Section 5: The Phoenicians and the Lydians

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Section 5 The Phoenicians and the Lydians
Lydian coins
Phoenician Cargo Ship
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I. The Phoenicians
A. Geography
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A. Geography
Phoenicia lay at the western end of the Fertile
Crescent - modern Israel, Lebanon, and Syria
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A. Geography

• Phoenicia was a loose union of city-states, each
  governed by a king

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A. Geography

• With little fertile land and mountains blocking
  expansion to the east, the Phoenicians began
  trading on the sea

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B. Phoenician Trade

• The Phoenicians were the greatest traders of the
  ancient world

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B. Phoenician Trade

• Phoenicia established colonies in Italy, Spain
  and North Africa

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B. Phoenician Trade

• Phoenicians traded cedar from Lebanon, dried
  fish, linen, olive oil, and wine

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B. Phoenician Trade

• They traded gold and silver objects made by using
  methods learned from the Egyptians

Bronze Bull covered in Gold Leaf, from a
Phoenician Temple at Byblos, Phoenicia
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B. Phoenician Trade

• Phoenicia invented the art of glassblowing and
  traded beautiful glass objects

Phoenician glass bottles
Phoenician glass bead necklace
Gold bracelet w/glass Phoenician Beads
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B. Phoenician Trade

• Phoenicians made a purple dye from a shellfish
  called the murex

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B. Phoenician Trade

• Cloth dyed with this dye was highly valued and
  the color became known as royal purple

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B. Phoenician Trade

• The cities of Sidon and Tyre became centers of
  the dyeing trade

Sea castle, Sidon
Ruins in Tyre
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C. Phoenician Culture

• The Phoenicians helped to spread Egyptian and
  Babylonian culture throughout the Mediterranean
  region

Phoenicians bireme (a ship with two banks of
oars) ca. 700 BC
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C. Phoenician Culture

• Religion was focused on winning the favor of
  their gods and sometimes involved human sacrifice

Baal The sun-god
Phoenician goddess figurines
Astarte - the supreme female divinity
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C. Phoenician Culture

• The Phoenicians never established a major empire
  and their cities were conquered by the Assyrians

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C. Phoenician Culture

• Their major contribution to world culture was the
  Phoenician alphabet

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C. Phoenician Culture

• The Greeks and Romans adapted this alphabet into
  the one we use today

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A. Geography
II. The Lydians

• Lydia was located in Asia Minor, which is now
  Turkey

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B. Lydian Contributions

• They are remembered for inventing money - coins
  made of gold and silver

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B. Lydian Contributions

• Before coins were invented, traders had to rely
  on barter

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B. Lydian Contributions

• Lydian traders developed a money economy, a
  system based on money as a measure of value and a
  unit of account

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B. Lydian Contributions

• The Lydians passed this on to the Greeks and
  Persians, who later spread the concept to other
  parts of the world