Balsa (Roman Town) - Pre-Roman Past

Pre-Roman Past

The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age oppidum of Tavira (7 km from Roman BALSA) stands as the genetic regional urban place, first as a Phoenician maritime colonial settlement with a strong religious character (mid 8th to end of 6th centuries BCE) and later as a Turdetani town (5th and 4 th centuries BCE).

It was abandoned and replaced by the near oppidum of Cerro do Cavaco (1 km North of Tavira, occupied from the late 4th to late 1st centuries BCE), a better defensible site that was the central place of the balsenses during the Carthaginian and Roman Republican periods.

Cerro do Cavaco, the pre-Roman BALSA, did not survive the epoch of Augustus, being then replaced by Roman BALSA.