The Phoenicians, whose lands corresponds to present-day Lebanon and coastal parts of Israel and Syria, arrived in the region in about 3000 B.C. They established commercial and religious connections with Egypt about 2613 BC and continued until the invasion of Phoenicia by the Amorites (2200 BC), but how did they survive for so long?
In 539 BC the Phoenicians, like everybody else in West Asia, were conquered by the Persians. They became part of the Persian Empire, and the main part of the Persian navy. Because the Phoenicians had been conquered, they could not run their colonies anymore, and so Carthage and the other Phoenician colonies became independent.
Their territory was so small that the Phoenicians were forced to turn to the sea for a living. They became the most skillful shipbuilders and navigators of their time. More than 2,500 years ago, Phoenician mariners sailed to Mediterranean and southwestern European ports. The Phoenicians traded with the Greeks, the Etruscans and all over the Mediterranean. They sold rich treasures from many lands.
The main natural resources of the Phoenician cities in the eastern Mediterranean were the prized cedars of Lebanon and murex shells used to make purple dye, which is what their name comes from.The name Phoenician, used to describe these people in the first millennium B.C., is a Greek invention, from the word phoinix, signifying the color purple-red and possibly referring to their production of a highly prized purple dye. Phoenician artisans were skilled in wood, ivory, and metalworking, as well as textile production.
Most art that survives pertains to burials or funerals, including jewelry, scarabs, amulets, amulets, metal bowls, ivory boxes, cosmetic items, and possessions that denote rank and status. Phoenician art is found both in temples and in tombs, but the art shouldn't be assumed it was created for the dead or to the worship of gods, there is still a lot we do not know.
Coins of various metals were minted by individual cities of the Phoenician empire and reflected a prominent god of the city, it's king or the ruling emperor. Read more: Phoenician Money http://phoenicia.org/phoeniciamoney.html#ixzz2tuC6s12I
Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language which originated in about the 11th century BC in what is now Lebanon, is what was spoken by Phoenicians. The Phoenician alphabet was the first alphabetic script to be widely-used. The Phoenicians traded around the Mediterranean and beyond, and started cities and colonies in parts of southern Europe and North Africa. The origins of most alphabetic writing systems can be traced back to the Phoenician alphabet, including Greek, Etruscan, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew, as well as the scripts of India and East Asia. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Phoenicians was a syllabic writing, developed in about 1000 BC at Byblos. From this city's name come the Greek word biblia (books) and the English word Bible. This form of writing was spread by the Phoenicians in their travels and influenced the Aramaic and Greek alphabets
Resources
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phoe/hd_phoe.htm
http://phoenicia.org/art.html
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/phoenician.htm
http://phoenicia.org/phoeniciamoney.html
http://history-world.org/phoenicians.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/history/phoenicians.htm
http://www.phoenicia.org/history.html