SocietyThe Middle East

The Phoenicians

1,201 BCE – 301 BCE

Merchants without an empire, who gave the world its alphabet

In depth

The Phoenicians never built a unified realm; their cities remained separate and competing. Purple, extracted from sea snails in such quantities that the waste heaps still lie there, was so costly that the colour became synonymous with kingship. According to Herodotus a Phoenician expedition sailed round the whole of Africa about 600 BCE — he did not believe it himself, but the detail he rejected is precisely what makes the account credible.

For children

From the cities of Tyre and Sidon the Phoenicians sailed the whole Mediterranean and founded trading posts as far as Spain. They sold purple cloth, glass and cedar — and with their ships travelled the alphabet.

Connects to

The alphabet1,801 BCE
Carthage815 BCE – 147 BCE
The Bronze Age collapse1,178 BCE

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org