A Short History of the Phoenicians

Revised Edition

Mark Woolmer

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350153943
• Edition: 2
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Greek Ancient History
• Index: History

Offering new insights based on recent archaeological discoveries in their heartland of modern-day Lebanon, Mark Woolmer presents a fresh appraisal of this fascinating, yet elusive, Semitic people. Discussing material culture, language and alphabet, religion (including sacred prostitution of women and boys to the goddess Astarte), funerary custom and trade and expansion into the Punic west, he explores Phoenicia in all its paradoxical complexity. Viewed in antiquity as sage scribes and intrepid mariners who pushed back the boundaries of the known world, and as skilled engineers who built monumental harbour cities like Tyre and Sidon, the Phoenicians were also considered (especially by their rivals, the Romans) to be profiteers cruelly trading in human lives. The author shows them above all to have been masters of the sea: this was a civilization that circumnavigated Africa two thousand years before Vasco da Gama did it in 1498. The Phoenicians present a tantalizing face to the ancient historian. Latin sources suggest they once had an extensive literature of history, law, philosophy and religion; but all now is lost. In this revised and updated edition, Woolmer takes stock of recent historiographical developments in the field, bringing the present edition up to speed with contemporary understanding.

1

Historical overview

Although the region of the Levant which became known as Phoenicia has a long history of human occupation which dates back at least as far as the tenth millennium bce, scholars are generally of the opinion that it was during the Early Iron Age, in around 1200 bce, that the Phoenicians first emerged as a distinct cultural entity. Two main hypotheses have been put forward to explain why cultural differentiation occurs at this time: the first proposes that the coastal cities of the Levant were far less affected by the sociopolitical turmoil which occurred at the end of the Bronze Age (see the following discussion) than those situated further inland and so were better able to retain their established social, economic and political structures,¹ while the second posits that the distinction in material culture results from the coastal cities being quickest to adapt to the newly emerging social and political conditions.²

The discrepancies between these opposing opinions are primarily attributable to the different ways in which scholars have interpreted the archaeological record (in particular, the destruction levels found at numerous Early Iron Age sites). Despite scholars agreeing that the damage at these sites must have been caused by military conflicts rather than natural disasters, interpretations vary with regard to the extent and duration of the disruption these conflicts caused. Significantly, despite this divergence of views, there is still a general consensus that 1200 bce marked the dawn of ‘Phoenician’ history. In a slight departure from the majority of earlier studies, this volume adopts the position that the emergence of distinctly Phoenician cultural, religious and political traditions was a far more gradual process which began during the early decades of the Late Bronze Age (a time when many of the coastal cities first became true urban entities) and culminated in the Early Iron Age. Consequently, in order to provide a more complete and nuanced picture of Phoenician society at the dawn of the Iron Age, it is important to examine the key events and developments that occurred during the Bronze Age. It is from this perspective that the material in the initial sections of this chapter is presented. All dates from hereon are Before Common Era (bce) unless otherwise stated.

The Bronze Age (c. 3500–1200)

The Bronze Age in Lebanon was a period of almost continuous development that gave rise to a plethora of cultural and technological advances (perhaps the most significant of which were the social processes that resulted in the emergence of the first cities). However, a lack of systematic, large-scale excavations at Early Bronze Age settlements means that scholars are poorly informed about this early period of Lebanon’s history (to make matters worse, much of the data which has been collected is as yet unpublished). As a result, little can be said with any degree of confidence about the size, layout or organization of Early Bronze Age settlements. However, thanks to the excavations at Sidon-Dakerman and Byblos, which unearthed the remains of a number of Early Bronze Age food offerings, it has been possible to identify that the three most important economic activities during this period were the harvesting of marine resources, agriculture and animal husbandry. Although the use of metals is attested at a number of sites, the majority of tools were still constructed from flint (in particular the Canaanean sickle blades, tabular scrapers and axes). Pottery was still entirely handmade, although the Early Bronze Age does see the emergence of ceramic objects adorned with incised decoration and red or reddish-brown ‘slip’ (a liquefied suspension of clay particles which is often coloured with oxides and used in the decoration of ceramic objects).

Jar burials, which involved the interment of human remains in a large earthenware vessel, were widely employed during the first half of the Early Bronze Age. The jars were buried either under the floors of domestic structures or in the open spaces between buildings. Although the majority of jar burials excavated at Byblos were devoid of lavish grave goods, at least twenty contained rich inventories of gold and silver jewellery and copper weapons, thus suggesting a socially stratified society. Social stratification was to be a consistent feature of Phoenician culture and can be identified in all of the major cities and overseas settlements (see Chapter 2). By the middle of the Early Bronze Age, burial customs seem to have changed considerably, and there is a move towards rock-cut chamber tombs which were located outside of settlements. The grave goods recovered from these new types of tombs reveal other cultural changes and innovations. For instance, pottery vessels such as bowls and cups, jars, jugs, juglets, hole-mouth cooking pots and four-spouted lamps begin to appear in significant quantities. These objects also bear witness to new modes of production such as the potter’s wheel and the use of kilns for firing wet clay.

The discovery of similar pottery styles throughout the Levant reveals the existence of developed interregional and international commercial networks. Byblos appears to have particularly benefited from the creation of stable trade links. Due to its favourable geographic location at the centre of the main trade routes between Syro-Palestine and Egypt, Byblos was able to absorb and assimilate the innovations that were being made in Mesopotamia, northern Syria and the Nile Delta. Thus, for much of the Early Bronze Age, Byblos was the wealthiest, and arguably most powerful, city in ancient Lebanon. Significantly, most of the city’s power and wealth was derived from its relationship with Egypt. From the beginning of the third millennium, it is possible to identify sustained political and economic contact between the two, a situation which is attested by the numerous inscribed Egyptian objects recovered from Byblos, the presence of an Egyptian temple in Byblos and the mention of Byblos in a number of Egyptian sources. The Egyptians were keen to foster closer relations with Byblos as they coveted the timber resources and tree products (such as the resin used in the mummification process) which the city controlled. Although Byblos was evidently Egypt’s primary commercial partner in Lebanon, occasional finds of Egyptian objects from sites such as Tyre and Sidon suggest that other cities may also have been part of this trading network. Another important Byblian trade partner was the city of Ebla. A number of texts recovered from Ebla have revealed that Byblos maintained close commercial ties with the city, importing a number of commodities including textiles, foodstuffs, livestock, raw metals and manufactured goods such as jewellery, fine-quality linen and pottery. The marriage of a Byblian king to an Eblaite princess during the last quarter of the twenty-third century indicates that the relationship between the two cities was based on equality.

By the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000–1550), towns and villages had been established every 15–20 kilometres along the coastline of ancient Lebanon. Many of these settlements were established near natural bays or inlets where trading ships would anchor, thus allowing them to prosper and flourish. A few settlements were situated further inland but these were nearly always established in close proximity to estuaries or rivers, thereby enabling them to maintain a connection to the sea. The end of the Middle Bronze Age witnessed a steady increase in cultic construction with Byblos housing the largest concentration of temples and sanctuaries. The best preserved was the so-called ‘Temple of Obelisks’ which was built over the remains of a much older sanctuary that had been destroyed by fire at the end of the third millennium (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 The Temple of Obelisks in Byblos (author’s photo).

Cultic activity is also evinced in contemporary burial rites and practices, with the Middle and Late Bronze Ages witnessing the emergence of four new tomb types: the shaft tomb, the earthen pit burial, the cist burial and the built tomb.³ Adults were generally interred in rock-cut, shaft or built tombs, while infants and children were usually buried in ceramic storage jars. The presence of several pins and needles in the majority of adult burials indicates that the bodies would have been shrouded in cloth before interment. Other funerary goods included pottery, jewellery, weaponry, scarabs and cosmetic boxes that were either locally made or imported from Egypt, Crete or Cyprus. When considered in conjunction with the general inclusion of food offerings, the emergence at Arqa of a standardized funerary kit comprised of globular pots, juglets and platters hints at a nascent belief in an afterlife.

The recovery of grave goods and other deposited or discarded items has shown that a number of crafts flourished during the Middle Bronze Age. Metalworking is particularly well represented and appears to have been largely influenced by Egyptian and Syrian art. Due to the stable political conditions of the Middle Bronze Age, interregional trade flourished, enabling the coastal cities to establish and maintain complex trade networks and commercial relationships with cities located throughout Mesopotamia, the Levant, Egypt and Anatolia. The larger of these coastal cities specialized in exporting highly sought-after commodities (such as olive oil, wine and wood) while importing foreign commodities such as fish and wheat from Cyprus, gems and precious stones from Egypt and silver from Anatolia. The abundance of silver objects recovered from Sidonian tombs indicates that there was extensive and sustained trade with Anatolia, especially the Taurus Mountain region where the ore would have been mined (see Chapter 5). During the final years of the Middle Bronze Age, the Hyksos (a people of mixed origin from Western Asia) settled in the Nile Delta and, in so doing, reduced Egypt’s influence over the Levant. Quick to take advantage of their newly gained independence, the Phoenician city states extended their commercial networks and spheres of influence, thus enabling them to increase their wealth significantly during this period.

The Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200) is characterized by the emergence of ‘great kings’ (i.e. the rulers of powerful empires such as Egypt, Mitanni, Hatti and later Assyria) and ‘lesser kings’ (i.e. the rulers of a multitude of smaller city states and kingdoms). This period of Levantine history is therefore dominated by the political machinations of the larger empires which regularly sought to establish hegemony over the less powerful states that lay on their peripheries. Egypt was the first of the great empires which sought political dominance over the Levant under the leadership of Thutmosis III (1479–25), the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Although Thutmosis I (1506–1493) had previously campaigned against the cities of Syria–Palestine, even extracting tribute from a number of them, it was his grandson Thutmosis III who was to subjugate the region entirely, forcing many of its cities and states to become Egyptian vassals. In the twenty-second year of his reign, Thutmosis was faced with a coalition of rulers from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria who were opposed to Egyptian claims to political and economic control of their territories. The ensuing battle, fought in close proximity to the important city of Megiddo, was an abject disaster for the coalition and laid the foundations for Egypt’s annexing of Canaan. After a further sixteen campaigns (some of which involved serious fighting and others of which were parades of strength), Thutmosis had succeeded in expanding Egypt’s sphere of influence to include the whole of southern Lebanon, the Lebanese coast, the Bekaa Valley and southern Syria as far as Damascus. The subjugation of Canaan not only allowed the Egyptians to regulate and tax the lucrative maritime and overland trade networks which converged in the region, it also provided them with access to a wide range of commodities which could be either purchased or acquired through tribute.

The annals of Thutmosis’s military campaigns (carved on the walls of the Temple of Karnak in recognition of the fact that the god Amen-Re had provided the victory) list the commodities desired by Egypt; in particular, they highlight the importance of Levantine timber (ANET, p. 143). With Egypt being relatively devoid of any wide-circumference trees suitable for large construction projects, the Egyptians were keen to secure regular shipments of high-quality timber. The extensive forests of Lebanon were therefore highly attractive to Thutmosis, and thus it was no surprise that he required the coastal cities to provide Egypt with annual shipments of wood (ANET, p. 241). His account of the on-site construction of cedar boats at Byblos and their overland transport to the Euphrates reveals the size and complexity of these operations (ANET, p. 240).

The success of Thutmosis’s campaigns meant that by the middle of the fourteenth century the Egyptian Empire stretched as far north as the borders of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni. Evidence contained in the Amarna tablets reveals that the Egyptians, for the purposes of administration, divided the region of Syria–Palestine into three distinct districts: Canaan (encompassing the entire Levantine coast from the Egyptian border at Sinai in the south to Berytus in the north), Apu (encompassing the inland regions of modern-day Israel and Lebanon) and Amurru (encompassing the northern coastal plain from Byblos to Arwad and the inland cities and villages of the Akkar plain). The Amarna tablets also reveal that, despite being vassals of Egypt, the kings of Byblos, Berytus, Sidon and Tyre retained a considerable amount of autonomy in their interregional dealings. This led to fierce political and commercial rivalries (in particular between Tyre and Sidon) with Pharaoh often being asked to intervene and settle local disputes.

Due to their diversified economies which enabled them to exploit a variety of revenue streams (see Chapter 2), the period between the invasions of Thutmosis III and the death of Amenhotep III (c. 1352) was to be a prosperous one for Byblos, Tyre, Sidon and Berytus. According to the Egyptian historical records, the most lucrative source of income was the trade in timber and metals – an assessment which is supported by the huge profits that Byblos is known to have made from trading in tin and copper (at its height, the Byblian trade network encompassed Afghanistan, North Africa and numerous sites around the western Mediterranean). However, the Phoenician cities also generated substantial incomes from their various craft industries. For instance, a number of Ugaritic documents reveal that Tyre and Byblos were particularly active in the textiles trade, while excavations at Akko and Sarepta have unearthed facilities for the large-scale production of purple dye. There was also an extensive trade in glass and faience wares, with items produced in Tyre being known for their vivid colours and quality. The discovery of a late-fourteenth-/early-thirteenth-century shipwreck at Ulu Burun (located just off the coast of modern Turkey) provided physical proof of the diverse range of commodities that were being traded during this period. The vessel’s varied cargo, much of which had been remarkably well preserved, included: Canaanite amphorae, Cypriot ceramic ware, carved ivories, ornate metal items, boxwood writing tablets and a large quantity of copper and tin ingots.⁴

This era of prosperity was to come to an abrupt end with the death of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III and the accession of his son, Akhenaton (c. 1353–36). Although the kingdom of Mitanni and the more remote political powers, like Assyria and Babylon, had generally maintained cordial relations with Egypt, during the latter half of the fourteenth century another dominant power, the Hittites, had begun to threaten the northern borders of the Egyptian Empire. Whereas Amenhotep III had managed to temper Hittite interest in Canaan, Akhenaton’s religious preoccupation and indifference to military matters was to prove disastrous. With Egypt’s attention now focused inwards, its Canaanite and Levantine vassals began to argue and fight among themselves. The Hittite king Shubiluliuma was to take full advantage of this turmoil. Wary of provoking a direct military confrontation, Shubiluliuma instead sought to make territorial gains via political subterfuge (primarily by offering support and encouragement to any state or kingdom which wished to break free of Egyptian rule). His most notable success was in persuading the Amorite king, Abdi-Ashirta, to renounce his allegiance to Egypt and agitate on the Hittites’ behalf. Although Abdi-Ashirta and his son Aziru tirelessly promoted the Hittite cause, they managed to convince only a small number of states to switch their allegiance, and so, with political machination having failed, and recognizing Akhenaton’s reluctance to undertake an extensive military campaign, they began openly to attack any city which remained loyal to Egypt. To complicate matters further, Canaan was also subject to a number of incursions by the Ḫapiru. There is great uncertainty as to who these Ḫapiru were and where they originated from as they ...