Prelude to Carthage: the emergence of the Phoenicians

BILL BASS

What led up to the foundation of Carthage and who were the Phoenicians?   This was the theme of a very interesting June lecture presented to COLAS by Jonathan Tubb of the British Museum, who kindly supplied notes on which this summary is based.

The Phoenicians, in fact, originated from the Levant coastal  area  -  now encompassing Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Jordan - and were based in cities such as Sidon, Tyre, Byblos and Aradus. Their origins lay in Levantine Bronze- age Canaanite culture of the 2^nd millennium BC, a people who had occupied this area for many centuries.

During the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, the Middle Bronze-age, from about 2000-1550 BC, the region witnessed something of a golden age.

Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos, Canaanites who had moved to this region at the beginning of the millennium. Their capital was at Avaris in the Delta.

The trade routes were open  and Egypt was anxious to import commodities such as wine, olive oil and honey from Canaan in return for luxury goods such as gold and  turquoise.  Another much needed and highly regarded commodity was cedar wood, which could be obtained from the mountains of Lebanon and traded through the port Byblos.

It was against this background of peace and co-operation that the city-states of Canaan  prospered and developed a distinctive culture in artistry and craft skills. Excavations in Tell el-Ajjul in southern Canaan have found beautiful jewellery and a dig in a tomb at Jerico found well-preserved Canaanite furniture, Egyptian in style, made for the export market.

Also at this time the Canaanites of the 2^nd millennium BC invented the first alphabet.

At around 1550 BC the tables  were turned. The Hyksos were expelled from Egypt and eventually the whole of Canaan came under Egyptian rule. This, however, did not stifle Canaan inventiveness and craft expertise. The Egyptians exploited it and a wider network of trade routes were established throughout the Mediterranean.

During the mid-1980s a wreck was discovered off the coast of Turkey near Ulu Burun. It is thought to be a Canaanite merchant ship which sank in the 14th century BC.   It was excavated by George Bass (no relation!) and revealed a fabulous array of finds and artefacts of the period including copper  ingots, weapons (swords), decorated ivory, glass objects, gold jewellery and an amazing collection of pottery vessels. The finds came from sources all around the Mediterranean.

This situation was not to last as the Levant became squeezed between the great empires of the Egyptians and the rapidly expanding Hittites of Anatolia.  There followed a very complex period of political conflict.  Letters (on clay tablets) of the Canaanite leaders showed how the area fell to shifting alliances and war. The lands of northern Syria fell into the Hittites realm, cities such as Byblos, Amurru and the great Canaanite city of  Ugarit. In 1289 BC the armies of Ramses II and the Hittite empire met in battle at Qadesh which led to a short-lived treaty between the powers.

From about 1200 BC the Levant and Egypt were subject to ferocious attacks by land and sea from a collection of people from the Aegean and Anatolian region, known collectively as the "Sea Peoples". Also known as Philistines, they overran the Hittite empire destroying many cities along the Levantine coast and invading the Nile Delta.

The main effect of the Sea Peoples invasions, however, was the crippling effect they had on the Egyptian economy - to such an extent that the Asiatic empire could not be sustained, and by about 1150 BC, the Egyptians began to withdraw. The effect of this was devastating. The Egyptians not only removed their troops and officials, but also systematically pulled out all of the resources that had sustained the economy of the Egypto-Canaanite cities. Most probably they took back to Egypt the cream of Canaanite intellectual and artistic society, leaving behind a country so impoverished that it would take nearly three hundred years to recover. The political map was changed irreversibly. The absence of the Egyptians meant that the Philistines could begin to expand eastwards. In the hill country the Habiru farming communities had consolidated into a growing political force, known as Isreal, which was poised to expand into the plains and take over the old Egypto- Canaanite cities.

In the latter part of the 12thcentury BC, therefore, the only part of real Canaanite territory left relatively unaffected was the area on the coast, north of Acre and south of Tell Sukas, including the cities of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Aradus and  Marathus. From this point on, this enclave is referred to as Phoenicia, and it was the Phoenicians who perpetuated the pure ideals of the Canaanites into the first millennium.

It was the Phoenicians who preserved the integrity of Canaanite artistry   and craftsmanship. Faced with such isolation and virtually no agricultural hinterland, they did very much what came naturally - they struck deals with their neighbours, and capitalised on the skills they had already developed, turning out superb quality art and craft objects.

They also extracted and processed on an industrial scale the secretion from the internal gland of a shell, called the murex, producing a dye which was to create the most valuable  and sought-after purple fabrics. It is from the Greek word for this dark purple colour, Phoinikes, that the Phoenicians have acquired their name.

But ultimately it was to the sea that the Phoenicians turned to provide the mainstay fortheir economy, transforming their natural harbours into major ports capable of handling international shipping.  They built some of the finest ships the ancient world had seen and embarked on a programme of trading expeditions which resulted not only in commercial contacts but also in the establishment of colonies. One of the first colonies was Kition in Cyprus, others were founded in Sicily, Spain and Sardinia.

But it was Carthage, on the coast of Tunisia, which was to become the most famous and most enduring Phoenician centre.  Carthage, the New Foundation -  established  according to classical tradition by settlers from Tyre under the leadership of Elissa (Dido) in the year 814 BC. Once founded, Carthage rapidly developed a trade network of its own, the importance of which was to long outlive that of the homeland.