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Phoenicia
Ancient region of today's coastal Lebanon (for simplicity,
this region is referred to as Lebanon in the rest of this
article as we do not know what it was named by the
Phoenicians even if eastern Lebanon was not part of
Phoenicia) with cultural and economic identity if never any
common government. The southern border of Phoenicia is
considered to be Mount Carmel in today's northern Israel.
The
name Phoenicia comes probably from the Greek word phoinix,
meaning purple red. The reason for this name was the famous
purple red dye of the Murex snail that was produced in this
region.
Phoenicia
was based upon independent city states, and eventually,
colonies as far away as in Spain. The Phoenicians were
merchants and traders, and even if they colonized certain
strategic spots in today's Syria, Cyprus, Libya, Tunisia,
Italy, Malta, Algeria, Morocco and Spain, they were never
warlords.
These are the most important colonies of the Phoenicians:
Syria: Arados.
Cyprus: Kition.
Libya: Leptis, Oia, Sabrata.
Tunisia:
Carthage, Utica, Hippo Diarrhytos, Neapolis, Hadrumetum,
Thapsos, Acholla.
Italy: Solus, Panormus, Motye (Sicily), Nora, Karalis,
Sulci, Tharros (Sardegna), Kossyra (Pantelleria).
Malta: Melita, Gaulos.
Algeria: Hippo, Icosium.
Morocco: Tingis, Zili, Lixos.
Spain: Ebusos (Ibiza), Abdera, Sexi, Malaka, Karteia,
Gadeira and Tartessos (main land Spain).
The
names "Phoenicia" and "phoenicians" for the people came from
the Greek poet Homer – we do not know what the called
themselves. In the Old Testament they are referred to as "Sidonians",
in Akkadian they were probably called "Kinahna" (which is
close to the term used in Hebrew for merchant). But we do
know that the people here referred to themselves according
to which city they came from: Tyrians, Sidonians,
Carthaginians etc.
PEOPLE
The people of Phoenicia, are now referred to as Phoenicians,
even if before 1200 BCE we see that there are no
distinctions in descriptions or names between them and the
Canaanites. We do no know if they represented one ethnic
unity, or several. But from all sources, we see that they
used one language, belonging to the Semitic family, now
referred to as Phoenician.
According
to one theory the Phoenicians were immigrants coming to the
region around 3000 BCE. If this theory is true, it is
furthermore possible that their origin was in the Persian
Gulf, as this is stated in older traditions. But there are
no forms of historical or archaeological evidence for this.
More
likely however, is that the ancestors of the Phoenicians
were the original population of the area. Yet it is room for
the theory of immigration, as this could have involved a
limited immigration, with the change of language and some
traditions as a result.
If
the first theory is correct, upon their arrival in Lebanon,
it is quite likely that they mixed with an indigenous
people. And it is quite likely that the original Phoenicians
mixed with neighbour people, as well as other trading
peoples. In general, one could say that today's Lebanese are
direct descendants of the Phoenicians, but migrations and
mixing of ethnic groups have been a part history ever since
the decline of the Phoenicia.
SOCIETY
The Phoenician city states never constituted one political
unity, but we believe that there was a cultural identity
between the peoples, mainly because of a common language.
But it appears that at times, one of the city states proved
to be the strongest, and could dominate the others.
Every
main city was ruled by a king, who had to cooperate with
strong representatives of merchant families. Over time these
representatives developed into councils, shofets that
in the 1st millennium BCE would dethrone the kings. In
addition, it appears to have been an independent religious
aristocracy, mainly employing male priests and servants, but
also with some few priestesses.
In
every Phoenician city, the wealthy merchant aristocrats had
certain rights protecting them from the full strength of the
law. Under the aristocracy, were the lesser businessmen,
craftsmen, dealers, shopkeepers and entrepreneurs. Below
this group in social standing were the normal working man,
and at the bottom, slaves. Still, slaves were protected to
some extent by the law, and could earn money and even buy
their own freedom.
Two
very important inventions are ascribed to the Phoenicians,
glass and the alphabet. However, both were techniques
imported from others — glass from the Egyptians and the
alphabet from the more southern Canaanites. But it was the
Phoenicians who invented the glass blowing technique, and
who stated mass production and exports of glass. More about
alphabet under
Language.
ECONOMY
Because of geography, Lebanon proved ideal for trade in
antiquity. The mountains in the east, the rough coast with
the small islands and the sea in the west made the city
states of Phoenicia relatively easy to defend from tribesmen
and villains. All the early cities were first established
with small island just off the coast as the administrative
and military centre. On the mainland less important
structures were placed. However, the cities never were able
to defend themselves against large armies and navies, but by
paying tribute the victors, the cities activities could go
on mostly uninterrupted.
Lebanon
was the origin for a selection of very attractive products,
like cedar and
pine wood. And Lebanon developed also other industries, like
ivory and wood carving, the production of fine linen from
Tyre,
Byblos and
Berytos, purple cloths dyed by the snail Murex, embroideries
from Sidon, wine, metalwork, glass, faience, salt and dried
fish.
One
of the secrets of the Phoenician trade, was their ability to
adopt to the taste of the buyers in different countries
around the Mediterranean Sea.
Another
important merchandise were slaves, important to all wealthy
societies in this time. In many cases, the seafaring traders
kidnapped boys and girls they needed for trade and for their
own use.
Among
the products imported to other countries we find silver,
iron, tin and lead from Spain, ivory and ebony from Africa
and India, cloth, wool, wine and precious stones from Syria,
perfumes from Israel and Judah and garments, embroidery and
cord from
Mesopotamia.
International
trade in this period was limited, both in distances covered
as well as in the quantity of products sold. By using the
sea routes efficiently, and developing colonies, from which
trade to local regions could be performed, the Phoenicians
were able to sell their own products, and buy products both
for imports to Lebanon as well as resale to other regions
around the Mediterranean.
The
most important colonies established by the Phoenicians were
Ugarit (today's Syria), Dor,
Acre and Joppa
(today's Israel), Carthage and Ugarit (today's Tunisia), the
islands of Rhodes and Cyprus (today's Greece) and Tarshish
(today's Spain).
LANGUAGE
Phoenician language was a
Semitic
language of the Northwestern group, as well as of the
Canaanite group. It was in use along the coast of Syria,
Lebanon and Israel, as well as in Phoenician colonies all
over the Mediterranean Sea, as west as in northern Morocco.
Phoenician
language was very close to
Hebrew and
Moabite.
The
oldest archaeological traces of Phoenician dates back to
11th century BCE, and the newest to 1st century BCE. By then
Phoenician would be superseded by
Aramaic.
In
one of the colony areas, Phoenician would develop into the
Punic language. The centre of this was in Carthage, in
today's northern Tunisia. Punic language would be strongly
influenced by the original Berber languages of the region,
and would survive as language long after the decline of the
Punic cities as a language in the rural areas until 6th
century CE.
While
Phoenician died out as a language, words from it survived in
Greek and Latin, as well as in Egyptian (now also extinct),
Akkadian (also extinct) and Hebrew (extinct as a spoken
language until its revival in the 19th century).
In
most cases, the Phoenicians used
cuneiform
script, but at Byblos they developed what for long was
considered to be the very first alphabet in the 15th century
BCE. The alphabet had 22 letters, and would later be adopted
by the Greeks, and then by the Romans, who developed the
script used in the Western world today. The first traces of
the technique of writing letters compared to syllables, has
however been found among the Canaanites, dating to between
1900 and 1700 BCE.
HISTORY
Around 3000 BCE: First recordings of settlements of
Phoenician character. Either this came as a result of
immigration, or from development and urbanization among the
indigenous population.
Around 1800: Egypt invades and takes control over
Phoenicia.
16th century: Sources tell that extensive trade
between Phoenician cities and foreign cities have started.
Around 1400: Egypt loses its control over Phoenicia.
The Hittites become the strongest power in the region, and
takes effectively control over the Phoenician cities.
1100: The Phoenician cities are finally able to gain
their independence from the Hittites. This became the
beginning of the strongest cultural and economic growth of
the Phoenician city states, and trade across the
Mediterranean started.
814: According to legends,
Carthage
(near today's
Tunis,
Tunisia) is this year founded by Phoenician traders.
8th century: Phoenicia falls to
Assyria,
which takes control over the region.
612: With the fall of the Assyrian empire, most of
Phoenicia (except Tyre) falls to the Chaldean Empire of
Nebuchadnezzar 2.
Around 600: Phoenician seafarers circumnavigate
Africa as the first in world history.
539: The Persian Empire takes control over Phoenicia.
538: Tyre falls to Persia.
333: Alexander the Great conquers most of Phoenicia,
except Tyre which refuses to submit. A siege of Tyre starts.
332: After 7 months of siege, Tyre falls to Alexander
the Great as well.
— 4th century: Phoenicia becomes integrated in the
Seleucid kingdom, and starts to lose its cultural identity.
64 BC: Phoenicia becomes part of the Roman province
of Syria, and the name Phoenicia is no longer used. Still,
the cities Aradus, Sidon and Tyre retain self-government.
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