The Phoenicians Donald Harden

The Phoenicians were among the greatest traders and explorers of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea.

The Phoenicians have been successful in eluding the experts hailing from the related fields of ancient history and archaeology: what is known about the Phoenicians is very little, despite their enormous reach across the Mediterranean world, and some eastern plains, as "Sea Merchants" and traders. The book helps to bring to light what is known about these people from a glimpse - a surface understanding - of their culture, art, pottery, trade & commerce, skills & merchandise, religion, origin, and their part in ancient warfare. The Phoenicians are divided for clarity between western Phoenicians - those that inhabit Carthage - and eastern Phoenicians, being the homeland coastal plains of the Levant: parts of Israel & Syria. It is believed they travelled there by sea, originating from either Crete or the Aegean region of Mycenae around the middle of the 2nd Millennia BC. An honorable mention is the author's respect of aligning and contextualizing the Biblical text about the Phoenicians with what is known outside of it.