Question

Describe the role of trade routes in the Eastern Mediterranean, and then give your opinion as to why the Phoenicians were so successful.

Answer 1

The role that tradition especially assigns to the Phoenicians as the merchants of the Levant was first developed on a considerable scale at the time of the Egyptian 18th dynasty. The position of Phoenicia, at a junction of both land and sea routes, under the protection of Egypt, favoured this development, and the discovery of the alphabet and its use and adaptation for commercial purposes assisted the rise of a mercantile society. A fresco in an Egyptian tomb of the 18th dynasty depicted seven Phoenician merchant ships that had just put in at an Egyptian port to sell their goods, including the distinctive Canaanite wine jars in which wine, a drink foreign to the Egyptians, was imported.

Read more: Phoenicia, Phoenician Trade & Ships http://phoenicia.org/trade.html#ixzz4OlpKoYqB

Answer 2

The Mediterranean has been an area of interaction for a great variety of cultures throughout the ages. Many different cultures have seen their origins in this area, including the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Canaanite, Phoenician, Hebrew, Carthaginian, Greek, Persian, Thracian, Etruscan, Iberian, Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Arab and Ottoman cultures. As many of these cultures existed simultaneously, they relied heavily on the Mediterranean in order to interact with one another. Trade routes provided a way in which all these cultures could interact and exchange ideas with one another.

The Phoenicians were particularly successful at creating a presence in the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians were excellent traders and seafarers. They relied particularly on the production of cloth dyed Tyrian purple from the Murex mollusc. They also traded with gold, wine and cedar logs. Their navigational talent and the goods they traded allowed them to be extremely successful.