In Search of the Phoenicians (Miriam S. Balmuth Lectures in Ancient History and Archaeology) - Softcover

Quinn, Josephine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 069119596X ISBN 13: 9780691195964

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2019

Synopsis

Who were the ancient Phoenicians―and did they actually exist?

The Phoenicians traveled the Mediterranean long before the Greeks and Romans, trading, establishing settlements, and refining the art of navigation. But who these legendary sailors really were has long remained a mystery. In Search of the Phoenicians makes the startling claim that the "Phoenicians" never actually existed as such. Taking readers from the ancient world to today, this book argues that the notion of these sailors as a coherent people with a shared identity, history, and culture is a product of modern nationalist ideologies―and a notion very much at odds with the ancient sources.

About this title

About the Author

Josephine Quinn is associate professor of ancient history at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Worcester College. She is the coeditor of The Hellenistic West and The Punic Mediterranean.

From the Back Cover

"This is a groundbreaking, masterly, and original book that shows how ancient Phoenicians may have been the victims of the distorting categories of modern nationalism. Josephine Quinn offers a new vision of the ancient Mediterranean, where overarching identities mattered less and affinities found other meaningful expressions, such as networks of cult. The chronological and spatial horizons are huge, the erudition impressive, and the implication, that we should reexamine 'ethnicity' and even 'civilization' as viable categories, inescapable."--Irad Malkin, Tel Aviv University

"Stimulating and original. Quinn extensively explores what we mean by Phoenician and how this term has not only had its own uses at various times in the past but also how these uses have influenced one another to create a palimpsest of meanings. In Search of the Phoenicians is an intellectual and interdisciplinary tour de force."--Peter van Dommelen, coeditor of The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean

"An important and original contribution to the reception history and invention of the Phoenicians."--Ann E. Killebrew, author of Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 069119596X
• ISBN 13: 9780691195964
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368