1a+-+Phoenicians

Phoenician Civilization

Phoenician civilization was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan. This civilization was a trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean the coastal plains of what is now Lebanon. The coastal land was too poor to support people through farming so the Phoenicians turned to manufacturing and trade. They made glass from sand, and they made a purple dye from a tiny sea snail, called Tyrean purple after the city Tyre. Phoenicians also used papyrus from egypt to make scrolls, or rolls of paper, for books. Phoenicians traded with people all around the Mediterranean Sea. To promote trade, they set up colonies form North Africa to Sicily and Spain. Some Phoenician Traders braved the stormy Atlantic and sailed as far as England. They exchanged goods from the Mediterranean for tin. One time a Phoenician expedition sailed down the Red Sea and then followed the African coast around the southern tip.



"Carriers of civilization" is what the historians called the Phoenicians because they spread MIddle Eatern civilization around the Mediterranean. They made their own contribution to the world by giving us the alphabet. The Phoenician traders wanted a quick way to record business deals. The wedges of cuneiform were too clumsy, so they adapted the idea od using symbols to represent spoken sounds. This became the first real alphabet with 22 symbols for constant sounds. The Greeks later adapted the Phoenician alphabe and added symbols for the vowel sounds.