Research Catalog

Title

In search of the Phoenicians / Josephine Crawley Quinn.

Author

Quinn, Josephine Crawley

Publication

• Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2018]
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxvii, 335 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm

Summary

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. Taking readers from the ancient world to today, this monumental 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. Josephine Quinn shows how the belief in this historical mirage has blinded us to the compelling identities and communities these people really constructed for themselves in the ancient Mediterranean, based not on ethnicity or nationhood but on cities, family, colonial ties, and religious practices. She traces how the idea of "being Phoenician" first emerged in support of the imperial ambitions of Carthage and then Rome, and only crystallized as a component of modern national identities in contexts as far-flung as Ireland and Lebanon. In Search of the Phoenicians delves into the ancient literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and artistic evidence for the construction of identities by and for the Phoenicians, ranging from the Levant to the Atlantic, and from the Bronze Age to late antiquity and beyond.

Series Statement

Miriam S. Balmuth lectures in ancient history and archaeology

Uniform Title

Miriam S. Balmuth lectures in ancient history and archaeology.

Subjects

• Phoenician antiquities
• Phoenicians > History
• History

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-317) and index.

Call Number

JFE 18-1492

ISBN

• 9780691175270
• 0691175276

LCCN

2017935146

OCLC

983824599

Author

Quinn, Josephine Crawley, author.

Title

In search of the Phoenicians / Josephine Crawley Quinn.

Publisher

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Miriam S. Balmuth lectures in ancient history and archaeology

Miriam S. Balmuth lectures in ancient history and archaeology.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-317) and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 18-1492