A QUESTION OF IDENTITY

The Phoenicians pose a fascinating puzzle. Emerging as a distinctive group around 1000 BC in the coastal cities of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and others along the Levantine coast, they settled abroad from the late ninth century BC, spreading their language and culture. Without their innovations, our own world would look quite different. Yet there is a question-mark hanging over the Phoenicians’ heads. Who were they, as a group, as a people? The contours of the term ‘Phoenician’ seems fuzzy, difficult to draw. But are they any different in this way to other ancient and even modern cultures?

Carolina López-Ruiz

Modern scholarship has approached the study of Phoenician culture with a mix of admiration and scepticism. On the one hand, the Phoenicians are celebrated for their contributions to civilization, such as the alphabet and their advanced maritime skills. On the other, some scholars have questioned the validity of ‘Phoenician’ as a cohesive identity, arguing that it was an invention of Greek and Roman writers rather than a reflection of how the Phoenicians saw themselves. There is, in fact, one huge obstacle that makes Phoenician identity opaque to our modern eyes: the simple fact that they left behind few self-written records, at least of the type that would answer this question. Besides the abundant but generally short inscriptions (mostly funerary), what we know about Phoenician history comes from Greek, Roman, and…

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Ancient History (Digital) - 1 Issue, AH 53

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