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The Phoenicians

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Canaanites

3000 BCE

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Where is it today?

  • Lebanon
  • Syria
  • Israel

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Geography

  • Coastal plain land was not suitable for farming

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Language

  • Semitic language

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Government

  • Did not establish a unified monarch.
  • Independent city-states.

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Major Cities

  • Tyre
  • Sidon
  • Beirut
  • Byblos

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Economy

  • Industry
  • Trade:
    • Israelites, Mesopotamians and Egyptians.
    • Established commercial cities: Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily, Sardinia, Spain and N. Africa.
  • Excellent sailors
    • Best ships of their time.
    • Had to be, lacked natural resources.

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Religion

  • Polytheistic and tied to nature.
  • Each city-state had their own rituals.

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Phoenician Alphabet

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  • Cuneiform first
  • alphabet that consisted of 22 symbols – consonants
  • did not have vowels
  • easier to read, more people were literate than ever before
  • *greatest contribution* to modern civs!

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The Fall

  • Cyrus the Great conquered Phoenicia in 539 B.C.
  • Cyrus the Great was a Persian leader. (Iran)