Phoenicia (
UK // or
US //;
[2] from the
Greek:
Φοινίκη,
Phoiníkē;
Arabic:
فينيقية,
Finiqyah) was an ancient
Semitic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the
Fertile Crescent and centered on the coastline of modern
Lebanon and
Tartus Governorate in
Syria. All major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean, some colonies reaching the Western Mediterranean. It was an enterprising
maritime trading culturethat spread across the
Mediterranean from 1550 BC to 300 BC. The Phoenicians used the
galley, a man-powered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the
bireme.
[3] They were famed in Classical Greece and Rome as 'traders in purple', referring to their monopoly on the precious purple dye of the
Murex snail, used, among other things, for royal clothing, and for their spread of the
alphabet (or
abjad), from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets are derived.
Phoenicians are widely thought to have originated from the earlier
Canaanite inhabitants of the region. Although Egyptian seafaring expeditions had already been made to
Byblos to bring back "
cedars of Lebanon" as early as the 3rd millennium BC, continuous contact only occurred in the Egyptian New Empire period. In the
Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves
Kenaani or
Kinaani (either the same as the Canaanites, or the Kenanites/Cainanites spoken of the Septuagint version of Gen. 10:24), although these letters predate the invasion of the
Sea Peoples by over a century. Much later, in the 6th century BC,
Hecataeus of Miletus writes that Phoenicia was formerly called
χνα (Latinized: khna), a name
Philo of Byblos later adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix".
[4]
Phoenicia is really a Classical Greek term used to refer to the region of the major Canaanite port towns, and does not correspond exactly to a cultural identity that would have been recognised by the Phoenicians themselves. The term in Greek means 'land of purple', a reference to the valuable murex-shell dye they exported.
[5] It is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single ethnicity and nationality. Their civilization was organized in
city-states, similar to
ancient Greece.
[6] However, in terms of archaeology, language, life style and religion, there is little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic cultures of Canaan. As Canaanites, they were unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements.
Each city-state was a politically independent unit. They could come into conflict and one city might be dominated by another city-state, although they would collaborate in leagues or alliances. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of
Tyre seems to have been the southernmost.
Sarepta (modern day Sarafand) between
Sidon and Tyre is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland.
The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make extensive use of the
alphabet. The
Phoenician phonetic alphabet is generally believed to be the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets. From a traditional linguistic perspective, they spoke
Phoenician, a
Canaanite dialect.
[7][8] However, due to the very slight differences in language, and the insufficient records of the time, whether Phoenician formed a separate and united dialect, or was merely a superficially defined part of a broader language continuum, is unclear. Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to North Africa and Europe, where it was adopted by the
Greeks, who later passed it on to the
Etruscans, who in turn transmitted it to the
Romans.
[9] In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians are believed to have left numerous other types of written sources, but most have not survived.
Etymology[edit]
Elijah: Champion of Israel’s God
The name
Phoenicians, like
Latin Poenī (adj.
poenicus, later
pūnicus), comes from
Greek Φοίνικες (
Phoínikes), attested since Homer and influenced by
phoînix"
Tyrian purple, crimson;
murex" (itself from φοινός
phoinós "blood red",
[10] of uncertain etymology;
R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a
Pre-Greek origin of the ethnonym).
[11] The oldest attested form of the word is the
Mycenaean po-ni-ki-jo,
po-ni-ki, ultimately borrowed from
Ancient Egyptian fnḥw (
fenkhu)
[12] "Asiatics, Semites". The
folk-etymological association of
phoiniki with
phoînix mirrors that in
Akkadian which tied
kinaḫni,
kinaḫḫi "Canaan; Phoenicia" to
kinaḫḫu "red-dyed wool".
[13][14] The land was natively known as
knʿn (cf.
Eblaite ca-na-na-um,
ca-na-na), remembered in the 6th century BC by
Hecataeus under the Greek form
Chna, and its people as the
knʿny (cf.
Punic chanani,
Hebrew kanaʿani).
Origins: 2300–1200 BC[edit]
Phoenician sarcophagus at the burial grounds of
Antarados, northern
Lebanon, 480-450 BC
Herodotus' account (written c. 440 BC) refers to the myths of
Io and
Europa. (
History, I:1).
According to the
Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. These people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the
Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria ...
The Greek historian
Strabo believed that the Phoenicians originated from
Bahrain.
[16] Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain.
[17][18] This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or
Tylos, and
Arad, Bahrain, which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples."
[19]The people of
Tyre in particular have long maintained
Persian Gulf origins, and the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon.
[20] However, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place.
[21] Later classicist theories were proposed prior to modern archaeological excavations which revealed no disruption of Phoenician societies between 3200 BC and 1200 BC.
[22]
High point: 1200–800 BC[edit]
Fernand Braudel remarked in
The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a "world-economy" surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed c. 1200–800 BC.
Assyrian warship (probably built by Phoenicians) with two rows of oars, relief from
Nineveh, c. 700 BC
Many of the most important Phoenician settlements had been established long before this:
Byblos,
Tyre,
Sidon,
Simyra,
Arwad, and
Berytus, all appear in the Amarna tablets. Archeology has identified cultural elements of the Phoenician zenith as early as the 3rd millennium BC.
The league of independent city-state ports, with others on the islands and along other coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, was ideally suited for trade between the Levant area, rich in natural resources, and the rest of the ancient world. During the earlyIron Age, in around 1200 BC an unknown event occurred, historically associated with the appearance of the Sea Peoples from the north. They weakened and destroyed the Egyptians and the Hittites respectively. In the resulting power vacuum, a number of Phoenician cities rose as significant maritime powers.
The societies rested on three power-bases: the king; the temple and its priests; and councils of elders.
Byblos first became the predominant center from where the Phoenicians dominated the Mediterranean and Erythraean (Red) Sea routes. It was here that the first inscription in the Phoenician alphabet was found, on the sarcophagus of
Ahiram (c. 1200 BC). Later,
Tyre gained in power. One of its kings, the priest
Ithobaal (887–856 BC) ruled Phoenicia as far north as Beirut, and part of Cyprus.
Carthage was founded in 814 BC under
Pygmalion of Tyre (820–774 BC). The collection of city-states constituting Phoenicia came to be characterized by outsiders and the Phoenicians as
Sidonia or
Tyria. Phoenicians and Canaanites alike were called
Sidonians or
Tyrians, as one Phoenician city came to prominence after another.
