Editing Tarshish (section)

==Identifications and interpretations==
Tarshish is placed on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea by several biblical passages,<ref>{{bibleverse|Isaiah|23}}, {{bibleverse|Jeremiah|10:9}}, {{bibleverse|Ezekiel|27:12}}, {{bibleverse|Jonah 1:3, 4:2|multi=yes}}</ref> and more precisely: west of [[Israel (region)|Israel]].<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|10:4}}, {{bibleverse|1 Chronicles|1:7}}</ref><ref name="NegevGibson">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land |article=Tarshish |author1=Negev, Avraham |author2=Gibson, Shimon |year=2001 |location=New York and London |publisher=Continuum |page=494 |isbn=0-8264-1316-1}}</ref> It is described as a source of various metals: "beaten silver is brought from Tarshish" (Jeremiah 10:9), and the Phoenicians of Tyre brought from there silver, iron, tin and lead (Ezekiel 27:12).<ref name="NegevGibson"/>

The context in Isaiah&nbsp;23:6 and 66:19 seems to indicate that it is an island, and from Israel it could be reached by ship, as attempted by Jonah (Jonah&nbsp;1:3) and performed by Solomon's fleet (2&nbsp;Chronicles&nbsp;9:21).<ref name="NegevGibson"/> Some modern scholars identify Tarshish with [[Tartessos]], a port in southern Spain, described by classical authors as a source of metals for the Phoenicians, while Josephus' identification of Tarshish with the city of [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]] in [[Cilicia]] (south-central Turkey) is even more widely accepted.<ref name="NegevGibson"/> However, a clear identification is not possible, since a whole array of Mediterranean sites with similar names are connected to the mining of various metals.<ref name="NegevGibson"/>

===Mediterranean Sea===
According to [[Rashi]], a medieval [[rabbi]] and commentator of the Bible, quoting Tractate Hullin 9lb, 'tarshish' means the [[Mediterranean Sea]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16493/showrashi/true/jewish/Chapter-10.htm |title=Chabad Tanakh: Rashi's Commentary on Daniel 10:6}}</ref>

===Carthage===
The [[Targum]] of Jonathan along with several passages of the [[Septuagint]] and the [[Vulgate]] render Tarshish as [[Carthage]].<ref name=Jewish/> The Jewish-Portuguese scholar, politician, statesman and financier [[Isaac Abarbanel]] (1437–1508&nbsp;AD) described Tarshish as "the city known in earlier times as Carthage and today called Tunis."<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |author=Thompson, C.M. |year=2003 |title=Sealed silver in Cisjordan and the 'invention' of coinage |journal=[[Oxford Journal of Archaeology]] |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=67–107|doi=10.1111/1468-0092.00005 }}</ref>

===Sardinia===
Thompson and Skaggs<ref name=":02"/> argue that the Akkadian inscriptions of Esarhaddon (AsBbE) indicate that Tarshish was an island (not a coastland) far to the west of the Levant.  American scholars [[William F. Albright]] (1891–1971) and [[Frank Moore Cross]] (1921–2012) suggested Tarshish was [[Sardinia]], because of the discovery of the [[Nora Stone]], whose Phoenician inscription mentions Tarshish.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Albright |first=W.F. |author-link=W. F. Albright |year=1941 |title=New light on the early history of Phoenician colonization |journal=[[Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research]] |volume=83 |issue=83 |pages=14–22 |jstor=3218739 |publisher=The [[American Schools of Oriental Research]]|doi=10.2307/3218739 |s2cid=163643292 }}</ref> Cross read the inscription to understand that it was referring to Tarshish as Sardinia.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cross |first=F.M. |year=1972 |title=An interpretation of the Nora Stone |journal=[[Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research]] |volume=208 |issue=208 |pages=13–19 |publisher=The [[American Schools of Oriental Research]] |doi=10.2307/1356374 |jstor=1356374|s2cid=163533512 }}</ref> 

In 2003, Christine Marie Thompson identified the Cisjordan Corpus, a concentration of [[hacksilver]] hoards in Israel and Palestine (Cisjordan). This Corpus dates between 1200 and 586&nbsp;BC, and the hoards in it are all silver-dominant. The largest hoard was found at [[Eshtemoa|Eshtemo'a]], present-day [[as-Samu]], and contained 26&nbsp;kg of silver. Within it, and specifically in the geographical region that was part of Phoenicia, is a concentration of hoards dated between 1200 and 800&nbsp;BC. There is no other known such concentration of silver hoards in the contemporary Mediterranean, and its date-range overlaps with the reigns of King Solomon (990–931&nbsp;BC) and Hiram of Tyre (980–947&nbsp;BC).

Hacksilver objects in these Phoenician hoards have lead isotope ratios that match ores in the silver-producing regions of Sardinia and Spain, only one of which is a large island rich in silver. Contrary to translations that have been rendering Assyrian ''tar-si-si'' as 'Tarsus' up to the present time, Thompson argues that the Assyrian tablets inscribed in Akkadian indicate ''tar-si-si'' (Tarshish) was a large island in the western Mediterranean, and that the poetic construction of Psalm&nbsp;72:10 also shows that it was a large island to the very distant west of Phoenicia. The island of Sardinia was always known as a hub of the metals trade in antiquity, and was also called by the [[ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] as ''Argyróphleps nésos'' "island of the silver veins".

The same evidence from hacksilver is said to fit with what the ancient Greek and Roman authors recorded about the Phoenicians exploiting many sources of silver in the western Mediterranean to feed developing economies back in Israel and Phoenicia soon after the fall of [[Troy]] and other palace centers in the eastern Mediterranean around 1200&nbsp;BC. Classical sources starting with [[Homer]] (8th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC), and the Greek historians [[Herodotus]] (484–425&nbsp;BC) and [[Diodorus Siculus]] (d.&nbsp;30&nbsp;BC) said the Phoenicians were exploiting the metals of the west for these purposes before they set up the permanent colonies in the metal-rich regions of the Mediterranean and Atlantic.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name=":02">{{cite journal |author1=Thompson, C.M. |author2=Skaggs, S. |year=2013 |title=King Solomon's silver?: Southern Phoenician hacksilber hoards and the location of Tarshish' |journal=Internet Archaeology |issue=35 |id=35 |doi=10.11141/ia.35.6|doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Either Sardinia or Spain===
The editors of the ''[[New Oxford Annotated Bible]]'', first published in 1962, suggest that Tarshish is either [[Sardinia]] or Tartessos.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-link=Bruce Metzger |editor1=Metzger, Bruce M. |editor2=Murphy, Roland E. |year=1991 |title=New Oxford Annotated Bible |at=annotation on Jeremiah 10:9}}</ref>

===Spain===
[[Rufus Festus Avienus]] the Latin writer of the 4th century AD, identified Tarshish as [[Cadiz]].<ref>William Parkin - 1837 "Festus Avinus says expressly that Cadiz was Tarshish. This agrees perfectly with the statement of Ibn Hankal, who no doubt reports the opinion of the Arabian geographers, that Phoenicia maintained a direct intercourse with Britain in later ..."</ref> This is the theory espoused by Father Mapple in Chapter 9 of ''[[Moby Dick]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/634/chapter-9-the-sermon/|title = Chapter 9: The Sermon &#124; Moby Dick &#124; Herman Melville &#124; Lit2Go ETC}}</ref>

Some biblical commentators as early as 1646 ([[Samuel Bochart]]) read it as [[Tartessos]] in ancient Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula), near Huelva and Sevilla today.<ref name="Jewish">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=73&letter=T&search=tarshish |chapter=Tarshish |title=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |editor1-link=Isidore Singer |editor1=Singer, Isidore |editor2-link=M. Seligsohn |editor2=Seligsohn, M.}}</ref> [[Samuel Bochart|Bochart]], the 17th&nbsp;century French Protestant pastor, suggested in his ''Phaleg'' (1646) that Tarshish was the city of [[Tartessos]] in southern [[Spain]]. He was followed by others, including [[Joseph H. Hertz|Hertz]] (1936).

===Phoenician coast===
Sir [[Peter le Page Renouf]] (1822–1897)<ref name="LePage">''Proceedings of the [[Society of Biblical Archaeology]]'', xvi. 104 et seq., [[Peter le Page Renouf|Le Page Renouf]]</ref> thought that "Tarshish" meant a coast, and, as the word occurs frequently in connection with Tyre, the Phoenician coast is to be understood.

===Tyrsenians or Etruscans===
[[Thomas Kelly Cheyne|T. K. Cheyne]] (1841–1915) thought that "Tarshish" of {{bibleverse||Genesis|10:4|HE}} and "[[Tiras]]" of {{bibleverse||Genesis|10:2|HE}} are really two names of one nation derived from two different sources, and might indicate the [[Tyrsenians]] or [[Etruscans]].<ref name="Cheyne">''Orientalische Litteraturzeitung'', iii. 151, [[Thomas Kelly Cheyne|Cheyne]]</ref>

===Britain===
Some 19th-century commentators believed that Tarshish was [[United Kingdom|Britain]], including [[Alfred John Dunkin]] who said "Tarshish demonstrated to be Britain" (1844), [[George Smith (historian)|George Smith]] (1850),<ref>{{cite book |author=Smith, George |title=Sacred Annals; Or, Researches into the History and Religion of Mankin[d] |url=https://archive.org/details/sacredannalsorr01smitgoog |year=1856 |page=557 |publisher=Carlton & Porter |quote=Heeren fully confirms this view ; shows from Strabo, that the Phenicians not only traded with Spain and Britain, but actually conducted mining operations in the former country; and is so fully satisfied of the identity of Tarshish and Spain&nbsp;...}}</ref> James Wallis and David King's ''The British Millennial Harbinger'' (1861), John Algernon Clarke (1862), and Jonathan Perkins Weethee of Ohio (1887).<ref>{{cite book |first=Jonathan Perkins |last=Weethee |title=The Eastern Question in Its Various Phases |year=1887 |page=293 |quote=The expression is this: "''the merchants of Tarshish, with the young lions of Tarshish''". Assuming, what we have proved, that England was the ancient Tarshish, and that Great Britain is the Tarshish of Eze.&nbsp;xxxviii.&nbsp;13, or the chief of both&nbsp;...}}</ref> This idea stems from the fact that Tarshish is recorded to have been a trader in tin, silver, gold, and lead,<ref>Ezek 27:12</ref> all of which were mined in [[Cornwall]]. This is still reputed to be the "Merchants of Tarshish" today by some{{clarify|date=April 2023}} Christian sects.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

===Southeast Africa===
[[Augustus Henry Keane]] (1833–1912) believed that Tarshish was [[Sofala]], and that the biblical land of [[Havilah]] was centered on the nearby [[Great Zimbabwe]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Keane, A.H. |author-link=Augustus Henry Keane |title=The Gold of Ophir - Whence Brought and by Whom? |year=1901}}</ref>

===Southern India and Sri Lanka ===
Bochart, apart from Spain (see there), also suggested eastern localities for the ports of [[Ophir]] and Tarshish during King Solomon's reign, specifically the [[Tamilakkam]] continent (present day South India and Northern Ceylon) where the [[Dravidians]] were well known for their gold, pearls, ivory and peacock trade. He fixed on "Tarshish" being the site of [[Kudiramalai]], a possible corruption of [[Ketheeswaram temple|Thiruketheeswaram]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Brohier Richard Leslie |year=1934 |title=Ancient irrigation works in Ceylon |volume=1-3 |page=36}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of the Bible |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofbibl1863smit |first=William, Sir |last=Smith |year=1863 |quote=the author notes how the Hebrew word for peacock is ''Thukki'', derived from the Classical Tamil for peacock ''Thogkai''}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Ramaswami, Sastri |title=The Tamils and their Culture |publisher=Annamalai University |year=1967 |page=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Gregory, James |title=Tamil Lexicography |author2=Niemeyer, M. |year=1991 |page=10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Fernandes, Edna |title=The last Jews of Kerala |publisher=Portobello |year=2008 |page=98}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor=Smith, William |dictionary=A Dictionary of the Bible |publisher=Hurd and Houghton |orig-year=1863 |year=1870 |page=1441}}</ref>

===Cilicia===
Tarshish may refer to [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]] in [[Cilicia]], where Saul, later Paul, hailed from (Acts 9:11, 21:39, 22:3).{{cn|date=March 2025}}

===Tarxien===
There are several indications that Tarshish could have been located at [[Malta]], where still today a local council is called [[Tarxien]]. The pronunciation in the Semitic language of the [[Maltese people]] is rather similar to the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] pronunciation of Tarshish (namely {{IPA|mt|tɐrˈʃɪːn|}}). All megalithic temples from the [[Neolithic epoch]] of Malta are assigned to the [[Tarxien phase]] of the island. The inhabitants claim that Tarxien was founded by the [[Punic people|Carthaginians]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Die Himmelstafel von Tal-Qadi/ Tarxien – Wikibooks, Sammlung freier Lehr-, Sach- und Fachbücher |url=https://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Die_Himmelstafel_von_Tal-Qadi/_Tarxien |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=de.wikibooks.org |language=de}}</ref>