Book Description

These proceedings of the conference held in Leuven from the 14th to the 16th of November 1985 contain thirty studies dealing with various aspects of the Phoenician civilization and its expansion around the Eastern Mediterranean in the first millenium B.C. Contributions referring to a geographic area, like Anatolia, the Aramaic world, the trade between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, Cyprus, Greece, alternate with studies referring to the cult of Phoenician deities in the region concerned: Tanit, Resheph, Baal Saphon, Heracles. Other papers deal with Phoenician artefacts, institutions, or economic activities, as well as with Phoenician history according to Greek classical or Hellenistic authors. On the whole, the volume constitutes an up-to-date description of the Phoenician culture spreading in the East Mediterranean world from the beginning of the first millenium B.C. and having a lasting impact on the civilization of the countries involved.