My report was on The Phoenicians. They were a group of people who lived and survived on the coast of the Levant (eastern Mediterranean). As a group they lasted approximately from 1500-300 BC. They were a very smart group pf people for the most part. They even created their alphabet, the Phoenician alphabet became one of the most widely used writing systems and was spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world and was widely used there for a while and also where it evolved and was assimilated by many other cultures. The Aramaic alphabet, a modified form of Phoenician, was the ancestor of modern Arabic script. There ships were also another thing they were known for because they were really powerful and built thoroughly, they were powered by oars and sails and used to sail all over the ancient world to trade goods and sell goods. The Phoenicians became famous for another invention also and that invention was a dye used to color cloth. The dye was made from snails that lived along the coast of the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians boiled thousands of snails to make just a tiny bit of dye. The dye was very costly but was so rare so it became popular fast. It was named after one of their famous city of Tyre, It was called Tyrian purple. The Phoenicians traded the purple cloth as much as they could but only very rich people could buy it because it quickly became known as the royal color. Royalty families decorated their palaces with the purple cloth, and they wore robes of Tyrian purple. Their major cities of which they maintained and constructed in was Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad. All were very independent people and knew how to survive very well. The Phoenicians represented a confederation of maritime traders rather than a defined country. What the Phoenicians actually called themselves is unknown, though it may have been the ancient term Canaanite. The name Phoenician, used to describe these people in the first millennium B.C., is a Greek invention from the word phoenix. The Phoenicians were earth's first-known sailormen and explorers. With that they awoke the Spirit of Adventure and the sea became home to them. They honestly were like searchers, merchants, and pirates all in one. They pretty much ventured in their barks along the Mediterranean shore until it became basically their own country. They had circumnavigated way before the Greeks had, but then the Romans quickly followed in their path. They even ventured out beyond their limits to and through the Gibraltar strait and explored the waters of the Atlantic, both north and south for un-recorded distances. The one problem of the Phoenicians earliest days of their migrations and settlements through western Asia is that there story is really dim because they didn’t leave any written records or strong details about their past such as Hebrews and The Romans. Although we do know of the Phoenicians mainly from their enemies. We learned a lot from them from what was said by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans in there scriptures and writings. There was a lot of talk about the "land of palms," Phoenicia, and it lies along the middle of the Mediterranean's eastern shore. To the south of it is Palestine, and to the north is Syria. Phoenicia is only a long narrow strip of coast about thirty miles at its greatest width. We are not sure though when these so-called “Phoenicians” took possession of this fair coast, but what we do know is they were there at least as early as the year 2000 B.C., but they may have reached the Mediterranean at an earlier date. Tradition often hints that the Phoenicians came originally from somewhere off the eastern coast of Arabia and it was there that they learned all the great knowledge they had. Now to touch on the point of their great cities and territories, besides the city of Byblos which had been a flourishing center from at least the third millennium B.C., the Phoenician cities first emerged as urban entities around 1500 B.C. The earliest city built by these Phoenicians is believed to be Gublu, or as the Greeks called it, Byblos. In the Phoenician tradition it has Byblos as the oldest city of the world, and it held the most ancient chief "baal" or god, El. This god was two-faced had six wings and was sometimes described as having been the first king of Byblos. The Phoenician leadership of the city of Byblos passed before the historical times of Sidon. In the beginning the city of Sidon was just known as a fishing village. Also Sidon's land and territory bordered upon Palestine so therefore the city was well known to the early Israelites. The men of Sidon were always known as very great metal-workers. They had also a way of making a really pure type of glass, which was famous throughout the ancient world because they did it so good at such an early time not quite like anyone had seen yet. For trade with the ruder races they stained this glass with colors and made it into bead necklaces and all around the shores of the Mediterranean. It was even in more distant lands when ancient tombs were opened, and that’s why for a very long time they often found bright-hued necklaces of Sidonian glass on the dead. Before the year 1000 B.C. the leadership among the Phoenician cities had once more shifted, passing from Sidon to Tyre, This was the great city whose name became the old world's symbol of opulence and wide-spread commerce. Tradition tells us that Sidon's fall was due to a big war in about 1252 B.C. with the Philistine cities. They say that in this war the Sidonians were defeated and their city was captured. The citizens escaped by taking to their ships and transferring all their wealth and families to Tyre. So this was like a new start for them in a place that they was not use to, But just like history shows us the Phoenicians were always limited on what they had but always came out shinning. They are really in my opinion a lot like the Vikings because they just always found a way to get it done and was just exceptionally smart. The city Tyre had originally been like Sidon and Byblos because it was a city of the mainland. It was built on the shore behind a row of little islands which made a natural harbor or roadstead for the tiny ships, but before 1200 B.C. some Tyrian leader had seen the advantage of shifting the city to the islands themselves. So this made Tyre become a double city. On the shore was "Old Tyre," girded round with massive walls over a hundred feet in height and On the island half a mile from land was the "New Tyre," and it was protected by the waves. Another Phoenician city was Arvad and it sheltered itself in similar fashion by building out in the sea and therefore these two were enabled to defy and stop invaders. This is another reason why I think that they are a lot like the Vikings because they were exceptionally well at building stuff. Once the fall of Sidon happened they seemed to of learned from there mistakes because the cities of Tyre and Arvad was very well set up for defense and you can tell. They eventually retained their independence and power even when Sidon and Byblos could no longer do so. The Phoenician traders were given freedom of traffic in the Euphrates valley as they had been in Egypt, and they were very glad to pay for this form of security and police protection because all it did was make them a stronger unit and more secure. For nearly a century and a half, from 870 to 727 B.C., the Assyrian monarchs make regular record of their tribute from the kings of "Tyre, Sidon, Byblus, and Arvad." The four names mark evidently the four chief cities, or rather the four little principalities into which Phoenicia was at the time divided even though Tyre had already held kind of a sort of lordship over them all. The year 727 B.C. brought a tragic change though because these happen to be the days of the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians. This just so happened to reduce Palestine completely and forced unconquered Phoenicia into a submission. Even though this was very unlike the Phoenicians I believe they thought it was smart to get out while they could instead of fighting while outnumbered and end up losing everything. The armies of Shalmaneser’s had already ran through and pretty much destroyed the mainland of Phoenicia from one end to the other. So since the Phoenecians pretty much seen their demise coming they did exactly what they did before they was smart and got out of harm’s way and in return they ended up escaping with the island cities of Tyre and Arvad still intact and not destroyed. These two used their great security on the coast of ocean and ended up defying all the Assyrian's power. The only downfall of this was that it brought forward the first great naval battle in history. Sixty of these Phoenician vessels bearing Assyrian soldiers had crossed the narrow strait to attack the island Tyre. The Tyrians had met them with only a dozen craft. This Perhaps was the main problem of the Tyrians was that they again seemed to be outnumbered, and they were desperate but even though they had less there ships were a lot more powerful because again like I said the Phoenicians were great engineers so therefore the battle ended strikingly in the complete defeat of the sixty ships by the twelve, and in the capture or many of the Assyrians. Shalmaneser returned home in anger and even through all this the Tyrians were not seriously destroyed or devastated. The sea was now open to them again and they could again try to rebuild. They withstood the feeble siege for five years but then it was abandoned and Assyrian attention was directed elsewhere, and therefore for twenty years King Luliya was left to reign in peace. He eventually easily renewed his reign over Sidon and the other Phoenician cities. Then came another Assyrian conqueror his name was Sennacherib and he eventually overran Phoenicia with such a great army that even King Luliya despaired of resistance. He was always open to his people. The submission of the land to Sennacherib seems to have been complete and final so he then was named ruler and a king of the land. This made them go into a thirteen-year siege from the great Nebuchadnezzar, who was forced to compromise for her submission at last. Despite a policy of usually submitting and paying tribute to foreign conquerors the Phoenicians seemed to have fought and lost many battles but never wanted to give up I can tell that they had a lot of heart. Many of these battles were against strong Assyrian and Roman fleets that also had many troops invade and besiege Phoenician cities and colonies but they held up as long as they could. Eventually Alexander the Great went on to individually eliminate everything belonging to the Phoenicians who had quite frankly lost their identity because their colonies became Greek. I can say one thing and that’s The Phoenician Empire achieved many great things during their time. They sailed places no one else could in all of Mesopotamia, They were great inventors and engineers and they also created an alphabet, and prolonged their existence by either avoiding conflict or winning battles against invaders or just straight up being smart and getting out of harm’s way. I truly believe after researching all this information that they was not supposed to last as long as they did but they did because they were extremely smart and one of the best survival groups ever but just like all other great civilizations came to an end it was unfortunately there time to come to an end. The Phoenicians fell in around 146 B.C. Although the fall date is not for sure some of them lived as long as 300B.C. but the empire fell in about 146 B.C.
Works cited page of resources I used: https://sites.google.com/site/mediterranean12345/articles-to-read/phoenician-inventions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia http://www.10452lccc.com/hist.geo/ancientphoenicians.htm http://www.ancient.eu.com/phoenicia/