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Phoenicians in West Europe: From Canaan to Cornwall & Cork The Phoenicians in West Europe: From Canaan to Cornwall & (?) Cork Click for Mobile Version en.wikipedia is is a non-peer-reviewed website with agenda and is anti-Lebanese & anti-Semitic [Mobile Version] Home About us Introduction Phoenician International Research Center (PIRC) Virtual Center for Phoenician Studies Contact Us Correspondence and Links Am I a Canaanite Phoenician? 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Phoenicia Translate Select Language▼ Perspective of Phoenician activities in the Mediterranean and Western Europe by Harry Bourne Please see, also: Facts that Prove the Connection between the Phoenicians and the Irish-Celtic and Britain, Phoenicia's Secret Treasure Join PhoeniciaOrg Twitter for alerts on new articles Visit our Facebook Page for additional, new studies The Homeland There is a general tendency to regard the area variously called Canaan/Phoenicia/Lebanon as Bronze Age/Iron Age/modern equivalents. While this may not be strictly so, this acts as a useful model. As long ago as the "The World of the Phoenicians" by Sabatino Moscati (1965), it was being suggested that what became the Phoenician cradle was originally home to several ethnic groups. In accord with this should be that DNA shows that at least some part of the antecedents of the Canaanites/Phoenicians came from Anatolia (= Asia Minor = most of modern Turkey) and only became Semiticised over the course of time. This runs counter to the numerous theories of the remote past mainly giving the Phoenicians eastern origins on the Indian Ocean/Red Sea based largely on descriptions of Canaanites/Phoenicians as the "Red" People by Classical or Greco/Roman writers (esp. the Greeks). This is not as strange as might first appear. The Americas shows that the Amerindians or Native Americans can be described as Red Indians. Moreover, of the Greco/Romans, the Greeks consistently used Aithiopes (= Burnt-skins/faces) or Mauri (= Blacks = later Moors) of Africans. Phoenicia/Lebanon was/is a small country surrounded by powerful neighbours so expansion was likely to be seawards. This took them into the Alexandria (Egypt)/Antakya (= Antioch, Turkey)/Athens (Greece) or A/A/A/-arc of the east Mediterranean. There was also the Messina (Sicily)/Marseilles (Med.-facing sth. France)/Malaga (Med.-facing east Iberia) or M/M/M-arc. There were also colonies established on the coast of the Magreb (= nth. Africa west of Egypt) that principally means Carthage (= Poeni/Puni in Latin, hence the term of Punic) near Tunis. Less famous is the best-known of the Phoenician colony in Iberia (= Spain & Portugal) of Gdr/Gadir (= Gades in Latin/Cadiz in Spanish). It may have been something of a surprise to the ancients that Phoenician cities maintained their independence for as long as they did. This seems to have been because they were so useful for so long, in as much, they brought in precious metals, prestige items, maritime expertise, etc. This much emerges from "The Phoenicians in the West" by Maria Eugenia Aubet (2002). My only real quibble with this book is that it is comprehensive for Phoenician, the transitional Phoenico/Punic plus Carthaginian activities on M/M/M and/or Atlantic coasts of Europe but has very little to say about what they did in west Africa. Otherwise, the Aubet the book will be the standard book on this subject for a good many years to come. Egypt dominated the early Phoenician cities (esp. Gebeil/Byblos & Sor/Tyre) and during this time, it seems the Phoenicians were content with what in "Phoenicians in West Africa" was called brown-water (= inshore/coastal/riverine) sailing. Events of 1200/1100 B. C. apparently changed this. This period was to prove disastrous for the Hittite rule in Anatolia and that of the Mycenaean Greeks in mainland Greece plus the Greek islands of the Aegean. The Hittite Empire in Anatolia was probably overrun by several non-Hittite Anatolian groups and the Mycenaeans by their close relatives called the Dorian Greeks. It also that this led to the dispersal of the dispossessed, as from "The Sea Peoples" by Nancy Sandars (1978), it seems that Anatolians plus Mycenaeans loom large in the motley groups lumped together as "The Peoples of the Sea" by the Egyptians. Elements of these Sea-Peoples allied with the western neighbours of Egypt called Libyans subjected Egypt to several serious attacks but this time, the native dynasty was up to the task and repulsed the Libyan plus their Sea-People allies. It does appear that this led to a fundamental change for the Phoenicians. They now became very serious blue-water or out-of-the-sight-of-land (= ootsol) sailors. Just where some of what may have triggered these changes came from is discussed in "Phoenicians in East Africa" and will be touched on again below. The Background in the Magreb It may now be difficult to imagine that the area once defined as the lush and verdant African Aqualithic by John Sutton (Africa in History =JAH 1974; Antiquity 1977) is now the hyper-arid Sahara Desert but it is. It seems that the hunting-grounds of Afrasians plus smaller Africans met here and that all were labelled Aithiopes without exception by the Greeks. Changes in the economy and mode of life forced on the inhabitants of the Aqualithic/Magreb/Sahara were painted or carved on rocks in parts of the Sahara. Tentative division of this rock-art based on claimed dominant motifs. An uncertain scheme runs Bubaline (based on buffaloes/wild cattle)/Bovidian (based on domest. cattle)/Equidian (based on horse-drawn chariots). Equally tentative is that of R.L. Smith (What Happened to the Ancient Libyans: Chasing sources across the Sahara from Herodotus to Ibn Khaldun online), thus eastern Equidian/Garamantes/Tuaregs, western Equidian/Gaituli/Mauri (= Moors) plus Bovidian/Tibu (= Tibbu/Tebu/Tebbu) This provides a very long background against which to place ancient movement in the Sahara. Much of it seemingly stems from the Libyco/Berber reverses in Egypt leading to the attacks to the west that Michael Brass (The similarities & differences of the rise of complex societies in West & East Africa online). Building the oldest ksour (plural of kour = walled-village) antedates the earliest of these attacks but an increase in kour -building seemingly coincides with these Libyco/Berber raids (esp. in the Dar Titchitt Culture area[s] of Mali/Mauretania/Senegal). It is a puzzle where the resources came from for the kour -building but clearly something took the unwanted attention of the raiding Berbers. What that something was is at best uncertain but trade has to be a possibility but this is way earlier than is generally accepted for Trans-Saharan commerce. Also the lightly-built chariots hardly appear suitable for transporting heavy goods. Nor are the pack-horses that Herodotus(5 th c. B. C. Greek) describes with bags strapped to their bodies likely to have been very satisfactory. Yet, the wherewithal for the walled-villages and whatever it was that attracted the Berber raiders came from somewhere. The Equidian/chariot-art already referred to very plainly does not belong to one period. Uncertain dates are provided by from the occurrence of the "flying-gallop" motif closely matched in Mycenaean Greece to the 4-horse chariots depicted at Zigza (Libya) and described by Herodotus Greek). The eastern chariot-motifs seemingly stretch from Phazania/Fezzan (Libya) to the River Niger and the western Equidian/chariot-art reaches from the foothills of the Atlas Mountains of south Morocco to further west along the Niger. This indicates movement in the Sahara further shown by such as messrs. Parker (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute =JRAI 1923), Meek (JAH 1960), Law (JAH 1967), Bovill (The Golden Trade of the Moors 1963), Winters(Atlantis in Mexico 2006), etc. Having seen that neither lightly-built chariots nor pack-horses with water-bags were likely to be the answer for the pre-camel Sahara, there is the theory of Bovill (ib.) to consider. He has suggested ox-trains were used and notes that carrying capacities of oxen and camels are not dissimilar and that cattle can go eight days without water, as opposed to the 10 days of camels. So in the days when camels were not available for Magrebi traders in the Sahara and having seen that ox-trains and camel-trains were not too dissimilar, cattle may have been an answer. The more so if we were talking several generations of such who had become used to the extreme conditions and Bovill says that ox-trains are known from the rock-art. Where the camel scores is on speed, so replacement of oxen is no surprise. The Nasamones are one of the Saharan tribes described by Herodotus. Meek (ib.) thought their name translated as "Negroes of Amon" and says Amon/Amun/Ammon are frequqent parts of African names The Nasamones and the Garamantes were neighbours and both harked to Garama as their ancestor-god. From what is said by Herodotus (5 th c. B.C.), Strabo (1 st c. B. C. Greek), etc, the Nasamones absorbed the Psylli who incorporate the Berber zel/sel (= clan) in their name (as do the Maesylli & Massasylli, also recorded by Herodotus). Garamantes seems to be a word from an African language of the Mande/Manding group(s). Parker (ib.) says Wangara was an obsolete term for the Mande and it seems the word also meant trader. A list of towns taken from the Garamantes by the Romans was compiled by Pliny (1 st c. A.D. Roman) and their meanings were made explicable by Parker against Mande words. He held that this was proof positive that the Mante and Garamande were one and the same. Messrs. Snowden (Blacks in Antiquity 1974) plus Winters (ib.) show several words that translate as black/very dark for the Garamantes that many writers want to mean no more than that they were swarthy. However, the matter seems settled when we come across Ptolemy describing the Garamantes as black. Herodotus also wrote that Garamantes in their chariots chased Saharan Blacks/Aithiopes and that the latter could outrun them. In like vein must be Ibn Said (8 th c. Arab) writing that Tuaregs on horseback again chasing Blacks/Negroes who again are said to be faster. Further are messrs. Lacroix (Africa in Antiquity 1998) and Smith (ib.) respectively saying that Garamantes means Wearers of the Veil and that Muleththamin is an Arabic term for the Tuaregs and means People of the Veil. This gives some support to the above-noted Smith sequence of eastern Equidian/Garamantes/Tuaregs. The report of Hanno that on the other side of the Sahara/Magreb, the Aithiopes that neighboured the Lixitoi were also faster than chariots presumably means the original of "Hanno" said the Lixitoi also sought slaves from amongst their Aithiope/Black neighbours. Nor can it be objected that because Garamantes/Tuaregs and possibly Lixitoi/Lixitae chased their Black neighbours meant they were fundamentally different. Indeed, this cannot be so if those arguing that the Garamantes were ancestral to the Magrebi Blacks called Tibu are correct. The Tibu named the Tibesti Mountains. According to messrs. Nachtigal (19 th c. German) and Herodotus respectively, the Tibu and the Atlantes/Atrantes shared the archaic feature of having no personal names. The Nasamones with their name seen to been suggested as meaning Negroes of Amon and to have absorbed a Berber tribe were related by Pausanias to the Atlantes/Atalantes now generally seen as the same as the Atrantes/Atarantes and who constantly complained of sunburnt skins so were Aithiopes in the Greek definition. According to Pseudo- Scylax (= Ps.- Scylax), all the inhabitants of the coast of Atlantic-facing Africa from the River Senegal to beyond the Atlas Mountains were Aithiopes. Some of what is said by Ps.- Scylax (?5 th/?4 th c. Greek) is confirmed by Strabo saying that Aithiopes/Blacks held the coast right up to Dyris (= the Atlas region, Morocco) and this would include the Lixitae. Michael Skupin uses a translation of "Hanno" saying the Lixitae were a people of Aithiopia (= Af. sth. of Egypt) not of Libya (Af. west of Egypt on this definition). Gaituli may just mean "From the South" but even today, from the south in Africa still tends to mean from Sub-Saharan Africa, the more so if it is correct the Mauri were a leading component of the Mauri with a name meaning Black and leading on to the term of Moors. West Africa seemingly seeking Aithiopian slaves has analogies in Ashanti selling fellow- Akans to Europeans. East Africa had a king sending fellow Africans down the River Limpopo to the Portugese to be bartered for linen shirts plus Tipu Tib whose treatment of the fellow Africans was so bad that it actually attracted European sympathy. The Biblical story of Joseph sold as a slave also tells us that his own family did so. Vatican records show popes allowed Venetians and Genoese to be enslaved because their merchants sold their co-religionists. Both English and Irish sources speak of English slaves sold to Irish merchants by fellow Englishmen. Clearly, the Garamantes seeking slaves from amongst their own followed something highly international and very ancient. Further proving just how diverse the Saharan confederacies could be comes with Ptolemy (2 nd c. A.D. Greek) describing the Leukaithiopes (= Pale/White Africans) and Melanogetuli (= Black Gaituli); Ibn Hawkal (11 th c. Arab) saying the Sanhaja Tuaregs consisted of 22 Banu Tanamak (= Black) and 19 Sanhaja (= Berber) clans; the various definitions of Libyphoenician, etc Quite apart from the location, it is very obvious that the Carthaginians tapped into what was going in what would become part of the hinterland of the city of Carthage. It has now been shown that there are traits apparently stretching both east-to west and north-to-south across the Magreb/Sahara. These are reinforced by tales of (a) Nasamones having crossed the desert said to have been captured by (?) Pygmies; Garamantes having to deal with troubles to the south of the Sahara; Romans (with & without Garamantes) crossing the desert. Even closer to our subject is what may be is wrapped in the legend of Mago of Carthage having crossed the Sahara without water. Stripped of the fabulous element, it may be that there is some truth here to substantiate those writers wanting Carthage to have had overland trade-links with Africa south of the Sahara Desert but how direct is moot. Certainly, now that the so-called Carthaginian carbuncle should be termed the Garamantian carbuncle because it now seems this was a semi-jewel arising from desert-sands having been subjected to super-nova heat (?due to a meteorite) millions of years ago. They lay in what was Garamantian territory and Leo Frobenius (voice of Africa 1913) was convinced that they came to west Africa and were the originals of what have become known as aggrey beads (esp. in Nigeria) of uncertain material. Atlantic Coasts: Arrival Liby-phoenician could mean Phoenicians settled in Libya (esp. Carthage); the African allies of Carthage; the African subjects of Carthage, all three, etc. Among the things that attracted the Phoenicians to the location of Carthage were its location, the fact that there was already a Phoenician colony nearby at Utica, the already cross-desert trade just shown, etc. However, there were always some that wanting to move. The figure that looms large in the minds of those writing about Liby-phoenicians leaving the Magreb is 30,000. Andrew Fear (Rome and Baetica 1996) cited Appian (1 st c./2 nd c. A.D.) as saying this was the number of them leaving Carthage for Iberia (but see the Knapp online review of this book by Prof. Fear). Livio Stecchini (online re. Hanno) says the story in Dionysius of Mytilene about 30,000 Amazons and 3000 captured prisoners really reflects Carthaginian military actions against Africans of Fulani and/or Mande groups influenced by the 30,000 migrants mentioned in "Hanno" (see also "Phoenicians in West Africa"). The figure of 30,000 emigrants was questioned in "Phoenicians in West Africa: from Djahi to Djahi) and by several expert opinions a… truncated (53,804 more characters in archive)