Knowra Phoenicia Phoenicia Phoenicia was an ancient eastern Mediterranean coastal region centered in present-day Lebanon. Its independent city-states became renowned for maritime trade, seafaring, and the spread of an alphabet.
Carthage : An ancient city in present-day Tunisia, founded by Phoenician settlers from Tyre and later a major Mediterranean power. Its foundation extended Phoenician settlement across the western Mediterranean.
Levant : A historical geographic region of the eastern Mediterranean, including present-day Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. Phoenicia occupied the Levant's central Mediterranean coastline.
Phoenician alphabet : A consonant-based writing system used by Phoenician speakers, written from right to left. Phoenician merchants and settlements helped circulate this influential script.
Amarna letters : A cache of diplomatic correspondence from the fourteenth century BCE, written mainly in Akkadian cuneiform. The letters document early relations between Levantine cities and Egypt, including Byblos.
Proto-Sinaitic script : An early alphabetic script attested in inscriptions from Sinai and Egypt, probably developed from Egyptian signs. It belongs to the broader alphabetic tradition from which Phoenician writing emerged.
Phoenician colonization : The establishment of Phoenician settlements and trading posts around the Mediterranean and beyond. It carried Phoenician commerce and cultural practices far beyond the Levant.
Tyre : An ancient Phoenician city on the coast of present-day Lebanon, renowned for maritime trade and colonization. Tyre was one of Phoenicia's most influential city-states.
Greek alphabet : The alphabet used to write Greek, adapted from the Phoenician script with signs for vowels. Greek adaptation demonstrates how Phoenician writing spread through cultural contact.
Neo-Assyrian Empire : An ancient Mesopotamian empire that dominated much of the Near East from the tenth to seventh centuries BCE. Assyrian expansion brought Phoenician cities under imperial pressure and tribute.
Aramaic alphabet : A consonantal alphabet used to write Aramaic, derived from the Phoenician script. Its development shows a parallel descendant of the Phoenician writing tradition.
Show all 30