1. The Phoenicians XIII b.C IV b.C.The Phoenicians were a Semite group of people who lived in the north of Palestine, in what is called Lebanon today. The land did not permit the development of agriculture, but the presence of the sea and the huge availability of a type of wood particularly suitable for the construction of ships encouraged these people to dedicate themselves to sailing and commerce. Phoenicians is the name that the Greeks gave to this group of people: phoinix means crimson in Greek , and this name comes from their production of a crimson dye, which was used to colour their clothes dark red.

2. The alphabet The need to make relationships between different kinds of people easier encouraged the Phoenicians to invent a quick and easy script: in this way, the Phoenician alphabet, with 22 symbols which represented the most important sounds of the human voice, was born. The Phoenician script, like other types of ancient scripts, went from right to left.Aleph is the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, and it corresponds to our a 3. The Phoenician script Alphabetical script composed of -22 symbols Only consonants From the syllabic-cuneiform to the phonetic one (correspondence symbol=sound) This kind of alphabet was much easier than the ancient pitographic and ideographic ones, like the Egyptian or the CuneirormIt was understood and written better and easier by everyone, not just by scribes and priests. The Phoenicians spread their system throughout many places which they visited during their sea journeys: the Greek and the aramaic alphabets show clear signs of their derivation from the Phoenician one.PURPOSE OF THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABETThe Nora Stone, found near Cagliari, Shows clear inscriptions written in Phoenician.THE MOST ANCIENT RELIC WHICH HAS PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS IS THE SARCOPHAGUS OF AHIRAM (AN ANCIENT PHOENICIAN KING), WHICH WAS FOUND IN BYBLOS IN 1923 WHICH DATES BACK TO 1200 B.C.