It is deeply researched but also a highly readable exploration. Although the name of the city was known from Egyptian and Hittite sources, its location and history were a mystery until the accidental discovery in 1928 of an ancient tomb at the small Arab village of Ras Shamra. Mediterranean port located on the Syrian coast, 10 kilometers north of the Syrian port of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, east of the northeast coast of Cyprus. Going beyond the few traditionally-cited facts, this authoritative work also draws from interviews with leading archaeologists and historians on-site in the lands and islands where the Phoenicians lived and left clues regarding their secretive society. [xiv] Bryce, Trevor  The Kingdom of the Hittites  (Oxford: Clerendon Press, 1998), pp. The Sea Peoples were the Proto-Phonecians. [xlviii] Moscati, Sabatino  The Phoenicians  (New York: Rizzoli International, 1999/1988), pp. Also, Plato identified Atlantis as having perished long before the Sea Peoples. As a brief digression from the sea traders’ problems, we note that during the next forty-five years of Ramses’ long reign following this treaty, the Hittites were beset on all sides but held their own. The Phoenicians managed to spread their influence because they ventured beyond their homeland both physically and intellectually to explore the world and the riches it had to offer. [xxxi] Bryce,  The Kingdom of the Hittites, p. 356. Ten centimeters tall and dated to 1600 B.C. Phoenician mask The Phoenicians evolved from the Canaanites, a Semitic tribe of the Middle East, which also gave birth to the people of Ugariti, the Hebrews (Jews) and later the Arabs. than to the commercial interests of the Phoenicians. The Egyptians considered the Canaanites to be rivals and cursed the Ashkelon kings by writing their names on figurines and smashing them to magically destroy their power. The Phoenicians At the western end of the Fertile Crescent, along the Mediterranean Sea, was a land known as Phoenicia. [xli] Breasted,  Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. [xxxvi], When the Aegean had been thus cleared, the people of western Anatolia were no longer fighting on two fronts. Also after 1500 BC the Egyptian pharaohs sent their armies up the Levantine coast and demanded to be recognized as overlords of the Phoenicians[xxi] as well as the rest of the Levant. These Cabiri, great Gods, and high priests were the Progenitors of the Cretans who called themselves the Sidonians, and the Greeks called them the Phoenicians, while the Egyptians called them the Sea Peoples because they rule the seas and passed from one country into another. Also, as noted earlier, refugees from the shattered Mycenaean world would eventually come to live among the Sea Peoples, though they did not begin to arrive in Cyprus and Palestine until the latter part of the 12th century BC.[xliii]. Having said this, it must be noted that other motivations appear to have existed for the Sea Peoples as well. A very large number of the Land and Sea Peoples continued onward and eventually arrived at the border between Canaan and Egypt. They seem to have stuck mostly to themselves. Phoenicians were one of the great early civilizations of the Middle East Nebuchadnezzar is said to have destroyed Ashkelon to send a warning to cities in the region of what would await them if they sided with the Egyptians. A vast horde was marching south with a huge fleet at sea supporting the progress on land. The Assuwa, Arzawa and Lukka lived in the land to the west of the Hittites, between that empire and the Aegean Sea, and also attacked. 9. Studies of their teeth indicate they ate a lot sand in their food and their teeth wore down quickly.”. The Canaanites built a vaulted corridor with arched gateways in the city’s mud-brick north wall. But the net result was that the Sea Peoples were finally stopped in their southward movement. Scholars have speculated that the Phoenicians referred to themselves as ‘Kena’ani’ (‘Kinahna’ in Akkadian, or ‘Canaanite’ in English). Save for later. That the sign for “p” could be “pa,” “pi” or “pu.” Ugarit was passed on to the Semitic tribes of the Middle east, which included the Phoenician, Hebrews and later the Arabs. [xxxiv] McDonald and Thomas,  Progress into the Past: The Rediscovery of Mycenaean Civilization,   p. 459. For reasons not yet fully understood, the massive disruptions caused elsewhere in the Levant appear to have had a minimal effect upon the Phoenician coastal centers. They came, they traded, they left. They were repelled by Semitic tribes people who arrived as early as 3200 B.C. The Phoenicians At the western end of the Fertile Crescent, along the Mediterranean Sea, was a land known as Phoenicia. Wachsmann traced this design to vessels found only in Central Europe[xlii] along the Danube River corridor. They were defeated by the armies of Ramses II in the 12th century B.C. Also, the general region became known as the land of the Palestu (=Palestine), or Philistines. 2, edited by Jack M. Sasson, pp. No one knows who the Sea Peoples were. They emerged as a significant cultural and political force around 1100 B.C. Cremation burial, which can be cited from Anatolia and the Aegean, occurred in the coastal region beginning in the twelfth century and continued well into the seventh century. To do this they joined with the Egyptians’ western neighbors, the Libyans, and mounted an attack on the Nile Delta. CLOUD: Sea Peoples origin and identity, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans, Egyptians, Hittites. Of course, this culture is greatly influenced by the Aegean world and continues to reflect that eclectic world we characterize as Canaanite in the Bronze Age.” |*|. [xxxv] To deal with this, warriors and ships in the Sea Peoples confederacy poured from Anatolia and the Black Sea into the Aegean, where they ravaged the Mycenaeans in their islands and on the Greek mainland. And this was long before the coming of the Greeks. [iv] Wachsmann, Shelley  “To the Sea of the Philistines”  The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment  (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum, 2000), p. 122. He also pointed out that widespread disruption of this system of distribution could have caused a collapse of the society and a descent into warfare and migration. is sketchy. [Source: AFP, May 26, 2016], AFP reported: “According to lead study author Lisa Matisoo-Smith, a professor in the department of anatomy at New Zealand's University of Otago, the remains reveal the earliest known evidence in North Africa of a rare European genetic population, or haplogroup, known as U5b2c1. At Ashkelon (see Below) Canaanite families placed corpses in burial chambers and kept them there until the flesh rotted off, a process that took several months, then they would bury the bones in recesses and corners of the chambers. [xxv] Bryce,  The Kingdom of the Hittites, p. 60. [Source: Rick Gore, National Geographic January 2001]. On the discovery of a puppy in pot, Paula Wapnish, an animal bone specialist at the University of Alabama, told National Geographic, “We think that somebody killed it and placed it in a pit in the ground.” Team member Brian Hesse added, “The pot has char marks. Other archeologist believe the Philistines were originally a Sea People group. The legacy of the Sea Peoples was that they had forcefully cleared away the old powers from the Mediterranean and left freshly plowed ground. In one building the skeleton of a woman---whose skull had been smashed by a blunt instrument---was found. For example, they invented the phonetic alphabet; they were the first great maritime civilization whose people: were innovators in terms of maritime trade, navigation, sailing and shipbuilding. Some archaeologists have speculated that the were Phoenicians, but there is no conclusive proof of this. The presence of all these cultures and historical periods means the site is rich archaeologically but also difficult and complex to sort through. [xlv] Barnett,  “The Sea Peoples”, pp. "Hopefully our findings and other continuing research will cast further light on the origins and impact of Phoenician peoples and their culture," said Matisoo-Smith.”, Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum, Bardo Museum. The Phoenicians: Mysterious Sea People (Ancient Civilizations) | Katherine Reece | download | Z-Library. See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions. Later Peoples of the FertileCrescent: Sea PeoplesSocial Studies for 8th E.G.B. The conquest of canaan according to the bible and the t.e.a.t. The Canaanites have Semitic facial features, and dark hair, which the women wear in long tresses and the men have styled in mushroom- shaped bundles on the tops of their heads. This issue has been touched upon briefly several times during this analysis, and it deserves to be addressed directly. 367-368. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The winners, who constituted the Sea Peoples’ confederacy, were a) the tribes of people who came from Anatolia—and the lands to its north and west—who migrated into the Levant and onto islands across the Mediterranean, b) the Kaska who kept their original lands in the north of Anatolia on the Black Sea, and added the heart of the Hittite territories to their own, c) the West Anatolian people who remained in their own lands, but added some of the Hittite lands, and gained influence in the Aegean, and d) the Phoenicians who seem to have gained more than anyone else from the mass migration of the Land and Sea Peoples. By clarifying the “mysteries” surrounding them, we are now able to more fully understand this critical turning point in history. 20-31. [i] Grant, Michael  The Ancient Mediterranean  (New York: Meridian, 1988), p. 80. [x] It is hoped that additional archaeological work will eventually be performed to verify their status as well. While the Israelite were making crude, unadorned pottery, the Philistines were decorating their ceramics with designs similar to those produced in Mycenaean Greece, the civilization that defeated Troy in Homeric legend. Pages: 48 / 47. There is no such mystery about the origins of the Phoenicians. After that there is no reference to them in the historical record. With her own colonies. [Source: Pierre Grandet, 2014, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2013 escholarship.org <>]. |*|, “The Philistine pentapolis came under control of David and remained generally part of Judah or Israel for most of the 10th and probably part of the ninth century. How "People of the Sea" Came to Be The Egyptians originally coined the name "Peoples of the Sea" for the foreign contingents that the Libyans brought in to support their attack on Egypt in c. 1220 BC during the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah. The basis of their prosperity was long-distance trade that at that time was greatly influenced by the favorable location of colonies and cities on the main trade lines. 1-8. Syria, The Philistines and Phoenicia, CAH II, ch. See the first pages here. It was an the next great Canaanite city to arise after Ebla. [Source: Pierre Grandet, 2014, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2013 escholarship.org <>], “Less than one generation earlier, a group of peoples of the same origin (including the Shakalusha ), had been party to an attempted Libyan invasion of Egypt in year five of Merenptah, and had been dubbed “Peoples of the Sea” in the commemorative inscription of this king’s victory. They were merchants, traders, and colonizers who probably arrived from the Persian Gulf about 3000 bce. In 1208 BC they sailed to Egypt in small numbers, estimated at 5000 warriors,[xxvii] and attacked the successor to Ramses: king Merneptah. The Phoenician cities were untouched by this devastation that happened around them, which left these people in an advantageous      position. But why was this particular moment chosen for exploding into action? Among the interesting things that archaeologists have dug up in Ashkelon from the Philistine period are a large winery with a storehouse and a burial ground for dogs. However, since their writings were made on papyrus, little remains except what has been written about them by Greek and Egyptian scholars. https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/phoenicians-0012120 He postulated further that a simple two-year drought could have caused this whole system to collapse. The Phoenicians, who spread not only their goods and religion across the Mediterranean Sea but also their alphabet across the world, were famous for their ships and purple die. This led to a search being made in Greece to find the cause of the Sea Peoples migration. Over the centuries it was occupied by Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Crusaders. They were manned [completely] from bow to stern with valiant warriors bearing their arms, soldiers of all the choicest of Egypt, being like lions roaring upon the mountain-tops. Betancourt’s model has therefore proven partially correct—because following this widespread disruption the Mycenaean cities withered and eventually died. ^^^. They fought the Assyrians in the east, the fierce Kaska people who controlled the north shore of Anatolia, and they fought the several groups of people who divided western Anatolia among them. “Ugarit: A Second-Millennium Kingdom on the Mediterranean Coast”  Civilizations of the Ancient Near East  (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1995), p. 1265. Bronze Shardana (Sherden) Warrior with … They desolated his people and his land like that which is not. The Mycenaeans continued to hold the Aegean and attacked the Anatolian people from the seaward side. [vii] Joseph, Frank  Survivors of Atlantis  (Rochester, VT: Bear & Co, 2004), pp. See the first pages here. The growth of Ugarit as a major sea trader[xx] located just north of the Phoenicians exerted additional pressure from that direction. Some archaeologists have speculated that the were Phoenicians, but there is no conclusive proof of this. This perception was mainly due to two features common to all these tribes: their being equipped with Mycenaean weaponry and their geographical origin being “their isles” or “the sea,” an Egyptian designation for the Aegean world, the confederation comprised two main peoples: the Pulasti and the Sikala, helped by the lesser Shakalusha , Danuna , and Washasha , Peleset, Shekelesh, Denen , and Weshesh ). and later is dependent on the Hebrew Bible, Assyrian records, and Greek and Latin authors. [xxxix] Murnane, William J. This has led recent sources to refer to them as the Land and Sea Peoples[xxxiv] which is a much more accurate appellation. In the early 2000s, Spencer Wells, a geneticist at Harvard, and Pierre Zalloua, a geneticist at the American University in Beirut, took blood samples from people in areas where the Phoenicians lived in Lebanon, Tunisia and Spain to gain some insight into where the Phoenicians came from, who they were and what happened to them based on clues that could be gleaned from their DNA. The Sea Peoples' raids and invasions from the land and sea would put an end to an era, but it was immediately followed by the "Age of the Phoenicians". [iii] Oren, Eliezer D.  “Introduction”  The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment  (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum, 2000), p. xvii. With the exception of the defense against the attack from the Libyans, the rest of Ramses III’s long reign was peaceful. The Phoenician people had been dominant sea traders in the Mediterranean prior to 1500 BC [xvii], [xviii] and in some cases had partnered with others to maintain that position. But when the Sea Peoples arrived on Levantine shores, the clever Phoenicians paid them off — or at least that’s what historians have surmised. From around 2000 BC, people living close to the Mediterranean Sea, such as the MINOANS, Mycenaeans, and PHOENICIANS, built strong wooden ships powered by sails and oars. Wells and Zalloua also were interested in testing a couple of hypothesis. They established a number of Punic colonies in North Africa, Spain, France, Italy and the Aegean islands. The word Phoenician is what the ancient Greeks called the Semitic inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean coastland. The results were highly conclusive. At a time of severe food shortages, when this need was about to erupt into a truly massive migration of people, the Phoenicians were the ones who could bring some quantity of food. I guess that only adds to their mystery.”, Phoenicians inhabited the coastal cities, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos and Arwad, in what is now Lebanon and southern Syria.