[5] It has become conventional to refer to the script as "Proto-Canaanite" until the mid-11th century BC, when it is first attested on inscribed bronze arrowheads, and as "Phoenician" only after 1050 BC. During most of its existence, Phoenician writing showed no vowels at all, and even as vowel notation systems did eventually arise late in its history, they never came to be applied consistently to native vocabulary. Phoenicia, ancient region along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean that corresponds to modern Lebanon, with adjoining parts of modern Syria and Israel. Local Phoenician kings were allowed to remain in power and given the same rights as Persian satraps (governors), such as hereditary offices and minting their coins. Late Punic epigraphy: an introduction to the study of Neo-Punic and Latino-Punic Inscriptions, Kerr, Robert M. 2010. [56] Phoenicians under Xerxes I built the Xerxes Canal and the pontoon bridges that allowed his forces to cross into mainland Greece. The amphora, a type of container used for both dry and liquid goods, was an ancient Phoenician invention that became a standardized measurement of volume for close to two thousand years. The Arabic language is considered to exist in multiple forms: formal Arabic, commonly known as Modern Standard Arabic (a modern incarnation of Koranic or Classical Arabic), which is used in written documents and formal contexts; and dialectal variants, numbering some thirty vernacular speech forms, used in day-to-day contexts, and varying widely from country to country. Cypriot Phoenician displays z [iza] instead of z [za]. The Amarna letters report that from 1350 to 1300 BC, neighboring Amorites and Hittites were capturing Phoenician cities, especially in the north. 2001 Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Phoenicia (/fn, fni/)[4] was an ancient Semitic thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. 2005. [85] The common grape vine may have been domesticated by the Phoenicians or Canaanites, although it most likely arrived from Transcaucasia via trade routes across Mesopotamia or the Black Sea. [9] However, the very slight differences in language and the insufficient records of the time make it unclear whether Phoenician formed a separate and united dialect or was merely a superficially defined part of a broader language continuum. [32], As is typical for the Semitic languages, Phoenician words are usually built around consonantal roots and vowel changes are used extensively to express morphological distinctions. ed. [62] When the Macedonians sought to appoint a new king over Sidon, the citizens nominated their candidate.[62]. Geographer and historian Jack Keilo criticized Phoenicianist claims as anachronistic, noting that "Phoenicians" and "Phoenicia" only existed in the Greek context and under the Roman Empire. Under their rule, the Phoenicians were allowed a considerable degree of autonomy and self-governance.[51]. [77] Strabo states that there was a highly lucrative Phoenician trade with Britain for tin via the Cassiterides, whose location is unknown but may have been off the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, they were organized into independent city-states that shared a common language and culture. The Phoenicians were a Semitic-speaking people of somewhat unknown origin who emerged in the Levant around 3000 BC. [52][55], The Phoenicians remained a core asset to the Achaemenid Empire, particularly for their prowess in maritime technology and navigation;[52] they furnished the bulk of the Persian fleet during the Greco-Persian Wars of the late fifth century BC. Women in Phoenicia took part in public events and religious processions, with depictions of banquets showing them casually sitting or reclining with men, dancing, and playing music. ", "Long-lost Phoenician figurines could reveal secrets to ancient cult", Phoenician and the Phoenicians in the context of the Ancient Near East, BBC Radio4 In Our Time: The Phoenicians (audio archive), The quest for the Phoenicians in South Lebanon, "Phoenicia: An imaginary friend to nations in need of ancestors", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoenicia&oldid=1161912109, Bondi, S. F. 1988. Tamazight of the Ayt Ndhir. /-ki()/ k . There was no equivalent in the Egyptian homeland.[42]. [45] Phoenician hacksilver dated to this period bears lead isotope ratios matching ores in Sardinia and Spain, indicating the extent of Phoenician trade networks. [22] [125] Other gods were called by royal titles, such as Melqart, meaning "king of the city",[126] or Adonis for "lord". 562 BC). Such festival groups may also have composed the voting cohort for selecting members of the city-state's Assembly. Perhaps the most interesting case of Punic influence is that of the name of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising Portugal and Spain), which, according to one of the theories, is derived from the Punic I-Shaphan meaning "coast of hyraxes", in turn a misidentification on the part of Phoenician explorers of its numerous rabbits as hyraxes. "A Sequence of Vowel Shifts in Phoenician and Other Languages. [21][22], Being a society of independent city-states, the Phoenicians apparently did not have a term to denote the land of Phoenicia as a whole;[23] instead, demonyms were often derived from the name of the city an individual hailed from (e.g., Sidonian for Sidon, Tyrian for Tyre, etc.) Hackett[21] vs Segert[25] and Lyavdansky). Tubb, Jonathan N. (1998), "Canaanites" (British Museum People of the Past). Phoenician (/ f n i n / f-NEE-shn) is an extinct Canaanite Semitic language originally spoken in the region surrounding the cities of Tyre and Sidon.Extensive Tyro-Sidonian trade and commercial dominance led to Phoenician becoming a lingua franca of the maritime Mediterranean during the Iron Age.The Phoenician alphabet spread to Greece during this period, where it became the . [29] That must represent a borrowing into Punic. They did however share a common language, common religious practices, ethnic origin and a common maritime trade culture.[18]. Sidon was dominant between the 12th and 11th centuries BC and influenced its neighbors. Ancient DNA reveals Phoenician tracks in the Mediterranean ", Schmitz, Philip C. "Phoenician-Punic Grammar and Lexicography in the New Millennium. [79], Mining operations in the Phoenician homeland were limited; iron was the only metal of any worth. (French), This page was last edited on 30 May 2023, at 12:57. Since little has survived of Phoenician records or literature, most of what is known about their origins and history comes from the accounts of other civilizations and inferences from their material culture excavated throughout the Mediterranean. Punic colonisation spread Phoenician to the western Mediterranean, where the distinct Punic language developed. The period is sometimes described as a "Phoenician renaissance. The Phoenicians developed an expansive maritime trade network that lasted over a millennium, helping facilitate the exchange of cultures, ideas, and knowledge between major cradles of civilization such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. l- could also introduce vocatives. Hereditary kings usually governed with absolute power over civic, commercial, and religious affairs. From a traditional linguistic perspective, Phoenician was composed of a variety of dialects. [85] To prevent oxidation, vessels were sealed with a layer of olive oil, pinewood, and resin. /-ya()/ y), Plural: Around 1050 BC,[36] the Phoenicians developed a script for writing their own language. Indefinite pronouns are "anything" is written mnm (possibly pronounced [minuma], similar to Akkadian [minume]) and mnk (possibly pronounced [minuka]). P.79, Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions: M-T Front Cover Jacob Hoftijzer, Karel Jongeling, Richard C. Steiner, Bezalel Porten, Adina Mosak Moshavi P.1176. P.105 ff. '[122], Warship with two rows of oars, in relief from, Two Assyrian representations of ships, which could represent Phoenician vessels, Emergence during the Late Bronze Age (14791200 BC), Vassalage under the Assyrians and Babylonians (858538 BC), Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. The Seleucid Kingdom, including Phoenicia, was seized by Tigranes the Great of Armenia in 82 BC, ending the Hellenistic influence on the region. He comments that 'other texts in addition to II Kings 23:10 unhesitatingly describe child sacrifice among the Israelites', and points to I Kings 16:34. In. The original value of the Proto-Semitic sibilants, and accordingly of their Phoenician counterparts, is disputed. [10] In the east of the Mediterranean region, the language was in use as late as the 1st century BC,[11] when it seems to have gone extinct there. The basic word order is verb-subject-object. [10] The Phoenicians developed or mastered techniques such as glass-making, engraved and chased metalwork (including bronze, iron, and gold), ivory carving, and woodwork.[79]. "One hundred" is mt, two hundred is its dual form mtm, whereas the rest are formed as in l mt (three hundred). The results are in, and Lebanese are definitely the descendants the ancient Canaanites - known to the Greeks as the Phoenicians. Ancient DNA study finds Phoenician from Carthage had European ancestry [94] A major motivating factor was competition with the Greeks, who began expanding across the Mediterranean during the same period. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Middle Eastern Studies [46], By the tenth century BC, Tyre rose to become the richest and most powerful Phoenician city-state, particularly during the reign of Hiram I (c. 969936 BC). "[13]:1314. Request Permissions. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [10], Carthage was founded by Phoenicians coming from Tyre, probably initially as a station in the metal trade with the southern Iberian Peninsula. [105][106] Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to Anatolia, North Africa, and Europe. In addition, according to some research, the same written forms of the enclitics that are attested after vowels are also found after a singular noun in what must have been the genitive case (which ended in /-i/, whereas the plural version ended in /-/). Most of the stems apparently also had passive and reflexive counterparts, the former differing through vowels, the latter also through the infix -t-. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. Laws were implemented by the state and were the responsibility of the ruler and certain designated officials. The verb inflects for person, number, gender, tense and mood. The relative power and influence of city-states varied over time. Phoenicianism has developed from an ideology into a full-fledged myth. However, by the tenth century BC, Tyre rose to become the most powerful city. Polybius recounts how the Seleucid King Demetrius I escaped from Rome by boarding a Carthaginian ship that was delivering goods to Tyre. In those records, it means "crimson" or "palm tree" and does not denote a group of people. Josephine Quinn, associate professor in ancient history at Worcester College, University of Oxford, writes that:[10]. Details regarding the duties of these offices are sparse. These were compiled in Wilhelm Gesenius's Scripturae linguaeque Phoeniciae monumenta, which comprised all that was known of Phoenician by scholars at that time. [82] The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador, in present-day Morocco. By 738 BC, most of the Levant, including northern Phoenicia, were annexed; only Tyre and Byblos, the most powerful city-states, remained tributary states outside of direct Assyrian control. Initially, they were not annexed outrightthey remained in a state of vassalage, subordinate to the Assyrians but allowed a certain degree of freedom. In later Punic, the laryngeals and pharyngeals seem to have been entirely lost. the east, Carthage, a city that was settled by Phoenicians fleeing Tyre in 813 BCE, became the centre of western Phoenician, or Punic, dominance until its destruction in 146 BCE by the Romans in the 3rd Punic War. ",[47] accordingly / *pal tipul/ "you will indeed do!". On land they were renowned temple builders, including of the First Temple, the Temple of Solomon. Ancient DNA from the Phoenician remains found in Sardinia and Lebanon could provide insight into the extent of integration with settled communities and human movement during this time period . The participles had, in the G-stem, the following forms: The missing forms above can be inferred from the correspondences between the Proto-Northwest Semitic ancestral forms and the attested Phoenician counterparts: the PNWS participle forms are */pil-, pilma, pil(a)t, pilt, pal, palm, pault or palat, palt/. hy and /huat/ ht [4] Among the Maronites, traditionally, Western Aramaic had been the spoken language up to the 17th century, when Arabic took its place, while classical Syriac remained in use only for liturgical purposes, as a sacred language (also considered as such in Judaism, alongside Hebrew). The researchers analysed. Phoenician colonies were fairly autonomous. Most Punic speakers may have been linguistically Berberized and/or Latinized after the fall of Carthage. . Ancient mitogenomes of Phoenicians from Sardinia and Lebanon: A story 1750 BC. Their wealth, power, and accomplishments were usually conveyed through ornate sarcophagi, like that of Ahiram of Byblos. The forms were apparently /yipil/ in the suffix conjugation (, Fox, Joshua. [79] The Iliad suggests Phoenician clothing and metal goods were highly prized by the Greeks. Lebanon | People, Economy, Religion, & History | Britannica It capitulated after a roughly seven month siege, during which many of its citizens fled to Carthage. While the traditional sound values are [] for , [s] for s, [z] for z, and [s] for ,[22] recent scholarship argues that was [s], s was [ts], z was [dz], and was [ts], as transcribed in the consonant table above. 2nd masc. [72] Archaeological research suggests that the Minoans gradually imported Near Eastern goods, artistic styles, and customs from other cultures via the Phoenicians. They all distinguish gender: d, /()nm[38] (construct state / ()n), l, rb, m, , b, / mn(h), t, /r/sr[39][40] vs t, unattested, lt, rbt, mt, t, bt, mnt,[41] unattested, rt. The researchers suggested that the proposed genetic signature stemmed from "a common source of related lineages rooted in Lebanon". Compared to most of their neighbors, the Phoenicians generally had little interest in conquest and were relatively peaceful. [citation needed], The people now known as Phoenicians, similar to the neighboring Israelites, Moabites and Edomites, were a Canaanite people. [21][20] For the phonetic values of the sibilants, see below. Eventually, Punic writers began to implement systems of marking of vowels by means of matres lectionis. Ancient mitogenomes of Phoenicians from Sardinia and Lebanon: A - PLOS [10] Phoenician settlement was primarily concentrated in Cyprus, Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, northwest Africa, the Balearic Islands, and southern Iberia. Phoenician cities revolted several times throughout the reigns of the first Babylonian King, Nabopolassar (626605 BC), and his son Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 605c. These migrants were estimated . [63], One 2018 study of mitochondrial lineages in Sardinia concluded that the Phoenicians were "inclusive, multicultural and featured significant female mobility," with evidence of indigenous Sardinians integrating "peacefully and permanently" with Semitic Phoenician settlers. The Phoenician alphabet is the oldest verified consonantal alphabet, or abjad. Phoenician kings did not commemorate their reign through sculptures or monuments. The cities provided Egypt with access to Mesopotamian trade and abundant stocks of the region's native cedarwood. The old Semitic jussive, which originally differed slightly from the prefix conjugation, is no longer possible to separate from it in Phoenician with the present data. Lebanon - Neolithic Revolution, Phoenicians, and Amarna Letters However, the specifics of the role, or city defense, are unknown. [12], Phoenician was written with the Phoenician script, an abjad (consonantary) originating from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet that also became the basis for the Greek alphabet and, via an Etruscan adaptation, the Latin alphabet. A third practice reported in the literature is the use of the consonantal letters for vowels in the same way as had occurred in the original adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet to Greek and Latin, which was apparently still transparent to Punic writers: h for [e] and 'lep for [a].[18]. The written forms and the reconstructed pronunciations of the personal pronouns are as follows:[36][37], Singular: /atta()/ t Lebanese context []. . 2nd masc. They often relied upon senior officials from the noble and merchant classes; the priesthood was a distinct class, usually of royal lineage or leading merchant families. 2009. . During the period of the Roman Empire, the native Phoenician language died out in Lebanon and was replaced by Aramaic as the vernacular. The remnants of self-cleaning artificial harbors have been discovered in Sidon, Tyre, Atlit, and Acre. Iberian cultivars subsequently formed the basis of most western European wine. [65] Another study in 2006 found evidence for the genetic persistence of Phoenicians in the Spanish island of Ibiza. [131][132], The Phoenicians made votive offerings to their gods, namely in the form of figurines and pottery vessels. PHOENICIANISM. P.82, Segert, Stanislav. The definite article was /ha-/, and the first consonant of the following word was doubled. The Phoenician homeland was repeatedly contested by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt during the forty-year Syrian Wars, coming under Ptolemaic rule in the third century BC. 2nd masc. Nouns precede their modifiers, such as adjectives and possessors. It was written h but in late Punic also and because of the weakening and coalescence of the gutturals. The great Greek thinkers are called Phoenicians. They appear in a slightly different form depending on whether or not they follow plural-form masculine nouns (and so are added after a vowel). [8] The term Phoenicia is an ancient Greek exonym that did not correspond precisely to a cohesive culture or society as it would have been understood natively. Phnizisch-Punische Grammatik 3. Neither these nor the emphatics could be adequately represented by the Latin alphabet, but there is also evidence to that effect from Punic script transcriptions. Its location along major trade routes led its inhabitants, called Phoenicians, to become notable merchants, traders, and colonizers in the 1st millennium bce. Wine played an important part in Phoenician religion, serving as the principal beverage for offerings and sacrifice. Rivalries were expected, but armed conflict was rare. Despite claims by various partisans of Lebanese nationalism to enlist the Phoenicians as their ancient progenitor, the Phoenicians never existed as a self-conscious community, let alone a nascent nation. The Lebanese individuals proved to be mostly direct descendants of the Canaanites, but they also bore the ancestry of Bronze Age individuals from the Eurasian steppe. [7][8] According to some sources, Phoenician developed into distinct Tyro-Sidonian and Byblian dialects. By the mid-14th century BC, the Phoenician city-states were considered "favored cities" to the Egyptians. 3rd fem. The earliest verified relationship appears to have begun with the Minoan civilization on Crete (19501450 BC), which together with the Mycenaean civilization (16001100 BC) is considered the progenitor of classical Greece. [2] It was also spoken in the area of Phoenician colonization along the coasts of the southwestern Mediterranean Sea, including those of modern Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Algeria as well as Malta, the west of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands and southernmost Spain. Once his realm reached its largest territorial extent, Ithobaal declared himself "King of the Sidonians," a title that would be used by his successors and mentioned in both Greek and Jewish accounts. Starting as early as 15th century BC, Phoenician leaders were "advised by councils or assemblies which gradually took greater power". [14][15] Each city-state was politically independent, and there is no evidence the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. [85] An excavation of a small Phoenician town south of Sidon uncovered a wine factory used from at least the seventh century BC, which is believed to have been aimed for an overseas market. Abstracts can be formed with the suffix -t (probably /-t/, /-t/). 3rd masc. [47] The two most famous Phoenician women are political figures: Jezebel, portrayed in the Bible as the wicked princess of Sidon, and Dido, the semi-legendary founder and first queen of Carthage. [10], The recovery of the Mediterranean economy can be credited to Phoenician mariners and merchants, who re-established long-distance trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia in the 10th century BC. This tendency, which is not exclusively Ecuadoran, grew as conflicts developed in the Middle East. Lawyers eventually emerged as a profession for those who could not plead their case. Phoenician and the Eastern Canaanite Languages", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoenician_language&oldid=1161998974, Languages attested from the 11th century BC, Languages with own distinct writing systems, Articles with incomplete citations from December 2021, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from December 2021, Language articles with unreferenced extinction date, Articles containing Phoenician-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, attested in Canaan proper from the 12th century BC to the 2nd century AD, the N-stem (functioning as a passive), e.g. [58][59] Another case is the name of a tribe of hostile "hairy people" that Hanno the Navigator found in the Gulf of Guinea. | History Today", "The Phoenicians and the Formation of the Western World", The Phoenicians and the Formation of the Western World, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phoe/hd_phoe.htm, https://www.britannica.com/place/Phoenicia, The Phoenician Inscriptions of the Cyprus Museum, "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ", "Proto-Canaanite, Archaic Greek, and the Script of the Aramaic Text on the Tell Fakhariyah Statue", "Tylos and Tyre. P.82, , .. They also lacked the territory and agricultural base to support a population large enough to raise an army of conquest. The case endings in general must have been lost between the 9th century BC and the 7th century BC: the personal name rendered in Akkadian as ma-ti-nu-ba-a-li "Gift of Baal", with the case endings -u and -i, was written ma-ta-an-baa-al (likely Phoenician spelling *) two centuries later. "Phoenicia". [128][129] Melqart was prominent throughout Phoenicia and overseas, as was Astarte, a fertility goddess with regal and matronly aspects. The first large-scale mining operations probably occurred in Cyprus, principally for copper. [47] As warfare was rare among the most mercantile Phoenicians, the army's commander was generally responsible for ensuring the defense and security of the city-state and its hinterlands. Both prepositions and conjunctions could form compounds.[52]. During the rule of the priest Ithobaal (887856 BC), Tyre expanded its territory as far north as Beirut and into part of Cyprus; this unusual act of aggression was the closest the Phoenicians ever came to forming a unitary territorial state. Free men of any class could represent themselves in court and had more rights than women and children, while slaves had no rights. Aramaeanism, Assyrianism, Greater Syrian nationalism, Kurdish nationalism, Berberism, Pharaonism, Phoenicianism.[13]. "[43] They filled the power vacuum caused by the Late Bronze Age collapse by becoming the sole mercantile and maritime power in the region, a status they would maintain for the next several centuries. . . Phoenicia was one of the first areas to be conquered by Alexander the Great during his military campaigns across western Asia. /-ka()/ k The wine trade with Egypt is vividly documented by shipwrecks discovered in 1997 in the open sea 50 kilometres (30mi) west of Ascalon, Israel. Bible says Canaanites were wiped out by Israelites but scientists just