In search of the Phoenicians / Josephine Crawley Quinn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Quinn, Josephine Crawley, author.

Series:

Miriam S. Balmuth lectures in ancient history and archaeology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Phoenicians.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 335 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Summary:

Who were the ancient Phoenicians, and did they actually exist? The Phoenicians traveled the Mediterranean long before the Greeks and Romans, trading, establishing settlements, and refining the art of navigation. But who these legendary sailors really were has long remained a mystery. In Search of the Phoenicians makes the startling claim that the "Phoenicians" never actually existed. Taking readers from the ancient world to today, this monumental book argues that the notion of these sailors as a coherent people with a shared identity, history, and culture is a product of modern nationalist ideologies--and a notion very much at odds with the ancient sources. Josephine Quinn shows how the belief in this historical mirage has blinded us to the compelling identities and communities these people really constructed for themselves in the ancient Mediterranean, based not on ethnicity or nationhood but on cities, family, colonial ties, and religious practices. She traces how the idea of "being Phoenician" first emerged in support of the imperial ambitions of Carthage and then Rome, and only crystallized as a component of modern national identities in contexts as far-flung as Ireland and Lebanon. In Search of the Phoenicians delves into the ancient literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and artistic evidence for the construction of identities by and for the Phoenicians, ranging from the Levant to the Atlantic, and from the Bronze Age to late antiquity and beyond.

Contents:

Part I Phantom Phoenicians

Chapter 1 There Are No Camels in Lebanon 3

Chapter 2 Sons of Tyre 25

Chapter 3 Sea People 44

Part II Many Worlds

Chapter 4 Cultural Politics 65

Chapter 5 The Circle of the Tophet 91

Chapter 6 Melqart's Mediterranean 113

Part III Imperial Identities

Chapter 7 The First Phoenician 135

Chapter 8 A New Phoenician World 153

Chapter 9 Phoenician Islands 176.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-317) and index.

ISBN:

9780691175270

0691175276

OCLC:

983824599