Trade dynamics between Carthage and Iberia at the end of the 3rd century BC: analytical characterisation of central mediterranean amphorae from Qart-Hadasht (Cartagena, Spain)

Abstract

The founding of Qart-Hadasht, or ‘New Carthage’, in 228/227 BC reaffirmed the Carthaginian presence on the Iberian Peninsula. The city would serve as its main political base and military port in the Western Mediterranean before being lost to Rome in the Second Punic War. Although the conquest was led on the ground by the Barcid family, the town’s flourishing also led to an increase in the metropolis’s economic and commercial activities. In this study, a total of 37 amphorae of Central Mediterranean typology and located in different Punic contexts of the town were analysed using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), thermogravimetry (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thin-section petrography (OM). The analyses reveal that a significant number of them originated in North Africa, mainly in the area of Tunisia, though some originated from other production centres on the island of Sicily and probably Algeria. The results also confirm the existence of shared amphora types produced in different Punic production areas and workshops. Thus, the central argument here is that the arrival of containers from such diverse provenances allows us to identify the economic opportunity that this foundation represented for the metropolis as a whole and to explore how this new trade relationship was structured.