OVERLOOKED INNOVATORS

According to Herodotus “These Phoenicians … brought with them to Hellas, among many other kinds of learning, the alphabet, which had been unknown before this, I think, to the Greeks” (5.58). Famed for providing the model for the Greek alphabet and being among the most famous merchants and explorers of all time, many aspects of the Phoenicians remain a mystery.

Murray Dahm

Hailing from the Levant, the Phoenicians were famous as traders and explorers whose travels spread throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, reaching Spain, the western coast of Africa, and perhaps even further. Unfortunately, we do not know how the Phoenicians referred to themselves – if, in fact, they did (see LópezRuiz, this issue). We currently know them by the Greeks’ name for them, which may derive from the Greek for purple (phoinikes), after the purple dye that was produced by the murex sea snail that inhabited the Phoenician coastline. Indeed, it has been argued that the Greek word for Phoenicia (phoenix) itself meant ‘land of purple’. Much like the Greeks, Phoenicia was never a unified state but a collection of city states, and they referred to themselves as the occupants of…

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Ancient History (Digital) - 1 Issue, AH 53

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