- 1. The Phoenicians XIII b.C IV b.C.The Phoenicians were a
Semite group of people who lived in the north of Palestine, in what
is called Lebanon today. The land did not permit the development of
agriculture, but the presence of the sea and the huge availability
of a type of wood particularly suitable for the construction of
ships encouraged these people to dedicate themselves to sailing and
commerce. Phoenicians is the name that the Greeks gave to this
group of people: phoinix means crimson in Greek , and this name
comes from their production of a crimson dye, which was used to
colour their clothes dark red.
2. The alphabet The need to make relationships between different
kinds of people easier encouraged the Phoenicians to invent a quick
and easy script: in this way, the Phoenician alphabet, with 22
symbols which represented the most important sounds of the human
voice, was born. The Phoenician script, like other types of ancient
scripts, went from right to left.Aleph is the first letter of the
Phoenician alphabet, and it corresponds to our a 3. The Phoenician
script Alphabetical script composed of -22 symbols Only consonants
From the syllabic-cuneiform to the phonetic one (correspondence
symbol=sound) This kind of alphabet was much easier than the
ancient pitographic and ideographic ones, like the Egyptian or the
CuneirormIt was understood and written better and easier by
everyone, not just by scribes and priests. The Phoenicians spread
their system throughout many places which they visited during their
sea journeys: the Greek and the aramaic alphabets show clear signs
of their derivation from the Phoenician one.PURPOSE OF THE
PHOENICIAN ALPHABETThe Nora Stone, found near Cagliari, Shows clear
inscriptions written in Phoenician.THE MOST ANCIENT RELIC WHICH HAS
PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS IS THE SARCOPHAGUS OF AHIRAM (AN ANCIENT
PHOENICIAN KING), WHICH WAS FOUND IN BYBLOS IN 1923 WHICH DATES
BACK TO 1200 B.C.