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| A group of Phoenician figurines from The Golden Book, Lebanon |
They were merchants, always in search of new resources and markets. They founded the city-states like Cartago. They built excellent boats, had good navigation skills and astronomical knowledge.
Some say the Phoenicians were the first to discover America. They could have, because they had all the ship-building and naval techniques still used today. The Phoenicians are also the inventors of the alphabet we use today. They were much more advanced than other peoples in those days and were often looked upon with awe. The ancient Egyptians bought building materials and resin for mummification from them.
How was this possible, how could the Phoenicians know, build and do all these things more than 3,000 years ago? Unfortunately, they wrote on parchment and most of their texts have been lost to us. We do know of one ancient Phoenician writer called Sanchuniathon (or Sakkun-yathon). Parts of his works have survived, not the originals but third hand, through an early Christian bishop who referred to an ancient Greek translation of his Phoenician texts. However, the contents are still interesting enough.
Sanchuniathon wrote about the origins of the gods and civilization. He got his information from secret writings on the Ammouneis, the ‘pillars of Baal Amon’, sun pillars or secret poles in Phoenician temples. They were written with unknown letters. Sanchuniathon investigated and found out what was written. Later, priests tried to cover up these findings and return people’s attention to myths and mystery. This was mainly because the true story revealed that the ancient gods were like humans and vice versa.
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Is all this just folklore, ancient legends? Or is there more truth in what is written here? Would such a knowledgeable and practical people like the Phoenicians believe in fairy-tales? And why would the invention of letters and recording be mentioned first, before there was anything else?
It seems like the Phoenicians knew more about the origins of the gods and man. I would say that they are describing how ancient aliens were once on Earth, created man in several stages and then taught them what they needed to know. The importance of ‘letters’ could in my opinion refer to a code, possibly the DNA that the ancient gods used to create man. Or maybe it represents knowledge that the ancients passed on to humans, after they had created them.