REL 464 - The Inter-Testamental Era
Course Notes
Phoenician Cities
Early History of the Phoenicians
The Phoenicians were descendents of the Canaanites who dwelt in the region during the earlier Bronze Age (3,000-1,200 B.C.). There is archaeological evidence for a continuous cultural tradition from the Bronze to the Iron Age (1,200-333 B.C.) at the cities of Tyre and Zaraphath. In the Egyptian Amarna age (fourteenth century B.C.) many letters to Egypt were sent from King Rib-Addi of Byblos, King Abi-Milki of Tyre, and King Zimrida of Sidon, and in other New Kingdom Egyptian texts there are references to the cities of Beirut, Sidon, Zaraphath, Ushu, Tyre, and Byblos. In the Amarna tablets, the people from the region refer to themselves as Kenaani, probably indicating a Canaanite relationship. The cities of Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Simyra, Arwad, and Berytus are all mentioned in the Amarna tablets. There is a thirteenth-century B.C. letter from the king of Tyre to Ugarit, and an Ugaritic inscription has been found at Zaraphath. The term "Phoenician" is now normally applied to the culture from the Iron Age onward (beginning about the twelfth century B.C.) when the traits that characterize Phoenician culture evolved : long-distance seafaring, trade and colonization, and distinctive elements of their material culture, language, and script.
Tyre
Tyre was probably founded as a colony of Sidon in the 3rd millennium BC. It originally consisted of a mainland settlement and an island city, but these were joined in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great with a causeway which connected the island to the mainland.
Tyre was mentioned in Egyptian records of the 14th century B.C. as being subject to Egypt. It became independent when Egyptian influence in Phoenicia declined, and it soon surpassed Sidon as a trade center, developing commercial relations with all parts of the Mediterranean world. In 815 B.C. colonists from Tyre founded the city of Carthage in northern Africa, which later became Rome's principal rival in the West.
Tyre is mentioned frequently in the Bible. Hiram, King of Tyre, furnished building materials for Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem (10th century); his burial monument can still be seen, on the mainland a couple of miles southeast of Tyre.
Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, was the daughter of Ethbaal "King of Tyre and Sidon". Tyre was ruled by kings whose power was limited by the strength of the merchant leaders.
The silted up harbor on the south side of the peninsula has been excavated by the French Institute for Archaeology in the Near East, but most of the remains of the Phoenician period still lie beneath the present town.
In 1980, modern Tyre's impressive Roman and Phoenician remains prompted UNESCO to make the town one of its world heritage sites.
Sidon
There is evidence that Sidon was inhabited by 4,000 B.C., and perhaps as early as the Neolithic age (6,000 - 4,000 B.C.). The ancient city was built on a promontory facing an island, which sheltered its fleet from storms and served as a refuge from attacks by land.
The Sidonians manufactured glass and also the purple dye from the Murex snail.
A hill of Murex shells formed by the refuse of the purple factories still remains.
At the end of the Persian era in 351 B.C., unable to resist the superior forces of Artaxerxes III, the desperate Sidonians locked themselves in the city and set fire to it rather than to submit to the invader. More than 40,000 died in the fire. After the fire the city was too weak to oppose Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. The Sidonians submitted to Alexander, and the Hellenistic age of Sidon began.
Byblos
Byblos (Jbail) claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, going back probably about 9,000 years. (Jericho was founded earlier, but has not been continuously inhabited.)
About 7,000 years ago a small Neolithic fishing community settled along the shore and several of their one-room huts with crushed lime stone floors can be seen on the site. Many tools and weapons of the Neolithic period have been found.
The Chalcolithic Period (4,000-3,000 B.C.) saw a continuation of the same way of life, but brought with it new burial customs where the deceased were laid in large pottery jars and buried with their earthly possessions.
During the Bronze Age Amorite tribes from the desert overran the coastal region and set fire to Byblos. The Amorites settled in, and the city was rebuilt and Egypt again began to send costly gifts to Byblos. Treasures from the royal tombs of Byblos show the great wealth that flooded the city.
Around 1,200 B.C. a wave of the Sea Peoples spread to the eastern Mediterranean, and some settled on the southern coast of Canaan. These seafarers probably contributed their skills to the development of the Phoenician maritime society.
The superposition of nearly two dozen successive levels of human culture on this site makes it one of the richest archaeological areas in the Middle East. The ancient site contains ruins from the Neolithic, Canaanite, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader periods. There are remains of huts from the 5th millennium B.C., the temple of Baalat Gebal from 2,800 B.C., an L-shaped temple from 2,700 B.C., two royal tombs and a temple from the early 2nd millennium B.C., and an amphitheater from the Roman period.
It is thought that the "book" form of a stack of leaves of papyrus bound between a pair of stiff covers, as opposed to the "scroll" came into general use in Byblos, hence giving us the Greek word for book (biblion) and the word "Bible". Biblos also claims to be the place where the first linear alphabet was invented, the Phoenician alphabet which spread throughout the Mediterranean.
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
