Who Were the Phoenicians?

Go ahead and thank a Phoenician. Actually, since the

Phoenicians are an ancient and extinct civilization, they're
all dead. But thank them anyway. Why do the Phoenicians
deserve our thanks? Well, they gave us and posterity
something very important: their alphabet. You may even
recognize it. Here are some examples of Phoenician letters:

b, j, and d
The Phoenicians were an ancient, seafaring civilization
that traded all across the Mediterranean world and are
responsible for creating the first written alphabet, the
ancestral form of our own alphabet.

They originated in the Middle East on the coast of the

Mediterranean Sea, near present day Israel and Lebanon,
sometime before 1200 BCE. They were descendants of the
Canaanite people, and spoke a dialect of Canaanite called
Phoenician.

When we use the term 'Phoenicians', we are using a label

invented by the ancient Greeks to describe the cities with
ports on the sea that were controlled by the Phoenician-
speaking people. The Phoenicians probably would not have
called themselves by this name because there was no
great Phoenician kingdom or empire to unite them all.

The Phoenicians lived in city-states, independent

governments centered around major cities. Like most
cultures who lived in city-states, their identity was as
members of a city, not as members of an empire or
kingdom. The Phoenician city-states shared a language and
culture and often worked together, but probably identified
as independent groups.

History of the Phoenicians

After the decline of the Egyptian civilization, Phoenician
city-states rose to power and became the dominant
seafaring traders of the Mediterranean Sea. They
established ports along the coasts of Europe, the Middle
East, and northern Africa. Their dominance lasted from
roughly 1200-800 BCE.

The Phoenicians controlled their trade routes and ports

until the Persian empire, under Cyrus the Great, conquered
the Phoenician city-states in 539 BCE. He reorganized the
city-states into four kingdoms under his control: Sidon,
Tyre, Arwad, and Byblos. Alexander the Great later took
control of Tyre in 332 BCE after a bloody battle, and soon
conquered the rest of the Phoenician kingdoms peacefully.
From this point on, Phoenicians were assimilated into the
Greek civilization, and most of their culture slowly died
away.

Religion of the Phoenicians

The Phoenicians were polytheistic, meaning they
worshipped multiple gods. They shared in religious
practices common to other Canaanite-derived people and
correlated many of their gods to stars, planets, and
constellations. Much of this religion seems to have been
influenced by Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Greek cultures.
For example, the Phoenicians recognized the Egyptian god
Osiris and worshipped the Greek hero Hercules, and their
division of gods may have influenced the understandings of
Greek gods such as Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon.

The Phoenicians and Seafaring

Trade
Phoenicians were very talented sailors and became famous
across the Mediterranean as traders of a rare pigment used
to create purple dye for clothing. This dye was so rare and
expensive that it became the color of royalty in most
places, and only the most powerful could afford to wear it.
The word Phoenician actually comes from the Greek
word phonios, meaning purple.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-phoenicians-history-religion-civilization.html

The Phoenicians were the greatest seafaring civilization of

the ancient world. They dominated trade in the
Mediterranean for nearly a thousand years. The word
Phoenician is Greek for "People of the Sea."

http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub371/item1982.html

http://www.ushistory.org/civ/4f.asp