Phoenicia

Phoenicia Latest News

Archaeologists excavating near ruins on the island of Sardinia discovered an Iron Age scarab amulet that originated from ancient Phoenicia.

About Phoenicia

• Phoenicia was an ancient region at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. 
• It covered the land where the country of Lebanon is today. 
• The people who lived there were called Phoenicians. They traded with many other peoples and set up many colonies.
• The Phoenicians lived on the seacoast and made their living from the sea. They were skilled shipbuilders and navigators. 
• Their trade routes reached as far as Spain and the British Isles. 
• The Phoenicians traded wood, linen, dyes, and wine. 
• They also carved wood and ivory and worked with metals and glass. 
• The art of glassblowing was probably invented in Phoenicia.
• The Phoenicians spoke a language that was similar to Hebrew. They had their own form of writing and an alphabet of 22 letters. 
• The Phoenician alphabet was the source of the Greek alphabet and of the Latin alphabet, which most people use today.
• Historians think that the Phoenicians arrived in Phoenicia in about 3000 BCE. They probably came from the region of the Persian Gulf, to the southeast. 
• They built the cities of Sidon, Tyre, and Berot (modern Beirut). 
• The Phoenicians set up colonies all around the Mediterranean. Carthage, in North Africa, was a very successful colony. Eventually Carthage became a power in its own right.
• Decline:
  • Over the centuries a number of foreign powers controlled all or parts of Phoenicia. They included Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. 
  • The Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great, conquered Phoenicia in 332 BCE. 
  • In 64 BCE Phoenicia became a part of the Roman Empire.

Source: PM

‹ ›