34 Facts About Phoenicians

Phoenicians were a Semitic-speaking people of somewhat unknown origin who emerged in the Levant around 3000 BC.

Phoenicians came to prominence in the mid-12th century BC, following the decline of most influential cultures in the Late Bronze Age collapse.

The Phoenicians developed an expansive maritime trade network that lasted over a millennium, helping facilitate the exchange of cultures, ideas, and knowledge between major cradles of civilization such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

Phoenicians were organized in city-states, similar to those of ancient Greece, of which the most notable were Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos.

The Phoenicians established colonies and trading posts across the Mediterranean; Carthage, a settlement in northwest Africa, became a major civilization in its own right in the seventh century BC.

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Phoenicians were long considered a lost civilization due to the lack of indigenous written records, and only since the mid-20th century have historians and archaeologists been able to reveal a complex and influential civilization.

The Phoenicians are credited with innovations in shipbuilding, navigation, industry, agriculture, and government.

Canaanite culture that gave rise to the Phoenicians apparently developed in situ from the earlier Ghassulian chalcolithic culture.

Fourth-century BC Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the Phoenicians had migrated from the Erythraean Sea around 2750 BC and the first-century AD geographer Strabo reports a claim that they came from Tylos and Arad .

The Phoenicians had considerable autonomy, and their cities were reasonably well developed and prosperous.

The Phoenicians appear to have weathered the crisis relatively well, emerging as a distinct and organized civilization in 1230 BC.

Early into the Iron Age, the Phoenicians established ports, warehouses, markets, and settlement all across the Mediterranean and up to the southern Black Sea.

Carthage was founded by Phoenicians coming from Tyre, probably initially as a station in the metal trade with the southern Iberian Peninsula.

Phoenicians rose to power in 858 BC and began a series of campaigns against neighboring states.

Phoenicians remained a core asset to the Achaemenid Empire, particularly for their prowess in maritime technology and navigation; they furnished the bulk of the Persian fleet during the Greco-Persian Wars of the late fifth century BC.

Phoenicians maintained cultural and commercial links with their western counterparts.

Under their rule, the Phoenicians were allowed a considerable degree of autonomy and self-governance.

Phoenicians did not refer themselves as such but rather are thought to have referred to themselves as "Kena?ani", meaning Canaanites.

One 2018 study of mitochondrial lineages in Sardinia concluded that the Phoenicians were "inclusive, multicultural and featured significant female mobility, " with evidence of indigenous Sardinians integrating "peacefully and permanently" with Semitic Phoenician settlers.

Phoenicians served as intermediaries between the disparate civilizations that spanned the Mediterranean and Near East, facilitating the exchange of goods and knowledge, culture, and religious traditions.

Unable to rely solely on this limited resource, the Phoenicians developed an industrial base manufacturing a variety of goods for both everyday and luxury use.

The Phoenicians developed or mastered techniques such as glass-making, engraved and chased metalwork, ivory carving, and woodwork.

Phoenicians were early pioneers in mass production, and sold a variety of items in bulk.

The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador, in present-day Morocco.

Phoenicians were possibly the first to introduce the bireme, around 700 BC.

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The Phoenicians are credited with inventing the trireme, which was regarded as the most advanced and powerful vessel in the ancient Mediterranean world, and was eventually adopted by the Greeks.

The Phoenicians continued to contribute to cartography into the Iron Age.

Since very little of the Phoenicians' writings have survived, much of what is known about their culture and society comes from accounts by contemporary civilizations or inferences from archaeological discoveries.

The Phoenicians had much in common with other Canaanites, including language, religion, social customs, and a monarchical political system centered around city-states.

The Phoenicians kept records of their rulers in tomb inscriptions, which are among the few primary sources still available.

Phoenicians'storians have determined a clear line of succession over centuries for some city-states, notably Byblos and Tyre.

Phoenicians had a system of courts and judges that resolved disputes and punished crimes based on a semi-codified body of laws and traditions.

Phoenicians made votive offerings to their gods, namely in the form of figurines and pottery vessels.

Since the Phoenicians were predominantly seafaring people, it is speculated that many of their rituals were performed at sea or aboard ships.