Ancient Civilizations: The Phoenicians

Many civilizations fail due to human's activity. A famous example would be the Easter Island who failed to see the long-term effects they had on their island. But other civilizations decline is not directly related to human activity.

Ancient civilizations have had profound effects of what we know as the modern world today. The primary purpose for anything that lives is to survive. Throughout history animals, plants and humans have adapted to their surroundings. All living things have changed throughout time. The thing that differs humans from rest is, humans are more cognitively advanced. Over the course of time the shape and size of the human skull has changed. The size of the human brain has increased, which has allowed humans to adapt more to their surroundings. To survive, humans were making tools for hunting and to cut with. The closer you lived to the equator the darker your skin may have been, so you could adapt to the intensity of the sun’s rays. If you lived further

Ancient civilizations such as Sumeria, Egypt, and Babylon have all contributed to humankind and some way through their major achievements. the achievements of these civilizations have all helped later civilizations develop due to the examples of these past groups. some ancient civilizations developed techniques of farming and others comma some of the first written languages. All of these achievements are equally important for later developing civilizations. The Sumerians were a civilization that helped to contribute to humankind with their achievements involving architecture, weapons, and writing.

The past can be studied in many ways, and through these ways many things can be learned. Using archaeological methods, ancient civilizations have been brought back to life in the modern day. We have gleaned much from the discoveries in Egypt, China, India, and Rome, many of which give us an idea as to why we have certain practices and beliefs today. These ancient civilizations were very different, but also had many similarities despite being in different parts of the world.

The time when iron was beginning to be used primarily for making tools is referred to as the Iron Age.

Most people believe that all ancient civilizations were the same: they all lived with a steadfast loyalty to their one and only king that ruled all of the lands, civilizations only achievements were monumental buildings, and they vacuously attacked neighboring societies to gain more land for millennia. While some of this knowledge is true to an extent, civilizations accomplished an abundance more than some realize. Some fail to register that early civilizations are unique from each other. Egypt and Mesopotamia were two distinct civilizations. Despite similarities such as both being river civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia contrasted with each other in the areas of, type of ruling, religion, and

The Phoenicians used to worship nature such as, the sun, the moon, water, storms and lightening. They were polytheistic. They used to have numerous

The Minoans were a civilization who flourished from 3000 BCE until 1100 BCE on the island of Crete, were greatly influenced by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Syrians and the Anatolians (Britannica Encyclopedia). This civilization made major contributions to Western European development in the areas of language, architecture and art. It was the famous archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who made the astounding discoveries at Knossos in the early 1900’s that introduced to the world the fascinating and wonderful sophistication of these early Greeks (Britannica Encyclopedia). The history of the island has been molded by its proximity to the Aegean Sea. Its geographical location gave it control over the sea and the lucrative trade routes. The Minoans traded with Egypt, the Levant, the Aegean, and beyond to Italy, and Sicily.

At a time in the ancient world where large civilization conquered each other many times, it is necessary to be safe. Phoenicia acts as the middle men between these people, trading in between them. Moving to Phoenicia provides security, because they exist neutrally during wars. Civilizations

Throughout the first civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, writing and written records were a central point and feature of most of the ancient civilizations. Writing was used to document and describe the way of life in ancient Mesopotamia. Access to many of the Mesopotamian’s ancient written records has given historians and researchers a look on how people lived and the type of social life and classes in the first civilizations. Based upon these written records it was shown that the social groups and classes were well ordered and clearly divided. The Mesopotamian’s seemed to live in a very hierarchical society with civilizations divided into social groups such as King, Priests, Upper class, Lower class and slaves. These class differences were mostly organized by the creation of Hammurabi’s laws known as The Law Code of

"Mesopotamia" is a Greek word meaning, "Land between the Rivers”. The Ancient Sumerians worshipped many different gods and goddesses. They thought that the gods influenced much of what happened to them in their lives. Babylonian and Assyrian’s religious was heavily influenced by the Sumerians. The Mesopotamians always thought of the importance of god in their life, as each city had it own god. And at every center of the city, there is a temple to represent that god. Some of the Sumerian gods and goddesses included: Enki and Anu.

After reading and learning about the Phoenician people I was amazed. The Phoenician people are the ones that started a foundation for 21 century that are a part of. It is outstanding to find out that these are people that started something every single person in the world knows and uses. They started the alphabet which was based on what sound they make. The alphabet that we use today is based on what they started, and without it I don’t know where we would be. Another great thing that these people did was build trade routes. Trade routes are very resourceful; they make business easier and provide a wide range of area for business to be done. We still use trade routes for business now a day. While the Phoenician people did many trades

Communication is the imparting or exchanging of information or news, whether it is orally or written. In 15th century BCE Phoenicia, Phoenicians created their alphabet from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet after straying from their original cuneiform script. The Phoenician alphabet was the first alphabet widely-used as it spread beyond the Mediterranean. Many other languages’ origin can be traced back to this very alphabet. Another example of communication is the postal service installed in 540 BCE by Cyrus of the Persian Empire. At this point in time the Persian Empire stretched 3,000 kilometers east to west and 1,500 kilometers north to south, so Cyrus had to find a way to keep in touch with his large empire. By the time Darius took over the

Phoenicia is an underrated culture that achieved many accomplishments, yet many people today do not even know who they are which is a great shame. Even though the civilization is rarely spoken about or researched on a scale paralleled to major empires that were rapidly rising, it still was extremely successful and impacts lives today. The Phoenicians did everything from construct the basis for the alphabet to creating the eye popping purple that is used throughout the world today, they were experienced and well trained sailors of the sea, and most of all were dominant leaders of trade. Not only did a small ancient civilization set up along the coast of the Mediterranean reveal to the world things mankind was oblivious to but created many things that impact the world today. Phoenicia was a success because they made a landmark on many countries and even helped the growth of businesses of many empires in their trading; constructed the basis for the alphabet we use today and also traded prolific amounts of purple dye and many other goods that are now commonly used around the world. The changes of the religion that was constantly being decided upon in the empire pointed the mid-eastern countries into the direction of the religion they use today.

Carthage- city in present day Tunisia, dominated the commerce of the western Mediterranean, there was a tradition/story that a member of the royal family of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre fled with her supporters to the western Mediterranean, where they cleverly won the land. A Phoenician colony, established around 814 B.C.E., controlled the middle portion of the Mediterranean, stretched between the original hilltop citadel and a double harbor, had a population of roughly 400,000, ethnically diverse, each year two “judges” were elected from upper class families to serve as heads of state, however the real power was in the senate where wealthy merchant families served for life, power rested on the navy, which was strong and effective, foreign policy reflected economic interests, few records of what was traded, there is evidence that trade was done with sub-Saharan Africa, did not directly rule a large amount of land, they ruled a core area and then indirectly ruled and allowed other communities to remain independent, but still looked to Carthage for military protection, heavy emphasis on trade, citizens were not required to serve in the army, when involved in conflicts with Rome or