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But their most extraordinary accomplishment lay in
distant west. {N. B.} The first of Greeks, according to Herodotus, 'to make long voyages', it was Phocaeans who pioneered remotest and most perilous routes. It was they, for example, who followed up first Samian contacts with kingdom of Tartessus around mouth of River Baetis (Guadalquivir) on south-western Spain (c.640), sailing not in merchant ships but in fifty-oared warships(so that cargo-carrying was sacrificed to speed and fighting capacity). The friendly relations that they thus established with long-lived king of Tartessus, Arganthonius, secured Phocaean adventurers a large share of bronze, tin and silver in which Spanish hinterland abounded.
Pliny elder also adds a record of a certain Midacritus who is likely to have been a Phocaean. 'Midacritus', he observed, 'was first to import 'white lead' (that is to say tin) from 'Tin Island' (Cassiteris),' {He notes 'Midacritus' means approved of Midas which indicates a Phrygian connection. I suggest that Midas was King of Lydia and part of Phoenician from Pont to Tyre and Hittite connection going back to Danube Kelts of Finias. Any Ionian states that were his neighbors could earn his approval. I emphasize EARN and suggest this is person for whom likes of today’s IMF organizers and Fed backers are really like.} by which he meant, however, not Scilly Islands but Cornwall ('the Stannaries'). Tin was immensely important to ancient world, since it was an essential constituent of bronze. It existed in various near-eastern countries as well as in Greece itself, but not in sufficient quantities to make supplies from west unnecessary. Pliny's words might merely mean that Midacritus sailed to Tartessus, in order to pick up a cargo of tin which Tartessians had acquired from Cornwall. But more probably he himself {Like Joseph of Arimathaea}, by way of Tartessus adventurously fetched tin from Britain. On assumption that Midacritus' expedition was in mid-sixth century or a little earlier, he and his compatriots were choosing a good time for such enterprises, since their potential rivals Phoenicians were preoccupied with encroachment of Persia.
{Where did Medes come from? Fred Eberg of Univ. of Pennsylvania may have a clue in Russian lost civilization of Turkmenistan. It is before Sumer and they say there was a language. There are dozens of large fortress like cities seen from remote sensing satellite equipment. On radio interviews I've heard he talks about re-writing history books in respect of it having a language, but before, it was Danube Old European. Because it is unlike nearby Mesopotamian cultures in structures and script we can draw another connection to Danube but we must wait for more details. They definitely irrigated desert and that shouldn't surprise anyone, but it seems to surprise these 'experts'. The nearly delph-like china and other artifacts along Silk Road doesn't move them to say for sure that China was part of trading network, yet Kelts were there in 3,000 BC according to National Geographic; 1000 years before they find china materials.}
The Phocaeans also created historic city of Massalia (Marseille) on Mediterranean coast of Gaul, at eastern fringe of Rhone delta (C.600).” (37)
The Phocaeans had established joint colonies on Black Sea with Milesians at Samsun (Amisus) and fact they could go to Spain and Britain makes it clear they could have taken short route across Atlantic from west African Carthaginian outposts that lots of artifacts in South America seem to have come from (Amphorae, etc.). He doesn't address these probabilities but some of his numismatic friends have dealt with coins found in America. He was President of Royal Numismatic Society and a medalist in Americas. The quotes from Mr. Grant speak to necessary perspicacity and courage and his word usages seem open to this possibility but it would be academic suicide (or would have been when he wrote book) for him to address these issues of such great impact. They knew earth was a sphere and 'Flat Earth' dogma didn't even exist until a millennium or more after Battle of Alalia. Massalia also gave them access to Rhone River routes to Britain, Brittany and Hallstatt Kelts. The actual time he is talking about probably saw elite not using this valuable tin. Iron was everywhere but tin could be monopolized. The interesting point about all wealth in these times that also might tie in with South America relates to abundance of gold. There were times when Egypt valued silver more than gold. We are convinced there were at least two millennia before this; that corporate Phoenician enterprises were dominant issue and trade with Americas was a key factor.
Marseilles is still important to drug trade but nearby Sardinia and its medieval castles going back to Hyksos or Shardana once housed their bank and drug manufacturing. There were more emeralds than Mediterranean produced and gold from Peru along with those emeralds (which were used to view stars by Queen of Sheba) made some people very rich and yet still they made potions to hook whole cultures.
