Were the etruscans, phoenicians, and carthaginians black. They invented glass blowing, purple dye and the first alphabet. Jul 30, 2018 were this the only contribution of the phoenicians, their place in history would be assured, but they did more. Mar, 2018 what on earth happened to the phoenicians and carthaginians of the ancient middle east and north africa. A peculiar thing that i found in my research for this article that does not relate directly to the druids, but connects the bedouins to scotland, which i feel would make sense if they could also be druids. Prompted by looting, archaeologists undertook the excavation of three major cemeteries around the phoenician site of achziv in northern israel. The periplus of hanno, which has come down in its greek translation hannonis periplus. It is universally accepted today that the phoenicians were a nation which had settled on the mediterranean coast, along a narrow strip of land. Phoenicians who were taught on the banks of the nile and the euphrates gained a wide artistic experience and finally came to create their own art, which was an amalgam of foreign models and perspectives. Here the phoenicians are described from their canaanite origins to the ventures of hannibal. The aegean, mesopotamia, and egypt were all roughly equidistant to the west, east, and south. Were this the only contribution of the phoenicians, their place in history would be assured, but they did more. Phoenicians were sea traders explorers and sea traders.
The phoenicians master mariners ancient history encyclopedia. A theory that says the ancient phoenicians were the first to discover the americas mar 27, 2017 boban docevski among the many theories about which civilization first sailed to the americas and discovered them, there is also the theory that the ancient phoenicians were the first. What the phoenicians actually called themselves is unknown, though it may have been the ancient term canaanite. A brief history of the phoenicians local histories.
Ancient phoenician society, culture, government, economy and more. Phoenicia was an ancient semitic maritime trading culture situated on the western, coastal part of the fertile crescent and centered on the coastline of modern lebanon and tartus governorate in syria from 1550 to 300 bce. The greek name of phoenicia was eventually replaced by the name lebanon, consistent with the early history of the people and the land. The lebanon mountains were known as such from time immemorial, and the cedars brought down from the mountains were the lifeblood of the early phoenicians. Their major cities were tyre, sidon, byblos, and arwad. What on earth happened to the phoenicians and carthaginians of the ancient middle east and north africa. Jun 10, 2019 the phoenicians were an ancient people who once ruled the mediterranean. The phoenicians were a trading people who came from the eastern part of the mediterranean sea.
The oldest of these theories was conveyed to us by the ancient greek historian herodotus, who suggested the phoenicians had come from the red erythraean sea. The greeks were influenced in their navigation by the phoenicians, who taught them to sail by the north star. The phoenicians were among the greatest traders of their time and owed much of their prosperity to trade. The phoenicians were well known to their contemporaries as sea traders and colonizers, and by the 2nd millennium they had already extended their influence along the coast of the levant by a series of settlements, including joppa jaffa, modern yafo, dor, acre, and ugarit. The phoenicians were the great mariners of the ancient world, and their thalassocracy maritime realm was organized into citystates akin to the greeks. Iron age through roman period, descendants of the canaanites of the second millennium b. Today were going to be looking at the ancient phoenicians and what theyve contributed to.
The phoenicians were primarily known as sailors who had developed a high level. The phoenician merchants were opposed to any descriptions of their voyages, with one exception. The greeks have designs on their ships similar to those from phoenician models. A people who lived in a region settled from 3000 bc corresponding to modern lebanon. The phoenicians were a semitic people who established an early. In all honesty, and please do not watch those video clips, propaganda, nonsense, falsifying, and neglecting real. Were the carthaginians black africans or whites residing.
Jews did not exist in the modern sense of the word until the late second temple period. Motya, but more often, they were built on promontories. For some reason this seems to be a controversial issue, when to me at least, it seems fairly straightforward based on the historical evidence. Nov 12, 2018 western semites of the near east fertile crescent. Rick gore, national geographic, 00279358, oct 2004, vol. The phoenicians were a canaanite civilization which pioneered trade networks in the mediterranean and in so doing took the arts of ancient middle eastern civilization to the greeks and other western culture, notably introducing the alphabet to them. The two cities appear to have become a unified monarchy. The phoenicians were the founders of malaga and cadiz in presentday spain sometime in the 9th century, though a small outpost may have been established even earlier. The name phoenician was given to them by the greeks derived from their word phoinicus for. The african presence in ancient palestinecanaan black phoenicians,judeans,canaanites the phoenicians belonged to the african ydna em78subclade ev22. The phoenicians were renowned as excellent mariners and used their expertise to trade all across the mediterranean. The alphabet the phoenicians spread the idea of the alphabet to the greeks, who passed it on to the romans, whose writing system was the basis of most modern western languages.
This site is dedicated to his research work who were the phoenicians is dedicated to exposing dr. The largest colony was carthage on the north coast of africa. So much, it seems as though jealousy prompted the romans to set out to annihilate them in 146 b. Their greatest contribution to western civilization, however, was the development of a standardized phonetic alphabet, which was a great improvement over the more ambiguous cuneiform and hieroglyphic. In their travels they gained the atlantic ocean, and were the first to reach the british isles. First dna from ancient phoenician shows european ancestry. Jan 27, 2018 since then the phoenicians were people of canaanite origin who lived in the middle east but also people who settled in various parts of europe, north africa and the islands in the mediterranean sea, in addition to the people who adopted their culture and joined the phoenician style. The phoenicians traveled the peninsulas interior, establishing trading routes along the tagus, douro, baetis guadalquivir and iberus rivers. The third topic considered in the book is the economy of hellenistic phoenicia. A true civilization with character and identity, they were far more than the great navigators of antiquity. Sidon and tyre, which was already important in the tenth century. The purple dye manufactured and used in tyre for the robes. One of the most notable signs of their trade activity is the establishment of carthage, in present day tunisia.
What did the phoenicians use to navigate their ships. Apr 28, 2016 the phoenicians were not limited to the mediterranean and the atlantic, they also sailed down the red sea and possibly the indian ocean too. With the mountains as a natural barrier they looked to the sea to expand. The phoenicians were a great maritime people, known for their. The phoenicians celtic druid and arab bedouin connection. The civilization of assyria, babylonia, egypt, greece and other ancient countries owed its origin to the union of the civilization of the aryans with that of the phoenicians. The answer is of course the afrophoenicians were the carthaginians, who were phoenicians who established their city and trading empire in north africa in todays tunisia. List of books and articles about phoenician history. This issue has been touched upon briefly several times during this analysis, and it deserves to be addressed directly. The people known to history as the phoenicians occupied a narrow tract of land along the coast of modern syria, lebanon and northern israel. The phoenicians were not only adventurous merchants but expert sailors and navigators as well. All were fiercely independent, rival cities and, unlike the neighboring inland states, the phoenicians represented a confederation of maritime traders rather than a defined country. Creators of the alphabet support new videos from epimetheus on patreon. The phoenicians were the first of the civilized nations of the world.
The phoenicians were originally of irish extraction and they had some of their most important bases in ireland and scotland. With a commercial empire that lasted a millennium, the phoenicians were major players in the ancient mediterranean world. The phoenicians were known as brave and courageous merchants and seafarers. The jewish people are descendants of abraham, whose semitic ancestors lived in the fertile crescent and who lived most of his life in the middle eastern country of israel canaan 3800 years ago. They traded metal objects, wood products, cedar timber, and pottery. They were of semitic stock, if we may judge by their language and characteristics. They were a great trading people and they were at their peak between about 1200 bc and 800 bc. Spreading their culture and goods, they came into contact with many different groups, but their relationship with the israelites was distinct. The development of the alphabet from the tenth century b. Ethnic origin, language and literature of the phoenicians. Because of this lack of cooperation, the phoenicians were conquered and forced to pay tribute to the virtually every empire in the region, including the egyptians, hittites, assyrians, babylonians, persians, and greeks. Its inhabitants, the phoenicians, were notable merchants, traders, and colonizers of the mediterranean in the 1st millennium bce.
The phoenicians were a semitic people who moved from the east to settle in lebanon and western syria. Phoenician artisans, who were skilled architects, were imported by the egyptians, and hiram, king of tyre, lent assistance to solomon in building. The phoenicians were the most aggressive of those attempting to fill the void. Rather, having demonstrated that the phoenicians were originally an invention of ancient greek ethnographic traditions, she shows how, during the hellenistic and roman periods, eastern and western conceptions of ethnicity became blurred, leading some cities to identify themselves as phoenician.
The phoenicians in ancient ireland, from an illustrated history of ireland, 1868, by sister mary frances clare margaret anne cusack, the nun of kenmare, with illustrations by henry doyle. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across. The phoenicians were among the first statelevel societies to make extensive use of alphabets. The area now comprises lebanon and parts of syria and israel. Cedar of lebanon was very valuable to the ancient phoenicians. This colonization of phoenicians started as an outpostcolony in 1st mi. Egyptians and mesopotamians bought the cedar trees from the phoenicians to build temples and palaces. Its inhabitants were great seafarers and travelled the mediterranean, and further afield although exactly how far is the subject of a large amount of woo and pseudohistory. The many opinions offered concerning the origin of the phoenicians seem to coalesce around four basic theories. Mar 19, 2018 the phoenicians were a great maritime people, known for their mighty ships adorned with horses heads in honor of their god of the sea, yamm, the brother of mot, the god of death. They used these strong, straight growing trees with a pleasant fragrance to build trading ships.
They had very wonderful ships, built with timber from lebanon, and they traded in all sorts of good things. They were merchants, traders, and colonizers who probably arrived from the persian gulf about 3000 bce. Phoenicia was a narrow strip of the syrian coast, about 160 miles 260 kilometers long and 20. Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the fertile crescent. The phoenicians lived on a strip of fertile land between the sea and the lebanon mountains. Phoenicia was an ancient civilization composed of independent citystates. They colonized parts of cyprus, rhodes, and the aegean islands.
Egyptians used cedar resin in the mummification process. Despite little being known about them as very few of their inscriptions have survived, their legacy has had an enormous impact on the world, which is still felt today. The epigraphic material from phoenicia and from its colonies is very scarce. In rare images created by the phoenicians themselves, the sarcophagus of king ahiram was found in his city of byblos, where it had been buried in the th century bc. Iron age through roman period, descendants of the canaanites of. The phoenicians were an ancient, seafaring civilization that traded all across the mediterranean world and are responsible for creating the first written alphabet, the ancestral form of our own. The phoenicians were the late canaanites of the first millennium b. The colonies sent out from phoenicia were, except in the single instance of carthage, trading settlements, planted where some commodity or commodities desired by the mothercountry abounded, and were intended to secure to the mothercountry the monopoly of such commodity or commodities. All major phoenician cities were on the coastline of the mediterranean. The phoenicians had a profound impact on israelite art and architectureand were the cause of heated clashes over the influence of their canaanite religion. According to ancient classical authors, the phoenicians were a people who occupied the coast of the levant eastern mediterranean.
The phoenicians had turned to the sea for a living, for their territory was narrow, being the coastal strip of palestine, and thus they became famous as seafarers and traders. There was a pretty legend among the phoenicians that the pieces of amber were the petrified tears of maidens who had thrown themselves into the sea because of unrequited love, and each bead of amber was highly prized. The phoenicians brought their own manufactures to the west, but to a far greater extent they acted as middlemen, transporting incense and spices from arabia. Jan 27, 2020 with a commercial empire that lasted a millennium, the phoenicians were major players in the ancient mediterranean world. Well this is complicated, as quora user pointed out, the carthaginians at least on the paternal side were an offshoot of the phoenicians, who lived in what is today lebanon.
Phoenicians definition of phoenicians by the free dictionary. The phoenicians used the galley, a manpowered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the bireme. More indication of this is that at the very time the sea peoples were sacking the hittites and many other places, the israelites were allegedly defeating the canaanites and founding their 12 tribesincluding. They are famed for their commercial and maritime prowess and are recognised as having established harbours, trading posts and settlements throughout the mediterranean basin. Of course, phoenicians are, and were, known as traders, but at a more basic level it might be interesting to consider the contribution of local agricultural resources to the development of hellenistic phoenicia. They were the first to venture great distances from shore and to navigate the open seas aided by the north star as guide. Not only were the phoenicians expert sailors but they made good use of the land bridges that once existed between scandinavia and england, and between england and ireland. The greeks called them phoenicians, but we do not know what they called themselves. The phoenicians were the same as the canaanites, under which name they are known in the old testament, as well as sidonians genesis 10. The answer is of course the afrophoenicians were the carthaginians, who were.
Phoenician sailors journeyed east to the black sea and west to places such as corinth, thebes, sardinia, palermo, marseille, corsica, and malta. The chief cities of phoenicia were sidon, tyre, and berot modern beirut. Their cities were well positioned for this enterprise, being located literally in the center of the known world. What was the largest colony and where was it located. Jul 28, 2016 the sidonians who were also phoenicians were the best sailors in the fleet fielded by the persian emperor xerxes, in the famous battle of salamis, in 480 bce.
They were joined by many members of israel, notably the tribes of dan and zebulun, who had territory bordering the sea. A theory that says the ancient phoenicians were the first. Phoenicians were perhaps the first mariners to adopt celestial navigation, charting their way across the seas using polaris the north star as a guide. Mar 04, 2020 phoenicia, ancient region corresponding to modern lebanon, with adjoining parts of modern syria and israel.
The book of i kings in the bible describes a phoenician expedition during the 10th century bce to a new land called ophir in order to acquire gold, silver, ivory, and gems. The phoenicians were a people who lived in what is now lebanon. They traded wood, cloth, dyes, embroideries, wine, and decorative objects. They were famed in classical greece and rome as traders in purple, which refers to their monopoly on the precious purple dye of the murex snail, used for royal clothing, among other things. The phoenicians used the galley, a manpowered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the bireme oared ship. The book clearly outlines everything from art and religion to trade and political institutions. Phoenicia was an ancient semitic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the fertile crescent near modernday lebanon, israel, jordan, palestine, and syria. Phoenicia was a thalassocratic, ancient semiticspeaking mediterranean civilization that originated in the levant, specifically lebanon, in the west of the fertile. Phoenician gold dish from yoidalion cyprus sometimes the cities were, like the greek colonies of the archaic age, first founded on small islands e.
The sides were decorated with carvings of phoenician citizens offering homage to the king, as shown below. Phoenicians who had the fleets and who were interested in conquest. Perhaps the best and most unambiguous way to answer this question is to separate the. In fact, most of the persian fighting fleet consisted of phoenician ships, manned by phoenician crews. The phoenicians actually founded only trading posts this is the original meaning of tarshish according to albright which engaged not only in trade, but also in a search for raw materials. Asked in ancient history, history of the middle east, ancient religions, phoenicia who are the afrophoenicians. Phoenicia was a middle eastern semitic civilisation based around modernday lebanon from around 1500 bce to the 1 st century bce. Who were the phoenicians and how did they settle carthage. Their territory was so small that the phoenicians were forced to turn to the sea for a living. These phoenician places were often in conflict with each other for domination of the region.
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