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Updated: 2023.02.11
To "Tyrians": The "Phoenicians" 062x45.png "tzur (Akkadian cuneiform)")
 068x45.png "ri (Akkadian cuneiform)")
aka 
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 Eastern Mediterranean Basin cBCE 3000– |
Tzūr
follows the standard pattern of morphology of transliteration from original Semitic to Greek as upsilon, then confusion in transgarblations from the Greek, likely during the LBAC 
"Greek Dark Age", to other languages around the Mediterranean Basin including Latin, where it was garbled to "y".
Originally, Tzūr (City) was the endonym of the rock-island fortress-city of the Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•a(ns), Hellenist exonym "Phoenicia(ns)".
TzurꞋa—Approximately coinciding with the first appearance of Roman Latins (cBCE 10th century), Tzūr Citydom predominated and subsumed Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•a(ns). However, Latins and other foreign traders via their maritime shipping, having long known them by the exonym, "Phoenicia(ns)" (Latin Poenicus ), were interested exclusively in bare essentials needed to conduct international trade. These bare essentials of communication business jargon, pidgin, needed for international trade are recorded in Linear A (TzūrꞋi•an mariners' & traders' pidgin transgarblations, largely still undeciphered) and evolved to Linear B pidgin Greek transgarblations, which incorporated bare business jargon essentials of Greek.
Whatever extra-trade interest there may have been among foreigners to otherwise interact with the TzurꞋi•ans by their endonym wasn't of use outside TzurꞋa. Thus, foreigners, accustomed to calling them by their exonym. "Phoenicia(ns)", had no motivatation to transliterate the Semitic 𐤑𐤓 of "Phoenicians" and, so, recorded no change in their internal composition (from Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•ans to TzurꞋi•ans) or noting either of their endonyms.
TzurꞋa Colony Island—originally transliterated to Greek θύρα, is the original namesake (garbled) homonym of θήρα confirming that θύρα (Thera), was the original Greek transliteration of first colonized by the TzurꞋi•ans!!!
Following the standard morphological pattern, θύρα also garble-transliterated, via several Mediterranean language garblings, to Τύρος, Tyre, Tyria(ns), Tyrrhenian … and Θήρα. This long predates Greek presence and, therefore, the island's Greek name: Kal•lisꞋtæ. The Greek claim, that the island was named "Thera" after a Spartan Greek colonizer, is chronologically impossible. Perhaps the much later Spartan colonizer took the name of the island as an honorific; or was a Spartan from TzurꞋi•an ancestry. When the Greek island of Kal•lisꞋtæ was, still later, colonized by the Romans, they renamed the island to Latin "Sancta Irene"; English "St. Irene"—Santorini. (This Roman-Latin name was only later transliterated into pidgin Greek as Σάνταs Ειρήνη.)
θύρα ("port"), i.e. TzurꞋa ("rock-fortress" port), also morphs to Greek Πύλος ("gate"); strongly suggesting that the archeologically later infusion of Hellenic Greeks Pūlossians retained the TzurꞋi•ans theme.
Return to Gloss Entry Beginning
Shrouds Pūlossian Accession To Mediterranean Maritime Prominence |
 Table of Ancient Peoples (bᵊReish•itꞋ 10). Circa BCE 2629, emergence of written language: NōꞋakh first codifies lore of then-ancient Flood (cBCE 5500) |
Like a veterinarian assessing the condition of Schrödinger's cat, peering into LBAC presents a "Black Box" dearth of historical record-keeping that withered and died with the crops and consequent collapse and chaos in international trade and economies of eastern Mediterranean Basin peoples in a seemingly endless chain reaction of calamitous regional droughts and plagues consequent to the Thæra apocalypse (cBCE ). Waves of climatic catastrophes and plagues reverberated around the eastern Mediterranean Basin, producing regional ebbs, flows or collapses as the hemisphere, indeed the entire planet, struggled toward equilibrium, for perhaps half a millennium—the LBAC ("Greek Dark Age").
This dearth of historical record left the Pūlossian accession to prominence among the Mediterranean shipping and naval fleets an enigma.
Only now, modern scientists are coaxing data out of this "Black Box" (e.g., demonstrating that the Kit•imꞋ collapsed cBCE 1198–1196 ±3 years). The decline of the Kit•imꞋ and Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•an (later eclipsed by their fellow TzūrꞋi•ans—apparently transgarbled to "Tzūrᵊd•ōnꞋi•an") maritime confederation, which controlled much of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin coastal regions when the darkness of the LBAC / "Greek Dark Age" descended, combined with the simultaneous rise and predominance of the Pūlossians in the same period and maritime arena, explains an Egyptian "Sea Peoples" enigma.
"The term 'peuples de la mer' (literally meaning 'peoples of the sea') was first concocted by French Egyptologist Emmanuel de Rougé whilst studying reliefs at Medinet Habu, becoming further popularised with an associated migration theory in the late 19th century."
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As the TzūrꞋi•ans gradually surpassed their Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•an compatriots, they were apparently occasionally transgarbled together, as "Tzūr•dōnꞋi•ans". The early Mediterranean Maritime Confedaration of Naval and Shipping Vessels, then, consisted primarily of the "Tzūr•dōnꞋi•ans" (modern Lebanonese; aka Phoenicians) confederated with their Kit•imꞋ neighbors in Anatolia (western Turkey).
Egyptian Par•ōhꞋ Ra-moses Jr. "the Great", celebrating his victory in the First Naval Battle Of The Nile Delta against the "Tzūr•dōnꞋi•an"(-Kit•imꞋ) Mediterranean Maritime Confederation of his time, commissioned the Tanis Stele, (cBCE 1290) on the
Par•ōhꞋ Ra-moses Jr., the Great's Tanis stele is the earliest extant reference to the people known in the Amarna Akkadian cuneiforms transgarbled as the "sʰa-i-de ᵖtá-ar-n".
The initial consonants (sh & tz) don't exist in some of the intermediate alphabets—nor ears—through which the cuneiform names ("Tyrians", who had predominated their fellow "Sidonians") were mis-heard by foreign ears, then compounded by "transgarblating" into a foreign alphabet. What modern researchers refer to as the "sʰrdnn", " "Shãrdan(in)", then, likely referred to the MSPA: Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•an cum TzūrꞋi•ans—producing "Tzūr•dōnꞋi•ans" (& Kit•imꞋ) Mediterranean Maritime Confederation of Naval and Shipping Fleets.
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BCE 13th–12th century Egyptian Ra-moses 3rd commemorating the Second Battle of the Nile Delta (cBCE 1182), respectively.
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(modern צֹ֖ר) 
[Glos_T, updated: 2023.01.13]
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| Eastern Mediterranean Basin cBCE 3000– |
Tzūr
Tzūr eventually predominated and subsumed Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•a to become TzūrꞋi•a(ns), i.e Tyria(ns). The exonym, "Phoenicia(ns)", continued unchanged.
Some time after BCE parts of TzūrꞋi•a passed to Zᵊvūl•ūnꞋ seafarers. The narrow waterway between the island and the mainland was filled in by Alexander the Great in BCE 332 to build a causeway joining forming a land isthmus connecting the island to the coast. 
These peoples are first mentioned in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Much of Late Egyptian pronunciation remains unknown, questionable, disputed, and perhaps irretrievable. Hieroglyphs modified a fixed point in an ancient language always evolving through a diachronic continuum and now extinct, all while lacking critical orthographics. Hieroglyphs weren't deciphered at all until the primary methodology was cracked by Jean Francois Champollion in 1821 CE.
Grasping for ancient pronunciation now is dependent upon: first identifying the ancient Semitic people so we can properly degarble the Egyptian transliterations of their original Semitic language. Like the Telephone (i.e. gossip) Game, the pronunciation of these Egyptian hieroglyphs has been garbled first through foreign Egyptian ears and mispronunciations, then secondhand through ancient neighboring foreign ears and tongues, into millennia of foreign languages, which Europeans and Westerners have further garbled with foreign ears and tongues.
Since it is well established that the ancient people and their language cited by Ra-moses Jr. "the Great" were Semitic, this securely anchors preference to Semitic terms and pronunciations.
The earliest extant mentions of the TzūrꞋi•ans (and Tzi•yᵊd•ōnꞋi•ans) are in BCE 13th–12th century Egyptian hieroglyph:
the Tanis stela-2 by Par•ōhꞋ Ra-moses Jr. commemorating the First Battle Of The Nile Delta (šrdnn, Tziyᵊdonim; Tanis Stele II "the Great" (cBCE 1290), and
texts & reliefs of the mortuary temple at Medinet Habu in Thebes, Egypt by Ra-moses 3rd commemorating the Second Battle of the Nile Delta (cBCE 1182), respectively.
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| BCE 5th Century, Ἡρόδοτος Description of Eastern Mediterranean coastlands from Syria in the North to Egypt; including the 4 Pulossian (Philistine/Palestina;) colonies |
Φοίνιξ (Phoenix, Phoenicia)—Mycenaean Greek exonym for the then-ancient Semitic endonyms: Tziyᵊd•ōnꞋians & TzūrꞋians conflated & corrupted to Phoenician(s), later Punic(s). The famous general of the Carthoginian colony of "Phoenicians", who routed the early Roman Republic, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋 (BCE 247–c182; see Ma•kab•imꞋ), was a TzūrꞋian ("Phoenician").
This Greek exonym, Φοίνιξ, isn't documented until the early BCE 8th century, by the Greek-speaking Turk of the western coast of modern Turkey, Ὅμηρος. This Mycenaean Greek term referred to the unique TzūrꞋian (Tyrian; of Tyre) dye color for which the indigenous ancient 𐤑𐤓𐤉𐤌, ferociously guarding their secret-formula dye monopoly, were internationally famous.
Works attributed to Ὅμηρος, not knowing the name of this people, nicknamed them by their Greek exonym, familiar to him, of their famed 𐤑𐤓𐤉𐤌 dye-color: "Φοίνιξ"; Semitic: אַרְגָּמָן. I.e. Thus, "Phoenicians" came to refer to the A•dãmꞋian (i.e. Semitic) inhabitants of Tziyᵊd•ōnꞋia & TzūrꞋia , as the principle and internationally-famed dyers of "Phoenix-red"; i.e. "Phoenicians".
Modern scholars estimate TzūrꞋian אַרְגָּמָן between a (more likely) Merlot-Burgundy-like modern-guess of Tyrian-purple ( ), the wine-color attractive for its evoking wealth and luxury, and the other a more "crimson"-compatible, raspberry-like modern-guess "Tyrian-red" ( ).
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| Table of Nations from Ta•na״khꞋ (bᵊReish•itꞋ 10–36). Circa BCE 2629, emergence of written language: NōꞋakh first codifies lore of then-ancient Flood (cBCE 5500) |
cBCE 1191,
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תִירָס widely acknowledged by the exonyms "Sea People" of "Tursha" (in a Ra-moses 3rd inscription) or "Teresh" (Merneptah Stele), a naval power that forcibly colonized many port cities around the Mediterranean Basin cBCE 1200, is yet another garbling of their endonym: 𐤑𐤓, son of Hellenist progenitor 
, whose clan gradually expanded north and west into Eurasia (modern Lebanon, Greece and Europe).
Except for being a maritime conglomerate, the Tziyᵊd•ōnꞋians & TzūrꞋians seem otherwise typical Semitic-Aramaic citydoms of A•dãmꞋ•ãhꞋ—later renamed after the grandson of NōꞋakh via 
: Kᵊna•anꞋ.
 unk 350x350.png "Red Phoenix Firebird Chinese Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus)") |
 unk 950x950.png "Click to enlarge"){kind=small} Probable faraway-land inspiration for Red Phoenix Firebird (Golden Pheasant / Phoenix Bird, Chrysolophus pictus, China) |
 on lt pink granite 080x40.png "hieroglyphic fenexu (phoenix-phoenician) on lt pink granite"){kind=small} |
| Fenexu (Phoenix-people, Phoenicians) |
While Ra-moses 3rd clearly identified the marauding maritime invaders of their shores as Fenexu (Phoenix-people, Phoenicians) in his Medinat Havu hieroglyphic reliefs, art-explorer archaeologists and historians, unable to read hieroglyphs until relatively recently, conflated all kinds of "Sea Peoples" as "Phoenicians" and "Philistines". But from this description by Ra-moses 3rd—with bird head figureheads on the bows of their ships, they were Tziyᵊdōnians, not "Philistines"! Still in the BCE 2nd milennium, Tzūr Island was a prominent colony-city of Tziyᵊdōnia (It wasn't until the BCE 1st century that Tzūr achieved prominence over Tziyᵊd•ōnꞋ.)
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Ἡρόδοτος describes the Phoenix Firebird from secondhand descriptions, sprinkled with myths, by superstitious Egyptians of Heliopolis (now a northeastern suburb of Cairo). It's unclear whether the Egyptians had personally seen a specimen of the Chinese Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) or merely heard the description, along with mythical tales about the bird, from visiting sailors in Alexandria.
“They have also another sacred bird called the Φοίνιξ which I myself have never seen, except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity, even in Egypt… Its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, are as follow: The plumage is partly red, partly golden, while the general make and size are almost exactly that of the eagle. They tell a story of what this bird does, which does not seem to me to be credible: that he comes all the way from Arabia…” [and beyond—by merchant ship, from China!]
The 𐤑𐤓𐤉𐤌 stylized their national identity namesake with a bird head; figureheads emblazoned on both the bow and stern of their ships.
Along with their (Φοίνιξ-dyed) feathered (or simulated-feathered) headdresses, these symbols combined to suggest that their legendary fabled Phoenix (& gold) Firebird of this Phoenician Phoenician "Sea Peoples"—the best-known of whom became their Greek maritime counterpart: the Pūlossians ("Philistines" / Πύλος-tines).
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qqq "the Grave Circle at Pylos (originally considered a tholos tomb by Lord William Taylour), exhibits burial practices which originate from the Minoan Civilization on Crete… The two new tholoi [beehive tombs], although not yet published, have yielded a gold pendant depicting the Egyptian goddess Hathor " Macquire, Kelly. \’\’Pylos.\’\’ World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 2020.10.06. Web. 2022.06.01. https://www.worldhistory.org/Pylos/
Phoenix Date Palm, Phoenix birds of Kallistae. See Griffon Warrior of Pylos, 640 note
Hathor goddess cBCE664-525 EgyptianMuscom Cairo 350x400.png
Knossos Crete Minoan BCE 1550-1450 bull rhyton 26cmh HeraklionArchMus 0250x400.png
The four primary Ægæan-Phoenician (Hellenist Greek maritime colonies on the NW Mediterranean coast likely retained earlier Aramaic names reflected in their (pre-Qū•mᵊr•ãnꞋ) Middle-Semitic/Phoenician alephbeit, were 𐤑𐤓𐤉𐤌, 𐤑𐤄𐤃𐤍𐤉𐤌, 𐤂𐤁𐤋 (all in modern Lebanon), and 𐤀𐤓𐤅𐤃 an island 3 km (≈2 mi) off the SW coast of Syria from Tartus, the country's 2nd largest port. This confederation of Phoenician maritime trader colonies were all fiercely distinct and independent from the neighboring inland states. The name "Phoenician", used to describe these people in the BCE 1st millennium, is Greek! Their original name is unknown, as even "Minoa(n)" derived from the name of a mythical Cycladic island king. Further, this Maritime thalassocracy named a number of the Cyclades Islands and port cities around the rim of the Mediterranean. Most likely, they were named after their island capital: Καλλίστη , which would Anglicize to "Kal•listꞋans" (Most-beautifuls, Beautifulest-ines)—or, far more likely, named after their original ancestral home in Mycenæ, Greece: Πύλος-tines!!!
19th century CE European archaeologists couldn't sort out the individual islander fleets forming this ancient maritime Confederation of Cycladic Islanders (CAI), so they simply lumped them together as "Sea Peoples". These same 19th century CE European archaeologists concocted a name for the predominant maritime fleet of Cycladic islanders from Καλλίστη based on a mythical king—Minos—supposedly of Knossos (the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on the largest island at the center of the Mediterranean, Minoa= Crete); ergo, Minoans, who originally descended from Πύλος harbor, Mycenæ, in the Peloponnese peninsular of Greece.The Πύλος-tines ("Minoans") became orphaned from their island home of Καλλίστη by the eruption of cBCE —which forced them to colonize Mediterranean coastlands to survive.
 britannica com 350x150..png "Philistine captives of Rameses3 mortuary temple Medinet Habu (Thebes)") |
 britannica com 800x350..png "Click to enlarge"){kind=small} Philistine captives of Rameses 3 showing headdresses (mortuary temple Medinet Habu, Thebes; britannica.com) |
The Phoenix Firebird was also stylized in the well-known "Tyrian-red feathered" headdress that distinguished adult males of the Πύλος-tine Phoenician Sea Peoples). "[D]istinctive costumes have allowed scholars to identify [the combatants in the Medinet Habu engravings] variously as Nubians, Libyans, and Sea Peoples. The latter were identified with the Philistines (a people known from the Hebrew Bible as having inhabited the area that is now [Lebanon and the southern coastal plain of Israel]), for both sported plumes of feathers in their head-dresses"
Contrary to popular scholarly misassumptions, the lion-head figureheads affixed to the prows of some of the Helladic oared fighting-galleys in Rameses 3rd wall engravings at Medinet Habu identify his own fighting-galleys. While it is unlikely that any of the wooden figureheads from any of the fighting-galleys of either side have survived the intervening ages, the figureheads on the prows of the Sea Peoples' fighting-galleys (and γαῦλοι cargo ships) were allmost certainly Phoenix Firebirds.
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These colonizers of the eastern basin seacoasts of the Mediterranean were originally from Πύλος (Pulos, modern Pylos), Mycenaea, Greece—via Καλλίστη, i.e. Minoa.
attempted, with only partial success, to settle in the Egyptian Delta and, with great success, colonized the Mediterranean coast from modern Turkey south through Lebanon. Thus, the Phoenicians, long predated the birth of Yi•shᵊmã•eilꞋ.
"[T]here is no measurable [genetic] Levantine or African influence in the Minoans and Mycenaeans,"
Mycenæan Anatolian Greeks make up the ancient or modern ethnic Greek populations who lived in Anatolia from 1200s BCE (at the latest) (wiki) cite "Anatolia - Greek colonies on the Anatolian coasts, c. 1180–547 bce". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2015-06-19. "Before the Greek migrations that followed the end of the Bronze Age (c. 1200 BCE), probably the only Greek-speaking communities on the west coast of Anatolia were Mycenaean settlements at Iasus and Müskebi on the Halicarnassus peninsula and walled Mycenaean colonies at Miletus and Colophon." Ency Brit quote stipulates Mycenæan Greeks
Greek: G & J2
Semitic J1 & J2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Y-chromosome_DNA_haplogroup
"We do not suggest that the Phoenicians spread only or predominantly J2 and PCS1+ through PCS6+ lineages. They are likely to have spread many lineages from multiple haplogroups, but the lineages we highlight are the most highly differentiated ones providing the most readily detectable signals. … we found that haplogroup J2, in general, and six Y-STR haplotypes, in particular, exhibited a Phoenician signature that contributed > 6% to the modern Phoenician-influenced populations examined. Our methodology can be applied to any historically documented expansion in which contact and noncontact sites can be identified."
"Here we show that Minoans and Mycenaeans were genetically similar, having at least three-quarters of their ancestry from the first Neolithic farmers of western Anatolia and the Aegean1,2, and most of the remainder from ancient populations related to those of the Caucasus3 and Iran4,5. However, the Mycenaeans differed from Minoans in deriving additional ancestry from an ultimate source related to the hunter–gatherers of eastern Europe and Siberia6,7,8, introduced via a proximal source related to the inhabitants of either the Eurasian steppe1,6,9 or Armenia4,9." Lazaridis, I., Mittnik, A., Patterson, N. et al. Genetic origins of the Minoans and Mycenaeans. Nature 548, 214–218 (2017). Web. 2022.06.24. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23310
"PCS2+ and PCS4+ providing a Phoenician Colonization Signal" Finocchio, A., Trombetta, B., Messina, F. et al. A finely resolved phylogeny of Y chromosome Hg J illuminates the processes of Phoenician and Greek colonizations in the Mediterranean. Sci Rep 8, 7465 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25912-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-25912-9
"According to a 2017 study published by the American Journal of Human Genetics, present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Kᵊna•an•iꞋ-related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in the Levant since at least the Bronze Age.[64][65] More specifically, according to geneticist Chris Tyler-Smith and his team at the Sanger Institute in Britain, who compared "sampled ancient DNA from five Kᵊna•an•iꞋ people who lived 3,750 and 3,650 years ago" to modern people, revealed that 93 percent of the genetic ancestry of people in Lebanon came from the Kᵊna•an•iꞋs (the other 7 percent was of a Eurasian steppe population).[66][67]
The Minoans were widely known as the maritime nation, or Sea People. It is no coincidence that the rise of these Greeks, originally from Pulos, Mycenae, flooded and colonized all of the shores of the eastern Mediterranean Basin consequent to the Καλλίστη eruption.
Phoenix Tyrian dye red b80049 אַרְגָּמָן Phoenix firebird of that color
 250x364.jpg "Amaleiq") |
 980x1427.jpg "Click to enlarge"){kind=small} Map: Israel ca. B.C.E. 1000 |
"According to biblical tradition (Deuteronomy 2:23; Jeremiah 47:4), the Philistines came from Caphtor (possibly Crete, although there is no archaeological evidence of a Philistine occupation of the island). The first records of the Philistines are inscriptions and reliefs in the mortuary temple of Ramses III at Madinat Habu, where they appear under the name prst, as one of the Sea Peoples that invaded Egypt about 1190 bce after ravaging Anatolia, Cyprus, and Syria. After being repulsed by the Egyptians, they settled—possibly with Egypt’s permission—on the coastal plain of Palestine from Joppa (modern Tel Aviv–Yafo) southward to Gaza. The area contained the five cities (the Pentapolis) of the Philistine confederacy (Gaza, Ashkelon [Ascalon], Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron) and was known as Philistia, or the Land of the Philistines. It was from this designation that the whole of the country was later called Palestine by the Greeks. … The Philistines’ local monopoly on smithing iron (I Samuel 13:19), a skill they probably acquired in Anatolia, was likely a factor in their military dominance during this period. … At sites occupied by the Philistines at an early period, a distinctive type of pottery, a variety of the 13th-century Mycenaean styles, has been found." https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philistine-people 2022.05.23
"Amos 9:7, Jeremiah 47:4, and possibly Genesis 10:14, the Philistines came from Caphtor prior to their penetration of southern Palestine. Deuteronomy 2:23 Amos 9:7, Jeremiah 47:4, and possibly Genesis 10:14, the Philistines came from Caphtor prior to their penetration of southern Palestine. Deuteronomy 2:23… Most scholars consider Caphtor to be the ancient name for *Crete and the surrounding islands (cf. "islands" in LXX, Jer. 47:4). In Jeremiah 47:4 Caphtor is defined as an island. Furthermore, several verses place the origin of the Philistines among the Cretans (Ezek. 25:16; Zeph. 2:5), while elsewhere they are identified as coming from Caphtor." https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/caphtor 2022.05.23
"The name Caphtor is most likely a loan word from the Minoan language to indicate Minoan Cretans." https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Caphtor.html 2022.05.23
"note that that Luke places a harbor named Phoenix on Crete: Acts 27:12)" https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Caphtor.html 2022.05.23
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qqqconstellation of Ursa Minor, which for its reported use by the Phoenicians for navigation at sea were also named Phoinikē https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Minor#cite_ref-Albright_1972_7-0 Albright, William F. (1972). "Neglected Factors in the Greek Intellectual Revolution". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 116 (3): 225–42. JSTOR 986117.
qqq"By the late eighth century B.C., the Phoenicians, alongside the Greeks, had founded trading posts around the entire Mediterranean and excavations of many of these centers have added significantly to our understanding of Phoenician culture. Sea traders from Phoenicia and Carthage (a Phoenician colony traditionally founded in 814 B.C.) even ventured beyond the Strait of Gibraltar as far as Britain in search of tin. However, much of our knowledge about the Phoenicians during the Iron Age (ca. 1200–500 B.C.) and later is dependent on the Hebrew Bible, Assyrian records, and Greek and Latin authors. For example, according to the Greek historian Ἡρόδοτος, Phoenician sailors, at the request of the pharaoh Necho II (r. ca. 610–595 B.C.), circumnavigated Africa.
"The main natural resources of the Phoenician cities in the eastern Mediterranean were the prized cedars of Lebanon and murex shells used to make the purple dye. Phoenician artisans were skilled in wood, ivory, and metalworking, as well as textile production. In the Old Testament (2 Chronicles), the master craftsman Hiram of 𐤑𐤓𐤉𐤌 was commissioned to build and embellish the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Homer’s Iliad describes a prize at the funeral games of Patroklos as a mixing bowl of chased silver—“a masterpiece of Sidonian craftsmanship” (Book 13). It also mentions that the embroidered robes of Priam’s wife, Hecabe, were “the work of Sidonian women” (Book 6). Phoenician art is in fact an amalgam of many different cultural elements—Aegean, northern Syrian, Cypriot, Assyrian, and Egyptian. The Egyptian influence is often especially prominent in the art but was constantly evolving as the political and economic relations between Egypt and the Phoenician cities fluctuated. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Phoenicians was an alphabetic writing system that became the root of the Western alphabets when the Greeks adopted it."
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