page_title: Phoenicia
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Phoenicia / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Ancient Phoenician wall built for protection from tidal waves
context_page_description: Phoenicia was an ancient Semitic-speaking thalassocratic civilization that originated in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, specifically modern Lebanon. It was concentrated along the coast of Lebanon and included some coastal areas of Syria and northern Palestine reaching as far north as Arwad and as far south as Acre and possibly Gaza. At its height between 1100 and 200 BC, Phoenician civilization spread across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula.
  The term Phoenicia is an exonym originating from ancient Greek that most likely described Tyrian purple, a major export of Canaanite port towns; it did not correspond precisely to Phoenician culture or society as it would have been understood natively. Scholars thus debate whether the Phoenicians were actually a distinct civilization from the Canaanites and other residents of the Levant.
  The Phoenicians came to prominence following the collapse of most major cultures during the Late Bronze Age. They were renowned in antiquity as adept merchants, expert seafarers, and intrepid explorers.
context_section_description: Due to the paucity of written records from the Phoenicians themselves, their civilization was long overshadowed by those of neighboring Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Beginning in the early 1960s, new and reexamined discoveries by scholars and archaeologists have shed more light on the Phoenicians and their contributions and achievements. 
  
  The most widely known legacy was their development and transmission of an alphabet throughout the Mediterranean, which formed the basis of the Greek alphabet, from which the widely used Latin script derives. The Phoenician alphabet was innovative for its "egalitarian" nature, providing a simple writing system that did not require a small caste of professional scribes, priests, and officials, as in Egypt or Mesopotamia. It could be written on a variety of media and was easy to learn due to its fixed nature, allowing for easier communication across classes and cultures. In addition to facilitating commercial relations—and thus leading to the exchange of goods and ideas that brought prosperity to the region—it has been argued that the Phoenician alphabet proved pivotal to the progress of civilization as a whole:
  The alphabetical (like the numerical) system is how societies organize information. Beyond literacy and systematization, the alphabet stimulates both abstract and rational thought through the phonetic coding and decoding process. As a result, the adoption of Phoenician letters—especially in Ionia and Athens—created an intellectual environment for the development of Greek, and, subsequently, Western science.
  
  Anthropologist Ralph Linton argues that the Phoenician's "main role in the development of the Greek and other Mediterranean cultures was as intermediaries between Asia and Europe." This was aided by their location at the crossroads of the major civilizations in the Near East. As one of the few civilizations to emerge from the Late Bronze Age collapse relatively unscathed, the Phoenicians led the way in reopening trade routes that connected the Egyptian, Greek, and Mesopotamian civilizations. As the region's dominant seafarers and traders well into the Iron Age, the Phoenicians maintained an unparalleled commercial network that revitalized the region and contributed to the "civilizational development of the Mediterranean basin." Historian Jerry H. Bentley argues that this Phoenician-led flourishing of maritime commerce also furthered the economic, social, and cultural integration of the Mediterranean, leading to unprecedented ties and exchanges between otherwise distinct civilizations.
  The Greeks and Romans eventually emulated the Phoenician model, laying the foundation of the "Mediterranean as a single economic, political, and cultural unit." Hans G. Niemeyer claims the Phoenicians "sparked Western civilization" through their "transfusion of Eastern goods, technologies, and ideas that, in turn, became the foundations of Greco-Roman civilization." He also credits Phoenicia for the "dissemination of urban civilization, in the propagation of technical innovations, in the distribution of new [aristocratic] lifestyle paradigms and ‘modern’ economics." The Phoenician mercantile system encouraged the division of labor and accumulation of wealth that allowed for state-building, a model that was adopted by organized states from Greece to Spain. These contributions were also acknowledged by their contemporaries.
  In addition to various manufactured goods and resources, Phoenician traders imparted the West with Mesopotamian astronomical and mathematical ideas and Egyptian architectural and artistic styles. The "Orientalising" trend later seen in Greek art is attributed to the Phoenicians, whose own artistic tradition was an amalgamation of different cultures. The forerunner of Ionic order and ashlar masonry, which remain staples of classical architecture throughout the West, was the Proto-Aeolic capital developed by Phoenicians. Similarly, Bronze Age Phoenicians developed lime mortar from which the Greeks created true cement and the Romans produced concrete.
  Historian of science Leonid 
caption: Ancient Phoenician wall built to protect against tidal waves in Batroun, Lebanon, originally founded by the Phoenicians in 14th century BC. Many Lebanese continue to identify as Phoenicians.
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