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History
Before
the rise of the Roman Empire, and before the fruitful era of the
ancient Greeks, a great sea-faring people once dominated the
Mediterranean Sea. In fact, these people were the first “colonizers”
of the western world, spreading their civilization, language,
culture, and DNA from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the
coasts of the Atlantic Ocean. Ancient Phoenicia was once a rich,
blossoming civilization that consisted of several cities founded
along the Levantine coast, where lie modern-day Lebanon, Israel, and
western Syria. Newer Phoenician cities were eventually established
throughout the Mediterranean around the 8th century BC,
from the islands of Cyprus, Malta, Sicily and Sardinia, to the
peninsula of Gibraltar, the south of mainland Italy, Tunisia in
northern Africa, and even as far west as Cádiz -- a city on the
Atlantic coast of Spain. Unfortunately but true, history is often
told from the biased perspective of those who are victorious, as
opposed to those who are defeated. In this specific case, the fall
of the great Phoenician civilization gave rise to Greece, and in
turn, the Roman Empire. As such, much of what is known today about
the Phoenicians and their culture has either been written by the
Greeks or Romans, or has simply been lost to time. Millennia-old
Phoenician cities and ports across the Mediterranean lie masked
beneath the remains of later Roman cities – or worse, buried
beneath large modern-day cities like Cagliari, the capital city of
Sardinia.
It
seems as though these so-called Phoenicians faced the unforgiving
wrath of history. Well, that may true when speaking solely about
archeological remains; however, what the average person does not know
is that the Phoenicians have made a lasting impact on the
Mediterranean region, and even more importantly, the world. The
letters that you see on this page – in fact, the entire Latin,
Greek, and even Arabic alphabets – are derived from the alphabet of
the Phoenicians, the first written and recorded phonetic alphabet in
modern history. To prove a point, the first two letters of the
Phoenician alphabet were ‘aleph’ and ‘bet,’ which the Greeks
soon modified into their own ‘alpha’ and ‘beta,’ while the
Arabs similarly developed their own ‘alif’ and ‘be.’ The
Etruscans soon adopted this innovative form of written communication,
which was in turn modified and adapted by the ancient Romans to
create the Latin alphabet. The first two letters of the Etruscan,
then Roman, alphabet were ‘A’ and ‘B’. The Phoenicians, who
were experienced and successful maritime merchants, would trade their
unique alphabet with their neighbors in exchange for precious
artifacts and minerals. Moreover, any purple clothing that may be
occupying your closet space at this given moment can be credited to
the Phoenicians who were the first to discover and create purple dye
using mollusk shells from the depths of the Mediterranean. As
sea-faring people, the Phoenicians mastered the Mediterranean and
used it as their tool. Using wood from the abundant cedar trees of
Lebanon, they were able to construct vast fleets of enormous ships
that were able to carry them as far as the eastern coast of Europe
and even the western coast of Africa. The art of ship making was
developed and perfected by the Phoenicians. Thus, by a far stretch,
we can even partially credit Columbus’s “discovery” of the
Americas to the ancient Phoenicians.
Background
Almost
two centuries after the fall of ancient Phoenicia, many historians
adamantly argue that the inhabitants of this civilization have been
lost in history, perhaps mixed in with the later populations that
ruled the area; however, the key to finding what remains of these
peoples lies somewhere in the Mediterranean, and the most obvious
place to look: modern-day Lebanon, their original homeland. Oral
tradition holds significant importance in the villages and towns
along the mountainous terrain of Lebanon. As a people who were
constantly under persecution and domination since the end of the
Phoenician era, it only makes sense that oral tradition is the best
destruction-proof way of remembering and passing down the history of
this ancient country. As such, for centuries, oral tradition in
parts of Lebanon has held fast to the belief that modern-day Lebanese
are the descendents of their Phoenician forefathers. Although
Phoenicia collapsed and faced further imperialism from neighboring
civilizations, the original inhabitants of this land did not just
disappear overnight. In a similar example, the collapse of ancient
Rome did not simultaneously wipeout of all the Roman people. The
mountainous landscape of the Levant made it difficult for most
invading armies to reach the populations living in the mountain
ranges of Lebanon. Thus, genetic influence from conquering neighbors
was relatively minimal until the start of the Crusades; foreign
powers, such as the Ottoman Empire, actually ruled ancient Phoenicia
with minimal contact with the resident populations that were living
in difficult-to-reach places.
It
is also important to note that Lebanon’s complicated history has
caused Phoenician identity to become a delicate subject. During the
Lebanese civil war – a conflict primarily between Lebanon’s
religious sects – some Maronite Christians in Lebanon
tried to claim a unique and direct ancestry from the Phoenicians,
implying that they held a more legitimate historical claim on the
land than non-Christians. To this day, many Lebanese cower at the mention of the word
‘Phoenician.’ Lebanon must move beyond its political and
sectarian strife in order to embrace the truth behind its history, a
common and uniting factor amongst all Lebanese regardless of religion
or lack thereof. As a Lebanese-American, I value and admire
Lebanon’s rich and complex history, and as such, I believe it is a
shame to ignore or erase any part of our past due to politics. It is
a history that is unique from that of its neighbors, but a history
that has shaped and defined Lebanon’s culture, a history that is
shared with many other modern-day nation-states throughout the
Mediterranean. And so, I embarked on a journey across the
Mediterranean, digging deep into our Phoenician past in order to find
and make known all that remains genetically, culturally, and
linguistically of our ancestors. It is my belief that, to this day,
various peoples throughout the Mediterranean Sea take pride in their
historic Phoenician identity, something that unites all corners of
this expansive sea.
Genetics
and Lineage
The
creators of the written alphabet may have vanished from our history
books, along with all of their written records; however, their
alphabet can still be found in several locations around the
Mediterranean – a special kind of alphabet called DNA. In
recent years, an extensive genetic research project funded by the
National Geographic Society has made its way around the Levantine
coast, southern Europe, the Mediterranean islands, and northern
Africa in an attempt to trace the modern-day descendents of the
ancient Phoenicians. After taking DNA samples from a preserved
Phoenician sarcophagus, the genetic research team journeyed to the
historic Phoenician port-cities of Lebanon to begin their project.
It is a known fact that the Phoenicians traded all sorts of
materials, from timber to wine and minerals; yet, they also carried
something else with them on each of their journeys across the
Mediterranean: their genes.
One
of the most significant results from this genetic research project
was its ability to prove that modern-day Lebanese people of all
religious communities share a common ancestral identity that dates
back dozens of centuries. These tests confirmed a theory that the Phoenicians were in fact the
same people as the Canaanites – the ancestors of today’s Lebanese
– that inhabited the Levant area, according to the Bible. They
most likely referred to themselves as Canaanites, not Phoenicians,
since ‘Phoenician’ was a title attributed to them by the Greeks.
The
results of this genetic investigation only become more interesting as
we move beyond the frontiers of Lebanon. Dr. Pierre Zalloua, one of
the lead researchers in this National Geographic project, explained
in an interview that the key Phoenician identifying gene is
“abundantly present in the Iberian peninsula,” meaning Spain and
Portugal. In fact, throughout the entire coastal region of the Mediterranean
Sea, as many as one in 17 men is a descendent of the Phoenicians. Taking into account the expanse of the Mediterranean as well as the
number of civilizations and peoples that have populated it through
the years, it is quite shocking to discover that one in 17 men are
descended from ancient Phoenicia of the Levantine region.
Halfway
between Italy and Tunisia, on a little island called Malta,
Phoenician lineage was identified in 30 percent of the sample
population, meaning almost one in three Maltese are of Phoenician
descent. This is a significantly large figure, considering the number of
centuries that have passed and the number of invasions that Malta has
witnessed in all those years. Through periods of Roman, Byzantine,
Arab, Norman, and British rule, the inhabitants of the Maltese
islands astonishingly maintained a large amount of consistency in
their ancestral lineage. This is arguably one of the most
interesting discoveries to date regarding Phoenician ancestry, as it
highlights a strong genetic relationship between the Maltese and the
Lebanese. Many Maltese today still proudly proclaim their Phoenician ancestry,
acknowledging that they are the modern-day descendents of the ancient
seafarers that settled on their islands. Both the Maltese and the
Lebanese, although half a sea apart, have maintained an attachment to
their supposed ancestral
histories, until now, a time in which science is finally able to
legitimize these previously unverified ancestries.
Sailing
southwest from the southern shore of Malta, we eventually reach a
fabulous city known today as Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Once
named Carthage, the little piece of northern African coast became the
largest and chief Phoenician colony outside of Phoenicia. What
happened to Carthage? After the second Punic War, Rome defeated the
Carthaginian army and managed to burn the city to the ground.
Although it was once a thriving Phoenician hub, today only a small
number of Tunisians in Tunis are believed to be of Phoenician
descent. "They
left only a small [genetic] impact in North Africa," says Dr.
Spencer Wells, the man credited with starting this genetic research
project. No more than 20 percent of the Tunisian men sampled were
found to be carrying Y-chromosomes that could have originated in
ancient Phoenicia. Actually, most men were found to be carrying “the
aboriginal North African [gene], M96." Although Rome managed to completely destroy one of the Phoenician’s
largest cities, it was not able to wipe the Phoenicians off the map.
Science has proven that even in a city that was burned down and
completely depleted, the Phoenicians still left their genetic
footprint, although minimal, two centuries later.
There
is a clear and obvious genetic web that stretches across the
Mediterranean Sea connecting various inhabitants from east to west.
The biological aspect of Phoenician identity undoubtedly exists, but
perhaps it is necessary to evaluate a more evident aspect of this
identity in order to determine whether the recent scientific
discoveries bear any importance to the peoples of the Mediterranean.
Culture
After
the foundation of Carthage in the early 8th century B.C., the western coast of the Mediterranean began to witness
the birth of numerous Phoenician colonies. Phoenicia’s era of colonization and sea exploration had begun.
The
Phoenicians are believed to be the first people in modern historyi to settle and populate the island of Malta and its sister island,
Gozo. Beginning in roughly 900 B.C. Malta was purely a Phoenician island,
until the victory of Rome in 218 B.C. However, throughout the
duration of Rome’s conquest of the islands, the inhabitants of
Malta are believed to have “remained strictly Punic [Phoenician]ii in their belief” and to have “clung tenaciously to their Punic
identity.” The Maltese people were still proudly Punic, and thus the carryover
of Punic culture continued into Roman times. They would intentionally re-dig and re-use the tombs and burial
sites of their forefathers in order to reaffirm their Phoenician
identity, and perhaps out of spite to the Romans. First-hand literary accounts provide us with an insight into what
life was like for the Phoenicians before the Romans arrived. In the
first century B.C., Diodorus of Sicily described life in Punic Malta:
“It
possesses many harbours which offer exceptional advantage, and its
inhabitants are blest in their possessions; for it has artisans
skilled in every manner of craft…and the dwellings on the island
are worthy of note, being ambitiously constructed with cornices and
finishes in stucco with unusual workmanship. The island is a colony
planted by the Phoenicians, who, as they extended their trade in the
western ocean, found in it a place of safe retreat, since it was well
supplied with harbours and lay out in the open sea; and this is the
reason why the inhabitants of this island, since they received
assistance in many respects through the sea-merchants, shot up
quickly in their manner of living and increased in renown.”
Historical
evidence, such as Diodorus’s description of Malta, proves that
Phoenician culture not only thrived in Malta, but also persisted
through the centuries. Their identity was a point of pride that
obviously resisted the influence of change. Therefore, it is
entirely possible that this attachment to their Phoenician heritage
still exists today amongst the Maltese, as it does amongst many
Lebanese. One historical scholar, Claudia Sagona, writes, “For at
least one thousand years Malta and Gozo claimed Phoenician-Punic
culture as its own; today it is an intangible presence.” This would explain why, while visiting Malta or Gozo, one would come
across numerous restaurants, hotels, streets, and villages whose
names descend directly from the Phoenicians and/or their culture.
According to Professor Anthony Bonanno, professor of Classics and
Archaeology at the University of Malta, “There is a certain amount
of belief [in Malta]…maybe in certain respects pride, that the
Maltese derive from the Phoenicians.” Additionally, yet perhaps a bit subjective, one can note similar or
overlapping characteristics between the modern-day people of Malta
and Lebanon that could be attributed to their common ancestors.
Bonanno noted that the Maltese “tend to be very good businessmen,”
a characteristic that was quite typical of the Phoenicians and is
today often attributed to people of the Levantine, including
Lebanese, Syrians, Jews, and Palestinians.
Although
Carthage also fell to the Romans, the persistence of a Phoenician
past is almost as evident as it is in Malta. The population of the
once-great city was enslaved and taken away, explains Tunisian
archaeologist Nejib Ben Lazreg. "This doesn’t mean the culture disappeared. It had become so
rooted in North Africa that it was centuries before people abandoned
the language. In fact, by A.D.
193, Rome had a [Phoenician] emperor from North Africa, Septimius
Severus, and he spoke with a strong Phoenician accent.” As in Malta, one can also locate remnants of Carthage’s Phoenician
past solely by observing the names and origins of modern streets,
towns, and institutions. Clearly, the Phoenician history of North
Africa carries a bit of importance for some Tunisians.
Road
signs, restaurants, and town throughout Spain and Sardinia also bear
traces of Phoenician culture. A few towns in Spain have retained
their Phoenician names to this day (with slight adaptations in
pronunciation), including Carteia, Cádiz, and Málaga, and even the
island of Ibiza. The entire region of Andalucía in southern Spain
was once a large Phoenician region, and a lot of what the Phoenicians
brought there culturally still remains today. Similarly, in
Sardinia, Nora and Bithia are two towns of Phoenician origin, as well
as Sulcis, the name of the southwestern province of the island.
Phoenician
culture also has its remnants in contemporary religions practiced
around the Mediterranean. Although the pagan populations of the
Mediterranean were eventually converted to one of the three main
monotheistic religions, it is quite unrealistic to assume that all of
their pagan habits, traditions, or aspects of worship were completely
abandoned. On the islands of Malta and Gozo there are old churches
and chapels that have been built along the coastline; it is not a
coincidence that many of these churches face out into the sea. The
positioning of these churches is significant because it gives
evidence to the lasting impact of the pagan Phoenician culture on
modern-day Christianity. It was common Phoenician practice to build
temples and sanctuaries along coastal promontories in order to
provide either a place of prayer or a visible spiritual sanctuary for
passing Phoenician sailors. This cultural habit may have been
carried over into the Christian era, during which churches were built
in similar positions in order to provide a place of prayer or to
serve as a visible spiritual reminder for fishermen out at sea. Interestingly, one Phoenician sanctuary in Malta -- called Tas Silg
– is known to have remained in continuous use by later religious
invaders including the Byzantines, the Arabs, and the Normans. This was actually common practice throughout the entire
Mediterranean, as many pagan temples and sanctuaries were later
converted into Christian houses of worship. Additionally, one theory
relating to the Phoenicians makes a claim as to why the Virgin Mary
is so revered within the Catholic Church. Many Mediterranean towns
and villages hold annual religious processions during which a statue
of Mary is carried through the streets. This is done in reverence to
the Virgin, the mother of Jesus Christ. However, more than likely,
this tradition originated in pagan times, when Astarte (the most
important Phoenician goddess) would be venerated with similar public
processions. Astarte was one of the most important figures in all of the pagan
Mediterranean civilizations, iii including the Greeks and the Romans. Perhaps
those once-pagan people desired another important feminine figure in
their new religion upon converting to Christianity. Such examples of
Phoenician culture in today’s Mediterranean societies are visible
indications that remnants of the ancient civilization do exist, and
are still rife in the region. They can be quite obvious at times,
especially when there are noticeable similarities between one country
and another; however, some aspects of Phoenician culture require a
little more scrutiny to figure out – the language, for example.
Language
The
question remains as to whether or not the Phoenicians have left a
linguistic impact in the Mediterranean aside from their written
alphabet, whose adaptations have now spread across the globe.
Various theories exist, some claiming that modern-day Maltese and
Lebanese (a Levantine dialect of Arabic) are the two closest
relatives to the Phoenician language, while others argue that the
spoken Phoenician language has been completely erased. Their
language once thrived throughout the region, but it is a language
that is no longer spoken today exactly as it was spoken thousands of
years ago. However, it has not disappeared entirely.
In
the 5th century A.D., after North Africa had already been Romanized and
converted to Christianity, the inhabitants of Carthage reportedly
still spoke Punic (see Endnote ii).
Records
show that Latin churches were employing people to preach in Punic,
rather than Latin, meaning that the spoken language in Tunisia before
the Islamic invasions was still the Phoenician language. On the Maltese islands, the earliest records of language were found
to be in written in Phoenician. The Phoenicians definitely introduced their language to Malta, and
it was a language that stuck with vigor, much like in Carthage. “The people [in Malta] were speaking, writing, reading
Phoenician/Punic for at least six hundred years. The Romanists tell
us that in the first hundred years or so of Roman occupation, nobody
would [have known] that the Romans were [in Malta], neither from the
language nor from the inscriptions.” It is thus quite unreasonable to assume that the language would one
day, all-of-a-sudden, disappear. “Even if the Romans Romanized
Malta later on, the people of the land would still have spoken
Punic.”
Carthage
and Malta shared an almost identical linguistic timeline throughout
the first few centuries A.D., even through the Islamic invasions that
soon after took over North Africa. The Arabs that invaded North
Africa later invaded the Maltese islands, bringing with them the
influence of their language, Arabic. As we have seen, records show
that the Phoenician language long outlived the Phoenician era in
Malta and Carthage; therefore, it must have been relatively easy for
the later invading Arabs to Arabicize another prior-existing Semitic
language, such as Phoenician. To make a contemporary comparison, if
the Spanish were to conquer Italy, the Italian language would very
easily adapt into Spanish due to their common Latin root. But when
an invading civilization tries to change a language, it is almost
impossible to entirely eliminate every element of the language that
existed previously in the area (much like the earlier example of
Christianity trying to replace the various pagan religions).
Therefore, we can assume that pieces of the Phoenician language have
survived through the centuries and thus still exist today in
modern-day Maltese, which of course is now a mix of Phoenician,
Latin, Italian, Arabic, French, English, etc. (due to Malta’s
history of constant foreign domination).
But
why is it that many scholars pinpoint Lebanese as the closest
relative to the Maltese language? These two small countries have
never had any historical connections – that is, except for the era
of the Phoenicians. Professor Anthony Frendo at the University of
Malta believes that these two languages are so strikingly similar due
to their common ancestry. Lebanon’s linguistic history is similar to that of Carthage and
Malta; Phoenician (later Aramaic)iv was the spoken language until the arrival of a related Semitic
language – again, Arabic. Lebanon’s spoken language today is a
dialect of the Arabic language, with Phoenician roots and a
significant amount of Turkish, Persian, French, and English
influences. The once-Phoenician language of the Levantine was
transformed under heavy Arabic influence, much like the Maltese
language. A large percentage of the grammar, vocabulary, and
every-day verbs of the Levantine dialect of Arabic are words and
rules that differ significantly from those of Classical Arabic.
However, a good number of Levantine words are also shared with the
Maltese language.v The same can be said about several family names that are mutual
between Malta and Lebanon, yet are non-existent in many other Middle
Eastern and North African countries. In fact, many Maltese scholars
who have traveled to Lebanon claim that the Lebanese tongue is much
closer to Maltese than any other language, in terms of the two
populations being able to understand each other. To give an example of overlapping vocabulary, the modern Levantine
and Maltese word for ‘outside’ is ‘barra,’ while the Arabic
translation would be ‘khaarij.’ Since many words (and names) are
shared between Lebanese (and the greater Levantine dialect) and
Maltese, but not with Arabic, simple logic can deduce that the origin
of these words and names must be Phoenician. Therefore, the
ancestral root of modern-day Maltese and modern-day Lebanese is still
Phoenician, albeit with several other languages sprinkled on top.
Interestingly enough, a few of those Phoenician words that are used
in Maltese and Lebanese can still be heard in parts of Tunisia, but
often as a synonym to the more commonly used Arabic word. And so,
millennia after the creation of the Phoenician language, its
linguistic roots are still pumping blood through the veins of the
Mediterranean.
The
Truth Behind Phoenician Identity As It Exists Today
Acknowledging
that a population has fallen under the reign of foreign imperialism
does not mean that the inhabitants of that area have genetically,
linguistically, or culturally transformed to become identical clones
of the invading population. If that were the case, then almost all
Europeans should be called Romans since Rome once dominated most of
the European landmass. Many Africans would be called French and
Indians would be called Brits. Drawing a parallel, we should not
make the mistake of stripping the descendents of the Phoenicians from
their historical identity. Their legend has suffered under the
victory of the Romans and the Greeks, which is why our history books
rarely mention the Phoenicians. Claudia Sagona explains it
perfectly:
“The
modern perception of the superiority of Greek and Roman civilization
over that of Phoenician-Punic culture has led to an entrenched view
that the Greeks colonized the west prior to Phoenicia, even though
the Greeks themselves recognized that Phoenicians had preceded
them.”
The
Phoenicians were one among the most intelligent and well-accomplished
civilizations to ever populate this planet. It would be a disgrace
and a mistake to erase them from our past.
Although
it may be an ancient, complex, and extremely diverse region of the
world, the Mediterranean still retains what the Phoenicians once had.
There is a cohesive gene pool, cultural remnants, and ancient
linguistic roots that together exist to make up the modern Phoenician
identity. If these things remain, then the Phoenicians have not been
lost to history. From Lebanon, to Italy, to Malta, to Spain and
Tunisia, thrives a proud understanding of what links these diverse
nations. Regardless of nationality or religious background, and
regardless of whether or not these people proudly and publicly claim
it as they do in Malta or in Lebanon, the fact remains: our past was
still Phoenician.
Endnotes
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