to flooding, and it's been speculated that the myth of a rich, faraway Atlantic city being flooded to destruction inspired the myth of Atlantis.
At any rate, this all happens hundreds of years before the start date of Imperator: Rome. At that point, Tartessos is likely a thing of the past, Punic merchants dominate the local trade, Celts have invaded, and various "sucessor" peoples inhabit the region. Tartessian language (an unclassified language with its own written script) is still used sporadically in the area, by peoples such as the Turdetani. The situation at that time looked something like this:
So this brings me to the recent screenshot of the Imperator map, which shows the Iberian Peninsula, now colored in with oodles of tribes and colonies.
I noticed two tags on the map, "Tartessia" and "Turdetania" (underlined in red), around where Tartessos used to be. "Turdulia" is also the north representing the Turduli. There are also Carthaginian footholds in the south, and also a small purple tag that probably represents Gadir, a major Punic merchant colony. However there's also a very small tag that looks like a city-state, between Tartessia and Turdetania. My guess as for where the Baetis/Tartessos/Guadalquivir river would be puts this city-state at the mouth of the river.
What is this city? Could this be some kind of Tartessos successor, a Punic colony, or something else?
Or maybe...
THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS?
The people demand answers! You can't hide the truth for long, PDS!
