The Southern Levantine Roots of the Phoenician Mercantile Phenomenon

I propose here a new way to look at the process through which, following the Bronze Age collapse and culminating in the second half of the 9th century b.c.e., polities in south Lebanon became the most important Levantine commercial hubs in the Mediterranean and the main patrons of the so-called Phoe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of ASOR
Main Author: Leṿinzon-Gilboʻa, Ayelet 1958- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: University of Chicago Press 2022
In: Bulletin of ASOR
Year: 2022, Volume: 387, Pages: 31-53
Further subjects:B Mediterranean exchanges
B Networks
B Silver
B Carmel Coast
B maritime trade
B Iron Age
B Tel Dor
B Third Intermediate Period
B Phoenician pottery
B Phoenicia
B Levant
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:I propose here a new way to look at the process through which, following the Bronze Age collapse and culminating in the second half of the 9th century b.c.e., polities in south Lebanon became the most important Levantine commercial hubs in the Mediterranean and the main patrons of the so-called Phoenician expansion. My approach differs from others dealing with the Phoenician question in that its definitions are not projected from a yet-to-happen "Phoenician" phenomenon in the West. It is an archaeological bottom-up diachronic approach and considers the entire Levantine coast and not Lebanon only, which is traditionally considered the Phoenician homeland. I argue that what may be termed the earliest Phoenician mercantile maritime ventures, in the early Iron Age, were launched mainly from the Carmel Coast and were directed mainly toward Egypt. Gradually this phenomenon expanded geographically, a process that can be followed closely. It was stimulated and conditioned mainly by the effects of Egypt’s withdrawal from Canaan, by the Late Cypriot IIIA collapse, by the slow recovery of the Syrian coast in the early Iron Age, and by environmental factors. The paper synthesizes several decades of research on Mediterranean issues, mainly in connection to Tel Dor on Israel’s Carmel Coast.
ISSN:2769-3589
Contains:Enthalten in: Bulletin of ASOR
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1086/718892