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The secrets of the mercenary who protected the Phoenician Malaga
The Board publishes an ambitious monograph on the tomb of the warrior of the Museum of Malaga in which 34 experts have participated. The mercenary, probably a Greek hoplite from the late sixth century BC C., I would have been hired by the city of Malaka
"This is a finding that occurs every 50 years, to put a figure," estimates Eduardo García Alfonso. Next to this archaeologist of the Junta de Andalucía is the also archaeologist, the Malaga Sonia Lopez Chamizo, Arqueosur. She was one of the experts who participated in this exceptional discovery in 2012: an intact grave from the Phoenician era, without plundering, with all the trousseau, located on a huge plot of land between Refine and Riders streets. "The first ones we saw were us after 2,600 years," stresses Sonia Lopez.
The tomb of the warrior, as it was known, is today the star of the archaeological section of the Museum of Malaga and, given its importance, has just starred in the last monograph of the Ministry of Culture of the Board: The tomb of the warrior. An exceptional burial in Phoenician Malaga from the 6th century BC
Specifically, it has been published within the Archeology collection that, as Eduardo García recalls, "began precisely in 1989 with a monograph of Cerro del Villar".
Both Eduardo García and Sonia López, together with the archaeologist David García González, coordinated this ambitious and complete work, in which 34 experts participated.
Some medieval pottery
"It began as a control of earthworks in a space in Malaga where we did not know for sure if there could be archaeological remains", says the archaeologist, who points out that, in the area, which corresponded to the northern part of the old Muslim suburb , experts thought they would find "something related to medieval or modern pottery." But they found much more. To begin with, a neighborhood of the taifas era "quite spectacular and that in itself deserves, if not a publication, yes an interesting chapter from another book", account.
The grave appeared in a corner of the plot and like other Phoenician tombs, it seems that it had a vegetation cover. The slime of the Ejido caused it to collapse and the tomb to be filled with dirt.
This explains the poor state of the warrior's bones, which was accompanied by a sumptuous trousseau: an iron spear (only the tip, the rest of wood was lost over time), a Phoenician perfume-burn, a silver plate or plate for sacrifices, a scarab of carnelian set in gold, a pair of silver rods and a beautiful helmet of Corinthian type of bronze, decorated and with a support for a possible feather or plume.
This is what is exhibited in the museum because, as Sonia López explains, "there are pieces to be restored", since a piece that can be a tray, a shield or two shields was also found, broken into tiny fragments, "with drawings similar to the helmet ». "I was very close, so I jokingly say that it was Brad Pitt in the movie Troy," laughs the archaeologist.
Both carbon 14 and the individualized study of the pieces and their chronologies coincide in dating the mysterious warrior in the last quarter of the sixth century BC.
Of its physical characteristics the study indicates that it was a man of something more than 40 years, of 1.75 to 1.80 of stature and with musculature.
The analysis of the pieces, emphasizes Eduardo García, provides information about their probable origin: "He was a foreign individual, at least most of the objects do not correspond to typical of the Iberian Peninsula." Because if the perfumes and the spear are from the Iberian Peninsula, the same does not happen with the famous decorated helmet, which seems to come from the Greek colonies of southern Italy or Sicily (the so-called Magna Grecia).
Nor is the Scarabeo made in the Peninsula, an amulet of Egyptian manufacture "determining to know what it was dedicated", archaeologist details. As he explains, in this piece appears Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of War. In addition, the cartridge with a hieroglyphic inscription next to the goddess has been identified as referring to the pharaoh Necho I, from the end of the 7th century BC. and whose son, Psamtik I, "through the texts we know that it was the pharaoh who first hires Greek mercenaries and we also know that many of these mercenaries became devotees of the goddess."
In addition, the two rods and the silver plate are foreign. "It seems that they are linked to the Aegean or Eastern Mediterranean area although the workshops have not been located," says Eduardo García.
A foreign mercenary
With all that data, this foreign man was a mercenary; as far as its origin, although everything can point, there is no direct evidence that it was Greek. "We know he was a great warrior, a hoplite or in that line of military tactics. If we see the Iliad, the hoplites were not farmers, they had some economic capacity to buy that weapon, "says Sonia Lopez.
One of the hypotheses that archaeologists consider is that they have been hired by the city of Malaka. "We know from the texts that the Phoenicians do not usually fight but they hire people to give them military assistance," says Eduardo García.
The great novelty that the tomb brings, he emphasizes, is that it was thought that the world of mercenaries (the mercenary) was much later, "from the times of the Carthage wars with different indigenous peoples of the Peninsula, at the end of the 5th century. to. C. ». The mercenary warrior is from the last quarter of the 6th century a.C.
"We also have to get rid of the fact that being a mercenary is something bad, someone that sells; I think that at that time it does not have a negative connotation, but maybe it has prestige or even power, "says Sonia López.
In this regard, Eduardo García recalls that many of these mercenaries "were leaders, usually aristocrats" and stressed that "war was an economic activity such as land tenure".
For all these data, the archaeologist believes that the warrior "should have some kind of power in the society that welcomed him or at least consideration, to be buried with honors."
Once the presence of mercenaries in the early Phoenician Malaka is verified, the two archaeologists do not lose hope of future discoveries.
"It can not be ruled out, apart from the fact that the tomb draws a vision of the Phoenician city different from the one we had," concludes Eduardo García.
https://www.laopiniondemalaga.es/malaga/2019/02/17/tumba-guerrero-respuestas-enigma/1068438.html
The Board publishes an ambitious monograph on the tomb of the warrior of the Museum of Malaga in which 34 experts have participated. The mercenary, probably a Greek hoplite from the late sixth century BC C., I would have been hired by the city of Malaka
"This is a finding that occurs every 50 years, to put a figure," estimates Eduardo García Alfonso. Next to this archaeologist of the Junta de Andalucía is the also archaeologist, the Malaga Sonia Lopez Chamizo, Arqueosur. She was one of the experts who participated in this exceptional discovery in 2012: an intact grave from the Phoenician era, without plundering, with all the trousseau, located on a huge plot of land between Refine and Riders streets. "The first ones we saw were us after 2,600 years," stresses Sonia Lopez.
The tomb of the warrior, as it was known, is today the star of the archaeological section of the Museum of Malaga and, given its importance, has just starred in the last monograph of the Ministry of Culture of the Board: The tomb of the warrior. An exceptional burial in Phoenician Malaga from the 6th century BC
Specifically, it has been published within the Archeology collection that, as Eduardo García recalls, "began precisely in 1989 with a monograph of Cerro del Villar".
Both Eduardo García and Sonia López, together with the archaeologist David García González, coordinated this ambitious and complete work, in which 34 experts participated.
Some medieval pottery
"It began as a control of earthworks in a space in Malaga where we did not know for sure if there could be archaeological remains", says the archaeologist, who points out that, in the area, which corresponded to the northern part of the old Muslim suburb , experts thought they would find "something related to medieval or modern pottery." But they found much more. To begin with, a neighborhood of the taifas era "quite spectacular and that in itself deserves, if not a publication, yes an interesting chapter from another book", account.
The grave appeared in a corner of the plot and like other Phoenician tombs, it seems that it had a vegetation cover. The slime of the Ejido caused it to collapse and the tomb to be filled with dirt.
This explains the poor state of the warrior's bones, which was accompanied by a sumptuous trousseau: an iron spear (only the tip, the rest of wood was lost over time), a Phoenician perfume-burn, a silver plate or plate for sacrifices, a scarab of carnelian set in gold, a pair of silver rods and a beautiful helmet of Corinthian type of bronze, decorated and with a support for a possible feather or plume.
This is what is exhibited in the museum because, as Sonia López explains, "there are pieces to be restored", since a piece that can be a tray, a shield or two shields was also found, broken into tiny fragments, "with drawings similar to the helmet ». "I was very close, so I jokingly say that it was Brad Pitt in the movie Troy," laughs the archaeologist.
Both carbon 14 and the individualized study of the pieces and their chronologies coincide in dating the mysterious warrior in the last quarter of the sixth century BC.
Of its physical characteristics the study indicates that it was a man of something more than 40 years, of 1.75 to 1.80 of stature and with musculature.
The analysis of the pieces, emphasizes Eduardo García, provides information about their probable origin: "He was a foreign individual, at least most of the objects do not correspond to typical of the Iberian Peninsula." Because if the perfumes and the spear are from the Iberian Peninsula, the same does not happen with the famous decorated helmet, which seems to come from the Greek colonies of southern Italy or Sicily (the so-called Magna Grecia).
Nor is the Scarabeo made in the Peninsula, an amulet of Egyptian manufacture "determining to know what it was dedicated", archaeologist details. As he explains, in this piece appears Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of War. In addition, the cartridge with a hieroglyphic inscription next to the goddess has been identified as referring to the pharaoh Necho I, from the end of the 7th century BC. and whose son, Psamtik I, "through the texts we know that it was the pharaoh who first hires Greek mercenaries and we also know that many of these mercenaries became devotees of the goddess."
In addition, the two rods and the silver plate are foreign. "It seems that they are linked to the Aegean or Eastern Mediterranean area although the workshops have not been located," says Eduardo García.
A foreign mercenary
With all that data, this foreign man was a mercenary; as far as its origin, although everything can point, there is no direct evidence that it was Greek. "We know he was a great warrior, a hoplite or in that line of military tactics. If we see the Iliad, the hoplites were not farmers, they had some economic capacity to buy that weapon, "says Sonia Lopez.
One of the hypotheses that archaeologists consider is that they have been hired by the city of Malaka. "We know from the texts that the Phoenicians do not usually fight but they hire people to give them military assistance," says Eduardo García.
The great novelty that the tomb brings, he emphasizes, is that it was thought that the world of mercenaries (the mercenary) was much later, "from the times of the Carthage wars with different indigenous peoples of the Peninsula, at the end of the 5th century. to. C. ». The mercenary warrior is from the last quarter of the 6th century a.C.
"We also have to get rid of the fact that being a mercenary is something bad, someone that sells; I think that at that time it does not have a negative connotation, but maybe it has prestige or even power, "says Sonia López.
In this regard, Eduardo García recalls that many of these mercenaries "were leaders, usually aristocrats" and stressed that "war was an economic activity such as land tenure".
For all these data, the archaeologist believes that the warrior "should have some kind of power in the society that welcomed him or at least consideration, to be buried with honors."
Once the presence of mercenaries in the early Phoenician Malaka is verified, the two archaeologists do not lose hope of future discoveries.
"It can not be ruled out, apart from the fact that the tomb draws a vision of the Phoenician city different from the one we had," concludes Eduardo García.
https://www.laopiniondemalaga.es/malaga/2019/02/17/tumba-guerrero-respuestas-enigma/1068438.html