Who were the Phoenicians?

Note: the purple areas displayed on the larger map of the mediterranean are intended to show areas of Phoenician influence, and areas in which the Phoenicians conducted the majority of their trade. I realise now that it may look a little like a traditional 'empire', which is not the intention!

Usually noted for their thalassocratic state - that is, a state with a primarily maritime empire - the Phoenicians built an expansive and complex trading network that stretched the length of the mediterranean sea, not only facilitating exchange across the region, but becoming fantastically wealthy in the process.

However, there is far more to the Phoenicians than their mercantile ability. Phoenician craftsmen produced outstanding works, including exemplary glass products, and the prestigious dye known as Tyrian purple, worn by elites throughout the ancient world. Their trade empire arguably laid the foundations for the cultural exchange across the mediterranean and near east which would form the basis of Classical Western Civilisation, of the kind we most readily associate with ancient Greece and Rome. Perhaps most impressive of all is the Phoenician alphabet - the oldest known consonantal alphabet in the world. It is from this alphabet that some of the most widely used alphabets in the world derive - the Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic alphabets appear to all owe their existence to the Phoenicians, as their incredibly convenient and easily adapted alphabet was spread around the mediterranean through their trade empire.

There is so much more to the Phoenicians than you might think, despite the relative lack of sources. Their influence was enormous, their rise to power rapid and impressive, and the echoes of Phoenician civilisation can even be spied today. Hopefully you get some sense of this in today’s video, as we try to answer the question: who were the Phoenicians?


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Music:
A Gleam of Hope
Who Listens to Trees Anyway - Ben McElroy
Way, Way Down There - John Hayes
Europa - Tecnosine
The Distant Sun - Scott Buckley

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0:00 - Intro
2:09 - Origins
5:12 - History
12:04 - Society and Culture
16:00 - Economy
20:54 - Language
24:10 - Religion
29:33 - Art
32:57 - Decline and Fall