Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

Continuing westward from northern Syria into the coastal areas, and continuing southward along the Mediterranean Sea to the area near today's Lebanon, this area is the birthplace of the Phoenician civilization.

The word "Phoenicia" originally means purple, derived from a purple-red pigment produced here. This purple material extracted from conch has been considered by Westerners to be worth gold for thousands of years.

From a geographical point of view, Phenicia's territory extends from Suksu in the north, Acre in the south, Mount Lebanon in the east, and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. The original residents were Hurrites. Starting from about 3000 BC, the Canaanites moved in and assimilated the original local residents.

Unlike many peoples, the Phoenicians did not establish a unified kingdom, but they established a series of city-states along the east coast of the Mediterranean, including Byblos, Tyre, Beirut, Sidon, etc.

In addition, they also used their navigation skills to travel almost throughout the entire Mediterranean region. They also established some colonial cities in the western Mediterranean, the most famous of which was Carthage in North Africa.

Because they were widely distributed along the Mediterranean coast, the Phoenicians had different names in different places. For example, in the Canaan region of Syria, they were called "Canaanites." In addition, their Greek counterpart was "Phoenicia" and the Romans called them "Punic".

Historically, this nation was famous in the Mediterranean world for its navigation and business. Due to the needs of commercial and trade activities, they began to improve the words they used.

The Phoenicians abandoned the more complicated cuneiform writing system and the more complex hieroglyphic writing system, and chose a new alphabetic writing. This alphabetic writing is the Phoenician alphabet, which is one of the earliest alphabetic writings in the world.

The history of Phoenicia can be roughly divided into two parts. The first stage is called the Egyptian era, about 2800 BC - 1200 BC; the second stage is the prosperity period of Phoenicia, from 1200 BC to 800 BC. Year.

In the first stage, Phoenicia was mainly politically controlled by Egypt. The first city-state to develop in the Egyptian era was Djebal in northern Phoenicia. In 2000 BC, the city of Sidon developed, and in 1200 BC, the city of Tyre became powerful.

In the second stage, due to the weakness of Egypt and Crete, Phoenicia was able to dominate the Mediterranean. Controlling the route to the Indian Ocean, the Phoenicians also controlled the route north through Syria to Assyria and Armenia;

The other goes eastward through Syria to Babylon, Persia, and Central Asia. During this period, the Phoenicians transported large amounts of ivory, ebony, cotton, bright iron, etc. Amber was then exported to the mouth of the Po River in present-day Germany and Italy, and tin was also exported to the Mediterranean coast.

As we all know, both North Africa and the Near East are relatively desolate places. Except for the Mediterranean coast, other places are deserts and Gobi that are difficult to survive and are not suitable for survival.

Therefore, the Phoenicians had no choice but to colonize the trading outposts established on the routes. Many modern cities, such as Marseille, were founded on Phoenician colonies.

Some of these colonies developed and expanded in later history, the more famous of which was Carthage, which later had many wars with ancient Rome. To this day, many people believe that the Phoenicians are the ancestors of some Tunisians.

However, there is no eternal dynasty in the world. Around 800 BC, Phoenicia began to decline and became a vassal of foreign countries. Its commercial advantages also gradually declined and were replaced by Greek city-states.

Around 500 BC, the Greeks gained the upper hand in the eastern Mediterranean. In 332 BC, the city of Tyre fell, and the names of the Phoenicians disappeared from history books.

Judging from archaeological data, the farthest colony built by the Phoenicians was in Cadiz, Spain, established in 1100 BC for the purpose of transporting tin from the sea and launching the slave trade.

In addition, their regular routes even extended beyond the Mediterranean Sea to the Canary Islands, where they were used to transport the important tin mined here.

But the discovery of a Phoenician cemetery in southern Africa by Liang En and the others was shocking, because even for such a seafaring nation, it was really too far away.

Fortunately, there is a stone tablet here that can solve most of Liang En's inner doubts: "This monument commemorates the life of Abd Daraf, the son of Abd Shamash from Tyre -"

This stone tablet introduces in detail the identity, origin and why he was buried here. According to the text on the stone tablet, the deceased was a noble and an excellent captain.

His hometown of Tyre (or translated as Tire, also known as Sur) is also a very famous city. It is located on a small island in southern Lebanon, about 12 miles north of the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Tyre is a city built on the mainland and adjacent offshore islands. It was founded by colonists from Sidon around 2700 BC.

Due to its favorable location, the city soon became competitive and eventually surpassed its sister city-state Sidon as a center of Phoenician fishing and trading.

The most famous record about this city is that in the 9th century BC, colonists from Tire established Carthage in North Africa. Like Sidon, Tyre is mentioned many times in the Bible.

According to biblical records, the relationship between Tire and Israel was relatively friendly. In fact, King Hiram of Tire also provided building materials for Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

Because of its wealth and strategic location, Tyre was continually attacked by powerful local forces. It was once ruled by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians.

But in the end, the city was destroyed by Alexander's siege of Tyre, which lasted for about seven months. During the siege of Tyre, in order to defeat the stubborn defenders, Alexander completely demolished the main city on the mainland and used the demolished rubble to A path was created to lead to the island.

After occupying the city at great cost, Alexander responded to the bravery and fearlessness of the citizens of Tyre with blood and brutality. 10,000 people were ordered to be executed, and another 30,000 were sold into slavery.

Although Tyre was rebuilt during subsequent Egyptian and Roman rule, it never recovered from the actions of Alexander the Great.

This captain was sent when Tyre was still prosperous, and he was still an elite of that seafaring city-state, so he could shoulder the heavy responsibility of captain.

He and his companions were commissioned by the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho to organize a fleet of 40 ships to embark on a long journey. This journey was so long that they could not bring enough supplies.

In this case, they had to do everything possible to replenish their supplies, and sometimes they even had to stay in one place for several months to plant crops until the crops were harvested before they could set sail again.

In addition, as part of the expedition, they also conducted a series of hydrological and geographical surveys, and even went deep into the inland areas along the river to carry out exploration work many times.

After all, in addition to taking risks, this fleet also has another important job, which is to obtain goods. This is also the specialty of the Phoenicians. However, because there are not many people in the entire area, they sometimes have to obtain goods manually.

But this kind of work is obviously not likely to be smooth sailing. For example, the current deceased was unfortunately killed during another expedition deep into the interior.