Where is phoenician

The Greek alphabet and by extension its descendants, such as the Latin, the Cyrillic, and the Coptic was a direct successor of Phoenician, though certain letter values were changed to represent vowels. Phoenicians are widely thought to have originated from the earlier Canaanite inhabitants of the region.

It is important to note that Phoenicia is 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 recognized by the Phoenicians themselves. 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 that of ancient Greece.

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 Phoenician city-state was a politically independent unit. City-states often came into conflict with one another, with the result that one may dominate another. City-states were also inclined to collaborate in leagues and alliances.

Though ancient boundaries of city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre held the southernmost border of Phoenician territory. Phoenician Sarcophagus.

Made from Greek marble. In the centuries after BCE, the Phoenicians were the major naval and trading power of the region. Phoenician trade was founded on the Tyrian Purple dye, a violet-purple dye derived from the shell of the Murex sea-snail, once profusely available in coastal waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea but exploited to local extinction. The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador, in present day Morocco.

Brilliant textiles were a part of Phoenician wealth, and Phoenician glass was another export ware. They traded unrefined, prick-eared hunting dogs of Asian or African origin which locally they had developed into many breeds. To Egypt, where grapevines would not grow, the 8th-century Phoenicians sold wine, the wine trade with Egypt is vividly documented by the shipwrecks located in in the open sea 30 miles west of Ascalon.

Pottery kilns at Tyre produced the big terracotta jars used for transporting wine and from Egypt they bought gold. From elsewhere, they obtained other materials, perhaps the most important being silver from Iberian peninsula and tin from Britain, the latter of which, when smelted with copper from Cyprus , created the durable metal alloy bronze.

It is also apparent that there was a highly lucrative Phoenician trade with Britain for tin. The Persians divided Phoenicia into four vassal kingdoms. In Search of the Phoenicians takes the reader on an exhilarating quest to reveal more about these enigmatic people. Using a dazzling array of evidence, this engaging book investigates the construction of identities by and for the Phoenicians from the Middle East to Ireland, from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity and beyond. Quinn, however, argues against simply dismissing them as a historical mirage.

Significantly, she also shows that those cities that promoted their supposedly Phoenician heritage did so because they wished to convey a political or cultural message, rather than because they endorsed the concept of a specifically Phoenician ethnicity. The book is divided into three parts.

Much of its wealth came from highly productive ore mines of Spain. Carthage fought for control of the Western Mediterranean first with the Greeks and then with the Romans.

Purple Dye or Spiny Murex sea snails The early Phoenician economy was built on timber sales, woodworking, glass manufacturing, the shipping of goods like wine exports to Egypt , and the making of dye. Phoenician dyes ranging in color from a pink to a deep purple were made from the secretions of the carnivorous murex sea snail. In Rome, this highly coveted dye was called Tyrian Purple after the Phoenician city of Tyre where it was made and it was worth quite literally more than its weight in gold.

Phoenician merchants may have traded for tin as far north as Cornwall Lizard Point, Cornwall, England, UK Gradually the Phoenician city-states became centers of maritime trade and manufacturing. Having limited natural resources, they imported raw materials and fashioned them into more valuable objects that could be shipped profitably, such as jewelry, ivory carvings discovered at sites in Mesopotamia metalwork, furniture found in tombs on Cyprus , housewares, and specialty items like painted ostrich eggs.

They borrowed techniques and styles from all corners of the world that they touched as traders. Sixty years later, a study of this beautiful work using isotopic analysis concluded that the gold came from a nearby Spanish mine; but it was also determined that the ornaments were crafted using Phoenician techniques.

In a 2,year-old Phoenician wreck was discovered off the coast of Malta that had carried a shipment of grinding stones made of lava rock and scores of amphorae. We can only hope that more discoveries will be made revealing new secrets about this culture.

Modern sculpture of Herodotus Born c. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that, in bygone days, the Phoenicians taught the Greeks of Boeotia the writing system that would eventually become the Greek alphabet. He also noted that Phoenician traders brought frankincense to the Aegean; and taught the Greeks the word for an exotic spice: cinnamon. Antique engraving of Phoenician funerary monuments, Necropolis of Amrit, Syria The Phoenician religion was polytheistic, and their gods required sacrifices to forestall disaster, especially Baal, the God of Storms, and his consort Tanit.

The Bible, Roman and Greek accounts tell of child sacrifices practiced regularly by the Phoenicians, which many modern historians believed were merely an ancient form of anti-Phoenician propaganda.

Ancient Carthaginian tombstones, Tunis, Tunisia But macabre Phoenician cemeteries tophets have been unearthed containing multiple funerary urns holding the remains of infants. Gravestone bearing the sign of Tanit, ancient cemetery, Carthage, Tunisia These urns have stelae slabs bearing inscriptions praising the gods—inscriptions that some historians argue prove the children contained within had been willingly sacrificed to deities.

The veracity of child sacrifice in ancient Carthage, however, is still hotly debated amongst scholars. We might never know if the tophets contained the remains of children who died of natural causes, or the pitiful bodies of sacrificial victims. Vintage engraving of Hannibal Barca speaking to the Carthaginian Assembly Most of the information we have about Phoenician government comes from contemporary accounts of the Carthaginians.

Their system can best be classified as a sort of oligarchical republic. Two chief magistrates called suffetes were chosen by the noble families or perhaps elected by a popular vote to preside for one year over a Senate made up of the Carthaginian aristocracy. The Senate, a body that was beholden to the fundamental dictates of the constitution, was responsible for drafting new laws, handling foreign affairs and finance; and instructing appointed military leaders like the powerful Hannibal Barca who was dramatically recalled from his campaign in Italy by the Carthaginian Senate after the Romans invaded Africa.

A view of the ruins of ancient Byblos in Lebanon overlooking the Mediterranean Sea There is little archaeological evidence revealing the architecture of the Phoenicians compared to their contemporaries the Greeks or Romans because so many of their cities were destroyed in ancient times and now lie buried under modern structures.

What we do know is most Phoenician citadels were situated on coastal promontories near salt flats or lagoons. An artificial protected inner harbor called a cothon was a unique feature of many Phoenician city-states; and the most famous of these man-made harbors was built in Carthage. Phoenician cities were usually surrounded by curtain walls protecting urban areas, sanctuaries, public buildings and workshops.

Vintage engraving of the Romans defeating the Carthaginian fleet near the Aegadian Islands during the Punic Wars When the Phoenicians began competing with the Greeks for trade and colonies, the contest led to what might have been the construction of the first ships built expressly for war.

These were rowed galleys armed with a large metal spike or beak-shaped ram at the front and carrying marines for boarding parties. During this era, the Phoenician cities were under control of Persia, but were granted much more freedom than they had previously held under the Assyrians or Babylonians.