The Phoenicians (1500–300 B.C.)
Chapter 2 Lesson 2
Page 28 in your textbook
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The Phoenicians
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According to ancient classical authors, the Phoenicians were
a people who occupied the coast of the eastern
Mediterranean.
Their major cities were Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad.
Their cities were fiercely independent and competitive
The Phoenicians were sea traders rather than a defined
country.
Geography
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Phoenicia was located between
the eastern Mediterranean coast
and the Lebanon Mountains
Origin of the Phoenicians
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It is believed that economic opportunity and population pressures
forced them out into the seas.
The Phoenicians colonized many areas along the Mediterranean
Sea.
Colonization
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Colonization is invading and taking over of a
foreign territory, which then becomes known as a
colony.
Phoenician Trade Routes
Phoenician Colonies
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Sailed and colonized
throughout the
Mediterranean beginning
circa 1000 B.C.E.
 Gades (Cadiz, Spain)
 Carthage (Tunis,
Tunisia)
Phoenicians
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By far they were superior to all peoples of that
time in seamanship.
Legend has it that an Egyptian pharaoh hired a
band of Phoenicians to map and
circumnavigate the coast of Africa.
Sea Traders
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They are best remembered for their contributions in
the establishment to trade with the many peoples
living along the Mediterranean Sea.
What did the Phoenicians Trade?
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The main natural resources of the Phoenician
cities in the eastern Mediterranean were the
prized cedars of Lebanon and murex shells
used to make the purple dye.
Trade
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They also traded
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Cloth
Glass
Pottery
They traded for:
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Tin (Britannia)
Hides, ivory, ostrich feathers, and slaves (Africa)
Gold, precious stones, and spices (India)
Alphabet
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Sumerian cuneiforms and Egyptian hieroglyphics were the only known
forms of writing before the alphabet as we know it was developed. Both
scripts, though separately created, used picture writing. Eventually, pictures
or signs represented sounds. Finally, the pictures became so simplified that
a whole word was written as a single sign.
By about 1200 B.C., the Phoenicians had developed symbols which in time
became a real alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet consisted of twenty-two
symbols, all consonants.
Alphabet Family Tree
Ahiram Sarophagus
about 1000 BC: Has the oldest evidence of the Phoenician
alphabet discovered to date
•The inscription reads:
•Coffin which Ittobaal, son of Ahiram,
king of Byblos, made for Ahiram, his
father, when he placed him in the 'house
of eternity'.
•Now if a king among kings or a
governor among governors or a
commander of an army should come up
against Byblos and uncovers this coffin,
may the sceptre of his rule be torn away,
may the throne of his kingdom be
overturned, and may peace flee from
Byblos!
Government
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Organized into individual city-states, each Phoenician city was under its own
form of government. Each had its own god and its own ruler, whose usually
remained in power for life.
Byblos was a strong religious city-state. Sidon and Tyre were cities of business,
industry, and navigation.
Review Questions
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Where was Phoenicia located?
Name two Phoenician colonies.
Where and what did the Phoenicians trade?
What is considered to be the Phoenicians’
greatest contribution to the world?