Phoenicians (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain who were the Phoenicians, what was their religion and society. In addition, what are its characteristics and cultural features.

Who were the Phoenicians?

The Phoenicians were the former residents of Levante, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, a region known at that time as Canaan. They were large navigators, which established trade routes along the Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Black Sea. Between 2800 and 700 a. C., the Phoenician cities of Biblos, Sidon and Tire managed to control the trade of the region alternately and maintain their political autonomy.

The Phoenicians They called themselves Canaanitesin reference to the region that inhabited. Other civilizations they traded gave them other names. The ancient Greeks called them Phoínikes (“Red, purple”), due to the purple dyes they traded. The name also derives from this word Punic that Latinos and the name used Phenicia that specialists use today.

Characteristics of the Phoenicians

The main characteristics of the Phoenicians were:

They inhabited the Levante region, north of Palestine, between 2800 and 700 a. C.
From its main cities, such as Biblos, Sidon and Shot, they controlled the trade of the Mediterranean Sea.
They founded dozens of colonies and commercial factories on the Mediterranean coasts, and left a marked influence in North Africa, southern Spain and southern Italy.
They maintained the independence of their cities, and formed commercial and policies to defend themselves from the other powers of the region.
They organized their policy and society around commercial activity, controlled by merchant aristocrats that formed government councils in each city and limited the power of the kings.
They influenced the cultures of the region, by exchanging goods, services and ideas between distant territories and very different populations.
They created an alphabetical writing system that was later used by the Greeks and Latinos.

Geographic location of the Phoenicians

The Phoenicians settled in Levante, a territory that extends along the Mediterranean coastbetween the sea and the mountains of Lebanon, from the mouth of the Gold River, to the north, to the Bay of Haifa to the south. Currently, this space is occupied by the countries of Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Palestine.

History of the Phoenicians

Specialists divide the history of the Phoenicians in three major periods:

2800-1600 a. C. At this stage the city of Biblos predominated, which had commercial relations with the kingdom of Egypt. His support allowed him to impose and influence the rest of the Phoenician cities. However, he ended up subjecting to the Egyptian government and lost its commercial predominance in the region.
1600-1200 a. C. The city of Sidon acquired more importance and extended its commercial routes through the Mediterranean, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. Towards the end of the period, the Greeks evicted the Phoenicians of the Aegean Sea and the peoples of the sea began a series of attacks on the city.
1200-700 a. C. In this period, the city with the greatest preponderance was shot, located on an island near the coast of Levante. Their merchants used the open routes through the sidonians and extended them: they reached the Western Mediterranean, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and reached the British islands. On their way they founded commercial colonies, such as Carthage on the African coast. The growth of the city and its commercial power brought internal disputes and the empires of the region began to intercede. This weakened the city, which ended up losing its economic and political autonomy and, towards 700 a. C., was under the domain of the Assyrians.

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The Phoenicians They had a stratified society that was organized around trade. The highest class consisted of an aristocracy of the great families of slave merchants and traffickers. Then, there was a class of medium -sized merchants, who were in charge of smaller -scale commercial routes. The sailors and artisans made up the lowest class of society.

Political organization of the Phoenicians

The Phoenicians never had a centralized government. Instead, there was a set of cities-states that was having a greater or lesser level of regional influence according to their wealth and political power. These cities were independent and formed political and commercial alliances to maintain their autonomy against the rest of the kingdoms and empires of the region.

Each city was led by a king and it was believed that its power was of divine origin. However, its power was not absolute: The king exercised military and economic functionsbut shared the government with a council of elders, composed of the parents of aristocratic families.

The Phoenicians did not conquer the territories to which they reached their commercial routes. Instead, They founded their own colonies and commercial factories (enclaves dedicated to production). In this way, they developed a network of support, production and distribution points, for their commercial routes.

Economics of the Phoenicians

The Phoenician economy was essentially maritime, with a strong dynamic exchange between their own cities and abroad. They became a commercial power in the region, which is why they are considered the great merchants of antiquity.

The main commercial activity was slave trafficwhich were captured by merchants themselves or bought in local markets. In addition, they traded silk and linen fabrics, oil, wine, resin, perfumes and all types of luxury goods. Its routes connected the Nile River Delta in Egypt with the Mediterranean Sea, the Islands of the Aegean Sea and the cities of Asian Mesopotamia.

Religion of the Phoenicians

The Phoenicians They were polytheistic and worshiped different gods. While each city had its main pantheon, in all the cult of Baal and Astarté was practiced, the divine marriage that the sun and the moon represented.
Some of the main gods of their mythology were:

I spotted. Main goddess of the cities of Sidon and Biblos (although with a presence in other Phoenician cities), it was the representation of fertility. She was also worshiped as the goddess of hunting, the war and patron of the navigators. He came to assimilate with the Greek Aphrodite or the Egyptian ISIS, and is represented with a lion, and holding a lotus flower and a snake, often with bare breasts or breastfeeding.
ESHMÚN. Worshiped in Sidon and Cyprus, and assimilated to Apollo and Esculapio in the Greco -Roman tradition, he was a healing God, in whose honor there were games similar to Greek Olympics, and whose winner was rewarded with a purple cloth.
Baal. It was a solar divinity to which the inhabitants of Asia Minor gave cult, and those peoples on which they had influence, such as the Phoenician. It was the deity of rain and war, and was one of the central gods of Phoenician worship.
Chusor. God of the gunsmiths, blacksmiths and fishermen, he is supposed to be the first of the navigators of humanity and the builder of the first temple to Baal. In addition, he was attributed to the invention of fishing, navigation and forge.
Hadad. He was the Phoenician God, storms and lightning, rain and wind. The Phoenicians thought it was their voice that rumbled in the middle of the storms.
Melkart. It was the Phoenician divinity of the city of Tire, equivalent to a phenician version of Baal. It was originally an agricultural and spring God, who was venerated through sacrificial rites, and acquired maritime content in Phenicia, in a clear example of religious syncretism. His name means “king of the city” and in Tire venerated him as such, and also considered the god of navigation and especially colonization.
Dagon. Possible syncretism among three gods (one ugaritico: Ben Dagón; a Sumerian: Dagan; and one Phoenician: Dagón), it was a maritime divinity represented as a creature half man, half fish. However, other interpretations associate it with agricultural voices (“spike” in Hebrew), although perhaps one of the few national gods of the Philistines.
Moloch. Supreme God and Protector of Carthage, was a deity-Toro similar to Minotaur. In honor of him, four young people a year were sacrificed, locked in a structure that was later burned.

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Culture of the Phoenicians

Phoenician Culture writing — The Phoenicians invented a phonetic alphabet that formed words with vowels and consonants.

The main cultural features of the Phoenicians were:

Art and architecture. For centuries, the Phoenicians used the Egyptian and Assyrian styles in their artistic and architectural designs. Artistic production had commercial purposes, so the ceramics and crafts took shapes and designs of those regions with which it was traded.
Writing. The Phoenicians created an alphabetical writing system, composed of 22 phonetic signs. The signs differentiated in vowels and consonants, which combined to form words. This system was easy to learn and use, so it was very convenient for commercial use. It was spread through the phenicious commercial routes and enclaves, and ended up being adopted by other peoples, such as the Greeks and Latinos, who took it as the basis for their own writing systems.
Maritime exploration. Throughout their history, the Phoenicians expand their commercial routes to increasingly distant sea spaces. In this sense, the colonies foundation was key, which allowed them to ensure ports and deposits of merchandise. They were traveling through the Mediterranean between March and October, and used two different routes (the south, along the African coast; and that of the north, between the Islands of the Aegean).
Economic exchange. For commercial exchanges, the Phoenicians had different methods: they negotiated directly from the ships to the ports they arrived, landed on the beach and negotiated with the inhabitants of the place, or downloaded the merchandise on the beach and waited for local inhabitants to make their offers.
Cultural exchange. Through commercial relations, the Phoenicians became culture bearers between the different regions. With their constant contact, they favored the dissemination and mutation of various cultural traditions.

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References

Liverani, M. (1995). The Phoenicians. The Old East. History, society and economy. Critical Editorial.
Blanco Frejeiro, A., González, C. and Schubart, H. (1985). The Phoenicians. History Notebooks 16 (Vol. 1).
Wagner, CG (1989). Phoenicians, History of the ancient world. East. (Vol. 9). Akal editions
“Phoenician peoples” in Ancient Mundo.net.
“The Phoenicians, Origin and Evolution, Society, Economy, Religion” in History and Biographies.
“Phoenicians” (video) in Educatina.
“Did The Phoenicans Ever Exist?” In Haretz.