IRON AGE CULTURES. HUELVA.

Around 800 BC, a remarkable culture existed in western Andalusia.

Connected by trade with the Phoenicians, Tartessus developed. The mythical king Argantonio - king of silver - reigned over the kingdom. Many communities were devoted to the iron industry, trade and farming.

The province of Huelva, on the other hand, is rich in ore. Silver and copper mining has left a deep mark of social, economic and landscape transformation, from the Bronze Age in Tartessus, under the Romans, during the Moslem domination, up to the presence of English mining companies in the 19th century.

The village of Tejada la Vieja (Escacena del Campo) is the only place that gives us a complete idea due to the town walls and layout that existed from the 7th to the 4th centuries BC. Riotinto has been at the centre of these mining activities throughout the history.

Victorian architecture and gigantic open-air mines exist side by side with ancient Tartessian and Roman pits and slag heeps. The Mining Museum depicts this part of the area´s evolution.

Further on, after Zalamea la Real, the dolmens at El Pozuelo are part of a series of group burials of the first metal cultures from the Bronze Age (4th and 3rd centuries BC). The Soto dolmen at Trigueros is outstanding.

The museum at Huelva has splendid items that once belonged to the Tartessian chieftains, bronzes of oriental inspiration and Phoenician and Greek ornaments, which sharply contrast with the mineral loading wharf built by the English in the port. A Moslem mining town from the llth and 12th centuries is being excavated on Saltés Island.

Lastly, the Archaeological Museum at Seville has a collection of Tartessian objects - pottery, stelae, the fabulous golden treasures found at El Carambolo, Ebora and Mairena, and a small statuette of the Phoenician goddess Astarté.