Figure 4.5 Aerial photo of the thirteenth- to twelfth-century bce industrial area for the production of bronze and pottery at Tel Akko, Area AB.
Source: Tel Akko Total Archaeology Project.
Early Iron Age Phoenician Resilience and Late Bronze Age Continuity
Judging from the available textual and archaeological evidence, the defining features of late second-millennium, Early Iron Age Phoenician coastal cities are their resilience in the aftermath of the crises that struck the eastern Mediterranean region ca. 1200 and their ability to integrate external influences, while maintaining cultural continuity with Late Bronze Age traditions. The relatively independent status of city-states located between Arwad and Akko already in the Late Bronze II period and their distance from the Late Bronze Age superpowers, Egypt and the Hittites, appear to have played a pivotal role in their ability to not only survive but also to thrive during the Iron I period. The city-state of Ugarit, on the other hand, a vassal of the Hittites, which remained within the sphere of Hittite influence, was destroyed in the early twelfth century, mirroring the collapse of the northern empire. The Canaanite settlements along the southern Levantine coast experienced increasing Egyptian occupation and exploitation during the final stages of the Late Bronze Age, best expressed in the proliferation of Egyptian strongholds in Canaan especially during the reign of Ramesses III. In their weakened condition, Canaanite settlements in the region of what was to become Philistia were vulnerable to conquest and colonization by the Philistines when Egyptian imperial power waned during the twelfth century (e.g., Killebrew 2005: 51–148).
The destruction of Ugarit, the economic powerhouse of the Levantine coast, had little if any negative impact on the city-states along the Phoenician coastline. Already used to conducting their affairs without imperial oversight, they continued their commercial activities, especially with Cyprus, albeit on a more modest and restricted scale of interaction (e.g., Bell 2016). A final component of the emergence of early Phoenician culture is the contribution of foreign peoples who interacted with the region, including populations associated with the “Sea Peoples” (e.g., Lehmann 2013; Núñez 2015). While the Philistines changed the cultural landscape of the southern Levantine plain, the central and northern Levantine coastal regions successfully absorbed Aegean-style and Cypriot influences into the Late Bronze Age traditions. It is this dynamic interaction of maritime cultural and commercial exchanges, which occurred along the northern and central Levantine littoral during the final centuries of the second millennium bce, that eventually evolved into an entity referred to in Classical and modern sources as Phoenician.
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Chapter 5
Phoenicia in the Later Iron Age
tenth century bce to the Assyrian and Babylonian periods
Guy Bunnens
A reconstruction of Phoenician history is made difficult by the very nature of the evidence. The Phoenicians themselves left no inscription of the kind of the Zakkur or the Mesha stelae, at least for the period under consideration. No text reflecting the day-to-day life, such as letters or contracts, are still available. We are left with the records of foreign peoples, especially the Assyrian royal inscriptions and the Hebrew Bible, sometimes complemented by references in Classical texts. The Egyptians, with whom the Phoenicians were in close contact, rarely mentioned them in their own records. Combining these heterogeneous sources and critically assessing them are daunting and not always rewarding tasks. Attempts at reconstructing such a history often amounts to reconstructing the general context in which Phoenician cities developed to check whether they could have been involved in the process or not.
The difficulty of writing a Phoenician history is indicated by the paucity of recent works aiming at undertaking such an endeavor. The works of H. Jacob Katzenstein (1973) and Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet (1992) are worth mentioning, but do not escape the tendency to draw from hardly related evidence. More recently Josette Elayi (2013) published an interesting overview of Phoenician history, unfortunately without source criticism. This can be partially compensated by Edward Lipiński (2006: 163–201) and J. Brian Peckham (2014). The present chapter will concentrate on the core evidence, avoiding too speculative reconstructions.
Local History
There results from external, especially Assyrian, evidence that Phoenician city-states tended to form two conglomerates. There was a northern group, including the region from Arwad to Byblos—naturally associated with cities of the North Syrian coast, among which were Usnu/Usnatu and Siannu—and a southern group including Sidon and Tyre, that extended south as far as Akko. Geography explains these associations. While Mount Lebanon was protecting the Phoenician cities from incursions from the east, it also formed an obstacle to the communications with inland regions. The access to and from northern Phoenicia was through the Gap of Homs and the Akkar Plain while southern Phoenicia’s access was through the Jordan River valley and the Jezreel Plain.
Individual Cities
Very little is known about the internal development of most Phoenician cities except a few royal names, most of them mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions and in Flavius Josephus’s works. (As to their archaeological remains, see chapter 10, this volume.)
There is, however, local epigraphic evidence for Byblos in the tenth century bce. Two dynastic sequences are known. First, the inscription carved on the famous sarcophagus of Ahiram (KAI 1; Lehmann 2005) gives
the sequence Ahiram—Itto-Baal (or, according to Reinhard G. Lehmann’s [2015] reading, Pilsi-Baal). Its date, early tenth century bce, relies entirely on paleographic considerations. Second, a sequence Yehi-Milk—Abi-Baal—Eli-Baal—Shipit-Baal can be reconstructed (KAI 4–7; Rollston 2008: 60–62). The chronology is given by the objects on which two of the inscriptions were carved, Abi-Baal’s (KAI 5) inscription on a statue of Sheshonq I (945–924) and Eli-Baal’s (KAI 6) on a statue of Osorkon I (924–889). For reasons that will be explained later, these inscriptions were probably written soon after these pharaohs ascended the throne, hence a date in the second half of the tenth century bce for the whole sequence.
More is known about Tyre at the time of Hiram I in the tenth century. The only source is the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who drew his information from two authors: Menander of Ephesus, probably writing in the second century bce, and Dios, of unknown date (AJ 8.144–46 and Ap. 1.117–19 after Menander; AJ 8.147 and Ap. 1.113 after Dios). They were both supposed to have had access to original Phoenician records. Hiram would have created an esplanade (Εὐρύχωρον) to link Tyre’s island with the islet on which stood the temple of Zeus Olympios (probably Baal Shamîm). The temple itself would have been decorated with gold offerings and/or a golden pillar. He also would have demolished the old shrines of Herakles (Melqart) and Astarte, and have cedar timber brought down from Mount Lebanon to cover the new temples that he dedicated to them. He also seems to have promoted the cult of Melqart, not only by building a new temple to honor him but also by instituting the rite of the “awakening” of the god. Such an ambitious religious and architectural program fits perfectly the general context of the intense building activities of the eleventh and tenth centuries bce.
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