MARRUECOS ENTRE LOS SIGLOS VI-II A.C. SUSTRATO FENICIO, INTERACCIÓN COMERCIAL CON GADIR Y PRESENCIA CARTAGINESA DURANTE LOS BÁRCIDAS

Abstract

Morocco, between the end of the 6th century BC and the 2nd century BC, had economic and political autonomy
with respect to Carthage. There is a clear continuity of the settlements with respect to the preceding Phoenician
period and interest was maintained in accessing luxury products from the Atlantic façade such as elephant
ivory, cedar wood, Stramonite haemastoma purple or ostrich eggs. The amphorae from Gadir, 11.2.1.3, 540-400BC, show that this city was the main commercial axis in this period and that there was no archaic expansion
of Carthage towards North-West Africa. From the end of the 5th century BC, Mauretania, like Iberia, was a
zone for the recruitment of mercenaries to Carthage. In the 4th century and the first half of the 3rd century BC,
only the scarce presence of the amphora 4.2.1.5, 400/375-250 BC, points to commercial contacts with Carthage,
of which it was independent in the middle of the 3rd century BC. In contrast, the simultaneous production in
Gadir or Kuass of amphorae 12.1.1.1 between the 4th-2nd BC, suggests the continuity of economic ties in the
Strait of Gibraltar. However, it is possible that with the periplus of Hanno, ca. 348-264 BC, Carthage sought to
increase control over the trade of luxury goods and strengthen the taxation of the major coastal cities of Mauretania.This maritime hegemony of Carthage materialized with the conquest of Iberia and the beginning of theSecond Punic War, 237-201 BC, with an important increase in Carthaginian amphorae at Morocco, Mañá
C2a/7.4.2.1-7.4.3.1, Mañá D1b/5.2.3.1/2, 7.2.1.1 or 3.2.1.2, both in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic façades,
of Carthaginian coins on the Algerian and Moroccan coast, or the references to the recruit of mercenaries in the
cities of Tingi and perhaps Lixus. It is possible that the increasing control in North Tingitana by Carthage at
the end of the 3rd century BC, take to Baga, rex maurorum, to found a new capital in the South, at Volubilis,in the fertile agricultural basin of the river Sebou, if its occupation and fortification goes back to the end of the 3rd century BC, which could support the presence of amphorae 7.4.2.1 and 12.1.1.1. The defeat of Carthage 201 BC supposed the practical disappearance of the Carthaginian trade, except for some amphorae 7.3.2.1, before the destruction of the city.