entity · term_iberia1_tartessos
Tartessos terminology
Also known as: Tartessus, Tartessian
Record for the changing ancient textual, archaeological and modern historiographic uses of Tartessos around the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
Review and provenance
Specialist reviewer: not recorded. Review date: not recorded.
Dataset workflow: proposed. This is separate from specialist review.
Confidence describes the stated assessment; it does not certify expert approval. How review works.
Chronology
Dating intervals may describe uncertainty or phases; their width alone does not establish event duration.
900 BCE–800 BCE
Precision: approximate
- informs · critiques interpretation
Tartessus: past, present and future of a historical construction — Esther Rodríguez González (2025)Defines Tartessos as a historical construction with changing meanings.
Locator: pp. 541–558 - informs · contextualizes
The Phoenician diaspora in the westernmost Mediterranean: recent discoveries — José Suárez-Padilla, Víctor Jiménez-Jáimez, José L. Caro (2021)Provides a securely dated early contact context without requiring a Tartessian polity.
Locator: pp. 1495–1510
Research description
It is not encoded as a fixed kingdom across southwest Iberia, and the term is not back-projected into the whole Late Bronze Age.
Properties and assignments
A label’s definition and the evidence for assigning it here are separate.
Distribution is not a political territory
A material or monument distribution does not by itself define a border or state.
Why does this record have this property?
Textual and modern archaeological uses vary by date and author.
- Tartessus: past, present and future of a historical construction
supports assignment and caveat · pp. 541–558
Evidence and sources
- supports · critiques interpretation
Tartessus: past, present and future of a historical construction — Esther Rodríguez González (2025)Defines Tartessos as a historical construction with changing meanings.
Locator: pp. 541–558 - supports · contextualizes
The Phoenician diaspora in the westernmost Mediterranean: recent discoveries — José Suárez-Padilla, Víctor Jiménez-Jáimez, José L. Caro (2021)Provides a securely dated early contact context without requiring a Tartessian polity.
Locator: pp. 1495–1510