Ancient Canaan Dwellers – 3 / The Phoenicians

The Most Powerful  of Canaanites  – The Phoenicians

In terms of archeology, language, and religion, there is little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other local cultures of Canaan, because they were Canaanites themselves. However, they are unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements. Indeed, in the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC they call themselves Kenaani or Kinaani (Canaanites). Note, however, that the Amarna letters predate the invasion of the Sea Peoples by over a century. Much later in the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus writes that Phoenicia was formerly called ???, a name Philo of Byblos later adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: “Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix“. Egyptian seafaring expeditions had already been made to Byblos to bring back “cedars of Lebanon” as early as the third millennium BC.

Archaeologists argue that the Phoenicians are simply the descendants of coastal-dwelling Canaanites, who over the centuries developed a particular seagoing culture and skills. Other suggestions are that Phoenician culture must have been inspired from external sources (Egypt, North Africa etc.), that the Phoenicians were sea-traders from the Land of Punt who co-opted the Canaanite population; or that they were connected with the Minoans, or the Sea Peoples or the Philistines further south; or even that they represent the maritime activities of the coastal Israelite tribes like Dan, who from the Song of Deborah in Judges, are listed as being “amongst their ships“.

Historian Gerhard Herm [1]  asserts that, because the Phoenicians’ legendary sailing abilities are not well attested before the invasions of the Sea Peoples around 1200 BC, that these Sea Peoples would have merged with the local population to produce the Phoenicians, whom he says gained these abilities rather suddenly at that time. There is also archaeological evidence that the Philistines, often thought of as related to the Sea Peoples, were culturally linked to Mycenaean Greeks, who were also known to be great sailors even in this period.

The question of the Phoenicians’ origin persists. Archaeologists have pursued the origin of the Phoenicians for generations, basing their analyses on excavated sites, the remains of material culture, contemporary texts set into contemporary contexts, as well as linguistics. In some cases, the debate is characterized by modern cultural agendas. Ultimately, the origins of the Phoenicians are still unclear: where they came from and just when (or if) they arrived, and under what circumstances, are all still energetically disputed.

In 2004, two Harvard University educated geneticists and leading scientists of the National Geographic Genographic Project, Dr. Pierre Zalloua and Dr. Spencer Wells identified the haplogroup of the Phoenicians as haplogroup J2, with avenues open for future research. As Dr. Wells commented, “The Phoenicians were the Canaanites—and the ancestors of today’s Lebanese.” The male populations of Tunisia and Malta were also included in this study and shown to share overwhelming genetic similarities with the Lebanese-Phoenicians.

Spencer Wells of the Genographic Project has conducted genetic studies which demonstrate that male populations of Lebanon and Malta and other areas which are past Phoenician settlements, share a common m89 chromosome Y type [2] , while male populations which are related with the Minoans or with the Sea Peoples have completely different genetic markers. This implies that Minoans and Sea Peoples probably didn’t have any ancestral relation with the Phoenicians. The Phoenician’s nickname “Purple People” came from the purple dye they manufactured in Mesopotamia and Mogador.

The Phoenicians were also the first state level society to make extensive use of the alphabet, and the Canaanite-Phoenician alphabet is generally believed to be the ancestor of all modern alphabets. Phoenicians spoke the Phoenician language, which belongs to the group of Canaanite languages in the Semitic language family e.g. Hebrew, Arabic, etc. Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to North Africa and Europe where it was adopted by the Greeks and Etruscans [3] . In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians, contrary to some reports, wrote many books, which have not survived. Evangelical Preparation by Eusebius of Caesarea quotes extensively from Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon. Furthermore, the Phoenician Punic colonies of North Africa continued to be a source of knowledge about the Phoenicians. Saint Augustine knew at least a smattering of Punic and occasionally uses it to explain cognate words found in Hebrew. The name of his mother, Saint Monica, is said to be of Punic origin as well.

The name Phoenician, through Latin punicus, comes from Greek phoînix, attested since Homer and altered from Linear B ponikijo, was ultimately borrowed from Ancient Egyptian Fnkhw “Syrian people ” [4] .The name appears to have been modified or influenced in form by Greek phoînix “Tyrian purple, crimson; murex” (from phoinos “blood red” [5] ), an association probably patterned after Semitic kinahna “Syrian coast” and kinahhu “purple dye”, already attested in the 2nd millennium BCE . [6]

Cyrus the Great conquered Phoenicia in 539 BCE. Phoenicia was divided into four vassal kingdoms by the Persians: Sidon, Tyre, Arwad, and Byblos, and prospered, furnishing fleets for the Persian kings. However, Phoenician influence declined after this. It is also reasonable to suppose that much of the Phoenician population migrated to Carthage and other colonies following the Persian conquest, as it is roughly then (under King Hanno) that we first hear of Carthage as a powerful maritime entity. In 350 or 345 BCE a rebellion in Sidon led by Tennes was crushed by Artaxerxes III, and its destruction was described, perhaps too dramatically, by Diodorus Siculus.

Alexander the Great took Tyre in 332 BC following the Siege of Tyre. Alexander was exceptionally harsh to Tyre, executing 2000 of the leading citizens, but he maintained the king in power. He gained control of the other cities peacefully: the ruler of Aradus submitted; the king of Sidon was overthrown. The rise of Hellenistic Greece gradually ousted the remnants of Phoenicia’s former dominance over the Eastern Mediterranean trade routes, and Phoenician culture disappeared entirely in the motherland. However, its North African offspring, Carthage, continued to flourish, mining iron and precious metals from Iberia, and using its considerable naval power and mercenary armies to protect its commercial interests, until it was finally destroyed by Rome in 146 BC at the end of the Punic Wars.

As for the Phoenician homeland, following Alexander it was controlled by a succession of Hellenistic rulers: Laomedon (323 BCE), Ptolemy I (320), Antigonus II (315), Demetrius (301), and Seleucus (296). Between 286 and 197 BCE, Phoenicia (except for Aradus) fell to the Ptolemies of Egypt, who installed the high priests of Astarte as vassal rulers in Sidon (Eshmunazar I, Tabnit, Eshmunazar II). In 197 BC, Phoenicia along with Syria reverted to the Seleucids, and the region became increasingly Hellenized, although Tyre actually became autonomous in 126 BCE, followed by Sidon in 111. Syria, including Phoenicia, were seized by king Tigranes the Great from 82 until 69 BC when he was defeated by Lucullus, and in 65 BCE Pompey finally incorporated it as part of the Roman province of Syria.

Phoenician culture had a huge effect upon the cultures of the Mediterranean basin in the early Iron Age. For example, in Greece, the tripartite division between Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, seems to have been influenced by the Phoenician division between Baal, Mot and Yam. Stories like the Rape of Europa, and the coming of Cadmus also draw upon Phoenician influence. The recovery of the Mediterranean economy after the late Bronze Age collapse, seems to have been largely due to the work of Phoenician traders and merchant princes, who re-established long distance trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia in the 10th century BCE.

Phoenician motifs are also present in the Orientalising period of Greek art, and Phoenicians also played a formative role in Etruscan civilization in Tuscany. Phoenician temples in various Mediterranean ports sacred to Phoenician Melkart, during the classical period, were recognized as sacred to Hercules. The Ionian revolution was led by philosophers such as Thales of Miletus or Pythagoras, both of whom had Phoenician fathers.

Phoenicians in the Bible. Hiram (also spelled Huran) associated with the building of the Solomon temple in Jerusalem.

The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father [was] a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him…2 Chronicles 2:1

This is the architect of the Temple, Hiram Abiff of Masonic lore. They are vastly famous for their purple dye. Later, reforming prophets railed against the practice of drawing royal wives from among foreigners: Elijah execrated Jezebel, the princess from Tyre who became a consort of King Ahab and introduced the worship of her gods.

The word Bible itself ultimately derives through Greek from the word Byblos which means Book, and not from the hellenized Phoenician city of Byblos (which was called Gebal), before it was named by the Greeks as Byblos. The Greeks called it Byblos because it was through Gebal that bublos (B????? ["Egyptian papyrus") was imported into Greece. Present day Byblos is under the current Arabic name of Jbeil (Jubayl) derived from Gebal.

NOTES:

[1]  Gerhard Herm Die Phönizier. Das Purpurreich der Antike. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1987  (English translation: The Phoenicians: The Purple Empire of the Ancient World, 1975.
[2]  In the Wake of the Phoenicians: DNA study reveals a Phoenician-Maltese link”, National Geographic, 8 January 2008.
[3]  Edward Clodd, Story of the Alphabet (Kessinger) 2003:192ff
[4] Sinuhe, B220. Said “Fenesh/w”. Refers specifically to Phoenician area. Urk.
[5]  Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993.
[6]  Gray, John. The Canaanites. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964: 15.