Did you know the Phoenicians were once one of the greatest maritime
trading cultures of the Mediterranean world?
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the fascinating maritime trading superpower of the Mediterranean - known as the Phoenicians. Don't
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The Phoenicians were a number of independent city-states that shared the same culture
in the modern-day regions of Syria, Lebanon and northern Israel. They started to take
form in circa 3200 BCE and by circa 2570 BCE, they were fully established in the region.
Their culture flourished and was at its most powerful between 1500 and 332 BCE, when Alexander
the Great entered the region and decimated the cities and their populations; bringing to an
end the maritime superpower. The Phoenicians had a number of important city-states with the
most powerful being the cities Sidon and Tyre, and the most important spiritual and religious cities
being Byblos, also known as Gebal, and Baalbek. Sidon started as the most prosperous Phoenician
city-state but Tyre eventually grew to overshadow it. They're known as the 'ancient middlemen' for
their important role in cultural transparency, through their prolific trade, and they were
highly regarded for their skill in shipbuilding, glass making, dye production, and manufacturing of
luxury and common goods. The Phoenician alphabet was the first alphabet and is the basis for many
western alphabets today, including the Latin alphabet that we use, as well as the Arabic one.
The Phoenicians were known as skilled sailors, shipbuilders and great navigators of the turbulent
waters of the Mediterranean Sea. It was at their city of Byblos where they perfected the art of
shipbuilding and developed the curved hull. They also developed extensive trade networks far and
wide with Cyprus, Rhodes, the Cyclades, mainland Greece, Crete, the Libyan coast,
Egypt and North Africa, Spain, Sicily, Italy, Britain and beyond. According to Herodotus, the
Phoenicians managed to circumnavigate Africa in a voyage in circa 600 BCE, sponsored by the Egyptian
pharaoh Necho. The strip of mountains on the coast of the Levant meant that expansion by sea was a
better bet than it was inland, and they had plenty of cedar wood and other raw materials for their
shipbuilding in their homeland. Their main reason for branching out was their search for commodities
and raw materials like different metals. Permanent trading posts became a necessity, as did regular
weigh stations, since most Phoenician ships stayed close to the coast and only sailed during the day.
The permanent settlements became a valuable new market for selling Phoenician manufactured goods.
These posts eventually became colonies and cities in their own right. The extensive trade
network established by the Phoenician sailors eventually developed into an empire of colonies
with the most successful becoming Carthage on the North African coast. Phoenician colonisation meant
their permanent influence extended along the entire coastline of the Mediterranean,
with the initial trading posts being established between the 12th and 8th centuries BCE, followed
by the establishment of colonies between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE. 500 years of trading
via the sea established the Phoenicians as one of the greatest trading powers of the ancient world.
Phoenician shipwrecks give us evidence of the type of goods and raw materials being traded, including
ingots of copper and tin, wine and oil in storage vessels, silver and gold jewellery, and faience
objects. Other goods commonly traded include glass, which the Phoenicians are wrongly
attributed as the inventors of, textiles, papyrus, wood, wool, spices, pottery, food and slaves.
However their most lucrative trading good was their purple dye known as Tyrian purple.
The Phoenicians are probably best known for their production of purple dye,
which was accomplished by its extraction from the murex shellfish, a sea creature which pretty much
became extinct in the region due to the popularity of the colour. The production of the dye
first began in Tyre during the Bronze Age, which is why it is known as 'Tyrian purple'.
There are accounts which say that the Phoenicians were known as 'purple people' by the Greeks;
as told by Herodotus, because the dye would stain the skin of the workers purple.
The dye was difficult to manufacture and resistant to fading, and these qualities made
it both expensive and popular. The Phoenicians exported it from their homeland to their colonies,
notably Carthage, where its popularity spread even further and was eventually adopted by the Romans
as a symbol of imperial strength and authority. A mountain 40 meters high of murex shells has been
found at the site of Sidon, which gives reason to believe scholar B. Caseau's suggestion that ten
thousand shellfish would equal to only one gram of dye, which would only be enough to dye the hem
of one garment. The number of shells and manpower taken to produce such a small amount of dye is the
reason it was so expensive, and can you imagine the smell? Deposits of murex shells have been
found on the outskirts of Sidon and Tyre to keep the smell away from the living spaces of the city,
no doubt, as well as at Phoenician colonies across the Mediterranean, including Carthage.
Let's take a quick look at the city of Carthage, shall we? Carthage began as a
small hill community on the North African coast, which is now modern-day Tunis.
The city was actually originally known as 'Kart-hadasht', which literally means
'new city' as a way to distinguish it from the older Phoenician city of Utica nearby.
The legendary founding of the city is dated to 814 BCE, a date that has been corroborated by
archaeological evidence of the site, even though the historicity of its first queen has been
challenged by the Phoenician queen Elissa, better known as Dido. The legend claims that the Berber
chieftain who controlled the region told her she could have as much land as an oxhide would cover.
Dido cut a single oxide into thin strips and lay them end to end around the hill,
successfully claiming it for her people. The Roman poet Virgil described Dido's reign as
an impressive one since under her rule, Carthage grew from a small community to a grand metropolis.
After Alexander the Great moved into the Phoenician homeland and destroyed the city of
Tyre in 332 BCE, the Tyrian refugees who escaped or were wealthy enough to buy their freedom fled
to Carthage, which grew in size and importance, and became the new centre of Phoenician trade. The
city became the seat of the Carthaginian Empire and flourished until the Punic Wars with Rome.
At the end of the three Punic Wars, Carthage was eventually sacked and destroyed by the
Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, and Rome was elevated to Carthage's position as the
greatest Mediterranean Empire. According to myth, which has not been proven in any way,
the Romans sowed salt into the ruins of Carthage, so nothing would ever grow there again.
The art of the Phoenicians is best known from small decorative objects
and was exported throughout Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. Their art was influenced by their
neighbours and the different influences are seen in different objects with their pottery influenced
by the Aegean Islands, their metalwork by Ugarit and Mesopotamia, and their ivory work by Egypt.
Unlike many of their contemporaries whose cultural traditions ceased at the end of the Bronze Age,
the Phoenician traditions continued into the Iron Age. There are only a couple of surviving
large-scale sculptures with one piece dated from the 6th century BCE, of a male torso in a
pleated skirt, belt and crescent moon pendant. Smaller-scale productions of small shrines,
stele, and grave markers were more popular. There is also evidence of bronze figurines,
but their origins are hard to differentiate from other Syrian cultures. The earliest Phoenician
ivory plaque dates to the 9th century BCE, and they were used as decorations on walls,
altars, incense burners and furniture. The most common iconography on ivory plaques are lions,
sphinxes and winged goddesses which shows the Egyptian and Assyrian influences. The
Phoenicians were known for their fine metal working skill, and an interesting example
of this is Achilles in Homer's "Iliad", who presents a beautiful Phoenician silver crater
as a prize in Patroclus' funerary games. Their bowls were crafted in gold, silver or bronze,
and many have Phoenician inscriptions which has helped identify the bowl's origins, with some
found as far away as Nimrud, Delphi, and Salerno. The Phoenicians also exported their glassware;
a skill they learnt from the Egyptians, as well as terracotta figurines; who are often female
and commonly found in graves, carved seals; often on scarabs used for sealing
messages as well as personal adornment, and jewellery; often made out of gold and glass.
The Phoenician religion, like most other ancient religions, was inseparable from everyday life,
but minimal information and detail about their gods, myths, and religious practices
survived. Much of what we do know, comes from excavated inscriptions from Phoenician cities
and snippets from secondary sources, written after the decline of the Phoenician cities.
We also only really know about religious practices from three main city-states:
Byblos, Sidon and Tyre; information on the others is less clear. Their religion was fairly constant,
which was perhaps due to their geography, although each city-state had a chief god and pantheon. Some
gods, such as the goddess Astarte, were worshipped throughout the entire Phoenician region.
We do have their cosmogony which is their belief of how the universe came into being, which began
with the union of the primeval elements of wind and desire, which was followed by creatures
hatching from an egg, which in turn generated humans. What else do we know about Phoenician
religion? Well, looking first at Byblos, we know that three of the main gods worshipped were El,
Baalat, and Adonis, with El being an important god, but not necessarily an active one in the
daily life of the Phoenicians which caused him to be acquainted with the Greek's Cronus.
Baalat, also often referred to as 'Lady Baalat of Byblos', was appealed to by kings,
so that they would have a successful reign, and altars and monuments made out of precious metals
were constructed for her. Adonis, who is known from Greek mythology, was associated with the
annual cycle of nature and shared characteristics with Egypt's Osiris and Tammuz from Babylonian and
Assyrian mythology. In Sidon, the most important god was Baal, who was probably equivalent to
Byblos' El and the goddess Astarte was prominent and had many temples dedicated to her. In Tyre,
the highest god was Melqart; he had a festival of resurrection dedicated to him in February and
March each year and was considered to represent the monarchy, the sea, hunting and colonisation,
he was also considered the discoverer of the Phoenician's purple dye and the Greeks
associated him with Hercules. Other gods we know of are Reshef, the god of fire and lightning,
Dagon, the god of wheat, and Shadrapa, who was associated with snakes and healing. The god Chusor
was thought to have invented iron and metalwork, and several deities were personifications of
ideals such as Sydyk and Misor, who represented justice and righteousness respectively. There
were certainly other gods, although their pantheon doesn't seem as large as other ancient cultures,
but it's often impossible to differentiate one god from another, and many could be the same
with different names. The Phoenicians worshipped their gods at temples, as well as natural sites,
such as mountains, rivers, groves, and even rocks, and their ceremonies included prayers,
incense burning, libation pouring, and making offerings to the gods.
One of their most enigmatic sites is Baalbek, which was dedicated to Baal, Astarte and their son
Adon. Baalbek is famous today for the monoliths that make up the base of the temple complex;
each weighing approximately 800 tons. These monoliths were mined from a quarry
2,600 feet or 800 meters from the site, where another still sits from when it was first cut.
Modern-day scholars and engineers have no idea how the ancient Phoenicians were able to move and
place these monoliths so precisely that one can't even fit a piece of paper between them.
Baalbek is just one of the many impressive accomplishments of the Phoenicians however,
who were once the greatest culture in all of the Mediterranean.
Have you heard of Baalbek? How do you think they moved the monoliths? Let us know what
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