Chapter 3 Section 4 The Phoenicians

1. Chapter 3Section 4The Phoenicians • The Phoenician civilization began on a thin strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea. • Consisted of city-states The Phoenician People • Fearless sailors who guided ships full of trade goods • Dominated sea trade in Mediterranean Sea for hundreds of years Origins • Began to emerge after the Egyptian rule in 1150 BCE • Rulers were priest-kings that shared government power with leading merchant families and a citizen assembly

2. Farming and Manufacturing • Geography influenced Phoenicia’s development • Heavily forested Lebanon mountains left little flat land for farming • Manufactured many goods • Cloth with a rare purple dye, pottery, glass, metal objects, and wood furniture Phoenician Traders • Few natural resources so they traded • Import is a good or service sold within a country that is produced in another country • Raw materials such as gold, silver, tin, copper, iron, ivory, and precious stones • Export is a good or service produced within a country and sold outside the country’s borders • Pine and cedar logs, wine, olive oil, salt, fish

3. Phoenicians and the Sea • Location was ideal for trade • Western edge of Asia • Many depended on Phoenicians to ship their goods Navigation • Experts at navigation- art of steering a ship from place to place • Knowledge of wind patterns and sea currents • First to use the North Star to guide their voyages Exploring Unknown Waters • Phoenicians were driven to find precious metals • “natives were ignorant of the use of silver, and the Phoenicians purchased the silver in exchange for other goods of little if any worth.” Colonies and City-States • Phoenicians found many sheltered harbors along the Mediterranean Sea • Colonies gave them a place to get supplies or to trade with other peoples • A colony is an area ruled by a distant country • Colonies developed into wealthy city-states • Carthage on North African Coast

4. Legacy of the Phoenicians • Greece and Rome absorbed key elements of Phoenician culture by cultural diffusion • The spreading of cultural traits from one region to another Spread of Culture • Phoenicians helped ideas spread • Standards of weights and measures The Alphabet • Greeks also adopted the Phoenician way of writing • Before the Phoenicians, cuneiform was used which required people to hundreds of symbols • Developed the alphabet • A small set of letters or symbols, each of which stands for a single sound • Phoenician alphabet had 22 symbols and each stood for a consonant sound • Greeks added letters to represent vowels and gave the letters names

5. Chapter 3 Section 4 Quiz • The goods made and shipped by Phoenicians to other lands are called • tribute • resources • exports • imports • Goods brought into a country are called • exports • imports • natural resources • raw materials • Fertile land that attracted Phoenician farmers grew into • trade routes • colonies • city-states • territories • What city was originally a Phoenician colony? a) Rome b) Athens c) Carthage d) Sumer • The Phoenicians developed a new way of writing known as • an alphabet • a glyph system • cuneiform • wedge shapes