The History and Archaeology of Phoenicia; Phoenician Identity in Context: Material Cultural Koiné in the Iron Age Levant; and Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean

The past five years have witnessed a plethora of publications devoted to the Phoenicians and their impact on the Mediterranean world (for an overview of key publications, see Sader 2019: xi and the book reviews by Megan Daniels, Meir Edrey, and Jolanta Młynarczyk in this issue). Three recently published books are critiqued in this review. Two monographs, authored by Hélène Sader and Meir Edrey, examine the history, archaeology, and identity of the Iron Age inhabitants of Phoenicia. These publications are especially significant as they fill a void in Phoenician studies—a field that in the past tended to focus on Phoenician influence outside the Levantine homeland. The third book, by Carolina López-Ruiz, explores the impact of the Phoenicians on cultural exchange and the spreading of their “orientalizing kit” (López-Ruiz’s term; see below) westward, which transformed much of the Iron Age Mediterranean world during the eighth and seventh centuries BCE.Sader’s book, The History and Archaeology of Phoenicia, includes a preface followed by six chapters that examine the origins and etymology of the term Phoenicia (Ch. 1), a survey of Iron Age Phoenicia (Chs. 2 and 3), Phoenician language and material culture (Ch. 4), religion (Ch. 5), economy (Ch. 6), and a conclusion.In her opening preface statement (xi–xv), Sader carefully lays out her approach to the Phoenicians. She begins with a brief summary of relevant publications spanning the past three decades. In contrast to these earlier publications that tended to present a global history of Phoenicia or the Phoenicians, she approaches the topic through the lens of primary textual and archaeological sources from the Phoenician homeland, a template which is used in each chapter. According to Sader, the territory of Phoenicia, as described by first-millennium BCE Greek authors, was dominated and defined by four distinct coastal Levantine polities or kingdoms: Arwad, Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre with their hinterlands. In her preface, she also refutes claims in recent publications that the Phoenicians are a modern invention (see, e.g., Martin 2017; Quinn 2018). Instead, she argues that the inhabitants of these four kingdoms shared a common Semitic language, customs, belief systems, and material culture. Thus, they can rightfully be referred to as “Phoenicians.”Chapter 1 opens with an introduction to the Phoenicians. Sader defines her terminology and builds a foundation upon which the remaining chapters are constructed. This includes the origin and etymology of the name Phoenicia, origins of the Phoenicians (i.e., inhabitants of Phoenicia), chronological and geographic setting, and a summary and discussion of the often problematic textual and archaeological evidence. Two very helpful tables summarize the periodization of excavated sites in northern Phoenicia (table 1.1) and southern Phoenicia (table 1.2).Chapter 2 presents the archaeological evidence from Iron I sites in the Phoenician homeland, which continues Late Bronze Age cultural traditions. Two relevant texts, the Annals of Tiglath-pileser I and the Report of Wenamon, are discussed in detail. Following a survey of several key Iron I sites in Phoenicia, the chapter concludes with a summary of Iron I architecture and funerary practices. Sader notes that in contrast to numerous Late Bronze Age settlements in the eastern Mediterranean that experienced destruction or decline, many Phoenician sites avoided devastation and flourished during the Iron I period following the crisis that marks the end of the Bronze Age.The largest chapter, Chapter 3, explores Phoenicia during the Iron Age II and III (ca. mid-tenth–mid-fourth centuries BCE). It is the longest chapter in this book and is divided into three subsections. In her first section, Sader discusses primary classical sources according to four polities, Arwad, Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre, and provides an overview of each entity’s political history. Based on this evidence, the author establishes that Phoenicia is a first-millennium BCE Greek geographic concept that at its greatest extent included lands south of Ugarit until the Yarkon River, which forms the southern border of the Sharon Plain. The remaining two sections reconstruct the physical characteristics, settlement patterns, distribution of Phoenician sites, and political organization of the Phoenician kingdoms.Chapter 4 delves into the question of Phoenician culture, asking a key question: Is it possible to “isolate identifiers or specific features that can justify considering the culture of the Levantine coast as homogenous . . . or substantial differences singling out individual cultures” (147) through the lens of language and material culture? Shared features of the four kingdoms include language and aspects of material culture. Architecturally there is a lack of uniformity; however, the use of ashlar masonry is a common feature at Phoenician sites. Regional variations between northern and southern Phoenicia are evident in the pottery assemblages. While many luxury items often defined as “Phoenician,” including metal vessels, ivory work, tridacna shells, and painted ostrich eggs, are rare in the Phoenician homeland, Sader maintains that there is sufficient evidence to attribute many of these objects to Phoenician artistic traditions and identity, especially during the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods.In Chapter 5, Sader examines the evidence from the four Iron Age coastal Levantine kingdoms to determine if a shared set of religious rituals and deities exists. She subdivides this chapter into five sections: general characteristics as reflected in the textual and epigraphic evidence (5.1), religious architecture (5.2), cultic artifacts (5.3), foreign influences (5.4), and mortuary practices (5.5). Based on the fragmentary epigraphic and non-Phoenician textual sources, Sader argues in favor of a Phoenician religion defined by a common set of beliefs, deities, and rituals. In contrast, the archaeological evidence for built structures of worship from 12 sites presented in Section 5.2 demonstrates that while there is no common plan or features that define Phoenician religious architecture, regional and chronological groups can be distinguished. Cultic objects include ex-votos (especially female figurines), amulets, cultic tools, and vessels. Egyptian and Greek influence on Phoenician beliefs and practices is also discernible. In the final section of Chapter 5, Sader concludes that Phoenician funerary customs are grounded in Near Eastern traditions and include a belief in life after death. She addresses three aspects of Phoenician mortuary practices: architecture, inhumation, and incineration, ending with a note on dog burials.The sixth chapter identifies three parts of the Phoenician economy: trade, agriculture, and industries, especially metallurgy, the production of purple dye, ceramics, and olive oil. Much of the chapter deals with the nature and organization of trade and Levantine Phoenicia’s trading partners, following the template of integrating the primary textual sources, especially Ezekiel 27, and most recent archaeological evidence. In her review of Phoenician trade, Sader concludes that “northern Phoenicia does not seem to have played an active role in Mediterranean trade in the early and even later Iron Age” (276). Rather, as suggested by the limited written sources and supported by the material culture evidence, trade was dominated by the southern Phoenician kingdoms and cities.In her conclusions, Sader concisely sums up the textual, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, and she convincingly argues for a definable Phoenician culture that was shared by the four coastal Levantine kingdoms and their hinterlands. Though connected by a common culture and language, the southern and northern sites developed independently as best illustrated in the regionality of the excavated material culture. She also observes that the southern kingdoms experienced greater economic and commercial prosperity, which is reflected in both the textual and archaeological evidence.Meir Edrey’s 2019 book, Phoenician Identity in Context: Material Culture Koiné in the Iron Age Levant, also explores the Phoenician phenomenon in its coastal Levantine homeland. In his introduction, Edrey defines Phoenician culture as the Iron Age inheritor of the Late Bronze independent city-state social structure. Through an analysis of the archaeological evidence found at coastal Levantine sites associated with the Phoenicians, he aims to identify a “Phoenician koiné” (or shared material culture) that indicates a common ethnic, religious, cultic, and social identity.Edrey’s volume includes an introduction, seven chapters that explore geographic borders (Ch. 1), the history of Phoenicia (Ch. 2), Phoenician architecture (Ch. 3), maritime culture (Ch. 4), religion and cult (Ch. 5), Phoenician funerary practices (Ch. 6), and ethnicity and identity (Ch. 7), followed by conclusions. Though Edrey bases his analysis on the same primary sources and reaches similar conclusions as Hélène Sader, his approach, treatment, and organization of the body of evidence differ, making these two volumes interesting to compare. Here, the archaeological evidence is arranged by topics rather than by sites or kingdoms, Phoenician funerary practices are separated from religion and cult, and chapters on maritime culture and ethnicity round out the analysis. Edrey’s monograph does not address Phoenician economy or industries specifically.In his opening statement, Edrey surveys the history of archaeological research on the Phoenicians in the eastern Mediterranean, the use and meaning of the term Phoenicia/Phoenician, and gives an overview of various theories regarding Phoenician origins. Based on the continuity of material culture traditions, societal structures, and recent DNA analyses, Edrey argues for continuity beginning with Middle Bronze Age coastal Levantine populations that include an Iranian genetic component. He closes with the observation that names, ancestry, and language are defining and “vital elements of ethnicity” (11). These are cultural features that serve as major starting points for his monograph.Chapters 1 and 2 define the borders and history of Phoenicia spanning the Bronze Age through Iron Age III periods and provide the general framework for the following discussion of specific cultural features that Edrey defines as “Phoenician.” These features include architecture (Ch. 3), beginning with construction methods and techniques, followed by a thematic discussion of the characteristics of the Iron I–Iron III Phoenician city, then of domestic architecture, harbors, and cultic architecture. Each theme is arranged chronologically based on excavations at coastal Levantine sites including Arwad, Byblos, Beirut, Tyre, Tell el-Burak, Sarepta, Achziv, Tel Kabri, Tell Abu-Hawam, Shiqmona, Tel Megadim, and Dor. Edrey concludes that Phoenician architecture is “marked by a stern traditional attitude combined with technological and stylistic evolution” (119). He characterizes temple architecture as a continuation of Bronze Age traditions with features that conform to a uniquely Phoenician temple plan and design, and therefore should be considered a Phoenician cultural marker. Another architectural feature that is unique to first-millennium BCE Phoenicia is the construction of artificial harbors at several sites along the Levantine coast.Edrey’s Chapter 4 explores maritime culture. Navigation, hull construction techniques, various types of boats and ships and anchors are described. As Edrey rightly points out, the Phoenicians are best known as mariners who traversed the Mediterranean Sea, creating a “prosperous and powerful thalassocracy” (121). Drawing on several sources of information including small ceramic boat models, Egyptian wall paintings depicting Canaanite ships, and remains of shipwrecks, he concludes that Phoenician watercraft continued Bronze Age boat and ship traditions. They are characterized by their wide-beam hulls, which could transport large quantities of cargo, and distinctive horse heads that decorated stem and stern.In Chapter 5, Edrey opens his analysis of Phoenician cult with a brief overview of classical, biblical, and later texts that provide information regarding Phoenician deities, rituals, and myths. He also defines religion as “a system of beliefs maintained by an official authority via a complex hierarchy of clergy.” Cult is “the sum of the rituals and practices performed as part of the worship in the religion” (140) or, put differently, the embodiment of worship that can also reflect nonelite forms thereof. What emerges from this chapter is that Phoenician religion in the Levant continues earlier Late Bronze Age beliefs and practices, defined by regional variations and rooted in a common system of beliefs. This is observed in the Phoenician pantheon; in the appearance of baetyls, standing stones, and sacred trees; funerary rites; apotropaic cultic practices; and maritime cults and rituals. The author concludes that the Phoenicians practiced “a pan-Phoenician religion which was rooted in a common system of beliefs” (179) and is best reflected in the material culture record.Phoenician funerary practices are discussed in Chapter 6. Like in the preceding Late Bronze Age, a wide variety of burial customs appear in cemeteries at coastal sites in Phoenicia. They include both inhumation, which is more common in the Iron Age I, and cremation, which increases in popularity during the Iron Age II (first half of the first millennium BCE) when it becomes the dominant form of burial. According to Edrey, both cremation burials and the rich assemblage of vessels and other artifacts that appear in the tombs are characteristic features and signifiers of Phoenician culture.In his final chapter, Edrey tackles the thorny question of Phoenician ethnicity and identity. He evaluates the evidence presented in Chapters 1–6 with an emphasis on common material culture (or Phoenician koiné) and its continuity with Bronze Age coastal Levantine traditions. Although the Phoenicians were not unified politically, the author concludes that they can be considered an ethnic group based on their shared cultural traits that preserved their Canaanite legacy, reflected in their self-ascription and ascription by others as Phoenicians. A short two-and-a-half-page section titled “Conclusions” summarizes the study’s main points and argues compellingly for the Phoenicians’ cultural and economic resilience that distinguishes them from other Levantine peoples.Though not always agreeing on the interpretation of the primary evidence, both Sader’s and Edrey’s very accessible and well-edited monographs reach similar conclusions regarding the existence of an identifiable Phoenician territorial entity, culture, and peoples. Both books present a detailed analysis of the primary textual sources and archaeological evidence, although they differ in their organization of the data and emphasis. The first half of Sader’s book is arranged chronologically and framed through the lens of the history and archaeological evidence of the four Phoenician kingdoms. The second half of her book discusses the three main themes of material culture, religion, and economy. In contrast, Edrey provides a general geographic and historical background to Phoenicia in his first two chapters, followed by thematic chapters that organize the evidence chronologically and with an emphasis on southern Phoenicia. Both books include detailed bibliographies and indices and are richly illustrated. Sader’s figures are integrated into the text of the chapters, while Edrey’s figures appear at the end of the book.Hélène Sader and Meir Edrey are to be congratulated on their meticulously researched and reader-friendly monographs. Read together, they present the most recent information on the Phoenicians in Phoenicia. Their very accessible format, and especially the affordable paperback version of Sader’s study, appeals to a broad audience. They are highly recommended for both students and scholars, but also a general public with interest in an up-to-date discussion of the Phoenicians in their homeland.The third book reviewed here, Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean by Carolina López-Ruiz, is the most recent publication in the spate of monographs devoted to the Phoenicians. This book is unique in its circumscribed chronological limit, mainly focusing on the ninth through sixth centuries BCE, a period that is characterized by Greek and Phoenician colonization and expansionist trade connections throughout the entire Mediterranean region. Chronologically this roughly corresponds to the Archaic period (especially its seventh-century BCE Orientalizing phase) in Greece, the Iron II period in the Levant, and the first half of the Axial Age, a term used to characterize the world-wide transformation of human society during this time. This ground-breaking monograph has received several prestigious book awards including co-winner of the Mediterranean Seminar Best Book Prize (Mediterranean Seminar and the Mediterranean Studies Group at the University of Colorado at Boulder, 2023), the Frank Moore Cross Award (ASOR, 2022), and the Best Subsequent Book Award (Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society, 2022).Central to López-Ruiz’s approach is what she terms the “orientalizing kit” that defines Phoenician culture. In her introductory statement, she defines this kit as a set of new technologies and artistic styles found throughout the Mediterranean world. Key to her thesis is the role the Phoenicians played in the development of this kit and its exportation and cultural spread on a pan-Mediterranean scale. Features of this repertoire include symbolic and decorative motifs; pottery technologies, shapes, and decorations; ivory carving and metalwork; terracotta figurines (especially female); monumental stone sculpture; masonry techniques and architectural innovations; burial types and rituals; industrial development; alphabetic writing; and mythological themes and literary models. Her introduction also addresses the fragmented nature of the study of Phoenicians, which requires the piecing together of different types of evidence from a variety of disciplines. Like authors Sader and Edrey, López-Ruiz concludes that the Phoenicians can be defined by their material culture and dismisses the recent “Phoeniciosceptic” approach that disputes the existence of the Phoenicians as an identifiable cultural group with a shared language and heritage.Following the introduction, Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean is divided into two main parts: “Beware of the Greek” and “Follow the Sphinx.” Part I (comprising Chs. 1–3) establishes the framework for her analysis in Part II (Chs. 4–9), which discusses Phoenician influence in the Mediterranean from West (Iberia) to East (the Levant). In Chapter 1 (“Phoenicians Overseas”), in an attempt to “decolonize the Phoenicians” (25–27), López-Ruiz examines various theoretical approaches to colonization, including postcolonial models, highlighting classical biases that dominated previous studies. At the end of Chapter 1, she presents evidence to dispel three heretofore predominant misconceptions regarding Phoenician colonization: Phoenician colonies were not fully urban (rather: trading posts); Phoenicians were mainly seafarers, not farmers; the cultural impact outside of the Phoenician colonies was minor (32–43).The next chapter critiques Hellenocentric double standards of “Greek presence and agency” over Phoenician influence at three key sites: Al-Mina, Lefkandi, and Pithekoussai. Instead, the author argues for a more nuanced postcolonial, network-based, and pan-Mediterranean approach that recognizes the multidirectional flow of influences (61). Part I concludes with Chapter 3 that justifies the use of the terms orientalization and orientalizing as distinct from Orientalism and argues for the existence of Phoenician art. As López-Ruiz astutely concludes, the distribution of the orientalizing kit follows closely the Phoenician trade networks and colonization activities in the Mediterranean, thus justifying the association of the kit and its spread with the Phoenicians (89).“Follow the Sphinx,” Part II, which builds upon the research questions, themes, and definitions explored in Part I, forms the central component of the book. In this section, López-Ruiz utilizes an art historical approach to material culture and carefully traces the appearance of elements of the orientalizing kit and its imitations through a series of case studies. She begins in the west with Iberia and North Africa (Ch. 4), traveling eastward to the central Mediterranean (Ch. 5), on to the Aegean (Ch. 6), inserting a discourse on intangible legacies (Ch. 7), and concludes with Cyprus (Ch. 8) and the Levant (Ch. 9). In each chapter she provides a general background to the region and its interactions with the Phoenicians, followed by a discussion of key sites and specific orientalizing features that appear in the material culture.As López-Ruiz convincingly argues, Phoenician influence, both in its tangible (material culture) and intangible form (e.g., semitic loanwords, rituals, and writing), finds unique expression in each of the regions, traceable in a variety of interactions and reactions to Phoenician activities and presence. For example, in Chapter 4 she observes that Iberian orientalizing is expressed in the “emergence of hybrid practices and expressions, stimulated by contact with Phoenicians either through direct colonization or other commercial and societal relations” (102). In contrast, similar orientalizing features did not develop at North African coastal sites that came into contact with the Phoenicians. In the central Mediterranean regions, the Phoenician colonization of Sardinia also resulted in a hybrid culture expressed in the settlement patterns and burial customs. On Sicily, both Phoenician and Greek influence is evident in cultic structures on the island.In Chapter 6, entitled “The Aegean,” López-Ruiz takes to task conventional interpretations of the oriental style as a separate category during the Archaic period in Greece. Instead, she astutely observes that it is a reflection of “the main trajectory of Greek culture at this time, shaped to its core by Near Eastern entanglements” (176), though in this case not by means of colonization but rather due to the adaptation of Phoenician culture. In addition to a discussion of the well-known orientalizing style in Archaic Greece, López-Ruiz challenges the widely accepted belief that the sphinx in Greek art should be traced back to Egypt. She provides indisputable evidence both from material culture and textual sources that the sphinx motif traveled to and arrived in Greece by means of Levantine Phoenician networks.Chapter 8 examines Cypriot-Phoenician interactions. Historically, the island connected the Aegean and Near Eastern worlds but was never dominated by one cultural tradition. Phoenician influence has often been interpreted as limited in scope, mainly confined to commercial endeavors. Scholarship has gravitated to the “autochthonous theory” that stresses Cyprus’s unique local character. López-Ruiz challenges this view and posits a stronger Phoenician impact on the island, as suggested by the appearance of Egyptianizing Cypriot statues that she attributes to Cypro-Phoenician interaction (272–79).In her final chapter, López-Ruiz concludes the journey that began in Iberia, having now reached the Phoenician homeland and the source of her orientalizing kit. In her final case study, she returns to the volute capital, also known as the Proto-Aeolic capital, which appears in the Levant and at numerous Mediterranean locations associated with the Phoenicians. Following the “itinerary” of these capitals, López-Ruiz argues for a Phoenician pedigree.In her epilogue, the author proposes new directions in the study of the Phoenicians. The extent and scope of their expansion was unique in Mediterranean history and differed from that of the great Near Eastern imperial powers as one based on commercial collaboration with local groups. As the monograph’s case studies illustrate, the Phoenician phenomenon is best expressed in the Phoenicians’ ability to customize their cultural package, López-Ruiz’s orientalizing kit (317).Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean succeeds in its goal of showcasing the Phoenician imprint on the Mediterranean world and challenging the Hellenocentric model that has dominated scholarship of this region. The author is to be congratulated on her landmark study, the award-winning book, that recognizes the great contributions of the Phoenicians to European, North African, and Levantine history and culture.