Phoenician Trade Routes

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Phoenician Trade Routes

• Traders of the Mediterranean

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Background on the Phoenicians

• Located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean
  Sea, (Lebanon)
• Phoenicia was not a unified state
• Self-rule by 1200 BCE
• Most notable traders and sailors of the ancient
  world

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Where did they go?

• Traveled throughout the Mediterranean and even
  into the Atlantic Ocean
• Other nations competed to employ Phoenicians
• City-kingdoms founded many colonies because of
  trade

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No longer independent

• Conquered by Persia in 540 BCE
• Alexander the Great invaded Asia and defeated
  Persia in 333 BC
• Phoenicians gradually lost their separate
  identity- absorbed into the Greco-Macedonian
  empire

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Exports and Imports

• Exports
• Cedar and Pine wood
• Fine linen
• Cloths dyed with the famous Tyrian purple
• Embroideries
• Metalwork and glass
• Wine, salt and dried fish

• Imports
• Raw materials
• Papyrus
• Ivory, Ebony
• Silk
• Amber
• Ostrich eggs
• Spices, Incense
• Horses
• Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Tin, Jewels, and
  Precious Stones

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Conducted Transit Trade

• Arabian caravan trade passed through Phoenician
  hands
• Regular trade routes from Tigris/ Euphrates
• In Egypt, Phoenician merchants gained a foothold
• Maintained a profitable trade

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Trial and Error

• First attempts were crude
• Voyages only consisted of island hopping
• Boats
• Began with canoes (trunks of trees)
• Boats were then constructed

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Phoenician Ships
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Navigation and Seafaring

• Established commercial supremacy
• Phoenicians are credited with discovery and use
  of Polaris
• Ventured where others would not
• Carefully guarded secrets of their trade routes
  and discoveries and knowledge of winds and
  currents

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Two types of Vessels

• Merchant Ships
• Broad, round, like a tub
• Impelled by oars and sails (more dependent on
  sails)
• Square sail
• Small boats attached

• War- vessels
• Long open rowboats
• All of them, upon a level, the number of rowers
  on either side being generally 15-25
• Each galley armed with sharp metal spike (chief
  offense)

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Phoenician Merchant Galley
The Phoenicians were the most able shipbuilders
and sailors of the ancient Mediterranean world.
Merchant ships, such as the one pictured here,
enabled them to trade throughout the
Mediterranean Sea.
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Phoenician war-galleys
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Contributions of Trade

• The most important- alphabet.
• Purple dye, called Tyrian purple, and the
  invention of glass
• Their industries- the manufacture of textiles and
  dyes, metalworking, and glassmaking

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Phoenicians used cuneiform (Mesopotamian
writing), they also produced a script of their
own.