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Ancient Phoenician Research Paper

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Phoenicians- a major element of the the ancient population of Syria-Palestine, referred to themselves as Can’ani, during a period of violent upheaval and mass migrations many Canaanite cities were destroyed, by 1100 B.C.E. their territory had shrunk to a narrow strip of present day Lebanon, where new political forms were adopted and new forms of commerce and manufacture were necessary for survival. Territory was split up into city states; Byblos Berytus, Sidon, and Tyre, thriving trade in raw materials and luxury goods brought considerable wealth and gave them an important role in international politics, developed an earlier Canaanite model into an “alphabetic” system with around two dozen symbols which represented a sound, very few records …show more content…

During the ninth and seventh centuries B.C.E. the Phoenician city-states contended with Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians and later the Persian Empire, after 900 B.C.E. Tyre turned its attention westward and established colonies on Cyprus, and merchants were mentioned in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey around 700 B.C.E., more settlements formed a Phoenician triangle which controlled passage between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean and the islands of Sicily and Malta off the coast of Italy, Tyre remained in power until 701 B.C.E. when it fell to the Assyrians, allowing Sidon to become the leading Phoenician city. Often conflict between them and the Greeks, both fought for control of Sicily in savage wars, By third century the Phoenicians controlled most of Sicily …show more content…

Large amounts of land gave them more access to raw materials which made it easier for them to trade. Their way of ruling indirectly, allowed them to remain in power, without large tolls on resources and people. They also developed an alphabet with symbols that stood for sounds, which made it an easier system to use. Phoenicians were a huge political entity in the Middle East for a long time; they dealt with Greeks, Israelites and Assyrians and shpaed history in their losses and victories.

King Hiram- King of Phoenician city-state, responsible for Tyre’s rise to prominence, came to power in 969 B.C.E., according to the Bible he formed a close alliance with Israelite King Solomon with a valuable trade agreement, in the 800s B.C.E. Tyre took control of Sidon and monopolized Mediterranean coastal trade (87)
Significance- King Hiram, is given credit for Tyre’s rise power which was critical to involvements with King Solomon and Israel. He took control of trade on the coast of the Mediterranean which greatly influenced not only his own colony but everyone who was trading

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