Pheonicians and Greeks created an extensive network of trading routes on the Mediterranean. Their colonies established relations between the indigenous villages with the eastern Mediterranean civilization. On the Isla beach there are the two oldest Phoenician boats found in the Mediterranean.
Basically we find three types of Phoenician colonies:
- Population
- Small factories or coastal enclaves and
- Commercial centres, temporary or without urban character, also located on the coast.
The Phoenician boats on the Isla beach, from the 7th Century B.C., bring information about the Phoenician naval construction techniques, for cargo and for maritime trade. The best preserved of the boats, 8.10m long and 2.25m wide, transported lead bars on a layer of vegetation made up of branches of trees to protect the hull. The strakes which form the hull are joined by the system known as “a espiga”. The joint of the strakes was caulked with vegetable fibre sewn to the hull; the inside of which was then protected with resin. Next to the boat is the anchor, a so-called cane, clamp and nail type, being the oldest known example.