The Phoenicians were a seafaring civilization that originated in the Levant region in the 2nd millennium BC and were based out of city-states along the coast of modern day Lebanon. They established vast trading networks across the Mediterranean and founded colonies to expand trade. The Phoenicians were skilled shipbuilders and navigators who traded goods like timber, glass, dye, and metals. They developed innovations like the Phoenician alphabet, which influenced other cultures like the Greeks. Over time the Phoenicians came under rule of various empires as their trade power declined. Their civilization was eventually absorbed by others like the Greeks and Romans.

1. The Phoenician Civilization
Boutkhil Guemide
University Mohammed
Boudiaf, M’sila
Algeria

2. INTRODUCTION
• The Phoenicians: Great mariners of the ancient world, and their maritime
realm was organized into city-states akin to the Greeks.
• There was never a country or empire called “Phoenicia”: A possible origin
of the historical name for this Semitic/ Canaanite culture might have come
from the ancient Greek Φοινίκη (Phoiníkē) meaning “Purple Land.”
• The Phoenicians were famous in their own time for their dark purple dye—
a rare and prized commodity.
• Inhabitants of the Phoenician city-states along the Eastern Mediterranean
coast (like Sidon and Tyre) might have called themselves Kenaani
(Canaanites);
• The Phoenician culture originated in the Eastern Mediterranean region of
the Levant (Southern Syria, Lebanon and Northern Israel) in the 2nd
millennium BC.
• The Phoenicians founded the coastal city-states of Byblos, Sidon and
Tyre.
• Over the centuries merchants and explorers from these city-states spread
across the Mediterranean; and perhaps even navigated as far as the
British Isles to bring back tin, along with copper, for the making of bronze.
• The peak of Phoenician colonization took place in the centuries after the
Late Bronze Age collapse of 1200 BC: The Levantine city-states took
advantage of the power vacuum after the fall of several major civilizations.

3. Phoenicia 1200 BC–539 BC
Phoenicia: The western part
of the Fertile Crescent and
was on the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea,
The capital of Phoenicia was
Byblos from 1200 B.C –1000
B.C and then Tyre from 1000
B.C-539 B.C.
Today Phoenicia was where
modern day Cyprus,
Lebanon, Israel and Syria
are located.

4. LOCATION• C. 1200 BC:, A small group of Phoenician traders from the
Levant prospered and gradually expanded their influence
across the Mediterranean.
• Instead of acquiring a physical empire of contiguous lands,
they gradually built a large trading and colonial network from
their home base of a few independent city- states along the
coast of Lebanon, Southern Syria and Northern Israel.
• Spreading westward, the Phoenicians founded colonies on
Cyprus and in the region of the Aegean Sea (including the
coast of Turkey); on the islands of Malta, Sardinia, Sicily and
the Balearic archipelago; and in North Africa, Spain and
Portugal.
• Independent city- states sharing a Semitic language and a
belief system originating in the Eastern Mediterranean.
• The most important of these earliest Phoenician city- states
were in Canaan: Ṣūr (Tyre), Ṣīdūn (Sidon) and Gebal— called
“Byblos”
• Coastal cities were hemmed on by Lebanon Mountains.

5. Origin of the Phoenicians
The oldest of these theories was conveyed to us by
the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who suggested
the Phoenicians had come from the Red (Erythraean)
Sea,
Herodotus:
Originally, these people came to our sea from the
Red Sea, as it is known. No sooner had they
settled in the land they still inhabit than they turned
to overseas travel. (Herodotus 1:1)
The second theory: The Phoenicians had arisen out of
the wider group of people known as Canaanites, who
many years earlier had populated the wide swath of
land between Anatolia (modern Turkey) and Egypt.

6. Phoenician Location
Present day
Lebanon
33.50º North
 35.50º East
Popular cities:
Tyre
Byblos
Sidon

7. Geography
 Narrow coastal
planes
 Beeka Valley
separates
 Borders Israel &
Syria

8. Climate
 Mediterranean
Mild to cool
Wet winters
Dry, hot summers
 Mountains  heavy rain
& snow

9. Resources
Snails - most
valuable dye
60,000 snails
to 1 pound
Cedar trees-
hard, usable
wood

10. RISE TO POWER• C. 1200 BC: Canaanite traders had been restricted to the Levantine
coast (modern-day Lebanon, Northern Israel and Southern Syria),
Egypt, and the southern coast of Anatolia.
• The Canaanite coastal towns were usually governed by Egypt, and one
of their principal businesses was providing wood and provisions to the
Nile region.
• The Phoenician cities were well positioned for this enterprise, being
located literally in the center of the known world.
• For any of the three regions to trade with another, the easiest route
was through the Phoenician city-states.
• The Phoenicians were growing rich as traders, and this attracted
enemies, principally the Assyrians and Babylonians. In the face of
repeated assaults or heavy tribute payments, the Tyrians adopted the
strategy of establishing colonies to the west.
• The most important Phoenician colony was at Carthage, established in
the 9th century BC: Other important colonies were in Sicily, Corsica,
Malta, Sardinia, and Spain.
• Over the next 500 years, Carthage grew rapidly in size and power:
Much of its wealth came from highly productive ore mines of Spain.
• Carthage fought for control of the Western Mediterranean first with the
Greeks and then with the Romans.

12. Phoenician
Government• Phoenicians had their
civilization divided into
city/states,
• Independent
governments ran each
city/state,
• Some times city/states
worked together some
times they did not,
• A king ran each city/state.

13. Phoenician Military
• The Phoenicians were
generally a very peaceful
civilization,
• The first Phoenician military
was created in 550 B.C
because the Greeks were
pushing the Phoenicians back
to the western part of Sicily,
• 70 years of battles followed.
Then Phoenicia returned to its
peaceful life style.

14. ECONOMY
• Trade- based economy,
• Timber, woodworking, glass manufacturing, shipping, and dye,
• Phoenician dyes were made from the secretions of the
carnivorous murex sea snail,
• Phoenician city- states: Centers of maritime trade and
manufacturing,
• Having limited natural resources, they imported raw materials
and fashioned them into more valuable objects that could be
shipped profitably, such as jewelry, ivory carvings metalwork,
furniture, housewares, and specialty items like painted ostrich
eggs,
• They borrowed techniques and styles from all corners of the
world that they touched as traders,
• By fortifying strongholds in Sicily and North Africa, the
Phoenicians effectively denied other traders access to the
riches of Spain (silver and ore), West Africa (gold, exotic woods,
and slaves), and Britain (tin, a crucial resource for to bronze),
• Phoenician traders brought frankincense & cinnamon to the
Aegean.

15. Trade
• Leading sailors and traders of ancient world. They
traded their:
– Cloth
– Dye (purple dye prized by kings, made from
shellfish murex)
– Glass
– Pottery
• Traded to get:
– Tin (Britannia)
– Hides, ivory, ostrich feathers, and slaves
(Africa)
– Gold, precious stones, and spices (India)

16. • The cedar wood from the forests
was used to build strong, fast
ships,
• The Mediterranean Sea: For easy
transportation to trade with other
people.

17. • They used their skill in making
business agreements, and
turned this into peace treaties
with their neighbors.

18. Phoenician Colonies
• The Phoenicians established
trading colonies throughout
the Mediterranean region,
• A colony is a region controlled
by a distant country,
• Carthage was a famous
Phoenician trading colony in
North Africa.

20. What The Phoenicians Made
• The Phoenicians created the color purple
–They become known as the “Purple
People”
• The only place you could buy purple
goods was Tyre (Tyrian Purple)
• Purple is very expensive to make
–So expensive to make and buy that it
becomes known as the “ Imperial
Color” (The color of emperors)
• Emperors were said to “ wear the
purple” when they became emperors

22. How to Make Purple
•The
Phoenicians
would crush
shells and
make the
shells into a
purple dye

23. Social classes

24. FAMILY LIFE
The men had control over the
family,
Men could sell their wives, or
the children to pay off debts,
Women were held high in the
family,
Only priests and scribes could
read and write

25. Rights of slaves
Laws protected slaves from
mistreatment
Slaves could earn their own
money, purchase property,
and own their own freedom
A freed slave could reach high
office in the community

26. Rights of women
No evidence of polygamy
 In the case of divorce, the
woman was given her
possessions
Had fundamental rights
Women could press charges,
make trading contracts, invest in
trading, and adopt heirs

27. Phoenician
Religion• The Phoenicians believed in was Canaanite
religion,
• Canaanite religion was polytheistic meaning
they worshiped more than one god,
• They believed in the after life.
• Canaanite religion was practiced from the
early Bronze Age to the first centuries of the
Common Era,
• Their gods required sacrifices to forestall
disaster, especially Baal, the God of
Storms, and his consort Tanit.
• The Bible, Roman, and Greek accounts tell
of child sacrifices practiced regularly by the
Phoenicians. Storm god
Chief god of Carthage

28. Phoenician Culture
• The Phoenicians
invented a version of a
phonetic alphabet.
• The oldest find with the
Phoenician alphabet on
it dated back to the 11th
century B.C at the latest
time.
• The Greeks adopted the
Phoenician alphabet in
to their society. They
changed some of the
letters in to vowels.

29. Phoenician
Achievement• The Phoenicians invented the 1st writing
system: A version of the alphabet with no
vowels,
• An alphabet based on symbols representing
sounds is easier to learn than the use of
characters.
• The Greeks added the vowels later,
• The Phoenicians traded many things such as
gold, silver, tin, wood, glass, slaves, purple dye,
wine and hunting dogs,
• They were very good sailors, making it easy for
them to trade because they could cross the
Mediterranean Sea.

30. Phoenician Accomplishments

31. E. Napp
Phoenician coins:
Phoenician money was
minted by individual cities.

32. ARCHITECTURE
• There is little archaeological evidence revealing
the architecture of the Phoenicians: Many of their
cities were destroyed in ancient times and now lie
buried under modern structures,
• Most Phoenician citadels were situated on
coastal areas,
• An artificial protected inner harbor (called a
cothon) was a unique feature of many Phoenician
city-states;
• Phoenician cities were usually surrounded by
curtain walls protecting urban areas, sanctuaries,
public buildings and workshops.
• The city’s necropolis (cemetery) was located
outside.

33. The Temple of Solomon

35. CONFLICT
 They were
successively
conquered by the
Egyptians, Assyrians,
Babylonians, Persians,
Greeks, and Romans
 The rise of Greece
destroyed Phoenicia’s
eastern Mediterranean
trade routes

36. conflict
The Persians then conquered the
Phoenicians because of the loss
of trade power
Phoenicians retreated to
Carthage
There they prospered until the
were destroyed by Romans in the
Punic Wars

37. Fall of Phoenicia
The Phoenician
empire fell when
Alexander the Great
defeated Persia,
Over time all of the
city states were
conquered,
Phoenicia and its
culture disappeared,
It later became Syria.

38. Conclusion
Failed to use their elements of
national power,
Succeeded economically, but
did not use their wealth to
protect their own borders,
They made contributions
which were fundamental in
future civilizations.

40. Thank You