User:Vuara/Geography of Phoenicia Canaan

Geography of Phoenicia Canaan

The Motherland, Phoenicia Proper -- Canaan

The Motherland, Phoenicia Proper

By the 2nd millennium BC the Phoenicians had already extended their influence along the coast of the Levant by a series of settlements, some well known, some virtually nothing but names. Well known throughout history are Joppa (Tel Aviv-Yafo) and Dor (later Tantura, modern Nasholim) in the south.

The gays boundaries of the territory were Phoenicians lived are vague, and the name Phoenicia may be applied to all those places on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean where the Phoenicians established colonies in Cyprus, North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and Iberia. More often it refers to the heart of the territory where the great Phoenician cities, notably Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos stood (corresponding roughly to the coast of present-day Lebanon with adjoining parts of modern Syria, Turkey and Israel -- probably somewhere around the lower right edge of Turkey on the Mediterranean in the North and the upper cost of Sinia in the South through the coastal area from Arvad in the north to Acco in the south is a more realistic identification of what constituted Phoenicia). Further, important Phoenician centers existed c.2800 B.C. at Jerusalem, Jericho, Ai, and Megiddo. These territories expanded and contracted depending the political climate and military influences that came into play. Hence, Phoenicia meant different territorities in different times but always include the Phoenician heartland around the aforesaid great Phoenician cities.

During the Roman Empire territories and provinces changed hands and form depending on the political climat in Rome and arbitrary partitions which were applied to various parts of the empire. The province of Syria was partitioned into two parts: Syria Coele ("Hollow Syria"), comprising a large region loosely defined as north and east Syria; and Syria Phoenice in the southwestern region, which included not only coastal Phoenicia but also the territory beyond the mountains and into the Syrian desert. Under the provincial reorganization of the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II in the early 5th century AD, Syria Phoenice was expanded into two provinces: Phoenice Prima (Maritima), basically ancient Phoenicia; and Phoenice Secunda (Libanesia), an area extending to Mt. Lebanon on the west and deep into the Syrian desert on the east. Phoenice Secunda included the cities of Emesa (its capital), Heliopolis, Damascus, and Palmyra. In many respects, the two most important cities of Lebanon during the time of the Roman Empire were Heliopolis and Berytus. At Heliopolis the Roman emperors, particularly the Severans, constructed a monumental temple complex, the most spectacular elements of which were the Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus and the Temple of Bacchus. Berytus, on the other hand, became the seat of the most famous provincial school of Roman law. The school, which probably was founded by Septimius Severus, lasted until the destruction of Berytus itself by a sequence of earthquakes, tidal wave, and fire in the mid-6th century. Two of Rome's most famous jurists, Papinian and Ulpian, both natives of Lebanon, taught as professors at the law school under the Severans. Their judicial opinions constitute well over a third of the Pandects (Digest) contained in the great compilation of Roman law commissioned by the emperor Justinian I in the 6th century AD. In 608-609 the Persian king Khosrow II pillaged Syria and Lebanon and reorganized the area into a new satrapy, excluding only Phoenicia Maritima. Between 622 and 629 the Byzantine emperor Heraclius mounted an offensive and restored Syria-Lebanon to his empire. This success was short-lived; in the 630s Muslim Arabs conquered Palestine and Lebanon, and the old Phoenician cities offered only token resistance to the invader.

Tyre

Coastal town and a major Phoenician seaport from about 2000 BC onwards through the Roman period. It is frequently mentioned in the works of the Hirodotus when he made visits to the city and its temples.

It was built on an island and the neighbouring mainland, and was probably originally founded as a colony of Sidon to the north and was mentioned in Egyptian records of the 14th century BC as being subject to Egypt. It became independent when Egyptian influence in Phoenicia declined and soon surpassed Sidon as a trade centre, developing commercial relations with all parts of the Mediterranean world. In the 9th century BC colonists from Tyre founded in northern Africa the city of Carthage, which later became Rome's principal rival in the West. The town is frequently mentioned in the Bible as having had close ties with Israel. Hiram, king of Tyre, furnished building materials for Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem (10th century), and the notorious Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, was the daughter of Ethbaal "king of Tyre and Sidon." In the 10th and 9th centuries Tyre probably enjoyed some primacy over the other cities of Phoenicia and was ruled by kings whose power was limited by a merchant oligarchy.

For much of the 8th and 7th centuries the town was subject to Assyria, and in 585-573 it successfully withstood a prolonged siege by the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar II. Between 538 and 332 it was ruled by the Achaemenian kings of Persia. In this period it lost its hegemony in Phoenicia but continued to flourish. Probably the most famous episode in the history of Tyre was its resistance to the army of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great, who took it after a seven-month siege in 332, using floating batteries and building a causeway to gain access to the island. After its capture, 10,000 of the inhabitants were put to death, and 30,000 were sold into slavery. Alexander's causeway, which was never removed, converted the island into a peninsula.

Tyre was subsequently under the influence of Ptolemaic Egypt and in 200 became part of the Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom; it finally came under Roman rule in 68 BC. It was often mentioned in the New Testament and was famous in Roman times for its silk products and for a purple dye extracted from snails of the genus Murex. By the 2nd century AD it had a sizable Christian community, and the Christian scholar Origen was buried there (c. 254). Under Muslim rule from 638 to 1124, Tyre grew prosperous as part of the kingdom of Jerusalem, a crusader state in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who died on the Third Crusade, was buried in its cathedral (1190). Captured and destroyed by the Muslim Mamluks in 1291, the town never recovered its former importance.

The silted up harbour on the south side of the peninsula has been excavated by the French Institute for Archaeology in the Near East, but most of the remains of the Phoenician period still lie beneath the present town. Pop. (1982 est.) 23,000.

Sidon

One of the ancient Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast, was founded in the 3rd millennium BC and became prosperous in the 2nd. It is frequently mentioned in the works of the Greek poet Homer and in the Old Testament; and it was ruled in turn by Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids of Syria, the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, and the Romans. At that time Sidon was famous for its purple dyes and glassware. Herod I the Great embellished the city, and Jesus visited it. During the Crusades, Sidon changed hands several times and was destroyed and rebuilt.

A large necropolis has yielded numerous sarcophagi (stone coffins), including those of two Sidonian kings of the Phoenician period, Eshmunazar and Tennes, and the famous Alexander sarcophagus, depicting battle and hunting scenes, now at Istanbul. Other ruins include two crusader castles and the Phoenician Temple of Eshmun (Eachmoun).

Berytus (Beritus/Beritos) -- Modern Beirut

The antiquity of Berytus is indicated by its name, derived from the Canaanite name of Be`erot (Wells), referring to the underground water table that is still tapped by the local inhabitants for general use. Although the city is mentioned in Egyptian records of the 2nd millennium BC, it did not gain prominence until it was granted the status of a Roman colony, the Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus, in 14 BC. The original town was located in the valley between the hills of Al-Ashrafiyah and Al-Musaytibah. Its suburbs were also fashionable residential areas under the Romans. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, Berytus was famous for its School of Law. The Roman city was destroyed by a succession of earthquakes, culminating in the quake and tidal wave of AD 551. When the Muslim conquerors occupied Berytus in 635, it was still mostly in ruins.

Berytus was conquered by the military forces of the First Crusade and was organized, along with its coastal suburbs, as a fief of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.

As a crusader outpost, Berytus conducted a flourishing trade with Genoa and other Italian cities and became the chief port of call in area for the spice merchants from Venice.

Byblos

Biblical GEBAL, ancient seaport, the site of which is located on the Mediterranean coast about 20 miles (32 km) north of the Berytus; it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world. The name Byblos is Greek; papyrus received its early Greek name (byblos, byblinos) from its being exported to the Aegean through Byblos. Hence the English word Bible is derived from byblos as "the (papyrus) book."

Systematic excavations were begun at Byblos by Pierre Montet in 1921; in 1926 Maurice Dunand resumed the work and continued it for many years. The excavations revealed that Byblos was occupied at least by the Neolithic period (c. 8000-c. 4000 BC) and that during the 4th millennium BC an extensive settlement developed.

Because Byblos was the chief harbour for the export of cedar and other valuable wood to Egypt, it soon became a great trading centre; it was called Kubna in ancient Egyptian and Gubla in Akkadian, the language of Assyria. Egyptian monuments and inscriptions found on the site attest to close relations with the Nile valley throughout the second half of the 2nd millennium. During Egypt's 12th dynasty (1938-1756 BC), Byblos again became an Egyptian dependency, and the chief goddess of the city, Baalat ("The Mistress"), with her well-known temple at Byblos, was worshiped in Egypt. After the collapse of the Egyptian New Kingdom in the 11th century BC, Byblos became the foremost city of Phoenicia.

Byblos has yielded almost all of the known early Phoenician inscriptions, most of them dating from the 10th century BC. By that time, however, the Sidonian kingdom, with its capital at Tyre, had become dominant in Phoenicia, and Byblos, though it flourished into Roman times, never recovered its former supremacy. The crusaders captured the town in 1103 and called it Gibelet, but they later lost it to the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1189.

The ruins today consist of the crusader ramparts and gate; a Roman colonnade and small theatre; Phoenician ramparts, three major temples, and a necropolis.

Ugarit

The site was first occupied in the neolithic period, that is, the 4th millenium BC. Like so many other sites, it went through periods of habitation and destruction. It was destroyed by fire sometime between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC. It was allied with Egypt during the 19th and 18th centuries, which proved to be its most prosperous time. In the 18th century it was conquered by the Hurrians and ruled by them until the 16th century. It suffered a terrible earthquake in the 1300's but was rebuilt only to be destroyed about 1200 BC by the Sea Peoples.

A more detailed history will follow.

Baalbeck

In many respects, the two most important cities of Phoenicia during the time of the Roman Empire were Heliopolis and Berytus. At Heliopolis the Roman emperors, particularly the Severans, constructed a monumental temple complex, the most spectacular elements of which were the Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus and the Temple of Bacchus.

Phoenician Colonies

Phoenician Settlements Outside the Motherland

North Africa and Spain The Mediterranean and North African coast (with the exception of Cyrenaica) entered the mainstream of Mediterranean history with the arrival in the 1st millennium BC of Phoenician traders, mainly from Tyre and Sidon in the eastern Mediterranean. The Phoenicians were not looking for land to settle but for anchorages and staging points on the trade route from Phoenicia to Spain, a source of silver and tin. Points on an alternative route by way of Sicily, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands also were occupied. The Phoenicians lacked the manpower and the need to found large colonies as the Greeks did, and few of their settlements grew to any size. The sites chosen were generally offshore islands or easily defensible promontories with sheltered beaches on which ships could be drawn up. Carthage -- Cartagine in italiano --(from the Phoenician Kart-Hadasht, New City or Land, founded by Queen Elissar of Tyre), destined to be the largest Phoenician colony and in the end an imperial power, conformed to the pattern.

Tradition dated the foundation of Gades (modern Cádiz; the earliest known Phoenician trading post in Spain) to 1110 BC, Utica (Utique) to 1101 BC, and Carthage to 814 BC. The dates appear legendary, and no Phoenician object earlier than the 8th century BC has yet been found in the west. At Carthage some Greek objects have been found, datable to about 750 or slightly later, which comes within two generations of the traditional date. Little can be learned from the romantic legends about the arrival of the Phoenicians at Carthage transmitted by Greco-Roman sources. Though individual voyages doubtless took place earlier, the establishment of permanent posts is unlikely to have taken place before 800 BC, antedating the parallel movement of Greeks to Sicily and southern Italy.

Phoenician colony at Tharros, Sardinia. Photo by kind courtesy of Pasquale Mereu from Karalis (Cagliari) Material evidence of Phoenician occupation in the 8th century BC comes from Utica, and of the 7th or 6th century BC from Hadrumetum (Susah, Sousse), Tipasa (east of Cherchell), Siga (Rachgoun), Lixus, and Mogador (Essaouira), the last being the most distant Phoenician settlement so far known. Finds of similar age have been made at Motya (Mozia) in Sicily, Nora (Nurri), Sulcis, and Tharros (San Giovanni di Sinis), Bithia and Olbia in Sardinia, and Cádiz and Almuñécar in Spain. Unlike the Greek settlements, however, those of the Phoenicians long remained politically dependent on their homeland, and only a few were situated where the hinterland had the potential for development. The emergence of Carthage as an independent power, leading to the creation of an empire based on the secure possession of the North African coast, resulted less from the weakening of Tyre, the chief city of Phoenicia, by the Babylonians than from growing pressure from the Greeks in the western Mediterranean; in 580 BC some Greek cities in Sicily attempted to drive the Phoenicians from Motya and Panormus (Palermo) in the west of the island. The Carthaginians feared that if the Greeks won the whole of Sicily they would move on to Sardinia and beyond, isolating the Phoenicians in North Africa. The successful defense of Sicily was followed by attempts to strengthen limited footholds in Sardinia; a fortress at Monte Sirai is the oldest Phoenician military building in the west. The threat from the Greeks receded when Carthage, in alliance with Etruscan cities, backed the Phoenicians of Corsica in about 540 BC and succeeded in excluding the Greeks from contact with southern Spain.

Venerable historical traditions recount the Phoenician voyages to found new cities. Utica, on the Tunisian coast of North Africa, was reputedly founded in 1178 BC, and by 1100 BC the Phoenician city of Tyre supposedly had a Spanish colony at Gadir (Cadiz). Although intriguing, these historical traditions are unsupported by evidence. Excavations confirm that the Phoenicians settled in southern Spain after 800 BC. Their search for new commodities led them ever farther westward and was the reason for their interest in southern Spain's mineral wealth. The untapped lodes of silver and alluvial deposits of tin and gold provided essential raw materials with which to meet the increasing Assyrian demands for tribute. By 700 BC silver exported from the Río Tinto mines was so abundant that it depressed the value of silver bullion in the Assyrian world. This is the background for Phoenician interest in the far west.

Phoenician commerce was conducted by family firms of shipowners and manufacturers who had their base in Tyre or Byblos and placed their representatives abroad. This accounts for the rich tombs of Phoenician pattern found at Almuñécar, Trayamar, and Villaricos, equipped with metropolitan goods such as alabaster wine jars, imported Greek pottery, and delicate gold jewelery. Maritime bases from the Balearic Islands (Ibiza) to Cadiz on the Atlantic were set up to sustain commerce in salted fish, dyes, and textiles. Early Phoenician settlements are known from Morro de Mezquitilla, Toscanos, and Guadalhorce and shrines from Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar and the Temple of Melqart on the island of Sancti Petri near Cadiz. After the fall of Tyre to the Babylonians in 573 BC and the subjugation of Phoenicia, the early prosperity faded until the 4th century. Many colonies survived, however, and Abdera (Adra), Baria (Villaricos), Carmona (Carmo), Gadir (Cadiz), Malaca (Málaga), and Sexi (Almuñécar) thrived under the trading system established by Carthage for the central and western Mediterranean. Eivissa (Ibiza) became a major Carthaginian colony, and the island produced dye, salt, fish sauce, and wool. A shrine with offerings to the goddess Tanit was established in the cave at Es Cuyram, and the Balearic Islands entered Eivissa's commercial orbit after 400 BC. In 237 BC, just before the Second Punic War, Carthage launched its conquest of southern Spain under Hamilcar Barca, founded a new capital city at Cartago Nova (Cartagena) in 228 BC, and suffered crushing defeat by the Romans in 206 BC.

The Colonies, Phoenicia's Diaspora

Among the most outstanding colonies or trading posts which the Phoenicians had established were the cities of Genoa, where they went in with the Celts and established a flourishing colony, and Marseille which they started as nothing more than a trading post before it became fully Hellenized.

It is very probable that the tremendous colonial activity of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians was stimulated in the 8th to 6th centuries BC by the military blows that were wrecking the trade of the Phoenician homeland in the Levant. Also, competition with the synchronous Greek colonization of the western Mediterranean cannot be ignored as a contributing factor.

The earliest site outside the Phoenician homeland known to possess important aspects of Phoenician culture is Ugarit (Ras Shamra), about six miles north of Latakia. The site was already occupied before the 4th millennium BC, but the Phoenicians only became prominent there around 1991-1786 BC.

According to Herodotus, the coast of Libya along the sea which washes it to the north, throughout its entire length from Egypt to Cape Soloeis, which is its furthest point, is inhabited by Libyans of many distinct tribes who possess the whole tract except certain portions which belong to the Phoenicians and the Greeks.

Tyre's first colony, Utica in North Africa, was founded perhaps as early as the 10th century BC. It is likely that the expansion of the Phoenicians at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC is to be connected with the alliance of Hiram of Tyre with Solomon of Israel in the second half of the 10th century BC. In the following century, Phoenician presence in the north is shown by inscriptions at Samal (Zincirli Hüyük) in eastern Cilicia, and in the 8th century at Karatepe in the Taurus Mountains, but there is no evidence of direct colonization. Both these cities acted as fortresses commanding the routes through the mountains to the mineral and other wealth of Anatolia.

Cyprus had Phoenician settlements by the 9th century BC. Citium, known to the Greeks as Kition (biblical Kittim), in the southeast corner of the island, became the principal colony of the Phoenicians in Cyprus. Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, several smaller settlements were planted as stepping-stones along the route to Spain and its mineral wealth in silver and copper: at Malta, early remains go back to the 7th century BC, and at Sulcis and Nora in Sardinia and Motya in Sicily, perhaps a century earlier. According to Thucydides, the Phoenicians controlled a large part of the island but withdrew to the northwest corner under pressure from the Greeks. Modern scholars, however, disbelieve this and contend that the Phoenicians arrived only after the Greeks were established.

In North Africa the next site colonized after Utica was Carthage (near Tunis). Carthage in turn seems to have established (or, in some cases, reestablished) a number of settlements in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, the Balearic Islands, and southern Spain, eventually making this city the acknowledged leader of the western Phoenicians.

Leptis Magna, a titular see of Tripolitana was founded by the Sidonians in a fine and fertile country, it was the most important of the three towns which formed the Tripoli Confederation (Libya toay). The remains of the ancient Phœnician town are still visible, with the harbour, quays, walls, and inland defence, which make it look like Carthage. This city subsequently became the centre of a Greek city, Neapolis, of which most of the monuments are buried under sand. Notwithstanding Pliny (Nat. Hist., V, xxviii), who distinguishes Neapolis from Leptis, there is no doubt, according to Ptolemy, Strabo, and Scyllax, that they should be identified. Leptis allied itself with the Romans in the war against Jugurtha. Having obtained under Augustus the title of civitas it seems at that time to have been administered by Carthaginian magistrates; it may have been a municipium during the first century of the Christian Era and erected by Trajan into a colony bearing the name of Colonia Ulpia Trajana, found on many of its coins. The birthplace of Septimius Severus, who embellished it and enriched it with several fine monuments, it was taken and sacked in the fourth century by the Libyan tribe of Aurusiani (Ammianus Marcellinus, XXVIII, vi) and has never since completely recovered. It was at that time the seat of the military government of Tripolitana.

Carthage

Phoenician KART-HADASHT, Latin CARTHAGO, great city of antiquity, traditionally founded on the north coast of Africa by the Phoenicians of Tyre in 814 BC. It is now a residential suburb of the city of Tunis. Its Phoenician name means New Town or Land.

A brief treatment of ancient Carthage follows. For full treatment, see North Africa: History.

Various traditions concerning the foundation of Carthage were current among the Greeks, who called the city Karchedon; but the Roman tradition is better known because of the Aeneid, which tells of the city's foundation by the Tyrian princess Elissar or Elyssa (Dido in Greek), who fled from her brother Pygmalion (the name of a historical king of Tyre who ruled a century after Hiram). The inhabitants were known to the Romans as Poeni, a derivation from the word Phoenikes (Phoenicians), from which the adjective Punic is derived. According the Greek historian Timaeus (c. 356-260 B.C.), Carthage was founded in 814 B.C. by a Elyssa who gathered up the royal treasury and a group of supporters and traveled to Cyprus, another Phoenician colony. Thereafter she traveled to North Africa where present day country of Tunis is.

The site chosen for Carthage in the centre of the shore of the Gulf of Tunis was ideal: the city was built on a triangular peninsula covered with low hills and backed by the Lake of Tunis with its safe anchorage and abundant supplies of fish. The site of the city was well protected and easily defensible. On the south the peninsula is connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land. The ancient citadel, the Byrsa, was on a low hill overlooking the sea. It is said, the local Berber permitted Elyssa and her people to have as much land at that which could be covered with a single oxhide. Hence, she was supposed to have cut an oxhide into thin strips and encircled the hill. Some of the earliest tombs have been found there, though nothing remains of Carthage's domestic and public buildings. Byrsa means fortress in Phoenician. Byrsa in Greek and Latin mean hide from which bourse or stock-market, and purse are derived.

The standard of cultural life enjoyed by the Carthaginians was probably far below that of the larger cities of the classical world. Punic interests were turned toward commerce. In Roman times Punic beds, cushions, and mattresses were regarded as luxuries, and Punic joinery and furniture were copied. Much of the revenue of Carthage came from its exploitation of the silver mines of North Africa and southern Spain, begun as early as 800 BC.

From the middle of the 3rd century to the middle of the 2nd century BC, Carthage was engaged in a series of wars with Rome called the Punic Wars. These wars, which are known as the Punic Wars, ended in the complete defeat of Carthage by Rome. When Carthage finally fell in 146 BC, the site was plundered and burned, and all human habitation there was forbidden.

Around Memphis

Phoenicians from the city of Tyre dwell all round memphis, and the whole place is known by the name of "the camp of the Tyrians." Within the enclosure stands a temple, which is called that of Venus the Stranger.

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Phoenician Mathematical Geography, Maps and Masters of Cartography in the Ancient World

Marinus of Tyre, Phoenicia, (ca. 70-130 A.D.) was a geographer and mathematician, as well as the founder of mathematical geography. His chief merits were that he assigned to each place its proper latitude and longtitude with equal spacing for lines (ca. 100 A.D.), and introduced improvements to the construction of maps and developed a system of nautical charts. His charts used the city of Rhodes as a central point of reference. He also carefully studied the works of his predecessors and the diaries of travellers. His maps were the first in the Roman Empire to show China.

Around 120 A.D., Marinus wrote that the habitable world was bounded on the west by the Fortunate Islands. The status of the Fortunate Islands as the western edge of the known world was more formally established when Claudius Ptolemy (90 - 168 A.D.) adopted the Fortunate Islands as the prime meridian for his Geographia, written ca. 150 A.D. He acknowledged his great obligations to Marinus. Geographia was lost to the west during most of the Medieval period, but was rediscovered during the fifteenth century. It was the most famous classical map of the world, unsurpassed for almost 1500 years. The sources that Ptolemy cited most consistently were the maps and writings of Marinus, as well as adopting his ideas and practices. Ptolemy’s commentaries on Marinus are the only records remaining about the latter’s work, as none of his maps or texts has survived.

1700 years before the modern discovery of the source of the Nile, Marinus wrote an account of a journey to the Ruwenzori ca. 110 A.D. He related the tale of a Greek merchant, Diogenes who claimed a 25 day journey inland from the African East coast to "two great lakes and the snowy range of mountains where the Nile draws it's twin sources." Ptolemy and Marinus were major authorities used by Columbus in determining the circumference of the globe.

Phoenicia's Hall of Maps The collection of maps in this virtual hall provides a visual tour on the evolution of cartography through centuries, from 6200 B.C. till the Roman era. In addition, maps of Phoenicia Prima, the Phoenician Colonies, Settlements and Trading Posts, and a unique Phoenician coin which is believed to contain a map of the world.

Recognition: This page and the related Phoenicia's Hall of Maps were inspired by Dr. Gavin Francis, a physician and history enthusiast with The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Research station located Latitude 75°35' S, Longitude 26°34' W, Brunt Ice Shelf, Coats Land, Antartica. I am indebted to Dr. Francis for writing to me about this important subject.

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Phoenician Deep Sea and Coastal Archaeological Discoveries

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Phoenician Canaanite Names of Towns and Cities

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The above map clearly shows that the Phoenician/ Canaanites had settled the mountains quite extensively, contrary to what was previously believed.

Both researchers, Wild and Kuschke, are aware there are many more Canaanite settlements whose names had shifted from Canaanite to Aramaic and then some to Arabic.

Limiting names at present to Phoenician/Canaanite ones, presents the least extention of their settlements. Further study is needed to map the full extent of Canaanite settlement in the Lebanese mountains.

The numbers refer to the placement of the locations on the map. In this list A. Kuschke includes the 50 place-names which Stephan Wild (in his Libanesische Ortsnamen) considers to be Canaanite. Kuschke adds 25 more names which he deems to be of Canaanite origin.

The aim of Kuschke with his article is to map the distribution of Canaanite/Phoenician settlement in Lebanon.

Names and corresponding numbers on the map:

1 - Yaaruun 2 - Yaariin 3 - Jijjiim 4 - (Byt) YaaHuun 5 - Qaana 6 - Dib@al 7 - Suur 8 - Arnuun 9 - 7adshiit 10 - Maifduun 11 - (Kfar) Tibniit 12 - Marj 3yuun 13 - (Mazr3t) BSaffuur 14 - Sarafand 15 - Mayduun 16 - Tanbuuriit 17 - Sayduun 18 - Sayda 19 - B3anuub 20 - 3aytaniit 21 - Mazbuud 22- Kaamid (al-Lawz) 23 - HaSruut 24 - Shuuriit 25 - (Qabr) Shmuun 26 - Habrammuun 27 - 3aynab 28 - Hama 29 - Badghaan 30 - (Mjdl) Ba3na 31 - Ta3naayil 32 - (3yn) Sawfar 33 - Zibduul 34 - Hammaana 35 - ArSuun 36 - Qarnaayil 37 - (Byt) Miri 38 - Haam 39 - al-Rawshi 40 - Bayruut 41 - Tarshiish 42 - (Mzr3t) Yaashuu3 43 - Zikriit 44 - 3ajaltuun 45 - (Kfar) Daan 46 - Ba3albak

47 - Jab3a

48 - YaanuuH 49 - Ghiyyaat 50 - Jbayl 51 - Hisraayil 52 - Jadaayil 53 - RamuuT 54 - Shammuut 55 - Suraat 56 - Daa3il 57 - HaSruun 58 - (Biir) Rawshi 59 - Hadshiit 60 - BaTruun 61 - (Daar) B3ishtaar 62 - Haamaat 63 - Bnaayil 64 - Ijbaa3 65 - Zakruun 66 - (Kfar) Qaahil 67 - Bsib3il 68 - Hirmil 69 - Dib3il 70 - 3aSaymuut 71 - Habshiit 72 - Taashii3 73 - (Tall) 3arqa 74 - (Tall) Sib3il 75 - Majdal Note: 3 - is glotal a 7 - is whisper h

Reference:

"Historisch-Topographische Bemerkungen zu Stephan Wilds 'Libanesische Ortsnamen'", in La Toponomie Antique, Actes de Colloque de Strasbourg 12-14 juin 1975, Brill, pp.75-82. Original map and text compiled by Elie Wardini

Related link: Prehistoric Globalization, maps that change history by Enrique Garcia Barthe

http://www.enriquegarciabarthe.com.ar/

Sources & Further Reading:

J. Siebold; Ancient Maps, April 1998. http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/AncientWebPages/Ancient1.html Faul, Stephanie; MappoMundi, 2000. http://mappa.mundi.net/locus/locus_002/ J.J. O'Connor, E.F. Robertson,; The history of cartography, August 2002. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Cartography.html J L Berggren and A Jones, Ptolemy's Geography : An annotated translation of the theoretical chapters (Princeton, 2000). T Campbell, Early maps (New York, 1981). T Campbell, The earliest printed maps, 1442-1500 (London, 1987). N Crane, Mercator : The Man who mapped the Planet (London, 2002). G R Crone, Maps and their makers (London, 1953). I J Curnow, The world mapped (London, 1930). J. Méndez; The History of La Palma, July 2003. http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/lapalma/history.html R W Karrow, Mapmakers of the sixteenth century and their maps (Chicago, 1993). F Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums X : Mathematische Geographie und Kartographie im Islam und ihr Fortleben im Abendland. Historische Darstellung. Teil 1 (Frankfurt am Main, 2000). F Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums XI : Mathematische Geographie und Kartographie im Islam und ihr Fortleben im Abendland. Historische Darstellung. Teil 2 (Frankfurt am Main, 2000). F Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums XII : Mathematische Geographie und Kartographie im Islam und ihr Fortleben im Abendland. Kartenband (Frankfurt am Main, 2000). H Stevens, Ptolemy's Geography : A brief account of all the printed editions down to 1730 (London, 1908). F J Swetz, The Sea Island mathematical manual : surveying and mathematics in ancient China (Pennsylvania, PA, 1992). R V Tooley, Maps and Mapmakers (London, 1949). R Vermij (ed.), Gerhard Mercator und seine Welt (Duisburg, 1997). M Watelet (ed.), Gérard Mercator cosmographe : le temps et l'espace (Antwerp, 1994). J N Wilford, The mapmakers : the story of the great pioneers in cartography from antiquity to the space age (New York, 1981). Additional references http://www.phoenicia.org/syria.html

Articles

A Ahmedov and B A Rozenfel'd, "Cartography" - one of Biruni's first essays to have reached us (Russian), in Mathematics in the East in the Middle Ages (Russian) (Tashkent, 1978), 127-153. K Andersen, The central projection in one of Ptolemy's map constructions, Centaurus 30 (2) (1987), 106-113. L Bendefy, Regiomontanus und Ungarn, in Regiomontanus studies, Vienna, 1976 (Vienna, 1980), 243-253. A V Dorofeeva, From the history of the discovery of the Mercator projection (Russian), Mat. v Shkole (3) (1988), i; 81. N S Ermolaeva, Mathematical cartography and D A Grave's method for solving the Dirichlet problem (Russian), Istor.-Mat. Issled. No. 32-33, (1990), 95-120. H Kautzleben, Carl Friedrich Gauss und die Astronomie, Geodäsie und Geophysik seiner Zeit, in Festakt und Tagung aus Anlass des 200 Geburtstages von Carl Friedrich Gauss, Berlin, 1977 (Berlin, 1978), 123-136. C Lardicci, Geometric aspects of cartography (Italian), Archimede 34 (1-2) (1982), 23-42. R P Lorch, Ptolemy and Maslama on the transformation of circles into circles in stereographic projection, Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 49 (3) (1995), 271-284. O Neugebauer, Ptolemy's Geography, book VII, chapters 6 and 7, Isis 50 (1959), 22-29. D B Quinn, Thomas Harriot and the new world, in Thomas Harriot : Renaissance scientist (Oxford, 1974), 36-53. M Schramm, Verfahren arabischer Nautiker zur Messung von Distanzen im Indischen Ozean, Z. Gesch. Arab.-Islam. Wiss. 13 (1999/00), 1-55. M A Tolmacheva, Ptolemy's East Africa in early medieval Arab geography, J. Hist. Arabic Sci. 9 (1-2) (1991), 31-43, 131-129.