Phoenicia

Seafaring city-states of Tyre and Sidon whose consonant alphabet is the ancestor of this very text.

Core Principles & Analysis

• The Phoenician abjad fathered Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic scripts alike.
• Their murex-shell purple dye was so costly it became the color of royalty.
• Tyre’s colonists founded Carthage, Rome’s great rival, around 814 BC.

Specifications & Metrics

• ERA: ~1500 – 300 BC
• REGION: Eastern Mediterranean