Phéniciens et Indigènes à l'embouchure du Tage, Portugal

n the Tagus estuary the Late Bronze Age occupation is complex and diversified, with habitats, necropolis and votive deposits. The typology of the settlements shows a very hierarchized situation, even in domestic contexts, with small sites in the plains and large ones in the top of hills. The occupation is dense across the territory, extending in both the river banks, but also in the hinterland. The beginning of Iron Age (in the late VIII century BCE) brought an entirely new situation. Many sites were abandoned in the inland, and the occupation favors the river’s land banks, where large sites like Santarém, Almaraz and Lisbon absorbed eastern population, and became the center of power. Probably they planed the foundation of new sites in the left river’s banks, like Cabeço da Bruxa and Porto do Sabugueiro, and in the right (Quinta da Marqueza).