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Phoenicia (jun 10, 1500 BC – dec 10, 539 BC)

Description:

Phoenicia was a series of city states which thrived on trading located in the Levant, mainly Southern Syria and Northern Palestine, see first picture taken from Mark 2009. This civilisation through its various trade routes throughout the Mediterranean would found numerous colonies including Carthage. They are referred to as Canaanites in the bible which unfortunately is the main historical source. They were also known as the 'purple people' due to their use of purple dye in robing their royalty - possibly the origins of the practice that would lead the colour purple to royalty throughout Europe. Their trade routes would grow to spread throughout the Mediterranean (see images two and three).

The Phoenicians were essentially a people of traders. The cities of Phoenicia sat upon two essential trade nodes, one leading South to Egypt and the other North to Asia Minor. The region in which they occupied provided an essential source of wood for the Egyptians leading to a state of hegemonic control in the New Kingdom Era. The Phoenicians bore much of the brunt of the invasion of the Sea People - a cataclysmic event likened to the Gothic invasions that brought down the Roman Empire. The event saw the end of Egyptian dominance and the beginning of an era of relative independence and cooperation with the Israelite states. This is followed by dominance by Assyria and finally conquest by Cyrus the Great.

The Phoenicians have been attributed with the invention of the alphabet that sowed the seeds of all European languages (see image five). Their trade routes and influence would help proliferate this alphabet across all the Mediterranean, importantly introducing itself into Greece which eventually brings them out of the Dark Ages and back into recorded history allowing for the philosophies of the Presocratics to be recorded and passed down to us today.

The Phoenician expansion West was spurred on by the search for mineral resources lacking the Levant (Warmington 1969, p.22-26). At first settling trading posts, mostly on small islands off the coast of Africa and Spain. Africa was largely occupied by tribes of the same language and Badarian decent. They had little in the sense of territorial unity; most likely a territorial factor as the harsh North African environment afforded little opportunity in way of rivers for farming and communication. The posts which the Phoenicians established - some would later flourish into major settlements and cities under the Carthaginians - were mostly established to facilitate trade from Iberia. Iberia, which had been a substantial source of tin and silver throughout Ancient history and even beforehand, was the major object of the Phoenician traders and settlers. Here too they established trading posts and then settlements on outlining islands and then further and further inland. Again, all of which would later fall under the control of the civilisations remarkably powerful successor; Carthage.

Added to timeline:

30 Apr 2018
1
0
1302
Western History and Philosophy
In memory of Micheal Scally.

Date:

jun 10, 1500 BC
dec 10, 539 BC
~ 961 years

Images:

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