World History
Grade 8
 Strip of land that connected ancient Egypt and
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Mesopotamia
Ideas and goods were carried across it
Part of modern day Lebanon and Israel
Two groups settled there and created small kingdoms
– the Phoenicians and the Hebrews
The Phoenicians lived in the northern section
 Largely a peaceful civilization
 Interested in trade and learning
 Most of what is known of them comes from the Bible,
writings of other ancient peoples, and the ruins of
their cities and ships
 Originated from a group of people known as the
Canaanites, herders who came from the desert south
and east of Canaan
 By 1200 BC, cities had been built along a narrow strip
of land between the mountains and sea
 Even though the soil was rich, the amount of food
grown could not feed all the people
 Many Phoenicians turned to the sea to make a living
 Nearby mountains had strong cedar trees, which were
used to build fast ships
 Many Phoenicians started out as coastal traders
 Eventually they controlled trade on the Mediterranean
Sea
 Traded cedar logs, cloth, glass trinkets, and perfume
for gold and other metals
 Many of their ships were floating workshops, workers
could bring their tools and work aboard the ship
 Sailors explored and plotted courses by using the sun
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and stars
Traveled to places nobody else would dare to go
Brought Middle Eastern culture to unexplored areas of
the western Mediterranean
Possibly sailed around Africa to reach India
Possibly sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the
Americas
 They learned the value of making agreements
 Surrounded by larger, more powerful civilizations
 Created peace treaties
 Agreements between states or countries
 Promised to supply free shipments of goods
 The other countries promised to let Phoenicians remain
independent
 Phoenicia was never a united country
 Split in 2 by mountains
 Stayed a collection of independent city-states
 Largest were Tyre, Byblos, Beirut, and Sidon
 The city-states spoke the same language and practiced
the same religion but sometimes argued over profit,
trade, and resources
 Phoenicians identified themselves by their city-state,
other civilizations called them “Phoenicians”
 Originally ruled by a king who was also the city-state’s
high priest
 Power was then shared with wealthy merchant families
 Eventually the merchant families told the kings what to
do
 Most cities were surrounded by large stone walls
 Shops were inside the city walls
 Lots of carpenters and cabinetmakers due to abundant
lumber
 Metalwork was learned from the Egyptians and
Mesopotamians
 Cities were very crowded
 Narrow streets
 Buildings close together
 Stone or brick buildings, some with roof gardens
 High and narrow doors and windows
 Port was outside of city and center of activity
 Goods were stored in great warehouses
 Papyrus, gold, and linen from Egypt
 Pottery from Mesopotamia
 Copper and hides from Cyprus
 Cities were important cloth-dyeing centers
 Phoenician means “of purple merchants”
 Purple dye made from murex – a shellfish
 Polytheistic – gods & goddesses were closely tied with
nature
 At first only worshiped on hills and under trees
 Eventually built temples
 Each had an entrance, a main hall, and a holy of holies,
or most sacred chamber, where a sacred stone of the god
was kept
 Sacrifices of wine, perfume, animals, and even people
were made on a stone altar
 Only priests could sacrifice
 Thought to keep the gods friendly and strong
 Believed in life after death
 Originally buried their dead in
clay urns
 Eventually borrowed
mummification from Egypt and
placed their dead in stone coffins
in hillside cemeteries
 Trading posts and colonies – or permanent settlements
– along the coast of North Africa
 The most powerful became Carthage
 Great trading city
 Ships from Carthage may have sailed to the British Isles
to find tin
 Originally used a system of picture writing
 Difficult to keep trade records
 Borrowed simple version of Egyptian hieroglyphics
and turned it into an alphabet
 22 symbols, or letters
 Much easier to keep trade records
 Carried it to other cultures
 The Greeks borrowed it and made some changes, then
the Romans
 Our language is based on the Roman alphabet