>>History: Phenicia - a country of seafarers
Phenicia - a country of seafarers
1. Conquerors of the sea.
About four thousand years ago, people settled on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. tribes, which the ancient Greeks called Phoenicians, and their country Phenicia. It is assumed that Phoenicia means "purple". The Phoenicians extracted a bright dye from sea mollusks - purple, which was used to dye fabrics. Purple was considered the color of kings.
The Phoenicians gained the reputation of being the best navigators of the Ancient World. They knew how to build strong ships that were not afraid of storms and storms. In the holds of these ships there were chained slave rowers. Phoenician ships sailed throughout the Mediterranean Sea, even reaching the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the northern lands of Europe and the western shores of Africa. They were the first in the world to do it around 600 BC. e. sea voyage around the whole of Africa. The Phoenicians used the art of navigation not only for good purposes. Among them were sea robbers, pirates who robbed other people's ships.
2. Traders and city builders.
Phoenician merchants conducted a lively and very profitable trade throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the merchants, the Phoenician cities also grew richer. Even the rulers of other states borrowed from the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were respected lenders in the ancient world. At the same time, they did not hesitate to obtain wealth by any means. Rumor called the Phoenicians self-interested and cunning, capable of deceiving people.
The Phoenicians were not only fearless sailors and successful traders, but also excellent city builders. Their cities of Ugarit, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos were located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in places convenient for ships to moor. These were port cities with well-equipped harbors and powerful fortifications. Magnificent palaces were erected in them.
Skilled artisans lived in Phoenician cities. They knew how to produce and dye fabrics. Fabrics dyed purple were especially highly prized. Jewelers made elegant jewelry from gold, silver and precious stones, which were eagerly bought by local rich people and foreigners. Carvers created expressive figurines and ivory items.
Phoenician craftsmen invented transparent glass by melting it in special furnaces from a mixture of white sand and soda. Vessels for incense and vases were blown from this glass. The glass mass was used to create the famous Phoenician masks. These masks were used to cover the faces of the dead during burial.
The city of Byblos maintained trade relations with Egypt. In this city, the Greeks bought Egyptian writing material - papyrus (byblos in Greek). This is where the name of the Christian holy book comes from. Bible, meaning "books" and also the word "library".
In places convenient for life, where their ships reached, the Phoenicians founded colonies. Colony is a settlement founded on foreign territory. The most famous colony of the Phoenicians was Carthage, founded in northern Africa in the 9th-8th centuries BC. e. came from the city of Tire. Gradually, Carthage turned into a rich city, which became the center of a powerful state. Not only other Phoenician colony cities, but also some peoples living in Africa and Spain were subordinate to him.
At the beginning of the 13th-12th century BC. e. The "peoples of the sea" began to attack the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They captured lands south of the Phoenician cities. These were the Philistines.
From the name of these peoples came the name of the country they conquered - Palestine. Phenicia and Palestine had complex relations. There were wars and reconciliations between them, negotiations and trade were conducted.
3. Gods of the Phoenicians.
The Phoenicians worshiped the god Baal. His name means "master, lord." He was considered the god of thunder and lightning, storms, war, but also the patron saint of the state. The Phoenicians offered human sacrifices to their gods: they threw babies into the open mouth of a huge idol, in which fire was blazing.
The main goddess of the Phoenicians, Astarte, was similar to the ancient Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Astarte is the goddess of love, fertility and war.
During excavations of the Phoenician city of Mozia, a ritual cemetery was discovered where hundreds of clay vessels with the charred remains of sacrificed infants were buried. Small steles with images of the Phoenician gods to whom these sacrifices were made were erected over the burials.
4. Phoenician alphabet.
Initially, the inhabitants of Phenicia adopted cuneiform from the peoples of Mesopotamia, adapting it to their language. But for keeping trade records and calculations, the cunning Phoenicians over time extremely simplified cuneiform. There were 22 consonant sounds in the Phoenician language. So they came up with 22 letter signs. The Phoenicians did not mark vowel letters in writing. The lines were written not from left to right, like we did, but from right to left.
The Phoenicians arranged the letters in a certain order. The result is an alphabet. The first letter of the alphabet was the letter "alef", or "a"; the second is “bet”, or “b”. "Aleph" originally meant "bull's head" and "beta" meant "house." The alphabet was borrowed from the Phoenicians by the ancient Greeks, who also introduced letters that denoted vowel sounds. The Romans borrowed the alphabet from the Greeks. The Slavic and then Russian alphabet was built on the basis of the Greek alphabet. Thus, having learned to read and write, we find ourselves in direct connection with the ancient Phoenicians.
We may owe the name of our continent - Europe - to the Phoenicians. This was the name, according to the myth of the ancient Greeks, of the daughter of the Phoenician king. One day young Europe was playing on the seashore. God Zeus, delighted with her beauty, took the form of a white bull and bowed before the girl, offering her a ride. Europa climbed onto the back of the affectionate animal, but suddenly the bull rushed into the sea and quickly swam away from the shore. He sailed to the island of Crete, where Europa became the wife of Zeus and bore him three sons. Part of the Western Mediterranean, and then the entire continent, began to be named after Europe. The kidnapping of Europa has become one of the favorite stories artists .
IN AND. Ukolova, L.P. Marinovich, History, 5th grade
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Glass has been known to man since ancient times. At first, people used it to make jewelry and utensils. However, this type of material truly began to be useful when people noticed its main quality - transparency. Since then, glass has been widely used for glazing window frames throughout the world.
Scientists are still putting forward various hypotheses and arguing about when and where glass first appeared on our planet. The ingredients used to make it—sand, soda, and lime—are found everywhere, so the first glass could have been made anywhere on Earth.
According to one of the existing theories, glass was discovered by the ancient Phoenicians, because they were the first to sell beautiful and unusual glass products in all Mediterranean countries.
Another country where the properties of glass have been known since ancient times was Egypt. It was there that during excavations of tombs, beads and amulets made of colored glass were found, the manufacture of which dates back to 7000 BC. However, it cannot be said with complete confidence that these products are the work of local craftsmen, because they could have been brought from Syria.
But already in 1500 BC, the Egyptians learned to make their own glass. For this purpose, they used a mixture of crushed pebbles and quartz with sand. At the same time, the Egyptians invented a method for making colored. If craftsmen added cobalt, manganese or copper to the mixture, the result was blue, lilac or green glass.
Three centuries later (about 1200 BC), the Egyptians already knew how to cast various glass products in special molds. But the glass blowing tube became famous only at the beginning of the Christian era.
The Romans became famous for the fact that they began to make window glass, which quickly gained popularity and subsequently spread throughout the world. Today, glass is widely used in construction, manufacturing, and for the manufacture of many valuable and useful items, jewelry and tableware. Some glass products are real works of art, and may well become a decorative detail.
Divers had to dive to the bottom of the sea and risk their lives to collect shells. And what a heavy, suffocating stench stood in the workshops! The workers here walked through the garbage, slept among the garbage, immediately fell ill and died. Ancient authors more than once complained about the stench emanating from workshops where fabrics were dyed purple. “The numerous dyeing establishments make the city unpleasant to live in,” Strabo complained. Because of the disgusting smell, we had to dye the fabrics outside. The dyehouses were located near the seashore, away from residential areas.
However, the Phoenicians themselves could have remarked philosophically on this matter: “Money has no smell.” These stinking purple fabrics, as they seemed to artisans and foreign guests, brought fabulous profits to the merchants. After all, their quality was very high. They could be washed and worn for a long time - the paint did not fade or fade in the sun.
According to legend, Alexander the Great found in Susa, in the palace of the Persian king, ten tons of purple fabrics made almost two centuries ago and not faded at all since then. These fabrics were purchased for 130 talents (one talent was then equal to 34 or 41 kilograms of precious metals).
This price for purple fabric was explained by its high cost and shortage of dye. From one kilogram of raw dye, only 60 grams of coloring matter remained after evaporation. And to dye one kilogram of wool, approximately 200 grams of purple dye were required, that is, more than three kilograms of raw dye. It remains to add that the body of the mollusk weighs only a few grams and contains a negligible amount of secretion. To obtain one pound of dye, about 60 thousand snails were mined. That is why purple fabrics, unlike Phoenician glass, have always remained luxury items, available only to the lucky few.
Tyrian purple was literally worth its weight in gold. Its price only grew over time. So, at the beginning of our era, during the reign of Emperor Augustus, a kilogram of wool, twice dyed purple, cost approximately 2 thousand denarii, and the cheapest fabric cost 200 denarii. Under Emperor Diocletian in 301 AD, Tyrian purple wool of the highest quality rose in price to 50 thousand denarii, and the price of a pound of purple silk reached 150 thousand denarii. A huge amount!
If we resort to conversion to modern currency, then, according to Horst Klengel, a pound of purple-dyed silk cost 28 thousand dollars. Of course, silk imported from China was the most expensive fabric sold by Tyrian dyers. Cheaper were both dyed wool (usually brought from Syria) and fine linen, a fine linen brought from Egypt. However, their cost was still high.
Purple clothing has long been the privilege of kings and emperors, priests and dignitaries. The senators of Rome and the rich of the East wore purple. Purple cloth has always been a badge of honor, a symbol of supreme power.
Purple garments are mentioned more than once in the Old Testament: “Let them make sacred garments for Aaron your brother... Let them take gold, blue and purple and scarlet wool and fine linen” (Ex. 28:4 - 5), “the purple garments that were on the kings of Midian" (Judges 8:26), "their clothes were hyacinth and purple" (Jeremiah 10:9), "and Mordecai left the king... in a robe of fine linen and purple" (Esther 8:15).
Purple fabrics were used to decorate temples and palaces: “And they will cleanse the altar from the ashes and cover it with purple clothing... And they will take purple clothing and cover the laver and its base” (Num. 4:13 – 14), “And they made a curtain ( in the Jerusalem Temple. - A.V.) from cotton, purple and crimson fabric" (2 Chron. 3, 14).
Many Roman and Greek authors mentioned purple in their works. Pliny spoke of the fashion for the color purple in Rome. Horace in his satire ridiculed a rich upstart who, for the sake of vanity, ordered purple handkerchiefs to be wiped off the table. “Pathetic swagger of wealth!” To outline the next object of his satire, Horace briefly remarks:
Here is Priscus, for example, he has three rings
If he wears it, he will appear with his left hand bare.
It changes its purple every hour..."
(Translated by M. Dmitriev)
Ovid in “The Science of Love” even advises fashionistas to moderate their appetites: “I don’t want expensive trimmed fabrics, I don’t want woolen garments dyed with the crimson of Tyrian shellfish. For even at a lower price you can have so many clothes of different colors.”
The glory of purple fabrics did not fade even in the Middle Ages. Charlemagne also imported similar fabrics.
By the way, purple was used not only for dyeing fabrics, but also for making cosmetics, special inks, and also pur-puriss paint used by painters. In addition to purple, its composition included diatomaceous earth - microscopic flint shells of unicellular diatoms, as well as clay, grains of quartz and spar.
Pliny the Elder gives the following recipe for using this paint: “Painters, first applying sandik (bright red paint. - A.V.), then applying purpuriss mixed with egg on it, they achieve the brightness of minia (cinnabar. – A.V.). If they prefer to achieve the brightness of purple, then they first apply azure, then apply purpurisse mixed with egg on it” (translated by G.A. Taronyan).
...Nowadays, the mining of purple has long ceased. They learned to make it artificially. It turns out even better than the Phoenicians, but this in no way detracts from their merits. After all, they managed to make a dye without having any idea about any chemical formulas or laws.
At present, in Lebanon there is little reminiscent of the Phoenician purple fishery. Most of the shells that once accumulated - waste from the production of dyers - have long been washed away by the sea. Only in Saida a pile of shells remained.
4.4. In skillful hands, sand turns into gold
The Phoenicians were also not the first to learn how to make glass, but they introduced important innovations in the technology of its production. In Phenicia this craft reached perfection. Glass products from local craftsmen were in great demand. Ancient authors were even convinced that glass was invented by the Phoenicians, and this mistake is very significant.
In fact, it all began in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Back in the 4th millennium BC, the Egyptians learned to make glaze, which is close in composition to ancient glass. From sand, plant ash, saltpeter and chalk, they obtained cloudy, opaque glass, and then formed small vessels from it, which were in great demand.
The earliest examples of real glass - beads and other jewelry - appear in Egypt around 2500 BC. Glass vessels - small bowls - have been known in northern Mesopotamia and Egypt since about 1500 BC. From this time on, widespread production of this material began.
Glassmaking in Mesopotamia is experiencing a real boom. Cuneiform tablets have been preserved that describe the glass making process. The finished glass sparkled in various shades, but was not transparent. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, apparently, there, in Mesopotamia, they learned to make hollow objects from glass. In Egypt in the 16th – 13th centuries BC, high-quality glass was also produced.
The Phoenicians used the experience accumulated by the masters of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and soon began to play a leading role. The temporary decline experienced by the leading powers of the Ancient East at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC helped the Phoenicians conquer the market.
It all started from poverty. Phenicia was deprived of mineral resources. A little alumina and that's it. Only forest, stone, sand and sea water. It would seem that there is no opportunity to develop our industry. You can only resell what you bought from your neighbors. However, the Phoenicians managed to establish the production of goods that were in extraordinary demand everywhere. They extracted valuable paint from shells; They began to make... glass from sand.
In mountainous Lebanon, the sand is rich in quartz. And quartz is a crystalline modification of silicon dioxide (silica); this same substance is the most important component of glass. Regular window glass contains more than 70 percent silica, while lead glass contains about 60 percent.
The sand that was mined at the foot of Mount Carmel was especially famous for its quality. According to Pliny the Elder, there “is a swamp called Candebia.” The Bel River flows from here. It is “muddy, with a deep bottom, the grains of sand in it can only be seen at low tide; Rolled by the waves and thus cleansed of dirt, they begin to sparkle. It is believed that then they are inhaled by sea acidity... This area of the coast is no more than five hundred steps, and for many centuries it was the only source for the production of glass.” Tacitus in his “History” also mentions that at the mouth of the Bel River “sand is mined, from which, if boiled with soda, glass is obtained; This place is very small, but no matter how much sand they take, its reserves do not dry out” (translated by G.S. Knabe).
Phoenician glass vases found in Tyre
After checking these stories, archaeologists found that the sand of the Bel River contained 14.5 - 18 percent lime (calcium carbonate), 3.6 - 5.3 percent alumina (aluminum oxide) and about 1.5 percent magnesium carbonate. A mixture of this sand and soda produces strong glass.So, the Phoenicians took ordinary sand, which their country was rich in, and mixed it with sodium bicarbonate - baking soda. It was mined in Egyptian soda lakes or obtained from the ash remaining after the combustion of algae and steppe grass. An alkaline earth component was added to this mixture - limestone, marble or chalk - and then the whole thing was heated to about 700 - 800 degrees. This is how a bubbly, viscous, quickly solidified mass arose, from which glass beads were made or, for example, elegant, transparent vessels were blown.
The Phoenicians were not content with simply imitating the Egyptians. Over time, showing incredible creativity and perseverance, they learned to make a transparent glassy mass. One can only guess how much time and labor it cost them.
The inhabitants of Sidon were the first to engage in glassmaking in Phenicia. This happened relatively late - in the 8th century BC. By that time, Egyptian suppliers had dominated the markets for almost a thousand years.
However, Pliny the Elder attributes the invention of glass to the Phoenicians - the crew of one ship. It allegedly came from Egypt with a load of soda. In the area of Acre, the sailors moored to the shore to have lunch. However, it was not possible to find a single stone nearby on which the cauldron could be placed. Then someone took several pieces of soda from the ship. When they “melted from the fire, mixing with the sand on the shore,” then “transparent streams of new liquid flowed - this was the origin of glass.” Many consider this story to be fiction. However, according to a number of researchers, there is nothing incredible about it - except that the location is indicated incorrectly. It could have happened near Mount Carmel, and the exact time of the invention of glass is unknown.
At first, the Phoenicians made ornamental vessels, jewelry, and trinkets from glass. Over time, they diversified the production process and began to produce glass of various types - from dark and cloudy to colorless and transparent. They knew how to give transparent glass any color; it did not become cloudy because of this.
In its composition, this glass was close to modern glass, but differed in the ratio of components. Then it contained more alkali and iron oxide, less silica and lime. This reduced the melting point, but deteriorated the quality. The composition of Phoenician glass was approximately as follows: 60–70 percent silica, 14–20 percent soda, 5–10 percent lime and various metal oxides. Some glasses, especially opaque red ones, contain a lot of lead.
Demand gave birth to supply. Glass factories grew in the largest cities of Phenicia - Tire and Sidon. Over time, prices for glass decreased, and it turned from a luxury item into an antique consumer goods. If the biblical Job equated glass with gold, saying that wisdom cannot be paid with either gold or glass (Job 28:17), then over time glassware replaced both metal and ceramic. The Phoenicians flooded the entire Mediterranean with glass vessels and bottles, beads and tiles.
This craft experienced its greatest flourishing already in the Roman era, when the method of glass blowing was probably discovered in Sidon. This happened in the 1st century BC. The masters of Beruta and Sarepta were also famous for their ability to blow glass. In Rome and Gaul, this craft also became widespread, since many specialists from Sidon moved there.
Several blown glass vessels have survived, marked with the mark of the master Ennion of Sidon, who worked in Italy in the early or mid-1st century AD. For a long time these vessels were considered the earliest examples. However, in 1970, during excavations in Jerusalem, a warehouse with cast and blown glass vessels was discovered. They were made in 50 - 40 BC. Apparently, glass blowing appeared in Phenicia a little earlier.
According to Pliny the Elder, even mirrors were invented in Sidon. They were mostly round, convex (they were also made from blown glass), with a thin metal backing made of tin or lead. They were inserted into a metal frame. Similar mirrors were made until the 16th century, when the Venetians invented tin-mercury amalgam.
It was the famous Venetian manufactory that continued the traditions of Sidonian craftsmen. In the Middle Ages, its successes led to a decline in demand for Lebanese glass. And yet, even during the era of the Crusades, glass produced in Tire or Sidon was in great demand.
Today, the remains of glass furnaces built in the Roman or Byzantine era can still be found on the coast between the modern cities of Sur (Tire) and Saida. In Sarepta, the sea, having retreated from the shore, exposed the remains of ancient ovens. Among the ruins of ancient Tyre, archaeologists found the ruins of ovens. The glass remaining in the kilns has a pleasant greenish color, quite clean, but not transparent.
4.5. What gave birth to luxury?
Let's say a few words about other Phoenician craftsmen who made ivory figurines, vessels made of gold, bronze or silver, carved wooden furniture, dark red ceramic vases, bowls, necklaces, bracelets, and weapons.
Homer also praised the skillful metal trinkets made by Phenician craftsmen. Cups made of precious metals, often decorated with Phoenician inscriptions, are found in various parts of the Mediterranean. Their appearance is remarkable. They showcase popular motifs from a variety of cultures of the time, mixing them in a whimsical manner. Thus, on a Phoenician silver bowl of the 7th century BC, found in Cyprus - its diameter is only 20 centimeters - many human figures are depicted. These are Assyrian, Greek and Egyptian soldiers storming the walls of the city; Egyptians cutting down trees with Aegean double axes. Nearby you can see Egyptian gods, winged scarabs, and a stylized Phoenician palm tree. The same beautiful, multi-figured Phoenician bowls were found in Italy. Their artistic merits were accurately assessed by Donald Harden: “All these bowls show the amazing sense of composition of the Phoenician artists. Although the borders show a lot of detail, they do not crowd each other at all.” Noteworthy is the abundance of Egyptian motifs in the works of Phoenician artists. Such motives begin to be perceived quite early as one’s own. Thus, back in the Bronze Age, Phoenician craftsmen carved ivory products reminiscent of Egyptian ones. The plates made from this material depict sphinxes, lotus flowers, women in Egyptian wigs, and attributes of Egyptian deities.
These bronze female figurines by Phoenician craftsmen were found in Aleppo, Baalbek and Homs
This work by a Phoenician master, found in the palace of the Assyrian kings in Kalakh, is reminiscent of the work of Egyptian craftsmen. The plate is carved from ivory
Phoenician stamp seals are often made in the shape of scarabs. They are cut out of carnelian and other stones, set into rings, and hung on necklaces or bracelets. By the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, stamp seals gradually replaced cylindrical ones, since with their help it was possible to leave an impression not only on clay - the once most widespread written material in Western Asia - but also on other materials. In Phenicia, these seals resemble works of Egyptian art not only in their form, but also in the subjects of the images.There is nothing accidental about this. The very position of Phenicia and especially the successes of local merchants made this country a mediator between the cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, the Aegean region and the Western Mediterranean. Phenicia united East and West, North and South, borrowed all the best from them and synthesized its original art, in which Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek features formed one whole.
To summarize, we can say that the phrase that was so popular among sociologists at the beginning of the last century best applies to Phoenician artisans and merchants: “Great fortunes arose by satisfying the most refined needs.” The economic history of Phenicia suddenly brings to mind the phrase of the German economist Werner Sombart: “Luxury gave birth to capitalism.”
A cow and calf is a masterpiece of Phoenician art. Ivory
Phoenician Sphinx. Megiddo (ivory, 13th century BC)
5. TIME OF THEIR COLONIES
5.1. Path to the endless sea
What is Phenicia? A piece of land. A scattering of sand. A pile of rocks. A trap from which there seems to be no way out. Armies come here from almost all directions of the world to plunder the Phoenician cities. Only one road is free from enemies - the road to the west. Sea road. She goes into the distance, into infinity. Along its edges - on the shores and islands - there are many empty lands where you can build new cities, trade with a profit, and not be afraid of either the Egyptian or the Assyrian king.
And when the Phoenicians acquired fast ships, they began to leave their homeland in detachments and communities and move to overseas countries. There they founded their colonies, since their small country could not feed them. Most of the Phoenician colonists left the city of Tyre. Each new disaster that befell the homeland gave rise to a new wave of emigration. According to Quintus Curtius Rufus, the farmers of Phenicia, “exhausted by frequent earthquakes... were forced, with arms in hand, to seek new colonies for themselves in foreign lands” - to seek happiness outside their homeland.
Where there are disasters, there is poverty. Where there is poverty, there is inescapable trouble. People run from her to the ends of the earth. At the turn of the 1st millennium BC, property inequality increased in Phenicia. The situation inside the tiny city-states is escalating. None of them is able to either restore order or unite the country. Their rulers - especially the kings of Tyre - can only ease the tension among their subjects. They send their ruined fellow citizens to overseas colonies, fearing their unrest, especially since they also had to fear a slave uprising.
The time when colonization began - the 12th century BC - is by no means accidental. In an earlier period, almost all maritime trade was in the hands of the Cretans and Achaeans. After the collapse of Mycenaean society, trade between East and West was in the hands of the Phoenicians. During the era of the great migration of the Sea Peoples, their country largely escaped destruction.
Now there was no need to fear competition for a long time. Having weakened at the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt ceased to be a maritime power for almost 500 years. Ugarit was destroyed. The Sea Peoples participated in maritime trade, but without much success. Under such favorable conditions, the Phoenicians began to create trading posts and colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The first of them appeared in Cyprus in the 12th century BC. In the same century, around 1101 BC, the first Phoenician colony in North Africa arose - the city of Utica, located northwest of the modern city of Tunis.
In the 12th – 11th centuries BC, the Phoenicians established their colonies along the entire Mediterranean coast: in Asia Minor, Cyprus and Rhodes, Greece and Egypt, Malta and Sicily. The Phoenicians founded colonies in the most famous harbors of the Mediterranean: Cadiz (Spain), Valletta (Malta), Bizerte (Tunisia), Cagliari (Sardinia), Palermo (Sicily). Around 1100 BC, Phoenician merchants settled in Rhodes. At the same time, they settled on Thasos, rich in gold and iron, on Thera, Kiethera, Crete and Melos, and possibly in Thrace.
Melos, according to Stephen of Byzantium, even in its name kept the memory of its discoverers: “The Phoenicians were its first inhabitants; the island was then called Byblis, since they came from Byblos.” Indeed, this island was originally called Mimblis, and this name may come from the word Bib-lis. Mimblys then became Mymallis and finally Melos.
At that time, the islands of the Aegean Sea lagged significantly behind the Phoenician city-states in their development. Here the Phoenicians could not fear competition from local traders. Colonization proceeded completely differently to the southwest of the metropolis. Here, on the path of the Phoenician merchants, lay Egypt - a country on the coast of which it was not at all easy to establish their trading posts. The Egyptians did not allow visiting merchants to operate in their country. They had to rent housing and obey Egyptian laws.
However, the Phoenicians agreed to such conditions. According to Herodotus, over time a “Tyrian quarter” even formed in Memphis. A temple of “foreign Aphrodite”, that is, Astarte, was also erected in it. In addition, Phoenician pottery is found in various parts of the Nile Delta - where Phoenician ships probably unloaded or their warehouses were located. Of course, Phoenician traders did not play a special role in Egypt. Their colonies flourished only in underdeveloped countries, and Egypt was not one of them.
More famous were the other African colonies of the Phoenicians, which the Roman historian Sallust reported in his “Jugurthine War”: “Subsequently, the Phoenicians, some - to reduce the population in their homeland, others - seeking dominance, prompting the common people and other people greedy for revolutions , founded Hippo, Hadrumet, Lepta and other cities on the sea coast, and they, soon greatly strengthened, became some a stronghold, others an adornment for their founding cities” (translated by V.O. Gorenshtein).
In mainland Italy, where the Greeks subsequently founded many colonies - “Magna Graecia” - there were also never Phoenician settlements, but trade contacts between the Phoenicians and the inhabitants of Italy were quite close. There was probably a Phoenician settlement even in Rome.
Thus, the Phoenicians became the heirs of the Cretan and Mycenaean merchants and sailors. Their cities and trading posts turned into the largest distribution points for Syrian and Assyrian goods, products of Babylonia and Egypt.
It was the Phoenicians who introduced the Dorian Greeks to the culture - rude louts who destroyed the Mycenaean cities. The Phoenicians taught them navigation and instilled in them a taste for luxury, for which they paid with metal and blond, blue-eyed slaves.
Later, the students challenged the teachers. Already in the 8th century BC, judging by archaeological data, Greek merchants began to be active. By this time, the “golden age” of Phenicia was already behind us. The country suffered from oppression by the Assyrian kings.
For now, that time was far away. The prosperity of Phenicia was just beginning. And the “golden age” has only dawned – it has not yet dawned. Without equipping armies, without sending an entire fleet to distant countries, the Phoenicians gradually subjugated the entire Mediterranean to their power, relying only on the cunning of individual shipmen.
The Phoenicians are often compared to the Greeks. Both countries were politically fragmented and consisted of separate city-states; both were maritime powers and colonized the Mediterranean coast. However, Phoenician colonization was fundamentally different from Greek. There was an inextricable connection between Tire and its colonies. The latter formed part of the Tyrian state. Greek colonies were most often independent of the metropolises.
Otherwise, the Phoenicians chose a place to settle. They did not move deeper into a country that was foreign to them, and did not strive for territorial conquest. Having owned a strip of land in their homeland, they were content with the same piece of land in a foreign land. They only built cities on the shores of bays convenient for their ships, strengthened their settlements and began to trade with the natives. So the shores of the Mediterranean Sea were covered with Phoenician trading posts.
And the endless expanse of water, which kept opening up before them, called them forward. The Phoenicians did not limit themselves to the Mediterranean world. They went beyond the Strait of Gibraltar and paved a sea road to the north - to the British Isles. They also sailed south - along the Atlantic coast of Africa, although they did not like this water area due to strong tides and stormy temperament. For the first time in human history, the Phoenicians sailed around Africa, passing from the Red Sea to Gibraltar. They dared to swim even into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, moving away from the shores. It is known that the Phoenicians visited the Azores and, apparently, the Canary Islands.
It is possible that it was from the Phoenicians that the Greeks borrowed the idea of the World Ocean. After all, they sailed into the “outer sea” - into the Atlantic Ocean. “I think,” Yu.B. developed this thought. Tsirkin, “that the voyages of the Phoenicians and Hispano-Phoenicians across the ocean, where they could not find either the opposite shore, or the end, or the beginning, gave rise to the idea of a river flowing into itself, beyond which lies the kingdom of death.”
On the near bank of this river, on the eve of the kingdom of death, the Phoenicians were busily settling in and establishing their colonies. According to Pliny the Elder, the very first colony of the Tyrians in the Western Mediterranean was created beyond Gibraltar on the African coast at the confluence of the Lyx River (modern Luccus) into the Atlantic Ocean. However, this settlement was located away from the trade routes leading to Southern Spain. The next location for the colony was chosen more successfully: the city of Gades (modern Cadiz) arose in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Thus, for the first time in history, the Phoenicians came from the extreme east of the Mediterranean to the extreme west. By sea it was possible to get from Tire to Hades in about two and a half months. This path was full of dangers.
Just think about it: the inhabitants of an insignificantly small country - a speck on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea - managed to conquer almost its entire coast and all its islands, establishing colonies everywhere, and with the same ease they got beyond its borders. The inhabitants of a pair of rocky islands equipped expeditions that could only be the envy of their neighbors who reigned over vast countries. In tiny, shell-like ships, they boldly sailed into any part of the Mediterranean Sea and even into the Atlantic Ocean, but at the time when they were just setting sail to the coast of Spain or Libya, the Mediterranean Sea was known to them and their contemporaries worse than us the surface of the Moon. The shores of the sea and its straits were inhabited by monsters sung by Homer - Cyclops, Scylla, Charybdis... When setting sail, the Phoenicians did not know the extent of the sea, nor its depth, nor the dangers awaiting them. They swam forward at random, relying on it like no other people of their time. And luck came to them.
Of course, the shipmen also gained experience over time, and they tried to sail along the coast from one base to another, and many years passed until, settling on unfamiliar shores, they reached the southern tip of Spain, but someone - decisive and brave - sailed this route for the first time, someone dared to seek happiness in a foreign land, not hoping for the help of a large army! And someone paid for it in the biggest way possible – with their lives. We do not know in detail the history of the colonization of the Mediterranean Sea, but we can assume that many people died in its waves before navigation in its waters (which covers two and a half million square kilometers) became reliable.
Why did these people die? For the sake of naked profit? It is unlikely that the Phoenicians - this talented people in all respects - set off on their journey with the stubbornness of idiots, thinking only about how, after several years of desperate adventures and disasters, they could sell their goods a little more profitably than their direct competitors. It was not only calculation that drove them forward, but also a variety of feelings: a love of wandering, which had also overcome their ancestors - the Arabian Bedouins, curiosity, a thirst for novelty, excitement, a craving for adventure, adventure, and risky experiences. The descendants of the steppe nomads turned into sea nomads. When it turned out that these travels more than paid off, because in any unfamiliar country it was possible to profitably exchange gold or silver, tin or copper, then romance gradually gave way to commercial calculation.
In recent decades, the possibility of the Phoenicians sailing even to America has been discussed more than once. “Very often attempts have been made to prove the presence of the Phoenicians in America,” wrote Richard Hoennig. – For example, on October 16, 1869, ancient Phoenician inscriptions were allegedly found near La Fayette, and in 1874 the same inscriptions were found in Paraiba (Brazil) ... In 1869, near the Onondaga River (New York State) it was allegedly discovered in on the ground is a huge statue with a heavily erased Phoenician inscription. All these reports turned out to be unreliable." Similar fakes appeared later. For example, in 1940, a certain Walter Strong found “no more and no less than 400 (!) stones with Phoenician writing.”
After checking these stories, archaeologists found that the sand of the Bel River contained 14.5 - 18 percent lime (calcium carbonate), 3.6 - 5.3 percent alumina (aluminum oxide) and about 1.5 percent magnesium carbonate. A mixture of this sand and soda produces strong glass.
So, the Phoenicians took ordinary sand, which their country was rich in, and mixed it with sodium bicarbonate - baking soda. It was mined in Egyptian soda lakes or obtained from the ash remaining after the combustion of algae and steppe grass. An alkaline earth component was added to this mixture - limestone, marble or chalk - and then the whole thing was heated to about 700 - 800 degrees. This is how a bubbly, viscous, quickly solidified mass arose, from which glass beads were made or, for example, elegant, transparent vessels were blown.
The Phoenicians were not content with simply imitating the Egyptians. Over time, showing incredible creativity and perseverance, they learned to make a transparent glassy mass. One can only guess how much time and labor it cost them.
The inhabitants of Sidon were the first to engage in glassmaking in Phenicia. This happened relatively late - in the 8th century BC. By that time, Egyptian suppliers had dominated the markets for almost a thousand years.
However, Pliny the Elder attributes the invention of glass to the Phoenicians - the crew of one ship. It allegedly came from Egypt with a load of soda. In the area of Acre, the sailors moored to the shore to have lunch. However, it was not possible to find a single stone nearby on which the cauldron could be placed. Then someone took several pieces of soda from the ship. When they “melted from the fire, mixing with the sand on the shore,” then “transparent streams of new liquid flowed - this was the origin of glass.” Many consider this story to be fiction. However, according to a number of researchers, there is nothing incredible about it - except that the location is indicated incorrectly. It could have happened near Mount Carmel, and the exact time of the invention of glass is unknown.
At first, the Phoenicians made ornamental vessels, jewelry, and trinkets from glass. Over time, they diversified the production process and began to produce glass of various types - from dark and cloudy to colorless and transparent. They knew how to give transparent glass any color; it did not become cloudy because of this.
In its composition, this glass was close to modern glass, but differed in the ratio of components. Then it contained more alkali and iron oxide, less silica and lime. This reduced the melting point, but deteriorated the quality. The composition of Phoenician glass was approximately as follows: 60–70 percent silica, 14–20 percent soda, 5–10 percent lime and various metal oxides. Some glasses, especially opaque red ones, contain a lot of lead.
Demand gave birth to supply. Glass factories grew in the largest cities of Phenicia - Tire and Sidon. Over time, prices for glass decreased, and it turned from a luxury item into an antique consumer goods. If the biblical Job equated glass with gold, saying that wisdom cannot be paid with either gold or glass (Job 28:17), then over time glassware replaced both metal and ceramic. The Phoenicians flooded the entire Mediterranean with glass vessels and bottles, beads and tiles.
This craft experienced its greatest flourishing already in the Roman era, when the method of glass blowing was probably discovered in Sidon. This happened in the 1st century BC. The masters of Beruta and Sarepta were also famous for their ability to blow glass. In Rome and Gaul, this craft also became widespread, since many specialists from Sidon moved there.
Several blown glass vessels have survived, marked with the mark of the master Ennion of Sidon, who worked in Italy in the early or mid-1st century AD. For a long time these vessels were considered the earliest examples. However, in 1970, during excavations in Jerusalem, a warehouse with cast and blown glass vessels was discovered. They were made in 50 - 40 BC. Apparently, glass blowing appeared in Phenicia a little earlier.
According to Pliny the Elder, even mirrors were invented in Sidon. They were mostly round, convex (they were also made from blown glass), with a thin metal backing made of tin or lead. They were inserted into a metal frame. Similar mirrors were made until the 16th century, when the Venetians invented tin-mercury amalgam.
It was the famous Venetian manufactory that continued the traditions of Sidonian craftsmen. In the Middle Ages, its successes led to a decline in demand for Lebanese glass. And yet, even during the era of the Crusades, glass produced in Tire or Sidon was in great demand.
The Phoenicians were also not the first to learn how to make glass, but they introduced important innovations in the technology of its production. In Phenicia this craft reached perfection. Glass products from local craftsmen were in great demand.
Ancient authors were even convinced that glass was invented by the Phoenicians, and this mistake is very significant.
In fact, it all began in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Back in the 4th millennium BC, the Egyptians learned to make glaze, which is close in composition to ancient glass. From sand, plant ash, saltpeter and chalk, they obtained cloudy, opaque glass, and then formed small vessels from it, which were in great demand.
The earliest examples of real glass - beads and other jewelry - appear in Egypt around 2500 BC. Glass vessels - small bowls - have been known in northern Mesopotamia and Egypt since about 1500 BC. From this time on, widespread production of this material began.
Glassmaking in Mesopotamia is experiencing a real boom. Cuneiform tablets have been preserved that describe the glass making process. The finished glass sparkled in various shades, but was not transparent. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, apparently, there, in Mesopotamia, they learned to make hollow objects from glass. In Egypt in the 16th-13th centuries BC, high-quality glass was also made.
The Phoenicians used the experience accumulated by the masters of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and soon began to play a leading role. The temporary decline experienced by the leading powers of the Ancient East at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC helped the Phoenicians conquer the market.
It all started from poverty. Phenicia was deprived of mineral resources. A little alumina - that's all. Only forest, stone, sand and sea water. It would seem that there is no opportunity to develop our industry. You can only resell what you bought from your neighbors. However, the Phoenicians managed to establish the production of goods that were in extraordinary demand everywhere. They extracted valuable paint from shells; They began to make glass from sand.
In mountainous Lebanon, the sand is rich in quartz. And quartz is a crystalline modification of silicon dioxide (silicon
earth); this same substance is the most important component of glass. Regular window glass contains more than 70 percent silica, while lead glass contains about 60 percent.
The sand that was mined at the foot of Mount Carmel was especially famous for its quality. According to Pliny the Elder, there “is a swamp called Candebia.” The Bel River flows from here. It is “muddy, with a deep bottom, the grains of sand in it can only be seen at low tide; Rolled by the waves and thus cleansed of dirt, they begin to sparkle. It is believed that then they are inhaled by sea acidity... This area of the coast is no more than five hundred paces, and for many centuries this is the only
was a source for glass production." Tacitus in his “History” also mentions that at the mouth of the Bel River “sand is mined, from which, if boiled with soda, glass is obtained; This place is very small, but no matter how much sand they take, its reserves do not dry out” (translated by G.S. Knabe).
After checking these stories, archaeologists found that the sand of the Bel River contained 14.5-18 percent lime (calcium carbonate), 3.6-5.3 percent alumina (aluminum oxide) and about 1.5 percent magnesium carbonate. A mixture of this sand and soda produces strong glass.
So, the Phoenicians took ordinary sand, which their country was rich in, and mixed it with sodium bicarbonate - baking soda. It was mined in Egyptian soda lakes or obtained from the ash remaining after the combustion of algae and steppe grass. An alkaline earth component - limestone, marble or chalk - was added to this mixture, and then the whole thing was heated to about 700-800 degrees. This is how a bubbly, viscous, quickly solidified mass arose, from which glass beads were made or, for example, elegant, transparent vessels were blown.
The Phoenicians were not content with simply imitating the Egyptians. Over time, showing incredible creativity and perseverance, they learned to make a transparent glassy mass. One can only guess how much time and labor it cost them.
The inhabitants of Sidon were the first to engage in glassmaking in Phenicia. This happened relatively late - in the 8th century BC. By that time, Egyptian suppliers had dominated the markets for almost a thousand years.
However, Pliny the Elder attributes the invention of glass to the Phoenicians - the crew of one ship. It allegedly came from Egypt with a load of soda. In the area of Acre, the sailors moored to the shore to have lunch. However, it was not possible to find a single stone nearby on which the cauldron could be placed. Then someone took from
ship a few pieces of soda. When they “melted from the fire, mixing with the sand on the shore,” then “transparent streams of new liquid flowed - this was the origin of glass.” Many consider this story to be fiction. However, according to a number of researchers, there is nothing incredible about it - except that the location is indicated incorrectly. It could have happened near Mount Carmel, and the exact time of the invention of glass is unknown.
At first, the Phoenicians made ornamental vessels, jewelry, and trinkets from glass. Over time, they diversified the production process and began to produce glass of various types - from dark and cloudy to colorless and transparent. They knew how to give transparent glass any color; it did not become cloudy because of this.
In its composition, this glass was close to modern glass, but differed in the ratio of components. Then it contained more alkali and iron oxide, less silica and lime. This reduced the melting point, but deteriorated the quality. The composition of Phoenician glass was approximately as follows: 60-70 percent silica, 14-20 percent soda, 5-10 percent lime and various metal oxides. Some glasses, especially opaque red ones, contain a lot of lead.
Demand gave birth to supply. Glass factories grew in the largest cities of Phenicia - Tire and Sidon. Over time, prices for glass decreased, and it turned from a luxury item into an antique consumer goods. If the biblical Job equated glass with gold, saying that wisdom cannot be paid with either gold or glass (Job 28:17), then over time glassware replaced both metal and ceramic. The Phoenicians flooded the entire Mediterranean with glass vessels and bottles, beads and tiles.
This craft experienced its greatest flourishing already in the Roman era, when the method of glass blowing was probably discovered in Sidon. This happened in the 1st century BC. The masters of Beruta and Sarepta were also famous for their ability to blow glass. In Rome and Gal
Also, this craft also became widespread, since many specialists from Sidon moved there.
Several blown glass vessels have survived, marked with the mark of the master Ennion of Sidon, who worked in Italy in the early or mid-1st century AD. For a long time these vessels were considered the earliest examples. However, in 1970, during excavations in Jerusalem, a warehouse with cast and blown glass vessels was discovered. They were made in 50-40 BC. Apparently, glass blowing appeared in Phenicia a little earlier.
According to Pliny the Elder, even mirrors were invented in Sidon. They were mostly round, convex (they were also made from blown glass), with a thin metal backing made of tin or lead. They were inserted into a metal frame. Similar mirrors were made until the 16th century, when the Venetians invented tin-mercury amalgam.
It was the famous Venetian manufactory that continued the traditions of Sidonian craftsmen. In the Middle Ages, its successes led to a decline in demand for Lebanese glass. And yet, even during the era of the Crusades, glass produced in Tire or Sidon was in great demand.
Today, the remains of glass furnaces built in the Roman or Byzantine era can still be found on the coast between the modern cities of Sur (Tire) and Saida. In Sarepta, the sea, having retreated from the shore, exposed the remains of ancient ovens. Among the ruins of ancient Tyre, archaeologists found the ruins of ovens. The glass remaining in the kilns has a pleasant greenish color, quite clean, but not transparent.