The Phoenicians Chapter 3 Section 4

The Phoenician People The Phoenicians were fearless sailors who guided ships full of trade goods through ocean waters. For hundreds of years, they dominated sea trade across the Mediterranean, just as the earlier Greek Minoan people had done.

Origins Phoenician society developed from the earlier Canaanites. The Canaanites were people who lived in parts of what are now Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Nearby Egypt had a strong influence on Canaan. Egypt controlled parts of Canaan off and on for many years. Egyptian rule ended, and Phoenician society began to emerge. The rulers of Phoenician city-states were priest-kings. But each priest-king shared government power with leading merchant families and a citizen assembly.

Farming and Manufacturing Geography greatly influenced Phoenician development. Heavily forested mountains sloped down close to the coast, leaving little flat land for farming. Phoenicians manufactured a number of goods. Weavers created cloth that they colored with rare purple dye made from tiny sea snails. It sold for high prices.

Farming and Manufacturing Skilled Phoenician crafts-workers made pottery and glass and metal objects. They also used trees to make wood furniture and other items.

Phoenician Traders Because Phoenicia had few natural resources of its own, they had to trade with other cultures for resources and goods. An import is a good or service sold within a country that is produced in another country. Most Phoenician imports were raw materials, including gold, silver, tin, copper, iron, ivory, and precious stones.

Phoenician Traders Phoenician crafts-workers used raw materials they imported to make many different items, such as bronze and silver bowls, iron tools and weapons, and gold jewelry. Traders shipped these goods, as well as pine and cedar logs, wine, olive oil, salt, fish, and other goods as exports to ports across the Mediterranean Sea. An export is a good or service produced within a country and sold outside the country’s borders.

Phoenicians and the Sea Phoenicia’s location was ideal for trade. It lay on the western edge of Asia, within sailing distance of Europe and Africa. As a result, many people came to depend on the Phoenicians to ship their trade goods across the Mediterranean Sea.

Navigation Phoenicians became experts at navigation, or the art of steering a ship from place to place. Phoenician sailors developed a thorough knowledge of wind patterns and ocean currents. Phoenician people are believed to be the first to use the North Star to guide their voyages. In the Northern Hemisphere, the North star seems to remain still while other stars appear to move across the sky.

Exploring Unknown Waters Phoenician sailors showed great courage by sailing into unknown waters. Some historians think that the Phoenicians were driven to find precious metals. They profited from the silver trade.

Colonies and City-States Areas with fertile land or other resources attracted Phoenician farmers and other settlers. Those settlements grew into colonies. A colony is an area ruled by a distant country. When Phoenicia came under attack by the Assyrians, many left Phoenicia and migrated to their colonies for safety.

Colonies and City-States A few Phoenician colonies developed into wealthy city-states. One was Carthage, on the North African coast. Carthage eventually became rich and powerful, setting up its own colonies and fighting three wars against the powerful Romans. In the last pf these wars, the Romans destroyed Carthage. Over time, the Roman empire took over all of the Phoenician city-states and colonies.

Legacy of the Phoenicians Greece and Rome absorbed key elements of Phoenician culture in a process known as cultural diffusion. Cultural diffusion is the spreading of cultural traits from one region to another. The Phoenicians’ legacy included the spread of its culture and a new way of writing.

Spread of Culture Through trade, the Phoenicians linked the diverse people and cultures around the Mediterranean region and beyond. They passed parts of their culture on to the Greeks. For example, the Greeks used the Phoenician standard of weights and measures. Greek culture later spread throughout the entire Mediterranean region, and its influence continues today.

The Alphabet The Greeks also adopted the Phoenician way of writing. Before, the main writing system was cuneiform. The Phoenicians developed an alphabet. An alphabet is a small set of letters or symbols, each of which stands for a single sound. The Phoenician alphabet had 22 symbols. Each symbol stood for a consonant sound. Instead of memorizing hundreds of different symbols like in the case of cuneiform, now a person only had to memorize 22.

The Alphabet People who traded with the Phoenicians learned their alphabet in order to communicate with them. By 750 B.C.E., the Greeks had begun using the Phoenician alphabet. The Greeks added letters to represent vowels around 500 B.C.E. Around 100 B.C.E., the Romans adopted the Greek alphabet. The Romans changed some letters. The result was an alphabet that looks much like ours today.