1, 500,000 years ago
One and a half million years ago Murcia was a great place to live. Silex tools have been found in the Region dating back to 1.5 million years ago. Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon and Neolithic peoples lived in the region, but until the Iron Age the culture did not show a great degree of evolution.

100,000 to 35,000 BC
The Cueva Negra in Caravaca and the Sima de las Palomas in Cabezo Gordo are inhabited.

Remains of human beings, elephants, rhinos, bison, wild horses, deer, hyenas and many others, dating back from 100,000 to 35,000 BC have been found in the Cueva Negra and the Sima de las Palomas archaeological sites.

4^th century BC
A much appreciated Roman fish sauce (called Garum) is manufactured in the region. This sauce was place in earthenware jars called amphora,sealed and stamped with the maker’s mark. Some of these jars have been found in places as distant as Tripoli and Alexandria and date back to the 4^th century BC.

256 BC
I swear that so soon as age will permit . . . I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome.”
Hannibal, aged nine. (est. 247–183 BC)

229 BC
Quart-hadast (New City) is founded by Hasdrubal. We know this today as Cartagena.

218 BC
Hannibal departs from Cartagena on his historic journey over the Alps into Italy.

209 BC
Cartagena was conquered by the Roman Scipio Africanus the Elder (234-183 BC) and was renamed Cartago Nova (New Carthage: literally, New New City). It was said to be the richest city in the world at that time. Murcia will later on be a province of the Roman Hispania Tarraconensis (Spain).