© David Lees/Corbis/VCG via Getty ImagesA Phoenician mask, discovered on the island of Sardinia.
The ancient Phoenician civilisation that spread around much of the Mediterranean basin during the first millennium BCE was inclusive, multicultural and featured significant female mobility, according to a new study of mitochondrial DNA.
The Phoenicians - the name derives from a description of them by the Greeks - arose in the eastern Mediterranean and inhabited what are now the coastlines of Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, Syria and southwest Turkey, before spreading along the northern coast of Africa as far as the Atlantic, notably founding Carthage in the process. They also settled in southern Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia.
A sophisticated people, they developed a distinctive alphabet derived from Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which in turn was adapted and assimilated into the written forms of many other cultures, notably Greek. Despite their literacy, however, most of what is known about them comes from Greek and Egyptian descriptions.
Although the name "Phoenicians" is ultimately a Greek derivation of the Egyptian word for "Syrians", it had an apt double-meaning, acknowledged at the time. "Phoenician" is almost a homophone for another Greek word meaning "purple" - appropriate because the Phoenicians pretty much controlled the trade in valuable purple dye throughout the classical world.
Indeed, the civilisation was recognised primarily to be made up of traders and settlers, with such settlement arguably driven by business opportunities.
The Phoenicians were not seen as warlike - and the latest research, led by E. Matisoo-Smith New Zealand's University of Otago, and Pierre Zalloua from the Lebanese American University in Beirut seems to bear this out.The scientists focussed their attention on Phoenician settlements in Sardinia in order to investigate how they integrated with the communities already living there when they arrived.
To do this they first sourced mitochondrial genome sequences from 14 ancient islanders - come dating before the arrival of the Phoenicians around 1800 BCE, and others during the settlement period of between 700 and 400 BCE.
They then compared these with two existing databases - the first comprising 87 complete mitogenomes from modern Lebanese, and the other made up of 21 recently published sequences from pre-Phoenician Sardinia.
The results indicated that some pre-Phoenician lineages continued after settlement, indicating that indigenous Sardinians integrated into the new social structure peacefully and permanently.
New unique mitochondrial lineages were also discovered, which the researchers interpret as evidence of the movement of women from the Near East and North Africa into Sardinia. They may also indicate the movement of European women into Lebanon.
"This DNA evidence reflects the inclusive and multicultural nature of Phoenician society," says Zalloua. "They were never conquerors, they were explorers and traders."The research is published in the journal PLOS.
Reader Comments
I will lend a hand. Sebsequent here deals with the historical revelations, before the book.
First and foremost, the Phoenicians were Ethiopians, jet-Black people.
The alphabet was developed by the Ethiopian ‘god’ Thoth, the ‘god’ of knowledge, records, and a wash of other stuff. Thoth took the alphabet with him into Egypt, when he was given Egypt. He ruled Egypt for 16,000 years. …
The Phoenicians were called Phoenicians before they inherited the sea-going and related commerce from the Cushite (Ethiopian) Empire. It therefore had nothing to do with their trade, but their color. Some people referred to Ethiopians as ‘blue’ and sometimes ‘purple’ people, because of how Black their skin was. Maybe a search on Google will help reveal that fact.
Shalom!
So, they created a false narratives of "Phoenicians" from the Levant sailing west and creating colonies in North African, Sicily, Sardinia, Western Side of Italy, and Spain. Of course, every one accepts the narrative and disregards all the evidence and reason. The point was to create some kind of nebulous population in order to not have to admit that Greece and Rome .... hence Europe has its basis in Africa and that Europe was the last place to be civilized - not the first.
1. Such colonization effort would be a massive undertaking today with modern technology and means...............how could such a thing occur back then ?? hint: it didnt.
2. Furthermore, Why would such a thing be done.........sail straight across the Medit and set up cities ??
The fact is no such thing occurred.
Carthage, Sicily, Sardinia, Etruscan, Malta, Spain settlements are settlement founded by a BLACK African civilization that moved north (pushed in part by the growing Sahara). Said civilization had long been influenced by Egypt/Nile Valley - the big dog civilization.
There is a reason all these civilizations are clustered in the WEST.
This last DNA testing ( if u read it carefully is clearly politically manipulated ) - what they are not admitting is that the true remains are those of AFRICANS.
the last analysis of graves in Carthage shows a predominence of Black Negro remains ..........the only verified Hannibal artifact : coins minted in Italy and held in the British Museum show an unambiguously BLACK (stereotypically so) man with short dread locks Hanibal and on the other side his favorite elephant.
3rd query: If the Phoenicians were so advanced where are all their texts ????? The texts either never existed OR were purposefully destroyed or hidden in order to perpetuate the lie.
Civilization in Southern Europe comes directly from AFRICA
Poeni, Phoenicians. (Hotep = Joseph)
These were the ten tribes of Israel. The other two settled in Judea. They were able to ransack and flee the Indian colony/Egyptian overlords, when Venus was born. Thira and all the other volcanic eruptions occurred at that time. This was the most unsettled period since the expulsion of the entire planet from inside the Sun.
They did more than just settle the noted areas. Dan has turned up in Danmark, Ireland and Greece: Danaos. They may not have conquered, but their descendants did. The Rus, the Scandinavians who went viking.
To identify them, look at their sailing vessels: Two headed, symbolizing the old and new, the death and rebirth of Venus/Phoenix.
There were 12 Tribes of Israel + lost 13th Tribe.