Phoenician Secrets: Exploring the Ancient Mediterranean

I read the author's first book on the Phoenicians a few years ago and thought it was great. I learned a lot about the Phoenicians and their contributions to the development of the Mediterranean that I never knew before or could even imagine. When I bought this book I was expecting to learn something new. Short I was in the expectation of this book continuing where the other one left off. You can well understand my disappointment when I thought to myself while reading this book that hmm I read this before. I was read a few more chapters into the book it dawned on me that this was the same book just a different title.As I read further on I realized that there was up to 30-40% new information. An update of an older work. Would have been nice if they kept the same title. Then again I might now have invested in the book. The book is a great read for the lay man. It is not burdened with overly academic language and vocabulary and it is very understandable. Such easy reading is refreshing. There is one drawback though and that is the lack of footnotes. I want to track down some of this information. Some of it I have questions about and want to make further inquiries, a bit difficult if the footnotes are not in place. In short I would advise getting this book as opposed to the older one. In fact the author's website is advertising this book not the old one. Very telling.The Phoenicians are a fascinating group of people. The book give a great surface over view of that. The group started out in Byblos, a city by the sea. At first they were fishermen who made their living from the sea. Their first boats were made from dugout Cedar logs. Eventually their boat building became more advanced and they began trading with distant villages. The result what a rising standard of living. They hit the jackpot with Egypt. Egypt bought lots of timber for their Temple dedicated to Horus in Hierankopolis. The First Pharoah to unite the divided land was their best customer. The author has some new information here detailing the rise of Egypt from the Scorpion king, Aha Menas etc.The Phoenician expanded their base of trade to the Mediterranean Sea basin and the Aegean. They traded with Cyprus, and founded colonies in Santorini, Malta and Gozo. They brought wares from different places and traded them all over their network. They kept their sources a secret. Secrecy was one of their principles. The Phoenician found a race of people who built nice temple to the Mother Goddess. The Phoenicians being great middle men introduced them to the Egyptians who hired them to build their pyramids. Strange that one day all the inhabitants of the island disappeared. The Egyptians may have taken them enmasse to build their pyramids.The Pheonicians were of Canaanite stock but they were way different from the other Canaanites. For one they worshiped mother nature an eventually added in a horned god. The Canaanite were more warlike and had a pantheon of gods. One of the Phoenician secrets was to negotiate rather then fight. They also blended in with the others so it was hard to tell the difference. Women were also treated equally and their input was valued.When the Amorites continued in conquering their main city Byblos rather than fight they made for themselves a new home. They packed up and shipped off to Crete.In Crete they blended in with the locals and formed the Minoan empire. Prior to the MinoanEmpire the Phoenicians set up up other Cities along the Lebanese coast. Cities like Sidon, Arwad and Tyre. As they settled Crete many would leave Tyre and Sidon and those areas were abandoned for up to 500 years after.The Myceneans were the ones who would change things for the Phoenicians. They were aggressive and warlike. Eventually they would storm the island of Crete. The Phoenicians would simply pack up and leave when negotiations failed them. They ended up resettling their old cities. Things still started looking down for the Phoenicians. Their trading partners, the Egyptians got more and more aggressive. The Hittites rose to power and were hostile as well. The volcano on Santorini exploded destroying numerous Phoenicians colonies in the Aegean. New trading centers arose like Ugarit who offered stiff competition.Salvation would come in the form of the Kaska people who lived near the Black sea area and were oppressed by the Hittites. The Phoenicians made friends with them and let them to have use of their ships. This provoked in an invasion of the Sea Peoples and they would storm the Aegean and the entire Middle East. All the obstacle the Phoenicians faced were obliterated. Everyone experienced conflict save for the Phoenicians.Things went great for while until the Greeks started expanding out. They were rather aggressive. They would expand out under the Alexander the Great. Alexander sacked the entire middle east those that surrender were treated mercifully cities like Tyre who put up great resistance for 9 months faced horrible consequences. Tyre was an island city that held out against the Assyrians for 13 years before their leader finally gave up. The other cities just joined in and Hellenized.Once colony that was immune to all of this was Carthage, set up by wealthy Phoenicians they engaged in farming and became a regional power. Later on Rome would go to war with them in a series of wars called " The Punic Wars" Hannibal became famous from all of this. Eventually Rome won out and Carthage fell. The author believes the Phoenicians still live on. They might. You will have to read the book and find out for yourself.

If I were to liken history books to baked potatoes I would tend to say they are filling but a bit bland. We rely on the author to add different toppings, to add a little flavor and texture. This book on the other hand is closer to a hot croissant – light, fluffy and full of warm air.The author is not an archaeologist by any means but a retired business consultant and world traveler. That in itself is not a bad thing, or a disqualifier, as long as the topic is researched responsibly. So is this history of the Phoenicians well written?? Truthfully, I found this book fairly indigestible.So I do have some problems with this book. First, there is endless speculation on the psyches of our favorite subject. Wandering through the flowers, and petting a dog while a gentle Mediterranean breeze embraces them. I seriously thought at some point they would be sitting in a drum circle passing around a blunt. Second, the use of early Iron Age writings/myths/legends describing the Phoenicians and then applying them to their Bronze Age Canaanite ancestors in a muddled, anachronistic stew. You never knew if you were going to get a piece of meat or carrot on your next bite. Third, there seems to be an understated (the Phoenician Secret?) connection with the discredited Afrocentric book “Black Athena”. I’m not sure but I think this author uses the same plot device of overinflating the contributions of the main subject, much like his resume, while minimizing the contributions of others, in this case the Egyptians, Greeks and Minoans.So those were my general grievances with this book. And the more specific instances?1. The author accepts that the Phoenicians were Semitic in origin and then quickly dismisses any lasting connection to the Canaanites/Hebrews because there was a mountain range – a case of cultural speciation. Bronze Age Canaanites and Iron Age Phoenicians/Carthaginians were the same people culturally, artistically and linguistically.2. Lumping ancient religions into the monolithic mold with which we are familiar. The ancients usually had a specific deity associated with their city but freely appropriated deities from amongst their neighbors depending on one’s needs. Any god could end up in your Pantheon. We wouldn’t see the beginnings of a monolithic religion until after the fall of the Kingdom of Israel.3. Phoenicians, as monotheists, were supercool if you wanted to bring your god along to watch the boat races. Again true monotheism wouldn’t arise until sometime around the Babylonian Exile.4. Conflating the three goddesses Asherah, Anat and Astarte into a Mother Nature/Our Lady entity. These three are distinct. Asherah tended to be a mother figure to the gods. Anat and Astarte were associated with war, but along with their consort Baal, could also represent the seasons (life/death), weather, and fertility of farm and field. Astarte, Tanit in Carthage, was apparently the primary Phoenician goddess and there is heated debate over whether child sacrifice was involved in her cult.5. Bronze Age Canaanites exploring all over the Mediterranean and establishing trading colonies. This wouldn’t happen until the Iron Age because the Minoans and Mycenaeans occupied that niche.6. Phoenicians involved in the depopulation of the Maltese megalith builders because Egyptians couldn’t figure out if the pointy end of their pyramids went towards the top or bottom. In my opinion, Neolithic megalith structures such as at Stonehenge, Malta and Gobekli Tepe tended to be pilgrimage sites with a small caretaker population.7. Minoans were still scratching around in the dirt when the Phoenicians showed up and civilized them with the introduction of the drum circle. Ugh!! I think I just had a stroke.8. The Phoenicians as the progenitors of Middle Eastern masonry and temple style. I personally would look toward Syria that had a notable influence on Israel/Canaan, and temples such as Ain Dara have been found that closely match dimensions given in the Bible.9. Few serious researchers reference the Amorite and Dorian invasion theories these days.10. Most researchers are extremely careful tossing around Biblical passages as historical without having some corroborating facts on, or in, the ground.11. The loss of innocence when the Carthaginians took up the spear. Just more honeyed feelgood speculation that permeates this book.12. Using a footnote on an assertion that just ends up being a comment. Some of us do look at footnotes.I believe that the Phoenicians were inventive, adventurous and had a major influence on Iron Age cultures around the Mediterranean, but this book doesn’t do them any justice by passing them off as a Mr. Van Driessen in a world of Beavises. I regret purchasing this book and sorry that so many of my fellow time travelers were unwittingly exposed to this nonsense. I think the author owes me a meal (soup’s not a meal).

Excellent overview, provides a springboard into the more in-depth scholastic works out there.To those critics of this work please get real. You obviously did not read the very first pages of this book: the preface and introduction that Holst provided, where he explains that a very broad-based narrative approach was his goal. The myopic uber-specific academic approach would be impossible when attempting to survey more than four millennia of history prior to the ancient Roman Empire. This would require thousands of pages, so pipe down.No claim was made to supply a rigorous analysis, but instead an account that availed itself of ALL AVAILABLE Historical, archaeological and scientific data.I thoroughly enjoyed the book; it filled in a lot of reasonably argued gaps and inspired me to look deeper into the fascinating culture of the so-called Phoenicians, whose strategy in success involved astute secrecy, diplomacy and an aversion to war.Sage advice for today.

Sanford Holst has written 2 other books tying the Phonecians to the Knights TemplarsI also recomend Templar Inferno & Sworn in Secret as well.He seemes to have spent a lot of time and research into the area.I am not sure of his accademic credentials.He has attempted to give the history of the Phoenicians dispite the little writing and ruins left from their society.They were the first sea farers in the meditarian and developed possibly the first written language.Most of what we know of them is from other cultures and most of this is after the height of their civilization.Holst tries to bring together information from a variety of ancient writings as well as archeology studies in Lebenon.In my opinion he romanticises the nature and history of the Phoenicians as a peacful nation of traders avoiding land schirmishes by withdrawing to Island sanctuaries and paying off invadors to survive.He presents a logical theory of how the Phoenicians developed and survived the waring nations in their area.He uses some large leaps to make the connections and perhaps some one who has greater historical knowledge could confirm or deny his assumptions. He makes a logical argument with lots of proof but I would have prefered a chronological synopsis at the end of the book listing the first known dates and the events listed in his book.Highly recomended read about a little known time period in our history.

Great book - very readable; condition is excellent

very informative

This history reads almost like a novel. It is extremely readable and actually quite gripping. I could not put it down and read it in only a few days. This is the only book I know of which traces the entire history of the Phoenicians across their roughly 3000 years of existence. Holst also recounts the contacts the Phoenicians had with the other peoples of the Mediterranean and this allows the reader to put events into context in a very helpful way. The book is more than just a history of the Phoenicians. As the title suggests, it really does explore the whole of the ancient Mediterranean.In his introduction, Holst states that there are often varying opinions as to what actually happened in history, but that for the sake of brevity, he has simply presented the explanation of each event best supported by the available evidence. While this approach is pragmatic, it robs the reader of the opportunity to understand where there is consensus about the events Holst is reporting, and where he is venturing into more debatable interpretations. In fact, there are many places where he gives detailed accounts of the motivations of the Phoenicians that we cannot possibly know. At times, his narrative is highly speculative, but presented using language which makes it sound like fact.Overall, he presents a very one-sided view of the Phoenicians as lovers of peace and equality. Though they quite probably were more peaceful and egalitarian than the societies which surrounded them ( as were many people whose prosperity was based predominantly on trade), it is probable that things were far more nuanced and changeable than the impression Holst gives us. Having said that, Holst does provide us at the end of the book with internet links to papers he has presented on some of the more debatable themes in the book so that the reader can follow these up.Overall, there is a lot of new material in the book and it brings all the information together into a coherent and fascinating narrative. Despite the one-sidedness, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. However, if you want to balance out your view of the Phoenicians I suggest also reading 'Carthage Must be Destroyed' by Richard Miles after you finish 'Phoenician Secrets'.

As an ex Marine Surveyor and enthusiastic sailor of traditional Tall Ships in Wales and the Irish Sea, I would thoroughly recommend this revealing exposé of the seafaring Phoenician people who were the explorers and founders of international trade in the Mediterranean and beyond the “Pillars of Hercules”, pre-dating the Greeks and Romans. Anyone studying #sailcargo and #shipbuilding may also find the history illuminating and inspiring as the very roots sea trading. Sanford Holst has opened my eyes and pin pointed an ancient history I long suspected existed, but could not personally piece together the jig saw. We owe the Phoenicians a great debt for their/our maritime heritage.