Phoenician Sites along the Mediterranean coast of Israel

Israel Antiquities Authority – Marine Archaeology Unit

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Phoenician Sites along the Mediterranean coast of Israel

Jacob Sharvit


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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Phoenicia_map-en.svg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/PhoenicianCoin2A.jpg


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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/PhoenicianTrade.png


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Introduction• The Phoenicians, whose lands corresponds to present-day Lebanon and

coastal parts of Israel and Syria, probably arrived in the region in about 3000 B.C. They established commercial and religious connections were established with Egypt after about 2613 BC and continued until the end of the Egyptian Old Kingdom and the invasion of Phoenicia by the Amorites (c. 2200 BC). Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean. They often traded by means of a galley, a man-powered sailing vessel and are credited with the invention of the bireme. Archaeologists argue that the Phoenicians are simply the descendants of coastal-dwelling Canaanites, who over the centuries developed a particular seagoing culture and skills. Other suggestions are that Phoenician culture must have been inspired from external sources (Egypt, North Africa etc.), that the Phoenicians were sea-traders from the Land of Punt who co-opted the Canaanite population; or that they were connected with the Minoans, or the Sea Peoples or the Philistines further south; or even that they represent the maritime activities of the coastal Israelite tribes like Dan, who from the Song of Deborah in Judges, are listed as being "amongst their ships". David and Solomon recognized the superiority of the Phoenicians in maritime trade, and they maintained political and commercial ties with Hiram, King of Tyre. Diplomatic ties led to the marriage of Ahab, King of Israel, to Jezebel, daughter of Ethba'al, King of Sidon. During the 11th and 10th centuries BCE, according to some scholars, or in the 8th century, according to others, the process of Phoenician expansion and settlement took place.

• The Phoenicians were also the first state-level society to make extensive use of the alphabet, and the Canaanite-Phoenician alphabet is generally believed to be the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets. Phoenicians spoke the Phoenician language, which belongs to the group of Canaanite languages in the Semitic language family.


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Introduction• Other groups invading and periodically controlling Phoenicia included

the Hyksos (18th century BC), the Egyptians of the New Kingdom (16th century BC), and the Hittites (14th century BC). Seti I (1290-79 BC) of the New Kingdom reconquered most of Phoenicia, but Ramses III (1187-56 BC) lost it to invaders from Asia Minor and Europe. The roster of Phoenician cities changed during the near millennium-long period beginning in 1200 B.C., reflecting the waxing and waning of their individual fortunes and the impinging historical events of the Near East. At the beginning of the Iron Age, as part of the invasion of the Sea Peoples (groups from the Greek islands, especially Crete), the Philistines occupied the coastal area south of Mt. Carmel, including Dor, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza. By the eighth century B.C., however, the material culture of the Phoenicians extended southward, and Sidon controlled Dor and Joppa during the Persian period (539-333 B.C). The Achaemenians, an Iranian dynasty under the leadership of Cyrus II, conquered the area in 538 B.C. Sidon became a principal coastal city of this empire. The history of Tyre and Sidon is intertwined (indeed they were only twenty-two miles [35 km.] apart). Classical tradition suggests that Sidon was the more powerful at first but by the tenth century B.C. Tyre dominated. Tyre's kings ruled a stretch of the coast that included Sidon and often they were referred to as kings of the Sidonians (1 Kings 16:31). Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to North Africa and Europe where it was adopted by the Greeks, who later passed it on to the Romans and Etruscans. In addition to their many inscriptions, there were a considerable number of other types of written sources left by the Phoenicians, which have not survived. Evangelical Preparation by Eusebius of Caesarea quotes extensively from Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon.


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Shavei Zion The Wreck with Figurines• Scattered along the submerged kurkar ridge

off the coast of Shavei Zion, a village north of Akko, hundreds of clay figurines were found by a diver-fisherman in 1974. The ship carrying this load of votive terra-cotta figurines must have sunk en route to one of the coastal sanctuaries. The figurines, produced in molds ranging in size from 10 to 30 cm., represent the Goddess Tinit, chief of the Punic pantheon. Her sign, composed of a triangle with a superimposed horizontal bar and a disk, is clearly visible on some of the figurines’ pedestals. The figurines were dated to the 5th century BCE.

• The presence of such an assembly of figurines of the Goddess Tinit on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean calls attention to cultural and historical issues regarding the relationship between the Phoenician metropoli and their colonies during the 5th century BCE.


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• Ancient Acre is first mentioned in the Egyptian Execration Texts (c. 1800 B.C.E.) and it appears after the battle of Megiddo in the list of cities conquered by Thutmose III (c. 1468 B.C.E.). In the El-Amarna letters, the king of Acre, Zurata, and later his son, Zutana, appear as rivals of Megiddo and together with the king of Achshaph, as allies of Jerusalem. Acre is also mentioned in the lists of Seti I and Rameses II. The Greeks later derived the name Acre – a Semitic word – from the Greek akē ("healing") and connected it with the legend of Heracles. During the reign of Ptolemy II, the name of the city was changed to Ptolemais, by which it was known until the Arab conquest. The geographic position of Acre made its occupation vital to every army waging campaign in Syria and Ereẓ Israel. It was allotted to the tribe of Asher which, however, could not subdue it (Judg. 1:31) and it remained an independent Phoenician city. It submitted to the Assyrian king Sennacherib (701 B.C.E.) but revolted against Ashurbanipal who took revenge on the city in about 650 B.C.E.

• The Persian period was one of the most important phases in the development of Acre as an administrative and commercial center, probably from the time of Cambyses onwards.

Acre


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• Subsequently, Acre became an important naval center of importance to both Egypt and Persia. Among the finds from this period on the tell were cultic figurines in a pit and two ostraca bearing Phoenician inscriptions, and many Greek artifacts including Attic wares, suggesting that Greek merchants and Phoenicians lived side by side in this specific part of Acre. Although there are some signs of occupation at the site circa 1200 B.C.E., perhaps by some of the "Sea Peoples," very little was found that could be associated with the subsequent 11th–9th centuries B.C.E. Based on the archaeological finds, the city evidently revived and flourished during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E., and evidence of public buildings built of ashlars was unearthed at the site. One of these buildings was destroyed apparently by Sennacherib towards the end of the eighth century B.C.E. A cache of small silver ingots belongs to this level. The Persian period was one of the most important phases in the development of Acre as an administrative and commercial center, probably from the time of Cambyses onwards. Subsequently, Acre became an important naval center of importance to both Egypt and Persia. Among the finds from this period on the tell were cultic figurines in a pit and two ostraca bearing Phoenician inscriptions, and many Greek artifacts including Attic wares, suggesting that Greek merchants and Phoenicians lived side by side in this specific part of Acre.

Acre


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Shiqmona


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ShiqmonaTyrian purple, also known as royal purple, imperial purple or imperial dye, is a purple-red dye which was first produced by the ancient Phoenicians in the city of Tyre. Tyrian purple was expensive: the fourth-century BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor.In Biblical Hebrew, which like Phoenician is a dialect of Canaanite, the Tyrian purple-red dye extracted from the Murex brandaris is known as shani קקקק

but usually translated as 'scarlet'. Another dye ,[ʃɔni] קקextracted from a related sea snail, Hexaplex trunculus, could produce a purple-blue colour called argaman קקקקקקקקקק [argɔmɔn] (translated 'purple') when processed in shade, or a sky-blue indigo colour, called tekhelet .when processed in sunlight ('translated 'indigo) [təxelɛθ] קקקקקקקק

Insect and snail animal-based colors were mentioned in the Bible for use in textile furnishings of the Tabernacle and for the sacred vestments for the High Priest Aaron, and they also were used in King Solomon's and King Herod's temples in Jerusalem.On the coast of Shiqmona there is a rock-cut pool believed to have been used for storing live Murex for the manufacturing of purple dye.


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Atlit – The Phoenician HarborThe sunken foundations of this Phoenician harbor

(dated to the 7th-6th centuries BCE) are believed to be those of the earliest known port with built breakwaters. The breakwaters were built of straight walls enclosing a natural bay. The foundations consist of large ashlar blocks laid on the rock of the seabed and along a small islet offshore. A wall which included a gate separated the harbor from the city. The cargoes of several vessels were found at the bottom of the harbor and around it. Among them are stone anchors and large amphorae used for transporting wine from the Greek islands. Among the archaeological clusters found within the harbor basin, included a cargo of biconical Phoenician amphorae dated to the end of the 5th century BCE. Another cluster contained storage jars. Also found was a group of ballast stones, basket handle amphorae fragments and stone stocks of wooden anchors dating to the 6th-7th century BCE. A number of lead weights for fishing net were also found in the entrance to the port.


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• Tel Dor, which contains occupation levels 15 m deep, was founded during the Middle Bronze Age II, c. 2000-1500 BC. It became an important port and administrative center for Canaanites, the Sikil, Israelites, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans.

• On the shore north of Tel Dor promontory are slipways and purple dye extraction rock-cut installations, and to the south are the remains of what may be a Phoenician quay. At the northeast corner of the bay, an ashlar pavement extends along the margins of Tel Dor for ca. 40 m. The structure was built of elongated ashlar slabs (up to 1 x 1 x 2.5 m), laid as headers, that totaled almost 10 m in width. This structure may have been a quay, or landing dock, or foundations of a coastal structure dating to the 13th century BCE. The excavator (A. Raban) has associated this structure with the harbor of the Sea Peoples at Dor.

Dor/Tantura


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• According to the initial finds found during 1923-4, Dor was established as early as the 20th century BCE (MBIIA). It was a Canaantie city which occupied the site for nearly a thousand years until about 1200 BCE. During that period the Canaanites dominated the entire region: Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria and Trans-Jordan, especially during the Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BCE) after the Egyptian conquest of Palestine, when international trade and Egyptian domination had a stronghold on the local culture. The most prominent representatives of this culture are concentrated in coastal cities and their immediate hinterland, such as Ugarit, Byblos, Meggido and Dor. The Canaantie culture is rich and varied as evident from the numerous excavations carried out throughout the region.

• On Tel Dor, remains attesting to the existence of a Phoenician temple (a pit in which clay statuettes portraying various Gods were cast into by the worshipers) were unearthed. Also found were two Phoenician statuettes of the Goddess Ashtoret attest to the worship of Baal, and a Phoenician Ostarcon bearing the name of Ashmun (the main God of Zidon).

Dor/Tantura


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Phoenician ship off Ashkelon

• A team of oceanographers and archaeologists led by Robert D. Ballard of the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut, and Lawrence Stager of Harvard University has found two ancient Phoenician ships wrecked in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Israel. Found more than 1,000 feet (305 meters) below the surface, they are the oldest vessels ever discovered in the deep sea. The ships were most likely lost in a violent storm around 750 B.C.E., during the time of Homer. The project was partly sponsored by the National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Council.

• The two ships are believed to have sailed from Phoenicia, now Lebanon, laden with large cargoes of wine, carried in hundreds of ceramic amphorae; they probably sank on the way to Egypt or Carthage. The amphorae date between 750 and 700 B.C.E. and sit on the sea bottom as if the ships landed upright.

• The larger of the two ships is about 18 meters long, making it the largest pre-classical shipwreck discovered. The smaller one is more than 15 meters long. Heavy stone anchors lie at bow and midship. Crockery for food preparation, an incense stand and a wine decanter mark the galley. These and other items leave little doubt that Phoenician crews manned the two ships, Stager said, possibly as part of a fleet of cargo carriers.


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• Acre http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0001_0_00368.html

• Phoenicians: http://history-world.org/phoenicians.htm• George Rawlison, Phoenicia – A history of a civilization

–http://books.google.com/books?id=AGVNqS94FjsC&dq=Phoenicians&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=YgTJAADsaj&sig=-aJDRN3JX73JjnDxDXv-cHUG278&hl=iw&ei=ThXwSbuEMsPRjAeqp7m8DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#PPP1,M1

• History of the Phoenician Canaanites: http://phoenicia.org/history.html• Phoenicia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia• Raban, A. 1987. The Harbour of the Sea Peoples at Dor. BA 50: 118-126.• Raban A. 1995. Dor-Yam: Maritime and Coastal Installations at Dor in their

Geomorphological and Stratigraphic Context. In Stern et al. 1995a: 285-354. • Raban, A. 1998. Near Eastern Harbours: Thirteenth-Seventh Centuries BCE.

In Gitin, Mazar and stern 1998: 428-438. • Stern, E. 1982. Dor – The Ruler Of The Seas, Ten years of excavations in

the Israeli-Phoenician harbor town on the Carmel coast. The Bialik Institute, Jerusalem & The Israel Exploration Society.

• Stern, E. 2000. Dor Ruler of the Seas. 2nd Edition Jerusalem Israel Exploration Society.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0001_0_00368.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0001_0_00368.html

Phoenician Sites along the Mediterranean coast of Israel

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