The territory of the Phénicie corresponds to the Lebanon for which it would be necessary to add certain portions of the Syria, of Israel and the Palestine.

Of origin Cananéenne, the Phéniciens were ancient people skilful navigator S and tradesmen. Started from their city-States in Phénicie, they founded as of - 3000 of many counters in edge of the the Eastern Mediterranean, in particular Carthage (in - 814). Rivals of the Mycéniens for navigation in the Mediterranean at the time antiquated (II {{E}} thousand-year-old front J. - C.), the Old ones however agreed to say that they were the best navigators of Antiquity.

The invasion of the Peuples of the Sea will devastate their cities, just as Mycènes and other territories that they cross, but it is what will make it possible to the phenicians to find their independence with respect to the close powers which had them assujetis in what they will be they also destroyed by these invasions. The fall of Mycènes in particular will enable them to dominate the seas.

After having supported the attacks of the Athenians, Assyrians, from Nabuchodonosor then of Darius III, Phénicie disappeared finally with the conquest by Alexandre Large the in - 332.

The name phenician their was given by the Greeks who referred to their faculty thus to produce Pourpre, which says phoinix in Greek. This name evolved/moved in Latin in Punicii from where the name of the Punic Wars.

According to Pline, “the people phenician with the badge honor to have invented the letters of the Alphabet”.

A maritime empire

Their country is prosperous, very wooded, fertile, but narrow between the mountainous chain of Lebanon and the sea. They could not thus hope to build an empire in the hinterland, populated by their powerful neighbors. It is thus towards the sea that they will be turned. Soon Tyr will become the capital of their maritime empire. Thus they will find the resources elsewhere that the exiguity of their territory does not offer to them, and the motivation first which will push them towards other shores will be primarily of a mercantile nature. To be established to with it as they did it, it will certainly be necessary much easy way for them, but also much of courage to face the unknown sea and its horizons. They will know, lasting of the centuries, to make sure quasi the monopoly of the trade in the Mediterranean. They propagated the alphabet in all the bordering countries.

Navigation

" Of Phéniciens brought a crowd of charms in their black vessel. " - Odyssey, XV

" the vessels of Tarsis (see Tartessos) will bring back distance your sons, and with them them money and their gold. " - Isaïe, LX, 9

Such is the idea that the old ones had navigators phenicians.

We know little thing on the fleet phenician and the representations of their ships are rare. One of them comes from the fresco of a tomb of Thèbes in thousand-year-old IIe front JC, broad and round hull, with a central mast and a square sail. Another comes from a low-relief Assyrie N of the palate of Sargon II close to Ninive, and represents boats raised at the ends with a head of horse like appears of Proue, driven by oarsmen. A third finally on another low-relief of Ninive, coming from the palate of Sennacherib representing two types of different ships: warships to long skittle, the stem ending in a frayed spur, in poop two flanked oars on each side being used as rudder, a mast and two superimposed lines oarsmen; tradind ships to reinflated hull, the gauloi of the Greeks who will imitate them and will give them their name phenician transcribed in Greek.

Boats allowing to thus go up the course of the rivers, as well as the Coastal traffic, to which the phenicians did not limit themselves. They did not hesitate to face the open sea; the Boussole not existing then, their pilots located themselves thanks to the Petite Ourse, that the Greeks called “Phénicienne precisely”, which proves that they practiced night navigation.

The improvements of their vessels and the techniques of navigation allowed them, between XIIe and VIIIe front centuries JC, to take a clear lead on their rivals. They ensured the sealing of their boats thanks to the Bitume for the Calfatage, which undoubtedly made it possible old to speak about the “blacks vessels” phenicians. Reinforcing the careens by a Carlingue, they obtained vessels longer, faster and larger Tonnage, better adapted to remote navigations, and the Ocean navigation, enabling them to use the winds and the currents. It is what ensured the discovery of the sea routes and the control of the sea to them, secrecies that during centuries they kept jealously.

In addition to the foundation of their famous counters such Carthage, one lends to them, not wrongly, like with their Carthaginois successors, of remote navigations, voyages of discovered and exploration beyond the world known in Antiquity.

  • Tour of Hannon: to include/understand the creative process of the counters and their settlement at the time of Carthage.

  • Tour of Himilcon: The “road of tin”.
  • Voyage to the country of Ophir.
  • Circumnavigation of the Africa on the basis of the Red Sea, towards - 600 pennies the reign of the Pharaon Nécao and with his request.

Trade

The first and principal agents of the ship-owners phenicians were the Byzantine Empires and Egypt, kings Assyrian and Pharaons, before the cities phenicians form the empire of the sea which they will dominate. Their ships furrow the Mediterranean and transport all that can be exchanged or to be sold: foodstuffs such as the wine, oil or the grains (corn, barley) in their characteristic, round and corpulent amphoras of form, ores of Copper, money and especially of tin being used for the production of the Bronze. Andalusia is then the turntable of the ore traffic. The Bible, in this respect, returned celebrates the “ships of Tarsis” (Tartessos).

But they transport also luxury items: exotic animals for the courses royal such as the monkeys or the crocodiles. Crimson, wood of Cedar, perfumes and invaluable stones of the country of Ophir at the time of Hiram and the small glassware, which is used to them as currency of exchange with the local populations.

We are well informed on the reports/ratios which they maintained with these local populations and the type of exchanges that they had, like their methods, by Hérodote which describes a scene of exchange to Argos. One as realizes, under the feather of other ancient authors such as the Pseudo-Scilace and Denys d' Halicarnasse, as the Piraterie was currency in the sea traffic of Antiquity: the women and the children delayed to haggle over were likely well to be embarked. Because it is on the shores that took place barter with the natives while the transactions with the merchants of various civilizations with which they traded took place in the emporions which represented as many stages of the roads of Phéniciens, generally close to the temples envisaged also for this purpose.

Mythology, worship and religion

The principal divinities all phenicians are originating in the Middle East, or Mésopotamie like Astarté. Some were comparable with Egyptian divinities. Later they were comparable by the Greeks then by the Romans.

As all the ancient people and all civilizations whose texts did not reach us, or it remains little of testimonys - what is the case for Phéniciens, but also for the Étrusques or the Ibères for example, or for people which, like the Celtes, had an oral tradition but did not use the writing -, it is especially the Archéologie which informs us, as well as the texts left about other people by the authors belonging to a culture having the writing, like the Egyptians, the Greeks or Latin. Sometimes archeology comes to confirm the old texts, sometimes the results are unmatched.

The texts of old which describe us civilizations different from their, for little that they are concurrent, as it is the case of Phéniciens and the Greeks, then the Punic ones and Romans, give sometimes a distorted image which does not correspond completely to reality, or report facts which are not included/understood, or openly express of it a hostility for those which represent the enemy.

The Greeks like the Romans left us of Phéniciens the image of cruel people practitioner the human sacrifices, they were to forget Iphigénie a little quickly, to remember a time when these same sacrifices were practiced in Greece; as for the crucifixion, we know that it was current thing among Romans. All antiquated civilizations practiced this type of rites in one way or another; it is thus appropriate of redimensionner this aspect pertaining to worship which runs up against the modern ones, and ran up already at the time traditional, to include/understand what was a civilization which was large, and what it left in heritage with humanity. In this respect, the writing is far from being unimportant.

The cities phenicians

The cities of Phénicie very old, quite former to the age of iron, and are built by Cananéens. Their foundation is often legendary, and what one knows of constructions (apart from what delivers us archeology) is especially relating to the king Hiram of Tyr. The majority of the cities coastal, are generally located on headlands, small islands close to the coasts, at the mouth of rivers, and the choice of the sites will be the same one for the colonies.

The counters phenicians

One is better well informed on the foundations of the cities of Occident, more recent. The choice of the places follows the same criteria as in Phénicie, some times at the bay bottom according to the geography of the coasts which are presented. Contrary to the Greeks, who seek grounds to cultivate, Phéniciens are interested especially in the layout of the premises facilitating the harbor installations. They are attentive so that the places which they choose present a good access to the sea but also to the back-country; the choice of small islands reflects the concern of safety and if required being able to protect itself from the local population. In the city phenician, all the activity is centered on the port and the warehouses. The orientation and the plan are thus not homogeneous. The dwellings are in general much larger than the residences of the Greek colonies at the same time, to undoubtedly be able to constitute stocks. While evolving/moving, new constructions will follow a regular plan and the cities will also comprise public spaces, but much fewer than in the Greek colonies. Sanctuaries and Tophet S (necropoles) will also make their appearance. With some exceptions, cultivable space surrounding is much less wide than in the Greek colonies. The fortifications, except in Sardinia, are practically non-existent: the sea is the best rampart.

Three cities depended on Carthage, known later on under their Greek or Latin name: OAS, Sabrata, Leptis Magna

See too

External bonds

  • the Mediterranean of Phéniciens, Tyr with Carthage. Exposure to the Institute of the Arab World (Paris), from November 6th, 2007 to April 20th, 2008.
  • Phéniciens: merchant or seafaring nation? on historia-nostra.com

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