Introduction

The idea of starting this website came to me as a way to substantiate before the ever-changing age-old environment era of the gentle (eivissa pagésos and pagesés) farmers toiling their precious land disappeared forever and try to provide proper, in-depth, information about Ibiza, its history and culture as a guide for the benefit of people who are wanting to know more of the island's realistic bygone background with the ancient customs and traditions of this remarkable island of Ibiza.

By the late 1990s it was obvious to me that amazingly little information of this nature was easily available in the English language. Most of what was accessible at that time was the usual mixture of tourism and other, sometimes exotic, material. Much of the latter was not necessarily too dependable at best.

Here finally is something about the characteristic way of life on the ancient island of Ibiza in an index of in-depth historical cultural articles with pictures of the island featuring its artists, anthropology, books, ecology, history, inhabitants, legends, and myths, which were put together by several talented diverse writers' living on Ibiza.

'Ibiza History Culture' Our website domain was secured during the infant days of the world-wide-web. Initially a single page of text was featured online to provide time to think about the electronic highway and with nothing but imagination to play with, it was decided genuine contents would be the ideal way forward.

'Commentary' by Gary Hardy.  Edited the entire published articles and single-handedly sponsors this website as well as regularly supplying commentary, photographs and help to put together many of the artefacts about the island's artists. Gary Hardy first article 'The Beginning' was published on our website Saturday 3rd March 2001.

'History of Ibiza' by Emily Kaufman. This section forms a history buff's guide to the island of Ibiza as seen through the eyes of long-time resident, Emily Kaufman. This American historical author chronicles going-on in her articles that supply random glimpses of the historical process from Jurassic times to the early twentieth century. Among other topics, Ms. Kaufman discusses the history and human-interest anecdotes behind each of the islands' fiesta days, and reports on some of the outstanding people who either visited or were born on Ibiza. Another series consists of an in-depth exploration into the cause behind the Spanish Civil War as well as the chain of events which ensured as that conflict played itself out in the sister islands of Ibiza and Formentera. Emily Kaufman first article 'Día de Balears' was published on our website Saturday 3rd March 2001.

'Sober Life' by Sinclair Newton. Strangely for such a hedonistic island, English journalist Sinclair Newton, who was a self-confessed reformed alcoholic, reported his witty column on the sober side of the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll culture, which normally dominates the summer tabloid headlines. Sinclair Newton first article 'Pig' was published on our website Saturday 21st April 2001.

'Island Ecology' by José P Ribas. Our ibicenco eco-warrior describes little known flora and fauna and keeps a watchful eye on threats to the island's environment from too much development and pollution. José outlines in detail from his boyhood and lifetime memories covering a more-than-useful alliance with a well-thought-out strategy to offer a decisive guide to nature and the atmosphere of the two islands' of Ibiza and Formentera for the benefit of our would-be readers covering the ecology, energy and nature environment of seaweed with the dark side threat of algae, the almond and figs trees, flowers, mushrooms and psychedelics plants, bees and butterflies, racing pigeons, seashells, sailing and myths. José P Ribas first article 'Proem' was published on our website Saturday 23rd June 2001.

'Local News' by Louise Wright. Focused on local news, written by then 17-year-old local reporter Louise Wright, including the disappearance of a young man who vanished on the day he arrived for a family holiday and an aeroplane carrying seven American businesspeople that mysteriously disappeared over the island. Louise Wright first article 'Building Restrictions At Local Beauty Spots' was published on our website Saturday 14th July 2001.

'An Anthropological View' by Kirk W Huffman. An anthropological series for the general reader that looks at aspects of traditional Eivissenc (Ibicencan) peasant life (attitudes to water, pigs, money, etc) and from there goes global, delving into cultures worldwide as well as looking into topics as varied as environment and climate change, pollution, GM crops and fast-food, etc. Kirk W Huffam's first article 'Aïgu y Agua and Water: Water and Water and Water (Part One)' was published on our website Saturday 18th August 2001.

'Bibliomaniacs' Corner' by Martin Davies. . A fresh look at some little-known books about Ibiza and Formentera which deserve a wider audience. Six colourful children's books are followed by a three-part series on Gaston Vuillier (author of The Forgotten Isles, 1896), six novels and three Edwardian travel accounts. Four articles delve into Ibiza's remote past via Bes (an Egyptian dwarf god of the Nile River with strong links to the island), a bizarre archaeological fantasy, and a book about underwater treasure-hunting. Martin Davies first article 'Eva Lis Wuorio (Part One)' was published on our website Saturday 16th March 2002.

'I Remember Ibiza' by Harold Liebow. The persons, places and events described in this personal experienced historical section of articles are sometimes real and sometimes imagined. But the atmosphere of the island in the 1960s is always as accurately conveyed as it was possible for Harold to create it. Writing about the spirit of Ibiza in those days causes it to live on inside of Liebow and hope that reading about it will bring it alive for you, too. Harold Liebow first article 'Arrival On The Island' was published on our website Saturday 8th June 2002.

'Artists on Ibiza' by José P Ribas, Gary Hardy, Emily Kaufman, Louise Wright, Harold Liebow, Sinclair Newton, and Marin Davies. A series that features the work and way of life on many of the Artists on Ibiza, which include painters, jewellers, sculptors of wood, stone, iron, bronze, and a photographer. The Artist on Ibiza first article 'Es Verro' was published on our website covering the island's extraordinary artists Saturday 27th October 2001.

'Webmaster' by Rob Burne. Built and continues developing our Ibiza History Culture website.

We’ve assembled from various locations around the world a talented team of several diverse columnists, a photographer and webmaster that were not meant to be on Ibiza, expect for our echo-warrior, José P Ribas, who was born and raised here on the island in the Sant Antoni area of Ibiza. The rest of our gifted team met on the island by fate and with a rare, photograph library it was our destiny to set about chronicling the fun-loving island's more serious and fascinating historical cultural past of our Mediterranean oasis island of Ibiza.

It’s our privilege to continue producing interesting articles and featuring pictures chosen from our wide-ranging photograph achieve as a legacy for future generations to know about the roots of their precious island of Eivissa…

Gary Hardy
Ibiza History Culture

garyhardy@ibizahistoryculture.com