Purple People ( Archived) (20)

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plains of what is now Lebanon. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread right across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta between Sidon and Tyre, is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland. Although the people of the region most likely called themselves the kena'ani, the name Phoenicia became common thanks to the Greeks who called the land Phoiniki - F?????? (Phoiníke; see also List of traditional Greek place names). This term had been borrowed from Ancient Egyptian Fnkhw "Syrians". Due to phonetic similarity, the Greek word for Phoenician was synonymous with the color purple or crimson, f????? (phoînix), through its close association with the famous dye Tyrian purple (cf also Phoenix). The dye was used in ancient textile trade, and highly desired. The Phoenicians became known as the 'Purple People'. The Phoenicians often traded by means of a galley, which is a man-powered ship.

Recent DNA (Y chromosome) studies conducted by the National Geographic Magazine on the bones of ancient Phoenicians and living people from Lebanon and elsewhere in the Mediterranean prove that both Muslims and Christians from those areas carry the same ancient Phoenician genetic material. Further, the Phoenician bloodline has been proven to come from an ancient Mediterranean sub-stratum (see: Arniaz-Villena, et al. "HLA genes in Macedonians..." Tissue Antigens, February 2001, volume 57, issue 2, pages 118-12).

In the Old Testament there is no reference to the Greek term Phoenicia; instead, the inhabitants of the coastal are identified by their city of origin, most often as Sidonians (Gen. x. 15; Judges iii. 3; x. 6, xviii. 7; I Kings v. 20, xvi. 31). Early relations between Israelites and the Canaanites were cordial: Hiram of Tyre, a Phoenician by modern assessment, furnished architects, workmen and cedar timbers for the temple of his ally Solomon at Jerusalem. The Phoenician language was largely mutually intellegible with the Hebrew language, and cultural similarities between the two peoples were significant, leading to the worship of Phoenician gods like Baal by some Jews during the time of Prophet Elijah.

Of course there is another Hiram (also spelled Huran) associated with the building of the temple. "2Ch 2:14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him..." This is the architect of the Temple, Hiram Abiff of Masonic lore.

Later, reforming prophets railed against the practice of drawing royal wives from among foreigners: Elijah execrated Jezebel, the princess from Tyre who became a consort of King Ahab and introduced the worship of her gods.

Long after Phoenician culture had flourished, or Phoenicia had existed as any political entity, Hellenized natives of the region where Canaanites still lived were referred to as "Syro-Phoenician", as in the Gospel of Mark 7:26: "The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth..."

The word Bible itself ultimately derives (through Latin and Greek) from Byblos, the Phoenician city. Because of its papyruses, Byblos was also the source of the Greek word for book and, hence, of the name of the Bible.


I am trying to under the war.

I meant understand.

Phoenicia consisted of a mainly urban population living in a string of coastal towns and a heavily forested and mountainous hinterland. These coastal towns were to grow into cities and then into city-states. The Phoenician city-states were Ugarit, Aradus, Tripoli, Batrun, Byblos, Beirut, Sidon, and Tyre. Each of the coastal cities was an independent kingdom and had an elected council of elders to check the power of the king, these councils are the first example of democracy in history. Common interests made these cities form a Phoenician federation under the leadership of one of its cities. In the 16th century BC Ugarit headed the federation, Byblos in the 14th, Sidon in the 12th, Tyre in the 11th to the 9th and Tripoli in the 5th.

These ancient Lebanese left a monumental legacy. They invented the alphabet. The Phoenician invention of the alphabet is without doubt the greatest invention in the history of mankind. This achievement alone guaranties them a unique place in history making them the world's greatest benefactors, but the story didn't end there. The city of Byblos gave its name to the Bible and the Tyrian princess Europa gave her name to Europe. The Phoenicians excelled in producing textiles, in carving ivory, in working with metal, stone and wood, and above all in making glass which they also invented. They even built the temple of Solomon and mined tin in Cornwall. Masters of the art of navigation, Phoenician ships of cedar ruled the seas, they were the first people of sail past the 'Pillars of Hercules' and discover Atlantic, another milestone in the history of man. The Phoenicians discovered the North Star which the Greeks were to name the Phoenician Star in honour of those that discovered it. These ancient Lebanese founded colonies wherever they went in the Mediterranean such as Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Marseilles, Cadiz, and Carthage. Furthermore, their ships circumnavigated Africa a thousand years before those of the Portuguese. Amongst other evidence, Phoenician inscriptions have been found in Brazil to suggest that the Phoenicians crossed the Atlantic thousands of years before Columbus. With the establishment of trade routes to Europe and western Asia, Phoenicia was to acquire wealth and position that rivalled Rome.

The Phoenicians were the great pioneers of civilisation. Intrepid, inventive, enterprising, they at once made vast progress in the arts themselves, and carried their knowledge, their active habits, and their commercial instincts into the remotest regions of the old continent. They exercised a stimulating, refining, and civilising influence wherever they went. North and south and east and west they adventured themselves amid perils of all kinds, actuated by the love of adventure more than by the thirst for gain, conferring benefits, spreading knowledge, suggesting, encouraging, and developing trade, turning men from the barbarous and unprofitable pursuits of war and bloodshed to the peaceful occupations of productive industry. They did not aim at conquest. They united the various races of men by the friendly links of mutual advantage and mutual dependence, conciliated them, softened them, humanised them. While, among the nations of the earth generally, brute force was worshipped as the true source of power and the only basis of national repute, the Phoenicians succeeded in proving that as much could be done by arts as by arms, as great glory and reputation gained, as real a power built up, by the quiet agencies of exploration, trade, and commerce, as by the violent and brutal methods of war, massacre, and ravage. They were the first to set this example. If the history of the world since their time has not been wholly one of the potency in human affairs of "blood and iron," it is very much owing to them. They, and their kinsmen of Carthage, showed mankind what a power might be wielded by commercial state.

The history of the Phoenicians is entwined with the history of other peoples starting with the ancient Egyptians. Evidence of trade between Lebanon and Egypt goes back to pre-dynastic times and continued for many centuries. Lebanon provided the Nile valley with wood for palaces, temples and boats and in exchange the Canaanites received gold and other metals. This pattern of trade that had established itself over many hundreds of years was interrupted in the 18th century BC by the rise to power of a warlike people who established themselves as master of the Levant and swept down into Egypt. These were the Hyksos.

The Hyksos or the 'Shepherd Kings' and from the names of their gods, they were undoubtedly Canaanite. The Hyksos controlled the region for about 150 years from around 1720 to 1570 BC. The Hyksos were responsible for the introduction of the horse into the area and the use of the animal for war purposes gave them a distinct advantage in battle, they introduced the horse-drawn chariot and the composite bow, and their successful conquests were furthered by a type of rectangular fortification of beaten earth used as a fortress; archaeologists have uncovered examples of these mounds at Jericho, Shechem, and Lachish. Their most important contribution was perhaps the introduction into Egypt of Canaanite deities and Asian artifacts. Hyksos rule was broken by a Theban prince, Ahmose, who drove the invaders out of Egypt and started his country on its new career of empire building. Over the next few hundred years the Egyptian empire not only included Lebanon but reached as far as the Euphrates. At the turn of the 14th century BC however, the empire began to decline and in the north a new world power emerged, the Hittites.

The Hittites, a people of Indo-European connection, were supposed to have entered Cappadocia c.1800 B.C. To the southwest, in the Taurus and Cilicia, were the Luites, relatives of the Hittites; to the southeast, in the Upper Euphrates, the Hurrians (Khurrites). In the country the Hittites then occupied, the aboriginal inhabitants were apparently the Khatti, or Hatti. Hittite names appear c.1800 B.C. on the tablets written by Assyrian colonists at Kültepe (Kanesh) in Cappadocia. However, real evidence of Hittite existence does not occur until the Old Hittite Kingdom (1600–1400 B.C.). The Hittites tried to invade Babylonia but were halted by Egypt and Mitanni. The Hittite Empire that followed the Old Kingdom, with its capital at Bogazköy (also called Hattusas), was the chief power and cultural force in western Asia from 1400 to 1200 B.C. The famous Hittite rulers date from this period. Among these are Supiluliumash (fl. 1380 B.C.) who is mentioned in the Tel el Amarna letters, Mursilish II (fl. 1335 B.C.), and Hattusilish III (fl. 1300 B.C.). The Hittite Empire was a loose confederation that started to break up under the invasions of the Thracians, Phrygians, and Assyrians from c.1300 B.C. Several small states arose, with Carchemish becoming an outstanding city.

Phoenician Cities and Colonies

Byblos

Byblos (Jbail), the oldest city in the world, goes back at least 9000 years. The rise and fall of nearly two dozen successive levels of human culture on this site makes it one of the richest archaeological areas in the world. Millennia ago Byblos was the commercial and religious capital of the Phoenician coast. Evidence of trade between Lebanon and Egypt goes back to pre-dynastic times. Before the Greeks knew it as the centre for papyrus trade from which books were made, the Egyptians knew it as a port from which cedar wood could be obtained. Mount Lebanon provided the treeless valley of the Nile with wood for palaces, temples, and boats. The area around Byblos has the narrowest coastal plain and un some places nearby the Mount Lebanon falls directly into the sea, facilitating the transport of cedar wood. Byblos also gave its name to the Bible and it was here that the first linear alphabet, ancestor of our alphabet, was invented. In 1922 the oldest alphabetic inscription was found on the 13th century B.C. coffin of King Ahiram. On the elaborate sarcophagus was engraved:

"Itobaal, son of Ahiram, King of Jbail, made this sarcophagus for Ahiram, his father, as his dwelling for eternity. And if king among kings or a governor among governors, raises war against Jbail and lays open this sarcophagus, the sceptre of his power will be broken, the seat of his royalty will be overthrown, and peace will reign again in Jbail. As for his posterity they shall be cut off by the sword"

Not without reason it can be claimed that this is the most important sentence ever recorded. They mark the beginning of a new era. These 22 Phoenician magic signs are considered to be the greatest invention of man. These ragged shapes allowed the Hebrews to record their immortal ethical and religious contributions and the Romans their legal heritage. Without the alphabet we may not have preserved Homer and Shakespeare's plays may have been acted but not recorded, even Gibbon may be said to owe everything to the people of Byblos.

Religious activity in Byblos centred around Adon Tammouz (Adonis in Greek) god of fertility and Ishtar (Aphrodite) the Lady of Byblos. According to legend, Tammouz was out hunting high up in Mount Lebanon at Afqa, the source of the Adonis river (Nahr Brahim) which meets the sea not far from Byblos, when he was killed by a wild boar. His blood drained into the river and turned it red. Ishtar, the lover of Tammouz, in her sadness and anger brought about winter made all plant life on earth languish. The other Gods allowed Tammouz out of the underworld for a few months each year to be with Ishtar. In return, Ishtar would allow the plants to blossom and the sun to shine. During the feast of Adonis, signalled by the Adonis river turning red, the women of Byblos, wild with joy on the return of Tammouz to Ishtar would sacrifice their virginity at the Ishtar's temples. To this day the river turns red but geologists have spoilt the story by pointing out that the red colour is not a result of blood but the red soil of Mount Lebanon in the Afqa region being washed into the river. The Phoenicians planted the Adonis cult throughout their colonies and in Lebanon it survived for centuries after Christ.

Bible and sacrificed virginity, hmm.

The cedars of Lebanon housed the holy of holies which was supposed to be where God was given the holy sacrifices by the Levites. Levi was one of the twelve sons of Israel. Since Jesus was a Jew and also called the Christ which Christianity derives its name from it is perplexing because the Jews crucified Jesus. Interesting because its looks like now God is being crucified, too. The temple was split bottom to top. Gees, I will never understand this.

but you did bring tears to my eyes to read the beautiful and profound history of my ancestors once again.....

thank you Roy



indeed maybe those ignorant of what we are truely about

will rub their eyes when they read this and wake up a little....



all my love


peace


alex

but you are quoting scriptures not history.....


and biased scriptures at that

Yes I did place scripture reference to the statements that I made.

The information that I obtained listed those as references.





Just the opinion of the material. Not necessarily in total agreement with it or with the reference material. It was interesting to read though.