Phoenicia
Publié le 22/02/2012
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(Purple) Greek An ancient kingdom
on the eastern Mediterranean, in the region of
modern Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Phoenicia was a
major trade center of the ancient world. In Homer
and in the Old Testament, its people were known as
Canaanites. In the ninth century b.c., the Greeks gave
the name Phoenician to those Canaanites who lived on
the seacoast and traded with the Greeks. It is said that
the name came from Phoenix, brother of Cadmus,
Cilix and Europa.
The Phoenicians were famous as traders, navigators,
and artisans. They obtained a purple dye,
"Tyre purple," from shellfish. However, their greatest
contribution to Western civilization is thought to be
the alphabet, an idea later adopted by the Greeks.
The use of symbols for sounds in place of more
cumbersome cuneiform and hieroglyphic images was
a tremendous advance to learning.
Tyre was the best-known seaport of Phoenicia,
lying between Sidon to the north and Acre to the
south.