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B.C. - Before the traditional birth of Jesus Christ. Also B.C.E., before the "common" era.|
Bronze Age - Era of first tools and weapons made from copper and bronze, in Greece
beginning around 3000 BC, prior to Iron Age.
Copper Age - Earliest period of the Bronze Age, varying by region, before copper was alloyed with tin to form bronze for tools and weapons.
Early Minoan - Minoan (Cretan) civilization from 4000 BC to 2100
Indo-European - Many societies of Europe, southern Asia and southwest
Asia, identifiable by 1000 BC based on linguistic similarities.
Iron Age - Era of tools made from iron, beginning around 1200 BC, in Greece around 1100 BC, in Sicily probably with Greeks circa 700 BC. Followed Bronze Age.
Late Bronze Age - In Sicily the era from about 1270 BC until circa 650 BC, immediately prior to Iron Age introduced by Greeks.
Late Minoan - Minoan (Cretan) civilization from 1550 BC to 1100 BC.
Middle Minoan - Minoan (Cretan) civilization from 2100 BC to 1550
Minoan - Aegean civilization of ancient Crete, from 4000 BC to 1100
Mycenean - Late Bronze Age civilization of ancient Peloponnese contemporary to Late Minoan (Cretan) development. Relating to ancient Mycenae.
Phoenician - Semitic language of ancient Phoenicians.
Sicanian - Native people of Sicily, from "sika" for chalcedony
(Italian "selce") found in valleys they inhabited. Origins identified from 2000-1600 BC following Proto-Sicanian cultures.
Sicels - Also Sikels from Greek "Si'Keloi," Italic people
arriving in eastern Sicily circa 1200 BC.
They founded settlements
across the Mediterranean --places like Palermo, Carthage, Ibiza and Cadiz--
and their alphabet was the precursor of Greek, Roman, Aramaic and Hebrew
writing (and indirectly Cyrillic and Arabic as well). Yet, the Phoenicians
have been overshadowed by the societies they influenced, particularly the
Greeks and Romans. The Bible's Old Testament refers to "Canaanites"
generically in referring to the early Phoenicians who inhabited the eastern
Mediterranean coast of what is now Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and part of
Syria. Phoenicia, as it was called by the Greeks, ranging from the
Eleutherus River in the north to Mount Carmel in the south, and extending
some distance inland through a mountainous region where cedar forests formerly thrived, was a wealthy
region of independent city-states which traded with Egypt as early as 2000
It has been suggested that the Phoenicians, essentially a Semitic people,
arrived in the Middle East from the Persian Gulf sometime around 3000 BC.
However, the evidence for this remains inconclusive. Today, their primary
descendants include the Lebanese, Palestinians, many Syrians and some Egyptians.
Beyond the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, the people of Sicily, Spain,
Sardinia, Tunisia and Malta boast at least some Phoenician blood, as well
as a distinguished Phoenician cultural heritage.
By 1000 BC, the seafaring Phoenicians, the greatest traders of their
time, were moving beyond the Strait of Gibralter to trade with Cornwall
(to exploit its tin mines) and, it is thought, to navigate around Africa. There
is a theory that they also reached America. Their trading colonies in western
Sicily were founded around 800 BC and included Motia and Solunto as well
as what are now Marsala and Palermo. When the Phoenicians' descendants,
the Carthaginians, re-populated these coastal settlements three centuries
later, the result was open conflict with the Greeks and then the Romans
(leading to the Punic Wars). By 800 BC, both the Etruscans and Greeks had
adapted the Phoenician alphabet to their own needs. Sicily's native peoples
(the Sicanians, the Sicels and the Elymians)
used the Phoenician alphabet almost unaltered.
Relations with the Egyptians were usually good, but over time the Phoenicians
found themselves at odds with the neighboring Assyrians. Their differences
with their Greek neighbors dated from the Phoenicians' alliance with the
The Phoenicians identified themselves by the cities of their birth. Phoenicia
owes its name to a Greek word, phoinix referring to the purple dyed
goods of coastal Canaan, where a non-fading, reddish-purple dye was made
from the glands of murex mollusks, the dye of Tyre ("Tyrian Purple")
being the best known --and eventually much preferred by the Greeks and Romans.
Phoinikes literally means red people. Canaanites were
sometimes called Sidonians (for their city of Sidon). By 1900 BC,
Ugarit, in northern Phoenicia, traded with Crete and other eastern Mediterranean
The Phoenicians' Semitic language was closely related to Hebrew and distantly
related to Aramaic and to the Semitic languages of Mesopotamia, such as
Assyrian and Babylonian, yet Phoenician civilization was clearly distinct
from these other cultures. By AD 100, Aramaic had become the popular language
of Phoenicia, but Carthaginians spoke the Punic dialect of Phoenician
until the sixth century. (This Carthaginian language was essentially similar
to "classical" Phoenician, but characterized by what are thought
to have been some "native" north African elements.) The place
name Gades (now Cadiz) comes from the Phoenician word for wall.
The word bible comes from the Greek word for book, which the
Greeks took from the name of the Phoenician city of Byblos, famous
for its papyrus, a product they imported in vast quantities.
The Phoenicians' arrival in western Sicily, circa 800 BC, coincided with
the Greek settlement of the island's eastern areas. Initially, the Phoenicians'
Sicilian cities were primarily trading centers, while the Greeks sought
full-scale colonization of Sicily. Eventually, the Greeks fought a war against
the Sicels of eastern Sicily, though the Phoenicians seem to have co-existed
peacefully with the Elymians of the west, effectively co-founding towns
such as Eryx (Erice).
Though the Carthaginians' culture was essentially Phoenician, it is more
accurate to define it as a "residual" Phoenician (or "Punic")
civilization of northern Africa, much as medieval Norman society represented
residual Nordic civilization in northwestern France. In Sicilian history,
the Phoenician presence began around 800 BC and lasted until around 500
BC. By that time, with the original Phoenician settlements of Sicily underpopulated,
the Carthaginians "rediscovered" Sicily. That's when they encountered
conflict with Greek expansionism. Later still, the Romans defeated the Carthaginians
during the Punic Wars. (The Carthaginians will be featured in another article
in this series.)
Today, Punic Palermo is regarded by many to
have been the most important Phoenician town in Sicily. However, such a
view reflects a Carthaginian and Roman perspective, rather than a purely
Phoenician one. In fact, until circa 600 BC the settlements now identified
with Marsala and Solunto may still have been more important than Zis
(as Palermo was probably known to the Phoenicians), whose strategic and
economic prominence emerged during the later (Carthaginian) period.
Preserved on easily-destroyed papyrus, Phoenician literature has largely
vanished. Consequently, the Phoenicians' history was written primarily by
their enemies, and not usually in a favorable light. The culture of the
Phoenicians (and Carthaginians) was disparaged by generations of Hellenistic
and Roman scholars, and this perspective found its way into the modern era.
Underlying motives may have reflected dominant Romanist (and Paleo-Christian)
and Judaic ideas, but the trend may simply have been part of a subtle effort
to disdain a defeated people in favor of the victors. Certain oft-cited
social phenomena (such as the Carthaginians' reputed ritual sacrifice of
children) were not unique to the Phoenicians, nor were they even necessarily
known to most Greeks and Romans. Indeed, many Phoenician deities corresponded
to Greek (and then Roman) ones, and their society and religion were not
markedly different from what one would have encountered in ancient Athens
Unfortunately, the cultural bias against the Phoenicians and their descendants continues to this day. For example, while there exist in Sicily more traces of Greek culture than Phoenician civilization, popular travel guidebooks and histories published today virtually ignore the Phoenicians and Carthaginians except for a note here or a paragraph there. To a certain extent, this reflects the "classical" emphasis of the authors' historical instruction (and also the idea that to most tourists Phoenician walls are considered less interesting than Greek temples and amphitheatres).
There was a strong Egyptian influence on Phoenician art. The two stelae
shown above, found at Mozia (Motya), are a fine example of this. Phoenicia itself,
and in turn the Phoenician colonies across the Mediterranean, was a cultural
crossroads which brought Assyrian and Babylonian myths, literature and other
knowledge westward, first to Greece and then to places like Sicily, Tunisia
and Spain. It is thought that this "eastern" cultural influence brought
about Greece's "Golden Age" of art and literature, effectively
establishing the framework of Western civilization as it has come to be
known and appreciated. Egyptian culture was not overlooked, though the Egyptians
had their own commercial (and eventually even dynastic) links with the Greek
Certain Phoenician settlements offered specific resources --silver in
Spain and tin in England. In Sicily terra cotta (ceramic) objects seem to
have been the major product.
It is fair to say that the Phoenicians dominated Mediterranean sea travel,
trade and commerce for over two thousand years, a reality which probably
made the ambitious Greeks at least slightly envious. Yet, for most of their
glorious history the Phoenicians were not a maritime military power as we
understand that term. Phoenicia was never an empire. For most of its history,
Phoenicia was an essentially peaceful, loosely-united "confederation"
of independent city-states which usually maintained good relations with
its powerful neighbors to the east and south.
There is little doubt that the Phoenicians influenced early Sicily. In
many cases, however, we cannot state with certainty whether particular developments
(such as the introduction of papyrus in Sicily)
are more properly attributed to the Phoenicians or to the Greeks. Bearing
in mind that in Sicily the Phoenicians were essentially traders and the
Greeks primarily colonists, it seems probable that the Greeks did indeed
introduce the cultivation of edible olives on a wide scale, and perhaps
grapes too. However, there is no clear evidence that the Phoenicians did
not introduce certain grape varieties --and perhaps winemaking itself. That
said, the cultures of the Aoelian (Lipari) Islands and certain coastal Ionian
communities enjoyed contact with "Hellenistic" cultures, such
as those of the Minoans and Myceneans, centuries before the arrival of the
Phoenicians. At issue, however, is the fact that the Hellenistic record
provides the first documented evidence of these developments, with
no surviving Phoenician record existing to challenge it. In this way, the
Phoenicians may be the "Vikings" of the Mediterranean, their adventurous,
seafaring legacy known to us but their contributions rarely confirmed by
reliable (and unbiased) written records.
It is a fact that the Phoenicians controlled the Strait of Gibralter
and navigated some distance southward along Africa's Atlantic coast. Their
theorized (but unproven) circumnavigation of Africa, mentioned by the Greek
historian Herodotus, would have been a remarkable achievement, but it has
also been postulated that the Phoenicians ventured across the Atlantic to
the Americas. Based on the shipbuilding technology of their time, both voyages
would have been challenging, though perhaps not impossible. An interesting
aspect regarding the African theory is that, presumably through the Phoenicians
and Greeks, it became known with certainty that Africa was a continent set
in a sea, and not an infinite land mass --something which could not otherwise
have been known to ancient peoples. In any event, reaching England appears
to have been a reasonably simple task for the Phoenicians. Most of their
landings in Sicily were the results of shorter voyages of just a few days'
duration, departing from ports in Tunisia or Sardinia.
Carthage, the greatest Phoenician colony, was probably founded by traders
from Tyre shortly before 800 BC (though some scholars claim a foundation
of circa 860 BC), Zis (Palermo) and Gadir (Cadiz) probably just a few decades
later, with Motya (Motia) and Solus (Solunto) settled about the same time.
Mount Eryx was a point of reference for Phoenician navigators. The origins
of the town of Eryx (Erice) are somewhat "multicultural," as this
appears to have been an Elymian center before the arrival of the Phoenicians,
who established there a temple to Astarte (their goddess of fertility),
later identified with Aphrodite by the Greeks, and with Venus by the Romans.
By 580 BC, the Greeks were already attempting to drive the Phoenicians from
Sicily. They failed, but in the 550s the Carthaginians formed an alliance
with the Etruscans intended to check Greek expansionism in the central Mediterranean.
The Elymians (who were gradually amalgamating with the Greeks) played little
part in this, though Segesta and other Elymian towns eventually became Hellenized
in every respect.
Owing partly to events in Phoenicia, Carthage and the other Phoenician
cities across the Mediterranean soon became independent. The Assyrians captured
Phoenicia in 842 BC and controlled the region for two centuries. The Babylonians
briefly controlled Phoenicia from 612 BC. In 539 BC, Phoenicia fell to the
Persians, who seem to have permitted a degree of autonomy. In the Persian
Wars (490-479 BC) against Greece, the Phoenician fleet played a key role,
though it suffered serious losses at the Battle of Salamis (480 BC). The
Phoenicians' forced alliance with Persia appears to have earned the antipathy
of the Greeks of the central Mediterranean, and this resentment was directed
toward the Phoenician societies of Carthage, Zis and Motya.
Alexander the Great captured Tyre in 332 BC, bringing Phoenicia into
the Greco-Macedonian sphere of influence. The culture of Phoenicia rapidly
became Hellenized, though Aramaic was already the language of the common
people and continued to be used. Distant Carthage preserved the original
language and culture of the Phoenicians.
The Phoenician-Carthaginian influence represents one of two major
Semitic colonizations in Sicily, the other being that of the medieval Saracens (Moors).
Until 1492, there were also Jewish communities present in many cities.
Thus far, genetic traces of the Phoenicians have been more clearly identified
in the population of Malta than among Sicilians, though much research remains
to be undertaken in this area. It is reasonable to presume that the Phoenician-Carthaginian
genetic link, if identified, would be more pronounced in western Sicily than in the island's
eastern regions. The cultural link is certainly a powerful one; it includes
the letters on this page.
About the Author: Palermo native Vincenzo Salerno has written biographies of several famous Sicilians, including Frederick II and Giuseppe di Lampedusa.