Phoenicia Notes

PHOENICIANS
Last Updated 11/18/2007 10/11/2007 10/10/2007

Most of what is known about the Phoenicians comes from the Bible, the writings of other ancient people, and the ruins of their cities and ships. The land of the Phoenicians' was located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians were two different groups of people: the Canaanites and the Philistines. The Canaanites came from the desert and were nomadic herders. The Philistines came from near Greece and were shipbuilders and traders. Around 1200 BC the Phoenicians built cities and towns between the mountains and the sea. Not enough land to grow crops. They turned to the sea to make a living.

Shipbuilding & Navigation
Land covered with cedar forests.
3200 B.C., the people of Gebeil (Byblos) were cutting down cedar trees in the mountains of Lebanon.
Cedar trees to be shipped to Egypt and Mesopotamia for use in building ships and making columns for houses.
Built strong fast ships.
Phoenician ships were traveling workshops.
Artisans carried tools and worked on board.
Sailors plotted their course using the sun and stars.
Phoenicians discovered and used the North Star (Polaris) to keep their bearings at sea.
May have sailed around the west coast of Africa.
By 600 BC, the Phoenicians had sailed around Africa.
May have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas 2000 years before Columbus.
Phoenicians learned to make peace treaties.

The City-States of Phoenicia
Mountains separated the groups of Phoenicians.
1550 BC Resulting in the isolated city-states of Tyre, Byblos, Beirut, Sidon.
Sidon and Tyre were cities of business, industry, and navigation.
Tyre was the leading Phoenician city.
Tyre was the major region for the purple dye industry. "Tyrian purple."
Gebeil (Byblos) was a strong religious city-state.
The words Bible and bibliography come from the Phoenician city of Byblos.
"Byblos" the Greek word for papyrus.
Same language and religion.
Cities surrounded by stone walls for protection.
Water was supplied by wells and springs inside the cities so that they could easily withstand sieges.
Tyre even piped in fresh water from an undersea spring by means of a leather hose.
Cities were very crowded.
Streets were very narrow and the buildings were close together.
333 BC, Alexander the Great defeated Persia.
Almost all Phoenician cities including Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad conceded to Macedonia.
332 BC, Tyre held strong until Alexander waged a 7 month siege.
64 BC, the name of Phoenicia disappeared entirely, becoming a part of the Roman providence of Syria.

Government
Each city-state ruled by a king (high priest).
Later council of merchants were telling the king what to do.
Carpenters, cabinet makers, merchants, artisans, metalworkers/
Priests acted as notaries, standardized weights and measures, and oversaw banking and warehousing.

Houses
Buildings made of stone or brick.
High narrow doors, windows, columns, and tiled roofs.
Some house had roof gardens.

Trade
Started as coastal traders.
In time, became traveled merchant shippers.
Controlled the trade of the Mediterranean Sea.
Exported cedar logs, cloth, glass trinkets, fine linen, embroideries, metalwork, glass, wine, salt, dried fish, and perfume.
for gold and other metals.
1100BC, Phoenician ships exported local produce.
Wine, nuts, figs, apricots, inlaid furniture, blown glass, pottery, textiles, and dyes were sold to aristocratic families in North Africa and western Europe.
Cedar oil was prized in Egypt for embalming.
Wood was in great demand in both the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates valleys, neither of which had much wood.
Phoenician imports included male and female slaves and elephant tusks from Nubia; bales of linen, papyrus, and rope from Egypt; ostrich eggs from Africa via North African trade routes; and amber from the Black Sea. Other imports were ivory from India, tin from Spain, ebony, silk, amber, spices, incense, horses, gold, silver, copper from Cyprus, peacocks from Africa
Port was the center of activity.
Phoenician merchants kept records on papyrus.
Papyrus, gold, linen from Egypt
Pottery from Mesopotamia.
Copper and hides from Cyprus.
Goods were stored in great warehouses.
Temples served as warehouses and banks attracting private deposits of silver and goods.
l,000 B.C, established trading colonies in Cyprus, Sicily, Sardinia, Africa and Spain.

Dyeing Industry
Phoenicians made a purple dye.
Phoenician means "of purple merchants."
Murex snail is the source of dye.
1 pound of dye required 60,000 snails. (1 gram of dye takes 10,000 snails)
The dye was so expensive that only the very rich could afford it, which is why it became the color choice of kings.

Art
The craft of glass making was raised to a fine art by Phoenician artisans, and they may have been the first to develop blown glass. Their terra cotta vessels and pots often show a thoughtful refinement of shape, as do their votive statues.

Religion
Phoenicians believed in many gods closely tied to nature.
Their main temples were dedicated to Baal-Melqart,the god of rain, storm, and prosperity.
Temples had entrance hall, a main hall, and a most sacred chamber.
Sacrificed wine, perfume, animals, and people.
Believed in life after death.
First buried dead in urns or vases.
Later they embalmed bodies, wrapped them in linen, put in stone coffins.

Carthage
814 BC Carthage founded.
Legend say Carthage founded by Phoenician princess named Dido.
Became a Mediterranean power.
Carthage may have traveled to the British Isles for tin.
Some may have colonized the British Isles, where they are called Celts.
Carthage grew to become one of the mightiest cities of the ancient world,
The city was destroyed after three brutal wars with the Italian city-state of Rome.
The wars were known as the Punic Wars because Puncia was the Roman name for Carthage.
238 BC, The Roman navy surprised the sea trading people in the first war.
204 BC, Rome wins brutal fifteen year war against Hannibal.
146BC, the Romans broke through Carthage’s city walls, and went from house to house slaughtering the Carthaginians.
The few survivors were sold into slavery, the city and harbor were destroyed.
Romans poured salt over the farmland to ensure nothing would ever grow.

The Alphabet
Phoenicians first used picture writing.
Borrowed simple version of Egyptian hieroglyphics from Canaanites.
Canaanite system had 22 symbols.
Phoenicians took it to Europe.
Greeks borrowed it and made a few changes.
Romans borrowed it from the Greeks.
English based on Roman alphabet.

3000 BC	Emigration from the mainland to Cyprus. And the people of Byblos have been carrying on a lively trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia
2000 BC	The Ammuru or Amorites move from the Sinai desert. They invade Mesopotamia, Syria and Old Kingdom Egypt. Their main political center is Mari in northeastern Syria. Many older settlements are burned and a period of confusion follows.
1700-1500 BC	Two hundred years of disruption and consolidation
1700-1600 BC	Less refined Indo-European peoples penetrate south and intermingle with the Syrian Canaanites
1580 BC	The Egyptians drive the Hyksos from Egypt and advance into Canaan
1550 BC	Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos (now all in Lebanon) are their major ports
	Years of Expansion - 1200-875 BCE
1200 BC	Indo-European "Sea Peoples," attack from the northern Aegean. They are armed with iron weapons. They invade Levant, driving back the Egyptians and Assyrians.
	Phoenicians have colonies on many Aegean and Mediterranean islands. They have a working arrangement with the Etruscans. They have a trade relationship with the Mycenaeans. They also occupy quarters in Egyptian cities. They found a number of colonies in North Africa and in coastal Spain.
	The Hostile Assyrian Period - 875 - 610 BCE
875 BC	Phoenicians pay tribute to Assyrians
800 BC	Carthage, Qart-hadash, "New City," founded.
700 BC	Phoenicians join Arameneans in anti-Assyrian league
675 BC	Assyrians crush Sidon
640 BC	Assyrians massacre Tyrians
610 BC	Babylonians crush Assyrians
600 BC	Build Canal at Suez, in use until 8 AD
586 BC	Babylonians capture Jerusalem
585 BC	Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar lays siege to Tyre
572 BC	After 14 years, the Babylonian siege of Tyre ends with the Tyrians and Babylonians making a deal.
538 BC	Persian Cyrus II defeats the Babylonians
510 BC	Latins overthrow the Etruscans
	Years of Chaos - 610-345 BCE
450 BC	450 BC, Carthaginians sail to England and also begin to trade regularly with West Africans
350 BC	Phoenician cities form a confederation
345 BC	Persians win on their Eastern front and punish the Phoenicians
332 BC	Phoenicia is conquered by Alexander the Great
	Helleno-Roman Period - 330 BCE to 470 CE
260-149 BC	Punic Wars
260 BC	First Punic War rages between Carthage and Rome
256 BC	Carthage eventually repulses the Romans
219 BC	Romans will not allow their defeat. They start the Second Punic War with Carthage
204 BC	Romans take Carthaginian Syracuse, the formerly Greek town in Sicily, and then besiege and take Carthage.
149 BC	Romans find a feeble excuse to attack the now-defenseless Carthage. The Third Punic War begins.
145 BC	Carthage is burnt and razed, the soil sown with salt, and what little remains is firmly under the fist of the Roman Empire
64 BC	The name of Phoenicia disappeared entirely, becoming a part of the Roman providence of Syria.

Bibliography
Greenblatt, M., and Lemmo, P.S., Human Heritage: A World History; Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2001.