What was phoenicians famous for

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. Phoenician ships made up the bulk of the Persian fleet that was defeated by the Greeks at the massive sea battle of Salamis in BCE. Phoenician galleys of the time were larger and less maneuverable than their smaller Greek counterparts, and this was a fatal shortcoming in the restricted waters of the Saronic Gulf.

The Carthaginian navy dominated the early Punic Wars with Rome, but the Romans captured a Carthaginian ship that went aground and built duplicates a sort of ancient version of industrial espionage.

The Romans eventually cleared the Mediterranean of Carthaginian ships and carried the wars to a successful conclusion in North Africa. The Carthaginians had the only significant land army that can be considered Phoenician in derivation, famously utilizing elephants as shock units. A major strength of his army was his Numidian cavalry from North Africa that was usually able to drive off the Roman cavalry, surround the Roman infantry, and help annihilate it.

The Romans defeated Hannibal eventually, not by fighting him on Italian soil, but rather by taking the fight to Carthaginian colonies in Spain; and finally, on the plains of Africa near Carthage at the Battle of Zama. Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. Sasson, pp. New York: Scribner, Visiting The Met?

Scarab seal and modern impression: Osiris flanked by protective deities. Figure of a man with an oryx, a monkey, and a leopard skin.

Horse blinker carved in relief with a seated sphinx. Furniture plaque carved in high relief with two Egyptianizing figures flanking a volute tree. Markoe, Glenn. Some of these overlords allowed the Phoenicians to operate relatively freely, valuing their trading and communication networks. One ruler who went to war against the Phoenicians, however, was the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. In BC, he captured the Phoenician city of Tyre and put thousands of its inhabitants to the sword, selling tens of thousands more into slavery.

Nearly years later, Rome crushed the great Phoenician outpost of Carthage and by 64 BC the Phoenician city states had all been incorporated into the Roman Empire. It was undoubtedly their alphabet. Created c BC, the Phoenician writing system of 22 letters was in itself not very revolutionary.

In fact, it was really only a modification of similar alphabets that already existed in the region. Yet, because they were traders, the Phoenicians spread their alphabet all over the Mediterranean region and introduced it to people of many different civilisations.

The first juxtaposes the modern picture of the Phoenicians as a coherent people or culture with the very different story presented in the ancient sources. Having shown that there is no direct evidence for anyone self-identifying as Phoenician prior to late antiquity — or that the Phoenicians ever had a sense of shared identity, ancestry, or native land — part one closes by exploring the external perspectives of the Phoenicians, as presented in Classical literature.

Part two shifts the focus from texts to objects and examines how Phoenician-speaking peoples interacted with one another in their home cities and in their overseas settlements. Quinn demonstrates that, despite the absence of a common ethnic identity, the Phoenicians used economic and religious associations to foster political and cultural links.

The final part argues against the commonly held view that Phoenician history came to an end with the conquests of Alexander the Great in the east and the destruction of Carthage in the west.