Phoenicians & Lydians

Located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, about where Lebanon is today. Phoenicians

Phoenician was actually a loose coalition of city-states, each governed by its own king. The largest of which were Tyre & Sidon.

The Phoenicians never created a large empire, but they were very important in world history. They turned to trade as a way to make a living. The Phoenicians became the greatest traders and sailors of the ancient world

The Phoenicians became leaders in trade and sailing. They sailed their ships throughout the Mediterranean and even into the Atlantic Ocean. They may have reached Britain.

They had oars and a single square sail. 65-100 feet long Bow and stern were curved, often carved with a figurehead.

They established trading colonies on North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and southern Spain. Its most important colony was the city of Carthage on North Africa.

Natural resource-cedar trees Phoenicia had forests of cedars and other trees. They used these to build ships. They also exported their fine wood. Natural resource-cedar trees

They were also famous for producing and selling purple dye, glass, papyrus, and objects of gold and silver.

The purple dye came mainly from the snail of the murex, a shellfish. When pierced, the snail exudes a liquid that turns purple on contact with air.

It took thousands of these shellfish to make a small amount of dye. Therefore, the dye was extremely expensive and became a symbol of wealth and royalty.

After the snails are fished from the sea, the dye-bearing vein is extracted and crushed. For every hundred pounds of the juice, 20 ounces of salt are added, and left for three days. It is then set to boil slowly in vessels of tin [or lead], to concentrate the dye, for upto ten days. Then the cloth to be dyed is immersed into the boiling mixture. The boiling is continued until the cloth is dyed to the satisfactory shade. Red shades are considered inferior to blackish ones. Finally the cloth is left to soak until it has fully imbibed the colour. - Roman author: Pliny

The Phoenicians also discovered how to make glass. Glass is made from sand. The Romans learned from the Phoenicians how to make it, and were the first to use it on a large scale.

The Phoenicians were polytheistic. Their chief god was Ba’al. Like the Mesopotamians, they believed in a shadowy afterlife. Their efforts were focused on winning the favor of the gods in this world. Sometimes they sacrificed babies or children.

The most important contribution of the Phoenicians was their innovative alphabet. It was “phonetic”, with one sound for each symbol. It was MUCH MUCH easier to learn and use than cuneiform or hieroglyphic.

The Phoenician alphabet spread through trade. They used it to draw up contracts and record bills. Trading partners saw the it was MUCH MUCH easier and adapted it to their language. The Greeks added vowels. Our alphabet came from the Romans, who got it from the Etruscans, who got it from the Greeks, who got it from the Phoenicians.

Our alphabet evolved like this: Phoenician-- Greek --- Etruscan --- Roman --- Our alphabet

Our alphabet came from the Romans, who got it from the Etruscans, who got it from the Greeks, who got it from the Phoenicians.

There was a kingdom in Asia Minor (now Turkey) called Lydia (this was long after the Hittite Empire) They did not create an empire. However, they made a great contribution to civilization Lydia

The Lydians were the first people to use coined money made out of gold and silver, about 600BC

The early coins were shaped like kidney beans and made our of a mixture of silver and gold. They were stamped with a picture

Before coins were invented in about 600BC, people used mainly barter, the exchange of one good or service for another. In addition to barter, before coins were invented, people would weigh out gold and silver. Sometimes they used things like shells as “commodity money”

The Persians adopted the idea of coins from the Lydians. The use of coins made long distance trade MUCH MUCH easier. They could set prices for goods and services. This promoted more long distance trade, which led to the spread of many other ideas.