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| religion = [[Canaanite religion]]
| leader1 = [[Abishemu obelisk|Abishemu I]]
| year_leader1 = {{circa|1800 BC}}
| leader2 = [[Hiram I]]
| year_leader2 = 969 – 936 BC
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}}
'''Phoenicia''' ({{IPAc-en|f|ə|ˈ|n|ɪ|ʃ|ə|,_|f|ə|ˈ|n|iː||ʃ|ə}}),<ref>[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/phoenicia "Phoenicia"]. ''[[Collins English Dictionary]]''.</ref> or '''Phœnicia''', was an [[ancient Semitic-speaking peoples|ancient Semitic]] [[thalassocracy|thalassocratic]] [[civilization]] originating in the coastal strip of the [[Levant]] region of the [[eastern Mediterranean]], primarily located in modern [[Lebanon]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kitto|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9oHbdzSawj0C&q=phoenicia+lebanon&pg=PA528|title=A Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature|date=1851|publisher=Adan and Charles Black}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Malaspina|first=Ann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pfop0v79y7gC&q=phoenicia+lebanon&pg=PA19|title=Lebanon|date=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-0579-6}}</ref> The territory of the Phoenicians expanded and contracted throughout history, with the core of their culture stretching from [[Arwad]] in modern [[Syria]] to [[Mount Carmel]] in modern [[Israel
The Phoenicians directly succeeded the [[Bronze Age]] [[Canaan]]ites, continuing their cultural traditions following the decline of most major cultures in the [[Late Bronze Age collapse]] and into the [[Iron Age]] without interruption. It is believed that they self-identified as Canaanites and referred to their land as Canaan, indicating a continuous cultural and geographical association.<ref name=":022">{{Cite book |last=Gates |first=Charles |title=Ancient cities: the archaeology of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome |date=2011 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-83057-4 |edition=2nd |location=London |pages=189–190}}</ref> The name ''Phoenicia'' is an [[ancient Greek]] [[Exonym and endonym|exonym]] that did not correspond precisely to a cohesive culture or society as it would have been understood natively.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who Were The Phoenicians? {{!}} History Today |url=https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/who-were-phoenicians |access-date=2020-04-20 |website=www.historytoday.com}}</ref> Therefore, the division between Canaanites and Phoenicians around 1200 BC is regarded as a modern and artificial division.<ref name=":022"/>
The Phoenicians, known for their prowess in trade, seafaring and navigation, dominated commerce across classical antiquity and developed an expansive maritime trade network lasting over a millennium. This network facilitated cultural exchanges among major [[Cradle of civilization|cradles of civilization]],
The Phoenicians were organized in [[city-state]]s, similar to those of [[ancient Greece]], of which the most notable were [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], [[Sidon]], and [[Byblos]].{{sfnp|Aubet|2001|p=17}}<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Phoenicia |encyclopedia=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/phoenicia/ |access-date=2017-08-09}}</ref> Each city-state was politically independent, and there is no evidence the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality.{{sfnp|Quinn|2017|pages=201–203}} While most city-states were governed by some form of [[king]]ship, merchant families
The Phoenicians were long considered a lost civilization due to the lack of indigenous written records, and only since the mid-20th century have historians and [[Archaeology|archaeologists]] been able to reveal a complex and influential civilization.{{sfnp|Markoe|2000|pages=10–12}} Their best known legacy is the world's [[Phoenician alphabet|oldest verified alphabet]], whose origin was connected to that of the [[Hebrew script]] via the [[Proto-Sinaitic script]],{{sfn|Coulmas|1996}}{{page needed|date=March 2022}} and which was transmitted across the Mediterranean and used to develop the [[Arabic script]] and [[Greek alphabet]] and in turn the [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] and [[Cyrillic alphabet]]s.{{sfnp|Markoe|2000|page=111}}<ref name="Fischer 2004 90">{{cite book|last=Fischer|first=Steven Roger|title=A history of writing|publisher=Reaktion Books|year=2004|page=90}}</ref> The Phoenicians are also credited with innovations in shipbuilding, navigation, industry, agriculture, and government. Their international trade network is believed to have fostered the economic, political, and cultural foundations of [[Classical antiquity|Classical Western civilization]].<ref name="Hans G. Niemeyer 2004">{{cite book|last=Niemeyer|first=Hans G.|chapter=The Phoenicians and the Birth of a Multinational Mediterranean Society|title=Commerce and Monetary Systems in the Ancient World|editor-last1=Rollinger|editor-first1=Robert|editor-last2=Ulf|editor-first2=Christoph|location=Stuttgart|publisher=Franz Stiener Verlag|year=2004|pages=246, 250}}</ref><ref>Scott, John C. (2018) "[https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2047&context=ccr The Phoenicians and the Formation of the Western World]", Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 78 : No. 78, Article 4.</ref>
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Being a society of independent city states, the Phoenicians apparently did not have a term to denote the land of Phoenicia as a whole;<ref>Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. "The Phoenicians (1500–300 BC)". In ''Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History''. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phoe/hd_phoe.htm (October 2004)</ref> instead, demonyms were often derived from the name of the city an individual hailed from (e.g., ''Sidonian'' for [[Sidon]], ''Tyrian'' for [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], etc.) If the Phoenicians had an endonym to denote the land overall, some scholars believe that they would have used "[[Canaan]]" and therefore referred to themselves as "Canaanites".<ref>Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Phoenicia". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 20 Aug. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/place/Phoenicia. Accessed 9 January 2022.</ref> Krahmalkov reconstructs the [[Honeyman inscription]] (dated to {{circa|900}} BC by [[William F. Albright]]) as containing a reference to the Phoenician homeland, calling it ''Pūt'' ([[Phoenician language|Phoenician]]: 𐤐𐤕).<ref name=Honeyman>Honeyman, A. M. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241651 The Phoenician Inscriptions of the Cyprus Museum]" Iraq, vol. 6, no. 2, 1939, pp. 104–108 see p.106-107, number 8.</ref>
Obelisks at [[Karnak]] contain references to a "land of ''[[wikt:fnḫw|fnḫw]]''", ''fnḫw'' being the plural form of ''fnḫ'', the Ancient Egyptian word for
==History==
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Alexander's empire had a [[Hellenization]] policy, whereby Hellenic culture, religion, and sometimes language were spread or imposed across conquered peoples. However, Hellenisation was not enforced most of the time and was just a language of administration until his death. This was typically implemented through the founding of new cities, the settlement of a Macedonian or Greek urban elite, and the alteration of native place names to Greek.<ref name=":9" /> However, there was no organized Hellenization in Phoenicia, and with one or two minor exceptions, all Phoenician city-states retained their native names, while Greek settlement and administration appear to have been very limited.<ref name=":9" />
The Phoenicians maintained cultural and commercial links with their western counterparts. [[Polybius]] recounts how the Seleucid King [[Demetrius I Soter|Demetrius I]] escaped from Rome by boarding a Carthaginian ship that was delivering goods to Tyre.<ref name=":9" /> The adaptation to Macedonian rule was
When Alexander's empire collapsed after his death in 323 BC, the Phoenicians came under the control of the largest of its successors, the [[Seleucids]]. The Phoenician homeland was repeatedly contested by the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] of Egypt during the forty-year [[Syrian Wars]], coming under Ptolemaic rule in the third century BC.<ref name="britannica.com"/> The Seleucids reclaimed the area the following century, holding it until the mid-first 2nd century BC. Under their rule, the Phoenicians were allowed a considerable degree of autonomy and self-governance.<ref name="britannica.com"/>
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The religious practices and beliefs of Phoenicia were generally common to those of their neighbors in [[Canaanite religion|Canaan]], which in turn shared characteristics common throughout the [[Ancient Semitic religions|ancient Semitic world]].{{sfnp|Moscati|1957|loc=e.g., p. 40 & 113}}{{sfnp|Smith|1956|pages=1–15}} Religious rites were primarily for city-state purposes; payment of taxes by citizens was considered in the category of religious sacrifices.{{sfnp|Gaster|1965|pp=113–143, 114–5}} The Phoenician sacred writings known to the ancients have been lost.{{sfnp|Harden|1962|pp=83–4}}
Several Canaanite practices are alleged in ancient sources and mentioned by scholars, such as [[temple prostitution]]{{sfnp|Brandon|1970|pages=512–513}} and [[child sacrifice]].{{sfnp|Brandon|1970|page=448}} Special sites known as "Tophets" were allegedly used by the Phoenicians "to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire", and are condemned by Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, particularly in ''[[Jeremiah]]'' 7:30–32, and in ''[[Books of Kings|2nd Kings]]'' 23:10 and 17:17. Later scholarship differs. William Dever writes that it is out of
[[Canaanite religion|Canaanite religious mythology]] does not appear as elaborate as their Semitic cousins in Mesopotamia. In Canaan the supreme god was called [[El (god)|El]] (𐤀𐤋, 'god').{{sfnp|Brandon|1970|page=258 ("El")}} The son of El was [[Baal]] (𐤁𐤏𐤋, 'master', 'lord'), a powerful [[Dying-and-rising deity|dying-and-rising]] [[storm god]].<ref>Here, Baal was used instead of the storm god's name [[Hadad]]. {{harvp|Brandon|1970|pages=315, 28, 124}}</ref> Other gods were called by royal titles, such as [[Melqart]], meaning 'king of the city',{{sfnp|Moscati|1957|pages=113–4}} or [[Adonis]] for 'lord'.{{sfnp|Brandon|1970|pages=29–30}} Such epithets may often have been merely local titles for the same deities.
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