A research manual on Phoenician and Punic civilization.

• Author: Schmitz, Philip C.
• Position: Review Article

La civilisation phenicienne et punique is a truly comprehensive handbook of Phoenician and Punic civilization. Representing the state of scholarship in a relatively new and growing field at the end of the twentieth century, the volume offers surveys and syntheses by respected specialists in language and epigraphy, numismatics, archaeology, art history, religion, and political, economic, and cultural history. It can be expected to serve a generation of new scholars worldwide.

1. INTRODUCTION

   1.1. THE VOLUME UNDER REVIEW collects fifty-eight articles by thirty-five specialists summarizing the state of Phoenician studies in the first half of the last decade of the twentieth century. Most of the contributors are European scholars; all of the articles are in French. (1)

   Sabatino Moscati inaugurated the modem phase of Phoenician studies in 1963 with his programmatic paper, "La questione fenicia." (2) In this seminal study, Moscati took up the question of the identity of the "Phoenicians" as a people or ethnic group, the definitional role of language in Phoenician identity, the religious continuities and discontinuities of "Phoenician" populations, and the systematic description of Phoenician art. Moscati returned to these guiding questions repeatedly. (3) The Italian school of scholarship Moscati nurtured at the University of Rome gave new impetus to Phoenician studies in Europe. It is not surprising that in his introduction to this volume Moscati reprises the themes of ethnogenesis, language and writing, historical process, religion, and art (pp. 1-15).

   As the scholarly study of Phoenician civilization completed its third century, it entered what Moscati aptly labeled an era of synthesis. (4) In philological studies, reliable research tools have been produced, and a growing textual corpus assembled. (5) In archaeological research, pottery assemblages have been collected and catalogued; architectural features and techniques have been studied; small finds and glyptic intensively surveyed. Thus the time is most appropriate for the appearance of a handbook that surveys the discipline, representing the current state of research in a small but increasingly diverse field of investigation.

2. ORGANIZATION

   2.1 The volume is organized in three sections: Sources (pp. 17-181), Introduction to the Civilization (pp. 183-549), and Areas of Research (pp. 551-844). (6) A sixty-page bibliography (pp. 845-904) comprising about 2500 entries (current through 1992, with selected 1993 and 1994 entries) complements the text (minor errors are numerous); indexes of personal names (pp. 905-10; names of modern scholars are not indexed) and names of places and peoples (pp. 911-23) are also included. Sixty-four black-and-white plates complete the volume.

3. SOURCES

   3.1. Articles in this section fall under two headings: written sources and material sources. M. G. Amadasi Guzzo surveys Phoenician and Punic epigraphy, with sections on Byblos, Sidon, Tyre and its vicinity, other Phoenician sites, greater West Asia and Egypt, Cyprus, and the Mediterranean islands, Greece, and the west (pp. 19-25). Briefer sections on script, typology of inscriptions, and published corpora of inscriptions complete the survey (pp. 25-29). (7)

   3.2. V. Krings surveys the evidence from Greek and Latin writers for works of literature in Phoenician and Punic, now utterly lost. With respect to Phoenician literature she surveys the testimony of Josephus, Philo of Byblos, and references to Greek histories of the Phoenicians (pp. 33-34). Of Punic literature, the Periplus of Hanno is perhaps a surviving example in Greek "translation"; other examples would be the lost agricultural treatise of Mago and the treaty of Hannibal with Philip V of Macedon. (8) A brief discussion of the libraries of ancient Carthage and their disposition concludes the chapter. (9)

   3.3. P. Xella's survey of cuneiform sources is substantial. Syro-Mesopotamian texts from Ebla, Ur, Mari, Emar, Amarna, and Ugarit are discussed with respect to the linguistic, socio-political, and religious background of Canaanite/Phoenician civilization. The section on Ugarit (pp. 46-51) includes a catalogue of syllabic and alphabetic texts mentioning or originating in Phoenician cities: Akko, Arwad, Beirut, Byblos, Sidon, Tyre. Very brief summaries of the mythological texts focus on religious themes common to Phoenician-Punic traditions. Assyrian and Babylonian documents from Tiglath-Pileser 1 to Nebuchadnezzar II receive brief but perceptive attention. The survey is not carried into the Achaemenid era.

   3.4. The treatment of Egyptian sources by G. Scandone (pp. 57-63) is principally a survey of Egyptian relations with Byblos. Less than half a page is allocated to other Phoenician cities. Topics such as Egyptian political, economic, military, and cultural relations with the Punic Mediterranean are not discussed.

   3.5. As P. Xella observes (p. 64), the absence of Phoenician historical literature places the Bible in an extraordinarily important position for the history, religion, economy, and art of the Phoenicians, especially in the east. "Bible" is understood here in a Christian sense, including at least potentially the Apocrypha and the New Testament (reference is also made to the Pseudepigrapha), but the discussion is limited to the Hebrew Bible. Hiram of Tyre's relations with David and Solomon are understood historically, and the Tarshish trade established by the latter refers to the Iberian peninsula (p. 68). Xella notes that the Tyrian role in constructing the temple in Jerusalem does not require us to hold that the temple's architectural plan was Phoenician; in fact, its type is more generally "Syrian" (p. 68). (10) Phoenician relations with the Omrides is given most space, although Jezebel is mentioned only as the "victim of a massacre" (p. 69). The royal ritual of "passing through fire" is taken up in connection with the tophet and the Punic molk ritual, although the connection remains unclear (p. 70). Prophetic texts are more briefly discussed. In three sentences, Xella places Ezekiel 26-28 in context; there is fuller discussion of Amos and the institution of mrzh (Amos 6:4-7), with its larger cultural associations.

   3.6. With characteristic sophistication, S. Ribichini takes up Greek and Latin sources. (11) He cautions against simple diachronic surveys of the literature, and seeks a typology sensitive to the limits of culture-bound Greek and Roman perceptions of barbarian alterity. Myth and stereotype inform the stories of Elissa/Dido, Kadmos, Phoenix, Agenor, Adonis, and other culture heroes. Stories of political and economic interaction between Greeks and Phoenicians show similar features. The Greek and Latin interpretatio of Phoenician and Punic deities "never responds to simple criteria of equivalence" (p. 78). A brief diachronic survey of sources (pp. 79--81) is followed by thematic discussion (pp. 81--82), although the themes themselves are largely undeveloped. The final section of this article, "Epigraphy" (pp. 82--83), lists Greek and Latin inscribed sources relevant to Phoenician-Punic studies.

   3.7. M. Yon's overview of archaeological surveys and excavations in the eastern Mediterranean takes up five topics: the geographical delimitation of "Phoenicia" (she follows a core-periphery model), chronological boundaries (thirteenth century to end of first millennium B.C.), archaeological criteria for identifying a site as "Phoenician," a general history of Phoenician archaeology, and a history of research by site (Arwad, Amrit, Tell Kazel, Homs, Tell Arqa, Tripoli, Byblos, Beirut, Sarepta, Sidon, Tyre, Umm el-Amed, Akziv, Akko, Tell Abu Hawam, and Larnaka/Kition on Cyprus). Factors that constrain archaeological research in the region are the lack of surveys, continuous occupation of ancient sites, destructive events in the past, limited excavation results, and political instability.

   3.8. S. Lancel's corresponding overview of archaeological surveys and excavations in the western Mediterranean sets its geographic boundaries thus: from the east, Malta to the Libyan coast; to the north, Sardinia; west, North Africa and Iberia including the Baleares. Chronological limits are set by epigraphic finds: from the ninth century until 146 B.C. Observing the brief history of Phoenician-Punic archaeology in this region, and the significance of numismatics in generating greater archaeological curiosity, Lancel pays tribute to the pioneering role of Cintas in ceramic interpretation. Following an abbreviated history of archaeological research at Carthage, Motye, Sardinia, and the Iberian peninsula (pp. 109-10), Lancel offers a site-by-site survey from Carthage and Tunisian sites to Libya (three sentences), Algeria, Morocco, Malta, Sicily (Motye, Lilibneum, Eryx, Selinunte), Sardinia (Antas, Bitia [ex-votos indicate a temple possibly consecrated to Bes], Monte Sirni, Olbia, Tharros). In Iberia, the Balear ic island of Eivissa (Ibiza) comes first, with a description of the Phoenician-Punic necropolis at Puig des Molins (p. 116). Phoenician and Punic sites from the coast of Alicante westward into Andalusia are described in brief paragraphs. Cadiz, Castillo de Dofia Blanca, and Huelva (where an Euboean skyphos fragment was found [p. 118]) are hastily mentioned, and Portuguese sites listed.

   3.9. M. Yon's chapter on monumental archaeology in the east is concerned with technique and regional influence in a given period. "Phoenician" architecture has meaning within the regional evolution of architecture generally. Broad types surveyed are palatial (p. 120), defensive (pp. 120--22), sacred (pp. 122--27), urban (the examples are Sarepta [pp. 128--29] and Kition [p. 129]), maritime (Kition/Larnaka [pp. 129--30]), and funerary (pp. 130--31).

   3.10. S. Lancel's chapter on monumental archaeology in the west necessarily considers the question of Phoenician expansion westward (pp. 132--34) and intercultural contact (pp. 134--35). The...