Chapter - 4  FORMATIVE INFLUENCES TO 1700
 
 

As the Talayot culture waned, a succession of new peoples put in at the island's sheltered harbours for fresh food and water. Some, like the Phoenicians, returned to trade, while Greeks, less adventurous sailors, stayed to found small colonies. Any invaders, like the Carthaginians and Romans, were met by a hail of stones from the slingers. 
Up to AD 1700 arrivals and departures were numerous - nine in all - and a chronological table is provided in Appendix B to assist the reader. Emphasis is placed on the influence of four. The first three are the Romans, the Moors and the kings of Aragon, each of which ruled Minorca for about 500 years. The fourth is the little-known and brief stay of Samuel Pepys's navy at Port Mahon in the mid-seventeenth century, the ultimate consequences of which were to shape the island's future for the next hundred and fifty years.
 

PHOENICIANS, GREEKS AND CARTHAGINIANS

Between 1600 BC and 1200 BC biremes (galleys with square sails and two tiers of oars) of Phoenician traders were increasingly seen in Minorcan calas. 
These expert mariners were among the first to navigate by the stars, and came from Biblos, Tyre and Sidon on the Syrian coast. They put in at Minorca during voyages to Tarsis in the south of Iberia (Spain), where they owned land and zinc mines.
They set up trading-posts on the present sites of Port Mahon and at Ciudadela. Pliny in his History also tells us of a settlement at Sanisera (the modern Sanitja), a small and delightful inlet with two sandy coves on the north coast near the Cavalleria lighthouse. The position of this port is interesting, for early mariners hugged coasts when they could, and this suggests an approach from the southern European coast. The Romans also used Sanitja, but all trace of its town and port have disappeared. It lies deserted save for an occasional fishing boat or swimmer.

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