Phoenicia

Date: 3000-500 b.c.e.

Locale: Lebanon, Israel, and Syria

Phoenicia

The term “Phoenicia” (fih-NEE-shee-uh) is derived from phoinix, the Greek word for “purple or crimson,” probably an allusion to the purple dye that the Phoenicians extracted from the murex (a mollusk). Phoenicia referred to a territory encompassing the coastal plain of modern Lebanon, southern Syria, and northern Israel. The Phoenicians appear to have continued to call this region by its Semitic name, Canaan. From that homeland, the Phoenicians established colonies in Cyprus, North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain. The most powerful of these colonies was Carthage.

History

Phoenicia represents a zone where Bronze Age (c. 3000-1200 b.c.e.) Canaanite city-state culture survived the onslaught of the Sea Peoples and the emergence of the nation-state Israelite, Moabite, Edomite, Ammonite, and Aramean kingdoms during the early Iron Age (c. 1200-1000 b.c.e.). The major Phoenician city-states were Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Arvad (Arwad), and Acre (ՙAkko). During the Bronze Age, Byblos was the most prominent of these cities. Phoenicia was an Egyptian vassal during much of its history. The main importance of Phoenicia during the Bronze Age was as a source of cedar for Egyptian temples and palaces. The Amarna tablets contain fourteenth century b.c.e. letters from Byblos indicating its vassalage to the pharaoh. Egyptian control had declined sufficiently by the late twelfth century b.c.e. so that the king of Byblos is recorded as asserting greater independence in the Wen-Amon or the Journey of Wen-Amun (possibly eleventh century b.c.e.; English translation in Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1976), the story of an Egyptian emissary of the Amun temple in Thebes who makes his way to Byblos to purchase cedar.

During the Iron Age (c. 1200-535 b.c.e.), Tyre and Sidon soon outstripped Byblos in political and economic importance. During the interlude between Egyptian and Assyrian domination, ranging from about 1200 to 850 b.c.e., local kingdoms and city-states flourished in the Levant. It was during this period that Hiram, king of Tyre, provided materials and personnel to Solomon, king of Israel, to aid in building the temple in Jerusalem, and Jezebel, daughter of Sidonian king Ethbaal, became wife of Ahab and queen over the northern Israelite kingdom.

Brief Assyrian activity in Phoenicia began with the campaign of Tiglath-pileser I (r. c. 1115-1077 b.c.e.). During the ninth and eighth centuries b.c.e., the Assyrian activity resumed, and the Phoenician city-states were forced to pay heavy tribute. When tribute failed to flow, punitive campaigns against Phoenician cities were launched under Sargon II (r. 721-705 b.c.e.), Sennacherib (r. 705-681 b.c.e.), and Esarhaddon (r. 680-669 b.c.e.). Tyre was besieged by both Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, and Sidon was destroyed by Esarhaddon, who repopulated a new Sidon with peoples from other parts of the Assyrian Empire. The tribute burden and Assyrian campaigns promoted the establishment and growth of Phoenician colonies in Cyprus and the western Mediterranean.

When Assyrian power was eclipsed by Babylon during the late seventh century b.c.e., Phoenicia passed into Babylonian control. After the capture of Babylon by the Persian Cyrus the Great in 535 b.c.e., Phoenicia became integrated into the vast Persian Empire. Phoenician cities provided ships and sailors for the Persian wars against the Greeks. However, the political and economic importance of the Phoenicians had shifted from their Levantine homeland to their colonies, especially Carthage in North Africa.

Architecture and city planning

Phoenician town planning and architecture are best known from the western Mediterranean colonies. However, excavations at Sarepta in Lebanon during the early 1970’s revealed the first significant insight into Phoenician architecture in the homeland. The main type of construction method for domestic and industrial structures was the pier and rubble technique, in which piers, or columns of cut stone, were built at intervals of approximately 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters) with fieldstones set in clay mortar to fill the interstices. House walls were flush against the street.

A temple to the goddess Tanit-Ashtart was uncovered at Sarepta, dating from the eighth to fourth centuries b.c.e. This temple, approximately 8.4 feet (2.6 meters) in width by 21 feet (6.4 meters) in length, was built of cut sandstone blocks laid in a header-and-stretcher pattern. The shrine exhibited many of the characteristics typical of Phoenician temples known in the western Mediterranean, including low benches along interior walls, an offering table at one end of the shrine, and a place for a sacred standing stone (massebah) or wooden pillar (asherah) in front the offering table.

Government

The government of Phoenician cities during the period from 3000 to 500 b.c.e. was a hereditary monarchy. In the Phoenician monarchies, close connections existed between royal and priestly power. One king of Tyre was a high priest, and at Sidon, the king also was priest of Ashtart. The ruling class below the royal house consisted of wealthy merchants.

Economics

The economy of Phoenicia was based on agriculture and maritime trade. The major Phoenician cities along the coast relied on agricultural hinterland areas to provide produce for urban consumption. Fishing also provided an important source of food. Phoenician commodities that were highly valued in the ancient world included cedar, purple-dyed cloth, and glass. These items were traded widely, with glass ingots recovered from a fourteenth century b.c.e. wreck off the Turkish coast, cedar supplied to Egypt and Israel, and purple-dyed cloth used for royal finery throughout the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. Phoenician ivories and metal bowls have been found in wide distribution, from Assyria to Italy.

Navigation and transportation

The Phoenicians were renowned in the ancient world for their seafaring skill. Phoenician warships were a valuable asset to the Persian Empire. Phoenician merchant vessels ventured throughout the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic, establishing trading stations as far away as Spain and Morocco. Phoenician traders also may have reached the British Isles. Under patronage of the Egyptian pharaoh Necho (609-593 b.c.e.), Phoenician ships reportedly circumnavigated the African continent, a feat not accomplished again until the sixteenth century by the Portuguese.

Religion and ritual

Little is known of religious life in Phoenicia during the Bronze Age, and only slightly more is known from the Iron Age. Much has been extrapolated from the Ugaritic texts and from the Bible. However, Ugarit was north of Phoenicia and never was considered part of Canaan, and the Bible is largely a hostile source. As a result, both should be used only as a supplement to primary Phoenician sources. These sources include votive inscriptions, treaties, archaeological excavations, and Philo Byblius, a Roman-era author who has been shown to draw on older source material written by a Phoenician priest, Sakkunyaton. The main Phoenician gods appear to have varied from city to city. At Tyre, the main deities were Bethel, apparently a local manifestation of El; Anat-Bethel, apparently his consort; and Melkart, a youthful god that appears to be connected with the “dying and rising” of natural forces. At Sidon, the main deities were Baal Shamim (the Lord of Heaven), Ashtart (a goddess of love and war), and Eshmun (a healing god). At Byblos, the main deities were Baal Shamim and Baalat, the Lady of Byblos. Other deities include Baal Hammon and Tanit, who become the chief deities of Carthage, Resheph (a god of plague), Gad (a god of luck), and Sid.

The foci of worship mainly were aniconic, consisting of standing stones (masseboth) or poles (asheroth). Sacred prostitution has been attributed to Phoenician temples by classical and biblical sources. Temple ritual centered on sacrifice. Types of sacrifice included an atonement offering, a peace offering, a whole burnt offering, and a meal offering. Evidence for child sacrifice has been cited in the Phoenician colonies, but it is scant in the homeland.

Death and burial

Phoenician burial customs included both inhumation and cremation. Burial normally occurred outside settlement areas. Inhumation was the more common practice. Grave types included shaft tombs, consisting of a shaft leading to rectangular chambers cut into rocky hillsides, and large subterranean halls with multiple rooms cut into the rock. The body of the deceased often was interred in a sarcophagus. The elaborate sarcophagi of wealthy individuals frequently bore sculpted lids. Evidence of embalming has been noted, especially in royal tombs. Cremations occurred sporadically in time and space, with the exception of cremated child and infant remains that are found with votive stelae in religious precincts and that may be associated with human sacrifice. The earliest cremations occur at Phoenician sites during the twelfth and eleventh centuries b.c.e. The practice also occurred in the Phoenician colonies, especially during the eighth to seventh centuries b.c.e.

Language and literature

The Phoenician language belongs to the Canaanite group of Northwest Semitic languages. It is very close to biblical Hebrew. Little Phoenician literature has survived. Philo Byblius, writing in the second century c.e., draws on a lost theogony of the Phoenician priest Sakkunyaton. Phoenicians from Carthage also authored books that are cited and preserved in later fragments, including Hanno’s Periplus (n.d.; The Voyage of Hanno, 1797; also known as Periplus of Hanno), an account of a voyage to West Africa, and a treatise on agriculture by Mago, quoted by the Roman writer Cato the Censor. Most preserved Phoenician texts are religious dedications or funerary epitaphs.

Writing systems

The Phoenicians used a twenty-two-letter alphabet that was nearly identical in script to the one used for biblical Hebrew. The Phoenicians were credited by the Greeks with inventing the alphabet. However, the first purely alphabetic writing system actually appears to have been created by peoples living in Canaan during the late Middle Bronze Age (c. 1700-1500 b.c.e.). The Phoenician alphabet is a direct descendant of that first linear alphabetic writing system. The Phoenicians probably did pass that alphabet to the Greeks during the early first millennium b.c.e., and they certainly introduced alphabetic writing into North Africa. During the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500-1200 b.c.e.) a variant alphabet, consisting of twenty-two cuneiform letters and based on the cuneiform Ugaritic alphabet, also was in use in Phoenicia, but this system disappeared shortly after the end of the Bronze Age.

Calendar and chronology

The Phoenician calendar appears to have been similar that of the early Israelites, a lunar calendar that was kept linked to the seasons by periodic insertion of extra months or days. Some preserved Phoenician month names (Ethanim, Bul, and Ziv) correspond to pre-Exilic month names in the Bible. Phoenician chronology appears to have been based on regnal years of particular rulers. This system naturally varied from city to city.

Visual arts

Three-dimensional sculpture was rare among the Phoenicians. However, Phoenician artisans excelled in the creation of reliefs, ceramic masks and figurines, ivory work, the production of metal vessels and figurines, and jewelry design. Phoenician visual arts were profoundly influenced by Egyptian styles of representation. Greek influence also can be seen in works after about 600 b.c.e. Reliefs often depicted gods approached by a human devotee. Although cult images generally were aniconic, the relief works show anthropomorphic deities, typically of three types: an enthroned bearded, mature god; a standing youthful god with right arm raised in smiting posture, holding a mace or lightning bolt; and a standing nude goddess, often accompanied by vegetation or animals. The human devotee is portrayed with raised right hand and a full-length beltless robe. Masks occur in smiling and grimacing forms. Figurines typically take the form of standing youthful male deities in smiting posture, standing nude goddesses, or seated enrobed pregnant women. Ivory work consisted largely of decorative furniture inlays, with floral designs, animals, and Egyptianizing images. Phoenician metal bowls, often with animal or human representations, were exported widely and have been recovered in Greece and Italy. Typical Phoenician jewelry included glass pendants in the shape of male or female heads and gold scroll-case pendants that may have housed magical formulas to ward off evil.

Current views

Most current research has focused on Phoenician colonies rather than on Phoenicia itself. One debate centers on the interpretation of cremated child and infant remains accompanied by votive markers as evidence for human sacrifice. Although most scholars contend that these remains represent sacrificial victims, other hypotheses are possible. For example, the remains may reflect those of children vowed as temple servants who died before actually beginning their service. To fulfill the vow, the deceased child may then have been offered in the manner of vowed animals. Another controversy focuses on the date of transmission of the alphabet to the Greeks.

Bibliography

Edey, M. A. The Sea Traders. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1974.

Moscati, S., ed. The Phoenicians. New York: Rizzoli, 1999.