1. Enforcement of the Warning -- the Naval base at Carteia.

The allegorical warning could have been supported by enforcement, since the Phoenician city of Carteia, now the site of archaeological research, is situated strategically at the sheltered Northern head of the Bay of Gibraltar, and had a population of 4,000 at a time, when Athens, one of the world's largest cities, had 20,000, so it can be considered a sizable city for its time. Recent excavations and topographical data shows that Carteia had a sheltered harbour capable of berthing up to 40 biremes of 80 feet in length at any one time. It is not excessive speculation that a craft seeking to go through the Straits into the Atlantic without first "reporting" and "receiving clearance" from Gorham's Cave would have received the immediate attention of a fleet of enforcers from the Bay, and if the intruders were missed by that sortie, there is the possibility of naval attacks emanating from a further settlement at the exit of the Straits, known to the Romans as Baelo Claudia from which it is possible the Phoenicians also operated at this time in addition to Tangier, (ancient Tingis) on the south side of the Straits of Gibraltar at the Atlantic exit. There are suitable locations along the coast of Gibraltar for a small settlement capable of supporting a "caretaker" group at Gorham's Cave, including a village which is still inhabited about a one mile row along the East Coast of Gibraltar Northwards from Gorham's or this could easily have been carried out on a daily basis directly from Carteia which is a 5-mile walk on level ground along sand dunes and beaches from Gorham's Cave, albeit requiring a row for the last mile, which would have made the cave of difficult access and a serene place.

2. The Bronze Blockade

This hypothesis implies a blockade of the Mediterranean over an extended period perhaps of several centuries, and a level of organisation and cooperation amongst Phoenician settlements, including perhaps Regal direction from Tyre, with which many Archaeological authorities will not agree, since this is not at present supported by any other Archaeological evidence than the existence of an important Phoenician port at Carteia and (thousands) of votive offerings at Gorham's Cave, mainly the several thousand personalised Scarabs from the signet rings of visiting sailors, traders, or other worshipers and small clay oil lamps, or incense burners. In addition a large number of glass teardrop vases two or three inches high are beginning to appear. It would be interesting to see DNA tests of any residue of tears left in these small bottles.

The reports of the archaeologists so far indicate all these items were made at Tyre.

*The presence of scarabs as an offering at this place is interesting. The Egyptians appear to have regarded the scarab with some awe. The scarab as the dung-beetle rolled before it a mass the shape of the Sun, which was sacred to them as the giver of Life, Ra. At one point the beetle's larva would appear as young as if magically from this ball, providing the beetle with the properties of Kherib (whence skherib/scarab?), who in Egyptian mythology was said to assist Ra on his passage across the heavens each day.

There is evidence, moreover, that the Greeks were restricted by the Phoenicians to the Aegean Sea for a period of many centuries from 1200 BC onwards, and Naval Historians attribute this to the availability exclusively to the Phoenicians of two elements in ship construction, namely long straight cedar timbers (compared to short sinuous olive timbers available to the Greeks) and Bronze for fixings, claddings and battering rams, which were used in battle to perforate hulls, sinking the enemy