Phoenician settlement of North Africa

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Map of Phoenician settlements and trade routes

The Phoenician settlement of North Africa or Phoenician expedition to North Africa was the process of Phoenician people migrating and settling in the Maghreb region of North Africa, encompassing present-day Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, from their homeland of Phoenicia in the Levant region, including present-day Lebanon and Syria, in the 1st millennium BC.

History

Causes

The causes of Phoenician emigration to North Africa as far as the Atlantic coast are debated. Both overpopulation in the Levant and the allure of trade played a significant role in prompting the Phoenicians to migrate west. Another reason may have been to access metals, since the Phoenicians settled in silver-rich regions according to Ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus. The traditional theory was that the Phoenicians searched for metals in response to demands of tribute from the Assyrian Empire on the Phoenician homeland in the Levant, although Eleftheria Pappa has recently argued that "Tribute would have not been imposed on the Phoenicians on the expectation of them reaching the other end of the known world and finding rich resources of silver and exotic products." Also, new pottery and radiocarbon dates confirm that the Phoenicians started migrating westwards before the Assyrians imposed tribute on their homeland.

Immigration

The first Phoenician settlers arrived at the North African coast around 900 BC as traders and merchants, mainly from Tyre and Sidon in modern-day Lebanon. The settlers from Tyre established Carthage in 814 BC; its Phoenician name meaning “new town.” The densest Phoenician settlement in North Africa was on the coasts of present-day Tunisia, which had several large cities, including Thapsus, Leptis and Hadrumetum in the east, and Tunis, Carthage, Utica and Hippo in the north. Other prominent settlements included Igilgili (Jijel), Icosium (Algiers), Iol (Cherchell), Gunugu (Gouraya), Cartennae (Ténès) in present-day Algeria, and Tingi (Tangier), Lixus (Larache), Mogador (Essaouira) and Thymiateria (Mehdya) in present-day Morocco.

Phoenician immigration gave North Africa a Phoenician character. The native peoples had to give up the largest and best part of the coast to the Phoenician settlers. As a result, North Africa was withdrawn from Greek civilization, and a linguistic-political line of separation was formed in the Gulf of Sirte; the Pentapolis of Cyrene and areas to the east remained within the Greek circle, whereas areas to the west of Tripoli became and remained Phoenician. The descendants of the Phoenician settlers in Ancient Carthage came to be known as the Punic people. From the 8th century BC, most inhabitants of present-day Tunisia were Punic.

Continuity

In the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC, Phoenician cities came into conflict with the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. Following Phoenicia's conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Carthage became independent from the authority of Tyre, acquiring control over Phoenician settlements in the west and expanding its political-economic hegemony over the western Mediterranean. Many Phoenician settlements lost political connection to their Levantine homeland, although cultural connections were maintained. Eventually, the word "Punic" was applied to the Western Phoenicians and their Carthaginian-controlled world.

Evidence from Sicily shows that some western Phoenicians used the term "Phoinix", although it is not clear what term they self-identified with, as they may have self-identified themselves as 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍𐤌 (knʿnm, "Canaanites"). A passage from Augustine's writings has frequently been understood as suggesting that they called themselves Canaanites (Chanani in Latin).

After the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the geographer al-Bakri described a people who spoke a language which was not Berber, Latin, or Coptic, who lived in Sirte, where the Punic language, a variety of the Phoenician language, survived well past written use. It is uncertain whether this refers to a remaining Phoenician-Punic population, marking the final documented instance of their presence.

Primary sources

Although the Phoenicians established many coastal settlements across the Maghreb, stretching from present-day Libya to Morocco, less is known about their settlement of the region due to a scarcity of historical sources. The absence of Phoenician records detailing their migrations, combined with the fact that many sites remain either partially or completely unexcavated, has resulted in a situation where scholars must primarily depend on classical sources.

References