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Room 8 – Spain. The end of the voyage at the Columns of Hercules
Olive oil and the olive tree arrived on the Spanish coast during the eighth century B.C. brought there by the Phoenician merchants in exchange for the rich metals of which Spain abounded: copper, silver and gold. From these exchanges a rich culture flourished, a rich mixture of Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginians elements. During the first centuries of the Roman Empire Spain became the most important olive oil producing province of the Mediterranean. These anphora accumulated and eventually formed a new hill near the river Tiber: the Monte Testaccio.

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Phoenician merchants, the noble lady of Cadiz who, 2500 years ago requested to be buried together with a vase of alabaster full of perfumed oil between her hands, precious oriental wares that were acquired by the Spaniards in exchange for their same weight in silver and the enormous olive groves, that in the past, characterised the Spanish landscape.
 

Alabaster recovered from underwater expeditions
These types of vases manufactured by the able oriental artigans, were found all along the Mediterranean coast till as far as Spain. The perfumed oil they contained was indispensable to the inhabitants of the Phoenician colonies and the other populations who had assumed their way of life.

Material: alabaster
Manufacturing technique: Dug out of a complete block
Origin: East Mediterranean, an underwater relic
Dated: 500 B.C.
Use: container for perfumed oil