The story of the first civilization all over the West is wrapped in a cloud of mystery. It is believed that it was called Tartessos and developed between the ninth and fifth centuries before Christ; in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, between the basins of the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. It was cited for the first time by the classical sources of Greece and Rome (Hecateo, Herodotus, Rufo Festo Avieno..) and situated above the columns of Hercules, that is, after the Strait of Gibraltar.

However, there is a great debate about the Tartesian culture. In fact, according to some researchers, Tartessos didn't exist. The main drivers of this belief are Álvaro Fernández Flores and Araceli Rodríguez Azogue, who excavated the archaeological site of El Carambolo between 2002 and 2005. In his view, in these territories the material culture has the typical characteristics of the Phoenician colonies, so it cannot be said that Tartessos was an independent and sovereign civilization, but a simple Phoenician colony. The Tartesoskeptical trend has enjoyed great prestige, especially after the congress held in Huelva in 2011, and its echoes have reached the Archaeological Museum of Seville. In fact, the treasure of El Cárabo that is exhibited there is considered as a piece of “Phoenicia.”

However, most researchers do not match late skepticism. According to the experts, the late material culture has differential characteristics. In addition, this year at the site of Casas del Turuñuelo a slate saddle has been found with supposedly engraved an ecedary in tartés. However, if that civilization existed, we don't know what it was called and what it was called, because it was a Tartessos exonym, that is, a name placed by those outside.

By the year 500 before Christ, all of a sudden the sources of Antiquity stopped making references to Tartessos. According to some, a great tsunami destroyed their water ports, causing their decay. That is why the last of Tartessos has often been linked to the myth of Atlantis. For others, a change in the balance of the maritime powers of the Mediterranean led to an economic decline. Greece, the trade partner of Tartessos, lost influence in the Western Mediterranean and was subjected to the influence of Carthage. In addition to the name and the being, Tartessos’s end is wrapped in mysteries.