9.14 The Phoenicians

“Phoenicians” is the Greek name given to the people of the Eastern Mediterranean coast, now Lebanon. Their importance to pottery is more because they were the main trading nation in the Mediterranean for thousands of years, transporting pottery as items in their own right but also as containers for other commodities such as wine and olive oil. They were a major link between Egypt, West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Later examples of Canaanite amphorae
1,850-1,550 BC - courtesy Ifergan
Collection

Byblos, a very early settlement located 17 miles north east of Beirut, became its main port city. It has been continuously occupied from as early as 9,000 BC, making it one of the oldest cities in the region. Byblos revealed some relatively early pottery dated around 4,000 BC. Bodies of infants were buried in small pottery jars and adults in large ones, together with their earthly possessions.

Burial in amphora, 1,500 BC - source
Archaeological Museum, Antalya

However, in 5^th millennium BC in the Canaan coastal area relatively low-fired pottery ossuaries were also made to hold the bones of the dead in their “second” burial after the bodies had been left to decay naturally! Pottery was also used as “funerary items” or “grave goods”. The history of the earliest people in this Semitic, Canaanite region is not clear. Between 4 and 3,000 BC ethnically similar settlers arrived, who might have originated on the Eastern coast of Arabia or Babylonia. These were the first Phoenicians. By 3,200BC they were cutting cedar trees (the “Cedars of Lebanon”) and shipping them to Egypt and Mesopotamia for ships and buildings together with olive oil and wine – bringing back gold, copper, ivory and turquoise. Canaanite pottery has been found in Egyptian tombs dated to 3,000 BC and a barge made of Lebanese cedar was buried in the Egyptian king Khufu’s tomb. Pottery from this area included thin-walled jars and pedestal bowls with vertical pierced lug handles finished on a wheel, while larger vessels had raised rope-like bands, piecrust rims and were painted in red. Grey burnished ware with wavy-ledge handles became prominent, together with jugs and juglets with high loop handles. Some “pithoi” (storage vessels) were coloured in white lime wash.

Canaanite juglet, 3,100-2,900 BC, jar, 3,000 BC and
high handled jar, 3,100-1,850 BC - courtesy Ifergan
Collection

During the 3^rd millennium BC the Phoenicians spread their influence along the coast of the Levant. Byblos was still the main port at this time, but Sidon and Tyre were also major city-states. There was little central government as the city-states jealously preserved their independence. Between 3,000 and 2,500 BC the discovery of bronze rapidly spread through the Mediterranean by seafaring Middle East traders, particularly the Phoenicians.

The Egyptians conquered, lost and re-conquered this region several times between 2,500 and 1,000 BC. This instability required the Phoenicians to make many costly gifts (tribute) to powerful neighbours to keep their independence, although they generally tried to remain close to Egypt, often their most important trading partner. A carved relief in Memphis showed a Phoenician princess on the way to marry the Egyptian king in a ‘Byblos” ship (a description Egyptians used to mean a large sea-going craft) in Egypt’s 5^th Dynasty (around 2,400 BC). Marriage was often a political tool to consolidate friendship between countries, resulting in male rulers having several, even many, wives.