phoenician
Phoenicians are an ancient people in history, living on the east coast of the Mediterranean today, which is equivalent to the coastal areas of Lebanon and Syria today. They once established an ancient country with high civilization. Phoenician city-states flourished from the 10 century BC to the 8th century BC. Phoenicians were the most famous navigators and businessmen in the ancient world. They drove long and narrow boats all over the first corner of the Mediterranean, and Phoenician businessmen could be seen in every port along the Mediterranean coast.
Because the Phoenicians have long since disappeared in the sea of history, all the records about them are from the hands of the Greeks and Romans who suffered greatly from the Phoenicians. Therefore, our understanding of Phoenicians today is very incomplete. It is said that "Phoenicia" is an ancient Greek word, which means "the country of crimson purple", because the local specialty of Phoenicians is purple dye. Phoenicians forced slaves to dive to the bottom of the sea to get mussels, extract bright and compact pigments from them, and then sell them to Mediterranean countries with purple-red dyed cloth.
How did the Phoenicians rise? From where?
People nowadays don't know anything. Phoenicians were first seen in the history books that can be seen today. They have been in the land called "Phoenician coast" in the eastern Mediterranean, where they have established many prosperous commercial cities. At that time, the largest city established by the Phoenicians was Tyre, and some people said it was Sur in Lebanon today. Tyre is so rich that ancient writers used many beautiful words to exaggerate it, such as "silver piled up in the street like dirt, gold piled up in the street like sand" and so on. However, the Phoenicians did not establish a unified country. Every Phoenician city is a country, and residents elect their own kings and respect their protectors. Phoenicians are very clever. Backed by the towering lebanon mountains, we can only survive in the vast sea. There is no condition to engage in agriculture. They developed handicrafts and commerce. They are clever handicraft artists and businessmen, who travel everywhere. They not only sell their own exquisite handicrafts, such as glass vases, jewelry, metal utensils and weapons. It also sells local specialties: grains, alcohol, textiles, carpets and precious stones from the Far East and India, lead, gold and iron from the Black Sea coast, copper, cypress and corn from Cyprus, and various handicrafts from Greece. In addition, wine and oil from Sicily, wine from Balearic Islands and wax from Corsica, ivory and slaves brought back from the African continent, gold and silver brought back from Spain, and even tin from Britain were collected in the hands of Phoenicians and then sold through their hands. With the development of commerce, Phoenicians established many commercial stations or colonies along the Mediterranean coast, which became the most prosperous place in the local economy. Many commercial post stations later became famous commercial cities, such as Marseille in France today. Some cities are still powerful city-states, and Carthage (now Tunisia) in North Africa is its largest colony. Once made the Romans tremble with fear.
Phoenicians were not only shrewd businessmen, but also brave navigators. They crossed the Mediterranean Sea, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, and frequented the choppy Atlantic Ocean. Today, the two coordinates of the Strait of Gibraltar are named after the Phoenician god, and they are called "Mercata". It is said that the Phoenicians sailed to the Atlantic coast of France today, to Britain, and even to the Cape of Good Hope in the south. They often trade with black people in West Africa. Herodotus recorded in his writings that the Phoenicians unloaded the goods on the beach and returned to the ship, raising a wisp of black smoke as a signal. When the black man saw it, he came to the beach, put some gold next to the goods, and then hid in the Woods. When the Phoenicians came ashore, they saw that the quantity of gold was satisfactory, so they put it away and went away. If they are not satisfied, they go back to the boat and wait until the black people are satisfied with the increased gold. Of course, the greatest contribution of the Phoenicians was the characters they used-the Phoenician alphabet. For practical needs, they removed the beautiful appearance of hieroglyphs and cuneiform, and extracted some simple symbols from them to form 22 letters, which are Phoenician letters. The Phoenician alphabet is the common ancestor of many languages in Europe today. After the 8th century BC, Phoenicia successively belonged to Assyria, New Babylon, Persia and Macedonia.
Phoenicians once controlled the maritime trade in the Mediterranean for 3000 years, but beyond that, our understanding of this mysterious nation is very limited. Now, DNA testing and recent archaeological discoveries have made some gains, which will soon solve an old problem for us: who are the Phoenicians? What kind of legacy did they leave to future generations?
From June 5, 2004 to 2004 10, the project of Spencer Wells, a human geneticist at Oxford University, and Pierre Zaruya, a Lebanese human geneticist, funded by the National Geographic Society, finally yielded results after two years of research.
A purplish red person
Phoenicians are the floorboard of a series of small city-states on the east coast of the ancient Mediterranean world. Located in the central area of levante coast, it starts from Aladus in the north and ends at Dole in the south, with a length of about 320 kilometers. At the beginning of BC12nd century, Phoenicia reached its peak.
From the 9th century BC to the 7th century BC, Phoenician city-states participated in the alliance of Syrian countries against Assyria many times, but all failed. From the 6th century BC to the 4th century BC, the Phoenician city-states were successively conquered by the New Babylonian Kingdom, and later became the fifth province of the Persian Empire. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, made an eastward expedition and met with stubborn resistance in Tyre. Since then, under the long-term rule of Greeks and Romans, Phoenicians have gradually merged with other nationalities.
Because the Phoenicians have long since disappeared in the sea of history, all the records about them are from the hands of the Greeks and Romans who suffered greatly from the Phoenicians. Therefore, our understanding of Phoenicians today is very incomplete. It is said that "Phoenicia" is an ancient Greek word, which means "purple country".
It turned out that nobles and monks in Egypt, Babylon, Hittites and Greece all liked to wear purple robes at that time, but this color faded easily. They all noticed that some people who live on the east coast of the Mediterranean always wear bright purple clothes. Their clothes never seem to fade, even if they are worn out, the color is the same as when they were new. So people call these people on the east coast of the Mediterranean "purple people", that is, Phoenicians.
About 3000 years ago, Phoenicians were excellent economic animals.
Phoenicians are very clever. With the development of commerce, the Phoenicians established many commercial stations or colonies along the Mediterranean coast, which became the most prosperous place in the local economy. Many commercial stations later became famous commercial cities, such as Marseille in France today. The largest city built by the Phoenicians was Tyre, and some people say it is Sur in Lebanon today. However, the Phoenicians did not establish a unified country. Every Phoenician city is a country, and residents elect their own kings and respect their protectors.
The phoenicians' most famous deeds were the development of maritime trade and colonization. Phoenician merchant ships spread all over the Mediterranean since the sixth dynasty in Egypt, and were bound by them at the peak of Egypt's national strength. By about 1200 BC, Egypt's power had declined, and Phoenicia became the overlord of the Mediterranean.
However, great wealth and tiny land also attracted the covet of the powerful empire across the Mediterranean. First the Assyrian Empire, then the Babylonian Empire, and finally the Roman Empire all tried to oppress the Phoenicians. Later, they retreated to North Africa near the Mediterranean and founded Carthage, which was still the leading economic power at that time. Later, Rome launched the third Punic War against them. At last Carthage finally perished.
After the fall of Carthage, the burning flame lasted 17 days. After burning, the ash is one meter deep. The Roman army shoveled away these ashes and sprinkled salt on them, which was a curse that Carthage would never be resurrected. In this way, Carthage disappeared from the earth.
Western writing originated from Phoenician writing.
Phoenicians are busy businessmen, so it is impossible to spend a lot of time writing two or three letters. Therefore, they began to work and invented a new writing system, which was much better than the old one. They borrowed several hieroglyphs from ancient Egypt and simplified some cuneiform characters of Sumerians. In order to facilitate writing, they quickly abandoned the beautiful characters in the old writing system, and finally turned thousands of different images into 22 simple and convenient letters. In due course, these 22 letters crossed the Aegean Sea and were introduced to Greece. The Greeks added some of their own letters and introduced this improved writing system to Italy. The ancient Romans changed the font slightly and taught it to the uncivilized barbarians in western Europe. Those barbarians are the ancestors of Europeans, which explains that western characters originated from Phoenician characters, not hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt and cuneiform characters of Sumerians.
Where are the Phoenicians who almost destroyed the Roman Empire?
The 26 English letters we are familiar with today originated from the 22 letters of Phoenicia. The Phoenicians, who almost destroyed the Roman Empire, disappeared from history two thousand years ago.
Who are the descendants of the Phoenicians? From June 5438 to this year 10, experts from Oxford University used genetic methods to search for Phoenicians. After two years of research, they got the results.
From June 5438 to this year 10, Dr. Spencer Wells, a human geneticist at Oxford University and Dr. Pierre Zaloi, a Lebanese human geneticist, who were funded by the National Geographic Society of the United States, finally achieved results after two years of research.
This is a very interesting research result. Two years ago, Wells and Zaroy collected human blood samples along the Mediterranean coast. After two years, they always collect 2000 blood samples. They want to help archaeologists find out the whereabouts of Phoenicians who were active in the Mediterranean before 3000 BC through genetic analysis.
In 3000 BC, Phoenicia had maritime trade.
Legend has it that "Hairen" appeared in Canaan around 3000 BC-although scholars have different opinions on the origin and existence of "Hairen": some people think that "Hairen" may come from Greece, while others question its existence. However, more records show that under the influence of "sea people", Canaan society quickly moved to the road of maritime trade, and they quickly established close trade relations with Mediterranean countries. Wood, parchment, precious metals, steel, olive oil, silk and dyes were their main commodities at that time.
With the development of trade, the population of Canaan is expanding. Around 2500 BC, three port cities serving navigation appeared in Lebanon, Syria and Israel today: Biblus, Saida and Tyre. All three cities have developed docks, berths, ship locks and supporting warehouses.
Tyre is one of the largest and most prosperous cities, paying more attention to culture than Bruce. The goods imported there are Egyptian and Greek parchments, which the Canaanites used to record important events. Archaeologists believe that Byblos is the etymology of the word Bible, and that it is related to books, and the earliest books of mankind are likely to appear here. The level of cultural development at that time has been confirmed by archaeologists from an unearthed sarcophagus: about BC 1200, the Canaanites have invented 22 letters, which is the source of 26 English letters today.
In Greek, Canaan is called Phoenicia. The name Phoenicia is still used by many people, but Canaan seems to have been forgotten. Until BC 1 100, the whole Mediterranean was ruled by Phoenicians, who uploaded the most prosperous Babylonian civilization and Assyrian civilization to Greece through the sea. However, because most Phoenician characters are recorded on scrolls, these scrolls have been oxidized without a trace in the long historical night.
BC 1 100, Phoenicians entered the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar and sailed along the coast of Spain.
Now, only unearthed cultural relics can tell the truth. Fortunately, after the research and discovery of archaeologists from many countries, we can already see some truths at that time: the Lebanese archaeologist Claud Sakhar, who started the archaeological excavation from 1998, recently found weapons in a site in Saida. Isotope tests confirmed that their smelting time was about 1950 BC, and the iron ore was produced in different places. It can be seen that maritime transportation has played a very important role at that time.
Not long ago, archaeologists from the Spanish National Museum found the wooden blocks of the Phoenician shipwreck in a bay in Carthage (now Tunisia), an overseas colony of Phoenicians. Because of the complex tenons of these wooden blocks, it shows that the wooden boat is quite strong and the hull is eight or nine meters long. It can carry heavy goods, such as ore. In order to prevent ore from damaging the hull, Phoenicians filled the cabin with some twigs. Phoenician anchor is very interesting. This is a wooden anchor filled with lead. In addition, phoenicians began to use barges to unload goods from big ships at that time.
Although the Phoenicians established colonies in many places along the Mediterranean coast-there were almost Phoenician communities along the southern coast of Spain in BC 1800, they did not migrate inland, but their interest was only at sea. Now, some archaeologists suggest that Phoenician ships may cross the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean around 1 100 BC, and then sail along the Spanish coast or the west coast of Africa. Spanish archaeologist Francisco Giles is one of those who hold this view. One of his evidences is a mural on a high mountain off the coast of Andalusia, Spain. This mural was created around 2000 BC and has the shape of a ship, which is very characteristic of a Phoenician ship. He estimated that the local aborigines were surprised when they first saw such boats, so they painted them on rocks.
Conclusion: Lebanese are the closest to Phoenicians.
Wells and Zaroy hope to find the connection between "Hairen" and Canaanites and Carthaginians through genetic methods. It took them nearly two years to collect blood samples of local people by random sampling along the Mediterranean coast and bring them back to the laboratory for analysis. They explained that there are two long chains in human DNA, X and Y, and the Y chain can reflect the information from the paternal line. In addition, there are short chains in DNA, which makes it easier and faster to mutate. Long chains can keep stable and slow changes. In a sense, this long chain in the gene can be regarded as a clock reflecting the paternal family. The original genetic reference of Phoenicians came from a cave in Lashifa, Lebanon, where archaeologists found many Phoenician remains more than 4,000 years ago, as well as Phoenician remains found in Turkey and other places.
Wells and Zaroy explained that different paternal sources have different numbers. The ancestors of people with gene number M 172 came from the Middle East before 12000, and the ancestors of people with gene number M89 came from Africa 45,000 years ago. Before the Phoenicians arrived in Carthage, the local people should be mainly M96 gene, and their ancestors came from North Africa and West Africa.
The results released on June 5438+ 10 this year are as follows: Of the 2,000 blood samples, 172 were from Macedonia and 98 were from Morocco ... Because Lebanese belong to a branch of the ancient Mediterranean, that is to say, Lebanese and Iberians, including Basques, North Africans, Italians and French, have the same genetic markers. It's actually the same person. Their conclusion is that the ancient Phoenicians are closest to the Lebanese today, which means that the Phoenicians are probably the Lebanese today, and the "sea people" is still a mystery.