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The fifth edition of the international underwater archeology project 'Mazarrón Fenicio', organized by the Center for Studies of the Near East and Late Antiquity (CEPOAT) of the University of Murcia (UMU) and finances the City Council of Mazarrón, has presented its results with a spectacular find in an underwater archaeological survey of only 3x3 meters on the Island of Adentro.

This year's campaign, led by professors Juan Pinedo and Helena Jiménez, has brought to light the existence of a possible anchorage that confirms an occupation and frequenting of the great marine and mercantile town of antiquity in the surroundings of Mazarrón of a period at least two hundred years.

In said survey carried out on the northern bottom of the Island of Adentro, 160 remains with form and 600 amphora walls have been documented in excellent condition with a chronology that has been covering since the middle of the 8th century BC.

C. until the beginning of the sixth century prior to our era.

According to Pinedo, this new finding "places Mazarrón as one of the first Phoenician colonizations in the Iberian Peninsula next to Cádiz and Málaga" since, so far, "the Phoenician presence was witnessed in Puerto de Mazarrón since the end of the 7th century. a. C. by the site of the Punta de los Gavilanes and the two boats on the beach of the Island ".

The discovery now of materials attributable to the eighth century BC.

C. it places the underwater site of the Island of Adentro in a wide commercial network that extends from the Strait of Gibraltar to Ibiza already in very early times of peninsular Phoenician colonization.

In the absence of an in-depth study, everything indicates that the Island was the strategic center of the network of political, economic and cultural influence on the indigenous population.

This network was integrated by the current mounds of La Reya, Gavilanes and Castellar, which, due to the sea level at that time, were small islands that allowed them to settle near the coast and, at the same time, protected from the natives, of whom They were suspicious.

In addition to the numerous pieces of amphorae located "we know that it is a anchorage because we have found seeds, bones and teeth of animals, snails of earth, skylights, ceramics by hand made by indigenous" Pinedo reveals.

The first indications of the archaeological importance of the area were in the previous campaigns of 2017 and 2018 when a gold pendant and richly decorated ostrich eggs were found, respectively.

The mayor of Mazarrón, Gaspar Miras, has shown his satisfaction with the results of 'Mazarrón Fenicio', since they attest to "antiquity of our history, a story that both the mazarroneros and the city council have the task of putting it in value, conserve it, expose it and make it known so that the municipality lives up to places with a Phoenician presence like Malaga or Cádiz. "

You also want to point out that "even the Councilor for Historical Heritage, Ginés Campillo, has participated in this campaign by submerging and accompanying archaeologists."

Campillo, for its part, has expressed the commitment of the city council to "increase the budget for the investigation of this site" in the budget to be approved during this autumn, as well as the will to "resume the route of the Phoenicians in which Mazarrón it was registered in 2014 and that, with the change of government, was lost; when it is something that puts you municipality on the map of the entire Mediterranean. "

Source: Ayuntamiento de Mazarrón