The Elusive Phoenicians 1

Показать описание

1.Greedy knaves and skilful craftsmen: The Phoenicians in classical and Biblical literature

Before the Greeks there were the Phoenicians. Originating in Lebanon, the Phoenicians sailed across the
Mediterranean and beyond, trading and colonising. They were a dominant presence in the Mediterranean for most
of the first millennium BCE. The Greeks and Romans learned much from them, including writing, agriculture and
warfare. However, the Phoenicians remain hazy in the modern imagination and most of their written records have
not survived. This course will investigate the question ‘who were the Phoenicians’ through a close look at some key
texts and artefacts. The first lecture will consider how the Phoenicians are depicted in Greek and Latin literature
and the Bible, the texts through which modern scholars first learned about them. The second lecture will examine
archaeological evidence from sites in Spain, Italy, Tunisia and Lebanon.

LECTURE TITLES

2. From Tyre to Cadiz: Phoenicians through the archaeological record