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Huelva ( , , ) is a municipality of
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
and the capital of the
province of Huelva Huelva () is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by Portugal, the provinces of Badajoz, Seville, and Cádiz, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is Huelva. Its area is ...
, in the
autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...
of
Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...
. Located in the southwest of the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
, it sits between the estuaries of the
Odiel The Odiel () is a river in the Atlantic basin in southern Spain, more precisely in the province of Huelva, Andalusia. It originates at Marimateos in the Sierra de Aracena at an elevation of above sea level. At the Punta del Sebo, it joins th ...
and
Tinto Tinto is an isolated hill in the south of the Central Lowlands just to the north of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It comprises little more than one top, which stands on the west bank of the River Clyde, some west of Biggar. The peak is a ...
rivers on the Atlantic coast of the
Gulf of Cádiz The Gulf of Cádiz (, ) is the arm of the Atlantic Ocean between Cabo de Santa Maria, the southernmost point of mainland Portugal; and Cape Trafalgar on the Spanish coast at the western end of the Strait of Gibraltar. Two major rivers, the Gu ...
. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 149,410. While the existence of an earlier pre-Phoenician settlement within the current urban limits since has been tentatively defended by scholars,
Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...
established a stable colony roughly by the 9th century BC. Modern economic activity conformed to copper and pyrite extraction upstream funded by British capital and to the role of its port, as well as with the later development of a petrochemical industry. Huelva is home to
Recreativo de Huelva Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Huelva, Andalucia, Spain. Founded on 23 December 1889, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play in , holding home ...
, the oldest football club in Spain.


History


Protohistory

At least up to the 1980s and 1990s, the mainstream historians' view was that Huelva began as an autochthonous Tartessian settlement (possibly the very same Tartessos mentioned in Greek sources); later opinions have held that it was a multi-ethnic enclave, mixing natives with peoples with a mainly Phoenician, and later Greek, extraction. However, following the finding of Phoenician archaeological materials in the Méndez Núñez-Las Monjas site, the chronology as to the Phoenician presence was reassessed. The evidence favours solely viewing Huelva-Onoba as a very early Phoenician colony, a development which was parallel to a certain "dismantling" of the idea of Tartessos as a mainly autochthonous archaeological culture, even though the tentative identification of Huelva with Tartessos was not discarded, but rather kept. Tartessos has also been identified with the biblical
Tarshish Tarshish (; ; ) occurs in the Hebrew Bible with several uncertain meanings, most frequently as a place (probably a large city or region) far across the sea from Phoenicia (now Lebanon) and the Land of Israel. Tarshish was said to have exported v ...
. First contacts with the local
Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...
n presence have been hypothesised to have taken place as early as 1015 to 975 BCE. However, remains such as those found in the Méndez Núñez-Las Monjas go so far as to show a likely Phoenician settlement of the 9th century BCE, especially to resemble a founding date of a Tyrian settlement from the reign of
Ithobaal I Ithobaal I is the name of a 9th-century BCE king of Tyre mentioned in the story of Jezebel from the Hebrew Bible, and in a citation by Josephus of a list of the kings of Tyre put together by the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus (2nd century ...
between 875 and 850, although the Méndez Núñez-Las Monjas' archaeological finds have been brought forward as evidence of a 10th-century BCE founding chronology in the era of
Hiram I Hiram I ( Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤌 ''Ḥirōm'' "my brother is exalted"; Hebrew: חירם ''Ḥīrām''; also called ''Hirom'' or ''Huram'')