The Phoenicians

This historical survey reconstructs Phoenician civilization from the Late Bronze Age emergence of the coastal cities to the Hellenistic period, a span of more than a thousand years. Markoe treats Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, then commerce, the alphabet, religion, and craft, and the colonies and trading posts that spread west to Cyprus, North Africa, and Spain. Because almost no Phoenician narrative literature survives, he works from archaeology and from Greek, biblical, and Near Eastern notices. The argument stresses continuity rather than a brief Iron Age episode. The book is a synthesis of one maritime culture, not a novel of Carthage.

Bound in dark purple cloth with gilt blocked image. Dark purple slipcase.