The Phoenicians

The Phoenicians settled in Carthage, North Africa. Major cities were Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad. All were fiercely independent, rival cities. Phoenicians represented a confederation rather than a defined country. Their land was not fit for agriculture. They had very humid weather so the Phoenicians were not able to farm, so they focused on trade.

Traders and manufacturers traded cedar, purple dyes (murex), glass, wine, weapons, metal & ivory. Murex- violet-purple divided from murex sea snail shell, only available in Phoenicia. Phoenicians NEVER became politically powered, so they had NO strong leaders. Empire built on trade.

Conflict arose between Rome and carthage, creating war. These wars were called the Punic wars. The Phoenicians used elephants to march across the Pyrenees through France. Religious beliefs were enforced by Zoroaster. He rejected the old Persian gods. He taught that’s a single god Ahura Mazda ruled the world. His teachings were collected in a book called the Zend- Avesta.

Upper class men wore ornamented robes. Priests had fancy costumes. Woman couldn’t show their hair. Jewelry for woman was very common. The Phoenicians made remarkable ships. They were the first people to sail around Africa by the Red Sea. The boats were made of oak and cedar wood. It was steered by oars, one ship had a crew of over a hundred people Ship makers Dye makers Traders Glass makers

Foreign markets-purple dye, glass, lumber from cedar forests of Lebanon. Improved ships, became great international sea traders create trade empire- charted new routes, went through the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. It went up to Britain and down the west coast of Africa, set up colonies on the western Mediterranean carthage, North African Coast Best known for their alphabet. Simplified 22 different signs to represent sounds of their language- used the letters to spell out words. Eventually passes alphabet onto the Greeks. Greek  Roman  American