By the ninth century BCE, the Phoenicians of the Levant (primarily modern Lebanon) had established an extensive maritime trading network spanning the length and breadth of the Mediterranean. They traded with the Greek islands, across all southern Europe, up to the British Isles and down the Atlantic coast of Africa. The Phoenicians established bustling ports in Tyre and Sidon (now Lebanon), Carthage (Tunisia), Gadir (Cádiz) and Cartagena (Spain), Piraeus and Corinth (Greece), Byzantium, and Marseille (France). Carthage became the greatest Phoenician center in the western Mediterranean. They reached Arabia and India by the Red Sea and were tapped into Mesopotamia by overland caravan.
The Phoenicians dealt not only with what they themselves needed and produced, but also acted as middlemen for everything to everyone. They made enormous profits selling commodities bought at cheap prices at their source but fetching high prices elsewhere. Phoenician trade is widely referenced in the ancient literature ‘from Mesopotamian reliefs to the works of Homer and Herodotus, from Egyptian tomb art to the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible’ (Cartwright, 2016).
The Phoenicians built two kinds of ships, merchant ships and war vessels. For trading, they used ships with rounded hulls, curved sterns and a huge rectangular sail in the center. These had an oar-like blade attached to the port side of the ship that was used to steer. Warships were longer and narrower than cargo ships and carried large numbers of soldiers. They had two sails, coverings on the deck to hide officers and at their bow was a forecastle, from which soldiers fired arrows or hurled catapults during battle. They were propelled by dozens of oarsmen, making possible rapid bursts of speed. The bow was fitted with a ‘rostrum’, a bronze tip used to ram other ships. The Phoenician ships were decorated extensively with detailed carvings and paintings. They had painted eyes to help the ship ‘see’ and frighten their enemies, and horses’ heads that honored Yamm, their god of the sea.
The Phoenicians were active exporters of wood, textiles, and glass. They harvested aromatic cedar and fir from their own forests and sold it to Mesopotamia and Egypt for a handsome profit. The timber was carried directly to Egypt by ship and to Mesopotamia by overland caravan before being floated down the Euphrates River. They purchased wool from Damascus and Arabia, linen yarn from Egypt and silk from Persia, and transformed them into richly colored clothes and carpets that were the rage throughout the ancient world. In particular, they were known for their cloth dyed purple using fluid extracted from the murex shellfish caught in baited traps off the coast. Huge piles of the shells have been uncovered near Sidon and Tyre and the shellfish almost became extinct on the coasts of Phoenicia. Their textiles were also acclaimed for their fine, intricate embroidery.
The Phoenicians produced and traded glassware, specializing in transparent glass that was used to manufacture mirrors and plates. They also manufactured colorful semi-transparent glass (blue, yellow, green and brown) which was used to adorn clothing. “The Phoenicians imported metals, especially copper from Cyprus, silver and iron from Spain, and gold from Ethiopia (and possibly Anatolia). This raw material was transformed into ornate vessels and art objects in Phoenician workshops and then exported. Tin (from Britain), lead (Scilly Isles and Spain), and brassware were also traded, the latter principally coming from Spain. Ivory was imported from either Punt or India, as was ebony, both coming to Phoenicia via Arabia. Amber came either from the Baltic or Adriatic coast and was used in Phoenician jewelery. Embroidered linen and grain were imported from Egypt and fine, worked cloth from Mesopotamia. Grain, barley, honey, and oak timber used for oars on Phoenician ships, came from Palestine. Phoenician markets also traded in slaves (from Cilicia and Phrygia but also captured by the Phoenicians themselves), sheep (Arabia), horses and mules (Armenia), goats, wool (Damascus and Arabia), coral, perfumes (Judah and Israel), agate, and precious stones such as emeralds (from Syria and Sheba). Spices came from the Arabian Peninsula (some coming from distant India) and included cinnamon, calamus, cassia, laudanum, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Cartwright, 2016)
In a nutshell, the Phoenicians were the world’s first trading superpower. They moved all kinds of goods across all distant horizons of the Mediterranean to wherever the best price could be fetched. Their trade network would eventually be elapsed by the Greeks, but for 500 years they dominated world trade. Phoenician-style ships and navigation tools would remain in use long after their empire had faded.
Adapted from:
Hancock, J.F. (2021) Chapter 4. Spices, Scents and Silk: Catalysts of Trade. Routledge
Other sources:
Cartwright, M. (2016) Trade in the Phoenician world. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Available at: https://www.ancient.eu/article/881/trade-in-the-phoenician-world/
Casson, L. (1991) The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Seafighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times, 2nd edn. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland
Paine, L. (2013) The Sea & Civilization: A Maritime History of the World. Vintage Books, New York.
Illustration: Kelly Macquire, World History Encyclopedia, published on 26 April 2012
Catalysts of trade and exploration 