Phoenicia

The Levantine seafarers who spread the alphabet across the Mediterranean.

Capital: Tyre, Sidon, Byblos · Middle East (West Asia)

Overview

Phoenician city-states from Byblos, Tyre and Sidon dominated Mediterranean trade in the early Iron Age. Their most consequential export was the alphabet, ancestor of every European script.

Timeline

c. 1200 BCEPost-Bronze Age Collapse Phoenician expansion
c. 1050 BCEPhoenician alphabet in use
814 BCEFounding of Carthage
332 BCEAlexander destroys Tyre

Rulers

Hiram I of Tyre

c. 980 – 947 BCE

Ally of Solomon

Wars & conflicts

Assyrian sieges
Siege of Tyre (332 BCE)

Architecture

Harbor cities on offshore islands; the Temple of Melqart at Tyre.

Religion

Baal, Astarte, Melqart, Eshmun.

Economy

Cedar timber, purple dye, glass, and long-distance shipping.

Technology

Bireme ships, celestial navigation, glass-making, the phonetic alphabet.

Art

Ivory carvings, metal bowls, distinctive sarcophagi.

Influence

Every alphabet from Greek and Latin to Arabic and Hebrew descends from Phoenician.

Decline

Absorbed by Persians, then Alexander; Punic Carthage carried the tradition west.

Key sites

Byblos
Tyre
Sidon
Baalbek

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