Paragraph: (History-Anthropology/oanc-HistoryIbiza-0.txt)
Sent 1: A handful of Bronze Age relics has fostered an assumption that prehistoric settlers inhabited Ibiza thousands of years ago.
Sent 2: Greater evidence of such a people is found on Mallorca and Menorca than on Ibiza, but one of the Balearics' most important sites is actually on the island of Formentera, where the megalithic monument/tomb of Ca Na Costa has been dated to 2000 b.c.
Sent 3: Ibiza's key location between Africa and ancient Iberia made it a convenient stopover for Mediterranean seafarers, such as the Phoenician traders, who called the island Ibosim.
Sent 4: The Greeks dubbed it Ebysos, the Romans called it Ebusus, and the Moors, Yebisah.
Sent 5: The Carthaginians: A detailed history of the island doesn't begin until it became a colony of Carthage in the 7th century b.c.
Sent 6: .
Sent 7: The Carthaginians originally came from the area comprising present-day Lebanon, and from their bases in North Africa and what's now Spain, they challenged the Roman Empire for domination of the Mediterranean region.
Sent 8: Their interest in Ibiza lay partly in its vast salt flats, which to this day remain the source of a profitable industry.
Sent 9: They capitalized on the natural resources by using the salt to cure fish, which they exported to their home country.
Sent 10: The Carthaginians also carried out lead mining and continued to be of significance up until this century.
Sent 11: It is believed that the lead pellets which were used by the Carthaginian general Hannibal were made on Ibiza.
Sent 12: The Carthaginians also considered the island a holy place, and here in great splendour they buried thousands of their citizens in a huge necropolis on the Puig des Molins (Hill of the Windmills) below the Dalt Vila (Old Town) of Ibiza.
Sent 13: Under the gnarled olive trees archaeologists have uncovered a treasure trove of statues, jewellery, pitchers, tools, and coins, which are now displayed in the town's two archaeological museums.
Sent 14: The Romans never really infiltrated Ibiza, and even after the defeat of Hannibal in 202 b.c.
Sent 15: during the Second Punic War their influence was restrained.
Sent 16: Only with the fall of Carthage in 146 b.c.
Sent 17: did they manage to make inroads, but, as local historians stress, Ibiza was neither conquered nor annexed by Rome, but confederated, retaining remarkable autonomy.
Sent 18: For centuries to come the old Carthaginian traditions were allowed to continue on Ibiza alongside the new Roman way of life.