Phoenicia

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon and Syria. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread right across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta between Sidon and Tyre, is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland Although the people of the region called themselves the Canaani or Kenaani, the name Phoenicia became common thanks to the Greeks who called them the Phoiniki - Φοινίκη (Phoiníkē; see also List of traditional Greek place names); the Greek word for Phoenician was synonymous with the colour purple/red or crimson, ?????? (phoinix), through its close association with the famous dye Tyrian purple (cf also Phoenix). The dye was used in ancient textile trade, and highly desired. The Phoenicians became known as the 'Purple People'.

Language & Literature

See main articles: Phoenician language, Phoenician alphabet, Alphabet.

Related Topics:
Phoenician language - Phoenician alphabet - Alphabet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Though the Phoenicians are credited with developing the Phoenician alphabet, their alphabet is actually what is termed an abjad (different from an alphabet, in that it contains no vowels). The Phoenician abjad, first making its appearance in the 11th century BC, evolved out of the proto-Canaanite abjad, that originated around the 17th century BC. A cuneiform abjad originated to the north in Ugarit, a Canaanite city of northern Syria, in the 14th century BC. Phoenician traders disseminated the concept along Aegean trade routes, to coastal Anatolia, Crete and eventually Mycenean Greece. Classical Greeks remembered that the alphabet arrived in Greece with the mythical founder of Thebes, Cadmus.

Related Topics:
Phoenician alphabet - Abjad - 11th century BC - 17th century BC - Cuneiform - Ugarit - 14th century BC - Cadmus

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Their language, Phoenician, was a Northwest Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup. Its later descendant in North Africa is termed Punic.

Related Topics:
Phoenician - Semitic - Canaanite - North Africa - Punic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Amarna letters, dated to the 14th century BC, although written in Akkadian, the language of diplomacy at the time, contain solecisms that are not 'mistakes', but actually early Canaanite words and phrases. Because of their Lebanese provenance, some identify these as Phoenician; however, most scholars reserve that term for a later era.

Related Topics:
Amarna letters - Akkadian

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The earliest known inscriptions in Phoenician come from Byblos and date back to ca. 1000 BC. Phoenician inscriptions are found in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Cyprus and other locations, as late as the early centuries of the Christian Era. Punic, a language that developed from Phoenician in Phoenician colonies around the western Mediterranean beginning in the 9th century BC, slowly supplanted Phoenician, similar to the way Italian supplanted Latin. Punic Phoenician was still spoken in the 5th century CE: St. Augustine, for example, grew up in North Africa and was familiar with the language.

Related Topics:
9th century BC - North Africa

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

External link

• The Semitic languages, including Phoenician.