The Phoenicians Flashcards
The Origin of the Pheonicians?
About 3000 BC
There were Semitic speaking peoples such as the Canaanites.
They lived on the coasts of the E. Mediterranean Sea.
It was around the great port of Byblos in modern day Lebanon.
Where does the name ‘Pheonician’ come from?
It comes from pheinix.
It is the Greek word for a purple dye made by them.
It was made from the shells of Murex sea snails.
How did the Pheonicians gain their wealth?
They were great sea traders, the greatest in the ancient world.
Their ports at Tyre are Sidon welcomed ships from all over the world carrying goods.
What did the Pheonicians make?
They made cloth using wool from Mesopotamia and flax and linen from Egypt.
They also made slpendid jewellery from imported gems, metal and ivory.
What did the Pheonicians invent?
They invented the first alphabet.
The Pheonician words aleph (ox) and beth (house) became the greek letters alpha and beta.
The word ‘bible’ and prefix ‘bybli-‘ (meaning books) came from the city of Byblos.
What did the Pheonicians do in about 600 BC?
They sailed from the Red Sea right around Africa and back into the Mediterranean.
Where were the Pheonician colonies and which was the largest?
The colonies stretched as far as Gades (now Cadiz) across the mediterreanean.
The largest colony was Carthage in modern day Tunisia
