Nadene Goldfoot
The Phoenicians were ancient people of Syria. They lived along the Syrian-Palestinian coast, their main towns being Arvad, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Gebal (Byblos), Simirro, and Sin. There are known to us mostly being in Lebanon.
At certain periods, they left and migrated northward toward what was later called Antioch, and then southward towards the Carmel and even to Jaffa, along Israel.
Their language was similar to Hebrew. The writings used by them was used by the ancient Hebrews, and it was transmitted with modifications to the Greeks and so on to other European peoples. Their history comes to us mainly from inscriptions found, the Bible and Greek authors.
The town, Gebal, had close relations with Egypt from early times and is prominent in Egyptian mythology. The Egyptians controlled Phoenicia from the period after the expulsion of Hyksos in about 1500 BCE, down to the time of Ramesses III of Egypt, while the northern Phoenician cities were evidently ruled by the Hittites. after a time, the Phoenicians attained complete independence.
Hiram of Tyre was the king there, and was closely allied with Israel's king Solomon, while Erbaal of Sidon's close cooperation with King Omri of Israel(887-876 BCE) influenced Israelite religious life for a time. Omri made an alliance with Sidon which influenced Judaism, leaning towards the excitement of paganism.
In the 8th century BCE, Assyria subjugated most of the cities in 721 BCE. Later, Phoenicia was incorporated in the Persian Empire , and its influence extended southward along the Palestinian coast.
With the growth of the Greek influence, Hellenization spread rapidly among the Phoenicians: many of their cities achieved autonomy and even independence, but Rome's General Pompey's campaign in 64 BCE brought all of them under Roman rule.
The Phoenician's special ability was expressed , especially in Tyre, in maritime trade, their ships trading with almost the entire known world.
They discovered distant lands and disseminated the products of Middle Eastern countries. Their colonies, spreading from Cyprus to Carthage and Spain, paid tithes to Tyre, but the bonds loosened in the face of Greek competition.
Outstanding among their home industries were purple-dyeing and glass manufacture. Artistically, they were influenced by their neighbors of Egypt, Greece, etc.
Their religion was polytheistic, the Canaanite faith, described in the Bible and in Ugarite poetry, the chief deities were Baal, lord of fertility and the rains, and Astarte, goddess of fertility. Anal was the goddess of war, and Melkarth the patron-god of Tyre. Worship was conducted under trees and on hills, but there were also temples with images. Their religious practices included the sacrificing of children to Moloch and the dedication of religious prostitutes. As weird as people are, this religion was actually attractive to some Jews and of course, the Canaanites who believed in it. I cannot fathom what attracted them, to me it was so repulsive, sacrificing children. Your daughter or you could be taken as a sacrifice or turned into a religious prostitute--the forerunner of the Catholic nun, in a way. Valerius Maximus describe how their women gained gifts by engaging in prostitution with visitors.
A double meaning has led to the belief that kedeshah were not ordinary prostitutes, but sacred harlots who worked out of fertility temples. However, the lack of solid evidence has indicated that the word might refer to prostitutes who offered their services in the vicinity of temples, where they could attract a larger number of clients. The term might have originated as consecrated maidens employed in Canaanite and Phoenician temples, which became synonymous with harlotry for Biblical writers.
In northern Africa, the area of influence of the Phoencian colony of Carthage, this service was associated to the city of Sicca, a nearby city that received the name of Sicca Veneria for its temple of Astarte or Tanit (called Venus by Roman authors).
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Ibiza was permanently settled around the 7th century BCE by founders arriving from west Phoenicia. Ibiza is one of the Balearic islands, an archipelago of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. It's well known for the lively nightlife in Ibiza Town and Sant Antoni, where major European nightclubs have summer outposts. It’s also home to quiet villages, yoga retreats and beaches, from Platja d'en Bossa, lined with hotels, bars and shops, to quieter sandy coves backed by pine-clad hills found all around the coast.
The founding population grew significantly and reached its height during the 4th century BCE. genomes from modern Ibizans to determine the ancestry of the founders of Ibiza. The mitochondrial results indicate a predominantly recent European maternal ancestry for the current Ibizan population while the whole genome data suggest a significant Eastern Mediterranean component. Our mitochondrial results suggest a genetic discontinuity between the early Phoenician settlers and the island’s modern inhabitants. Our data, while limited, suggest that the Eastern or North African influence in the Punic population of Ibiza was primarily male dominated.
Phoenicia has disappeared. It is no more. Perhaps some Phoenicians intermarried with Persians, or the Egyptians, and it could be with some Jews of ancient Israel. An Ancient country has left some people with a segments of their genes, but that's it. It's one of the countries that has disappeared.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_prostitution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkAB8BGkmdA
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