Timeline of Portuguese History - 6th Century BC

6th Century BC

Year Date Event
600 Decadence of Phoenician colonization of the Mediterranean coast of Iberia. Many of the colonies are deserted.
Phoenician influenced Tavira is destroyed by violence.
Cultural shift in southern Portuguese territory after the fall of Tartessos, with a strong Mediterranean character that prolongs and modifies Tartessian culture. This occurs mainly in Low Alentejo and the Algarve, but has littoral extensions up to the Tagus mouth (namely the important city of Bevipo, modern Alcácer do Sal).
First form of writing in western Iberia (south of Portugal), the Southwest script (still to be translated), denotes strong Tartessian influence in its use of a modified Phoenician alphabet. In these writings the word Conii (similar to Cunetes or Cynetes, the people of the Algarve) appears frequently.
The poem Ora Maritima, written by Avienus in the 4th century and based on the Massaliote Periplus of the 6th century, states that all of western Iberia was once called for the name of its people, the Oestriminis, which were replaced by an invasion of the Saephe or Ophis (meaning Serpent). From then on western Iberia would have been known as Ophiussa (Land of the Serpents).The poem also describes the various ethnic groups present at that time:
  • The Saephe or Ophis, today seen as probably Hallstatt culture Celts, in all of western Iberia (modern Portugal) between the Douro and the Sado rivers.
  • The Cempsi, probably Hallstatt culture Celts, in the Tagus mouth and the south up to the Algarve.
  • The Cynetes or Cunetes in the extreme south and some cities along the Atlantic coast (such as Olissipo, modern Lisbon), probably not Indo-European, but autochthonous Iberian (even if strongly or totally celticized over the next centuries).
  • The Dragani, Celt or Proto-Celt of the first Indo-European wave, in the mountainous areas of Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Cantabria.
  • The Lusis, probably a first reference to the Lusitanians, similar to the Dragani (Celt or Proto-Celt of the first Indo-European wave).
Celts penetrate in the Northwest of the Peninsula, although it has been debated whether all tribes of this area are actually Celtic, Celtizied or just native with Celtic influences.
Penetration of Celtic culture into the northern mountainous strip is minimal and most likely the tribes of this region remain fully pre-Indo European.

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