The Phoenicians were a Semitic-speaking people who settled in city-states along the coast of present-day Lebanon. They lacked natural resources so relied on seafaring trade, coming to dominate Mediterranean trade by 900 BC. They established colonies throughout the region and invented the first alphabet, which was adopted by the Greeks and forms the basis of modern alphabets. Their trade and colonies encouraged cultural diffusion in the ancient world.

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The Phoenicians

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Phoenicia was located in Southwest Asia.

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Phoenicians
• The Phoenicians were a Semitic-speaking
people.
• They settled in small city-states in present-
day Lebanon.
• There were few natural resources in their
land. So, they turned to the seas.

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The Phoenicians were seafaring traders.
They sailed the Mediterranean sea.

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Phoenician Traders
• By 900 B.C., the Phoenicians dominated
Mediterranean trade.
• The Phoenicians were able to build a
civilization without relying on agriculture.
• Income generated by trade allowed the
Phoenicians to build permanent
settlements.

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These are Phoenician coins.
Phoenician money was minted
by individual cities.

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The World’s First Alphabet
• The Phoenicians invented the world’s first
alphabet.
• Each of the twenty-two Phoenician
alphabet symbols represented a different
sound.
• The Greeks adopted the Phoenician
alphabet. From the Phoenician and Greek
alphabets come our alphabet.

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An alphabet based on symbols
representing sounds is easier to learn
than the use of characters.

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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.

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Carthage was a Phoenician colony located
in North Africa.

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Phoenician Purple
• The Phoenicians made their own purple
dye.
• The Phoenicians had a monopoly on the
market for purple.
• The Phoenicians crushed shellfish to
make their purple dye.

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The Phoenicians established many colonies.

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Travel and trade encouraged cultural
diffusion.