Chapter 3 – Section 4
The Phoenicians
The Phoenician People
 Phoenician civilization began along a thin strip of land along the
Mediterranean coast.
 Fearless sailors who for hundreds of years dominated sea trade
 Phoenicians society was developed by the earlier Canaanites –
lived in now Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria
 Egypt had a strong influence on Canaan and even ruled them in
1500 B.C.
 In 1150 B.C., Phoenician society emerged after Egyptian rule
 Phoenicians city-states were ruled by priest-king. They shared
power with leading merchant families and a citizen assembly.
Farming and Manufacturing
 There was very little flat land to farm
 They manufactured cloth with a rare purple dye from
tiny sea snails, made pottery and glass and metal
objects
 Used trees to make wood furniture and other items
Phoenicians Traders
 They had very few natural resources
 They imported mostly raw materials from other cultures
 Raw materials were gold, silver, tin, copper, iron, ivory, and
precious stones
 Crafterworkers used the raw materials to make bronze and
silver bowls, iron tools and weapons, and gold jewelry
 They exported these items as well as pine, cedar logs, wine,
olive, oil, salt, fish and other goods
Phoenician Trade Routes
Phoenicians and the Sea
 Many people depended on the Phoenicians for their
trade
 Phoenicians sailed their ships by a sail or by rowers
using oars
 They were experts at navigation, the art of steering a
ship from place to place
 First to use the North Star to help calculate location
Exploring Unknown Waters
 Phoenicians traveled many routes
 South and west pasted Egypt
 North and west past the Balkan and Italian peninsula
 Islands of Sardinia and Sicily
 End of the Mediterranean Iberia (today Spain and Portugal
 Went north in the Atlantic Ocean to Britain
 Historians believe that Phoenicians were driven to
explore in order to find silver and gold for greater
wealth
Colonies and City-States
 As Phoenicians traveled they found shelter at many ports,
which served as trading stations
 Later, areas with fertile land or other resources, Phoenician
settlers began to live there.
 These areas grew into colonies, an area ruled by a distant
country
 When Phoenicia came under attack in 800 B.C., by
Assyrians, many Phoenicians went to these colonies
 A few Phoenician colonies developed into wealthy city
states. One was Carthage on North African coast.
Legacy of the Phoenicians
 As Phoenicia did not survive, Greece and Rome absorb key
elements of their culture. This process is known as cultural
diffusion
 Their legacy was the spread of their culture and a new way
of writing
 Phoenician standard for weight and measures was passed
to the Greeks
 The Greeks also adopted their alphabet, a small set of
letters or symbols, each of which stands for a single sound
 The Phoenician alphabet contained 22 symbols
representing a consonant sound. Made writing easier
The Alphabet
 750 B.C., the Greeks were using it
 500 B.C., the Greeks added letter to represent vowels
 Gave letters names
 Alphabet comes from first 2 letters in the Greek
alphabet – alpha and beta
 100 B.C. Romans adopted it – Change some, but looks
like todays alphabet