Ebusus

Ebusus is the ancient name used in Phoenician, Greek, and later Roman sources for the island of Ibiza, located in the western Mediterranean Sea off the coast of what is today Spain. The term is principally associated with the island’s early Phoenician settlement and harbor, and it is the historical root of the modern name Ibiza.

The name Ebusus appears in various classical sources as Ebusus or Ubessus, with its exact etymology not firmly established. In antiquity, Ebusus primarily referred to the coastal settlement and its harbor, which served as a bustling trading post in the western Mediterranean and a point of contact between Phoenician-Punic communities and other Mediterranean cultures.

Historically, the Phoenicians established a significant presence at Ebusus around the 7th century BCE, developing a maritime hub that enabled trade, exchange of goods, and cultural contacts across the region. Over time, the settlement and island came under Carthaginian influence and later became part of broader Mediterranean networks under Roman rule. The archaeological record on Ibiza, including sites such as the Puig des Molins necropolis, attests to Phoenician-Punic urbanization and the layered cultural landscape of the island from the early Iron Age onward.

In modern scholarship, Ebusus is used to identify Ibiza’s ancient maritime and urban history and to trace the island’s links with Phoenician and Punic civilizations. The name persists in classical references and helps distinguish Ibiza’s early period from its later Roman, medieval, and contemporary phases.